APA recipe help/advice/etc. for my first brew

Good Day I hope to be a brewer some day at this time I have never brewed anything I was going to start out doing all grain but ran into some bumps sourcing out my grains at a price I want to pay.

So in the mean time I want to do some extract brews with steeping grain and then a couple of partial mash brews to use up the 50 lbs of dry malt extract I have.

I have some time tomorrow to brew and here what I am thinking about using for a recipe

Recipe Type: Extract
Yeast: Nottingham
Yeast Starter: No
Batch Size (Gallons): 11
Boil Size: 7 gallons
Original Gravity: 1.057
Final Gravity: 1.014
IBU: 40.55
Boiling Time (Minutes): 60
Color: 10.55 SRM
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 10 to 14 Days at 68 degrees
No Chill: 18 minute extended hop boil time

Fermentables

Amount Fermentable PPG °L Bill%

12.5 lb Dry Malt Extract - Light 42 4 73.5%
0.5 lb Maltodextrin 39 0 2.9%
1 lb Corn Sugar - Dextrose 46 0.5 5.9%
14 lb Total


Steeping Grains

Amount Fermentable PPG °L Bill %

2 lb American - Caramel / Crystal 40L 34 40 11.8%
1 lb American - Caramel / Crystal 60L 34 60 5.9%

Hops

Amount Variety Time AA IBU Type Use

2 oz Perle 60 min 8.2 20.89 Pellet Boil
0.75 oz Cascade 25 min 7 5.74 Pellet Boil
0.75 oz Willamette 25 min 4.5 3.69 Pellet Boil
0.5 oz Cascade 15 min 7 3.42 Pellet Boil
0.5 oz Willamette 15 min 4.5 2.2 Pellet Boil
0.5 oz Cascade 5 min 7 2.81 Pellet Boil
0.5 oz Willamette 5 min 4.5 1.8 Pellet Boil


Danstar - Nottingham Ale Yeast

Fermentation Temp: 68 °F

1.00 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins)

add half dry extract in the begining and half at flame out
steep grains at 155 degrees for 30 minutes in 3 gallons of water top off
to 7 gallons and boil 60 minute

after boil let sit for 18 minute then chill (add cold water)

pitch yeast at 70 to 75 degrees


I have stopped buying beer as I want to brew my own so I would like to get going

Please help a brother out with some advice at this time I do not have a chiller yet but I do have a 15.5 cu ft freezer with a stc 1000 to ferment in

also a couple of 5 gallon Cornelius keg to keg in

I have a 16 gallon pot and a 8 gallon pot I wanted to a partial boil so I could top off with cold water to save on ice

any and all advice is welcome

all the best and enjoy the day

S_M

Thoughts I had along the way when reading through your post:
-2 sachets of Nottingham will be needed for 11 gallon 1.057 batch
-That's a fair amount of crystal with the DME. Consider 2 lbs total instead (pound of each?)
-Fermentation temp is a tad higher than I'd want, but could work (some esters will be produced). I'd aim for no higher than 65F beer temp.
-Add 4 lb DME at beginning, save remainder for 5 minutes or flameout
-Pitch yeast at 65F or below (60 would be optimal in my book) and let it warm up to fermentation temps

Overall I think what you have planned looks like a great pale ale! If you made no adjustments at all you'd still end up with good beer. Looks like you've been doing your reading

i'm counting over 40IBU's against a 1.057. going to be quite bitter. cut the bittering charge by half for 30 IBU's.

Thank you both for the replies and your input

-2 sachets of Nottingham will be needed for 11 gallon 1.057 batch

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I was thinking two also

pitch it dry on top of the wort or rehydrate ?

That's a fair amount of crystal with the DME. Consider 2 lbs total instead (pound of each?)

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a pound of each sounds good and still has a nice color

Fermentation temp is a tad higher than I'd want, but could work (some esters will be produced). I'd aim for no higher than 65F beer temp.

