Uh-Oh!! Not enough grist??

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evans5150

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Hello everyone. Hope you are all enjoying your weekend with at least a few homebrews!

I have a question. I brewed my very first homebrew back on December 30th, 2005. It has now been bottled for 3 weeks and I still have an overwhelming hop bitterness to it. It was supposed to be a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale clone and I JUST noticed something last night in the recipe. Here are the ingredients:

6 lbs. Light Malt Extract
1 lb Crushed 60L Caramel Malt
2 oz. Cascade Hops
2 oz. Perle Hops

Sounds about right I believe....except for the fact that I just realized that the guy at my local Homebrew store had only given me the 3 lb. container of Light Malt Extract!! I'm new to this so I guess I didn't think about it until I brewed my second batch last night and I was reviewing my notes. I brewed a Red Ale last night that called for:

6 lbs. Amber Malt Extract
1 lb Crushed 60L Caramel Malt
1 lb Light DME
2 oz. Cascade Hops
2 oz. Willamette Hops

That made me think that there wasn't nearly enough grist for my SNPA clone! Is this why my hops are still so overwhelming??

Thanks for all of your help....

evans5150
 
evans5150 said:
Hello everyone. Hope you are all enjoying your weekend with at least a few homebrews!

I have a question. I brewed my very first homebrew back on December 30th, 2005. It has now been bottled for 3 weeks and I still have an overwhelming hop bitterness to it. It was supposed to be a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale clone and I JUST noticed something last night in the recipe. Here are the ingredients:

6 lbs. Light Malt Extract
1 lb Crushed 60L Caramel Malt
2 oz. Cascade Hops
2 oz. Perle Hops

Sounds about right I believe....except for the fact that I just realized that the guy at my local Homebrew store had only given me the 3 lb. container of Light Malt Extract!! I'm new to this so I guess I didn't think about it until I brewed my second batch last night and I was reviewing my notes. I brewed a Red Ale last night that called for:

6 lbs. Amber Malt Extract
1 lb Crushed 60L Caramel Malt
1 lb Light DME
2 oz. Cascade Hops
2 oz. Willamette Hops

That made me think that there wasn't nearly enough grist for my SNPA clone! Is this why my hops are still so overwhelming??

Thanks for all of your help....

evans5150
Click to expand...

That definitley seems to be the problem!

The only real recourse now is to drink it anyway, or brew up another batch with less hops and blend the 2. I wouldn't throw it away--I'd brew another one and blend them, as it can only help you for future batches if you need to adjust something. Use this as a test.
 
Thanks Dude....I figured that HAD to be it. I did everything right and there just isn't enough of the Sierra Nevada malty mouthfeel. (PS...I'm headed to the Sierra Nevada Brewery next weekend...I'll have a few pints for you.)

I definitely had NOT intention to throw out my brews....there is still a decent enough alcohol content to it (around 4.1%). SNPA is around 5.5% I believe (don't have a bottle of it around.) The other red flag happened this morning when I was about to pitch the yeast for my Red Ale. My OG for the Red Ale is 1.056 while my SNPA clone was 1.044. I know the Red should be a bit higher but that is a big difference!! Oh well...you live and you learn. That was my first batch and I will definitely pay more attention next time. I went into the store green but I am now educated...so I will gather the ingredients MYSELF from now on!! This time I was educated enough to pick out my own liquid yeast for the Red Ale (California Ale Yeast). I'm getting there and I'm VERY addicted!!

Thanks again.....


evans5150
 
Dude said:
Yeah, I was thinking that same thing earlier too, 2 ounce hop additions (especially bittering) is quite a bit!!!!!!
Click to expand...


But would that be a good amount had I used 6 lbs. of Light Malt Extract instead of 3 lbs.?
 
evans5150 said:
But would that be a good amount had I used 6 lbs. of Light Malt Extract instead of 3 lbs.?
Click to expand...

Assuming you do a full boil, Promash gives that recipe about 60 IBUs. That is high. If I recall, SNPA is around 30-35 IBUs.

Granted if you do a partial boil I believe you need more hops--but I haven't ever computed that. Hopefully the extract experts in here can chime in on that, if you do partial boils.
 
Evans math don't add up. His hoppy SNPA would have had an OG of 1.028 if it had half the ingredients of his Red ALE @ 1.056. Insted, he got 1.044. Is there a 4# can he might have got? Did he use pellet hops insted of fresh/whole?

If he checked his OG to find 1.044, that was the time to fix it, by adding less hops in the boil or more extract to the fermenter. Maybe developing the habit of checking SG of the sparged wort is a good idea?

Good thing about a forum, we all learn from each other's mistakes.
 
Dude said:
Granted if you do a partial boil I believe you need more hops--but I haven't ever computed that. Hopefully the extract experts in here can chime in on that, if you do partial boils.
Click to expand...



No expert, but when I was calculating using The Recipator, the IBUs were reduced by a 1/3 or more when doing a 2.5 gallon boil.

I was freaking after I brewed my SNPA clone, beacause I thought I had used too much hops. When I racked it and took a sample, the hops weren't bad at all. In fact, it might could have used more hops in the boil.

The Recipator seems to know what it is talking about....
 
casebrew said:
Evans math don't add up. His hoppy SNPA would have had an OG of 1.028 if it had half the ingredients of his Red ALE @ 1.056. Insted, he got 1.044. Is there a 4# can he might have got? Did he use pellet hops insted of fresh/whole?

If he checked his OG to find 1.044, that was the time to fix it, by adding less hops in the boil or more extract to the fermenter. Maybe developing the habit of checking SG of the sparged wort is a good idea?

Good thing about a forum, we all learn from each other's mistakes.
Click to expand...


Thanks for all the help everyone. Yes casebrew, I was using hop pellets. Now that I have a little experience I realize that the OG was a bit low. At the time I was just happy to have (or at least I thought) done things right to even GET a gravity of more than 1.000!! But I'm learning. It is still drinkable but just over hoppy and a bit watery at times. That is now evident by the fact that I was 3 lbs. short of extract!! :eek:
 

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