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after a bit more reading 65 does appear to be a better temp to be at

Add 4 lb DME at beginning, save remainder for 5 minutes or flameout

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I was thinking half and half but that works I was going to put my first half in after the steep before the wort starts to boil (bad thing)

Pitch yeast at 65F or below (60 would be optimal in my book) and let it warm up to fermentation temps

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somewhere I read it was better to pitch at the warm temp then bring the temp down to the 65

then somewhere I read else I read to pitch at 60 and let warm up

That is why I am going with dry yeast as it appear to be pretty durable

of course I read on Danstar's to rehydrate

http://www.danstaryeast.com/library/rehydration-and-usage-tips-ale-yeast

Step 1.
Sprinkle the yeast on the surface of ten (10) times its weight of clean, sterilized (boiled) tap water at 30 - 35°C (86° - 95°F)
DO NOT STIR !!!
Leave undisturbed for 15 minutes at 30 - 35°C (86° - 95°F)
Foam or no foam is not an indication of vitality


Step 2.
After 15 minutes stir until all yeast is suspended
Leave undisturbed for another 5 minutes.
Adjust temperature of solution to that of the wort in 10°C (18°F) steps, by adding small amounts
of wort at 5 minutes intervals and mixing gently (ATTEMPERATION)


Step 3.
After attemperation inoculate without delay.
Aeration of wort is not necessary.

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but as I read time and time again here it will be beer

I just hope to make some good beer

Overall I think what you have planned looks like a great pale ale! If you made no adjustments at all you'd still end up with good beer. Looks like you've been doing your reading

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thank you I have been doing a lot of reading and HomeBrewTalk is great as there are so many people that are willing to share what they have learned a long the way

one nice thing is even if I screw it up no one dies, it's not brain surgery

i'm counting over 40IBU's against a 1.057. going to be quite bitter. cut the bittering charge by half for 30 IBU's.

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I was shooting for a BU/GU ratio .71 because that is where a APA is suppose to be (so I have read) but looking at a gravity/hops ratio chart I have 30 puts it as evenly balance

I know I have lots and lots to learn so I will be brewing something this afternoon and I am sure I will be drinking some less then stellar beers a long the way

but at least I made them

all the best and cheers

S_M

I would drop the maltodextrin. Extract has a pretty high amount of unfermentables in it already so I wouldn't add any more. Also the maltodextrin and the corn sugar are kind of working against each other. Maltodextrin adds body while corn sugar decreases it.

peterj said:

I would drop the maltodextrin. Extract has a pretty high amount of unfermentables in it already so I wouldn't add any more. Also the maltodextrin and the corn sugar are kind of working against each other. Maltodextrin adds body while corn sugar decreases it.

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Thanks I did not know either of those points

I may tweak this recipe and do a 15 or 30 minute boil

just need to run some changes in brewing software and hope to be brewing in the next couple of hours

all the best and enjoy the day

S_M

There are a ton of great recipes around. For your first brew make someone else's proven recipe.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f66/

the more posts in the recipes, generally the more respected the recipe.

There will be a time for creating your own recipe, but it's better to figure out all the other aspects of brewing first with other people proven recipes.

There will be a time for creating your own recipe, but it's better to figure out all the other aspects of brewing first with other people proven recipes.

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lots of truth in that and thank you for your rely

all the best

S_M

Xpertskir said:

There are a ton of great recipes around. For your first brew make someone else's proven recipe.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f66/

the more posts in the recipes, generally the more respected the recipe.

.

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took your advice and brewed this more one or less

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f66/bee-cave-brewery-haus-pale-ale-31793/

it went well but my hydrometer was broke so no OG today but I will pick one up tomorrow

all the best and thank you everyone

S_M

brew_ny said:

took your advice and brewed this more one or less

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f66/bee-cave-brewery-haus-pale-ale-31793/

it went well but my hydrometer was broke so no OG today but I will pick one up tomorrow

all the best and thank you everyone

S_M

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I'm glad you changed it up. The first recipe had maltodextrine (no!) and too much crystal malt. I don't like corn sugar in an APA generally, either. The hopping was good, though. In any case, glad you found a recipe that worked out well for you and let us know how it turned out.

Yooper said:

I'm glad you changed it up. The first recipe had maltodextrine (no!) and too much crystal malt. I don't like corn sugar in an APA generally, either. The hopping was good, though. In any case, glad you found a recipe that worked out well for you and let us know how it turned out.

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I will indeed let you know how it goes

I went with all cascade this time but the next brew I will do the same with the Willamette and Cascade and use CTZ for the bittering

all the best

S_M