BU:GU questions....?

So I brewed my first ale earlier today and I strayed from the recipe, by adding only 6lb of Pale LME (I should've used 4 pale and 3 amber) My final gravity for 5gal is 1.036 (which is slightly low?) but my IBU contribution is ~50, which seems high for the gravity.

Is this beer going to be extremely bitter? with a BU:GU of ~1.4?

Can I condition it longer to smooth out bitterness (I don't think this will work but I don't know much)??

If I make this same recipe again, should I up the LME amount and dry-hop some of the finishing hops? What would you do for a more balanced American ale?

How much and when were each hop addition? If the hop additions were 60-30 minutes it will be bitter later will affect taste and aroma more than bitterness.

When you say American Ale, were you shooting for a America Pale ale or Amber ale? BJCP sub-categorizes American Ales into Pale, Amber and Brown. None of which have a BU:GU ration of 1.4, which you did calculate correctly.

Here's a homebrewer trick when a beer doesn't turn out as expected, but is still drinkable... rename it. Looks like you have a session IPA on hand

Just wondering why on you first ale would you not follow the recipe?

Who cares if it's bitter. It's your first so enjoy it. LOL I would avoid dry hopping that one.:cross:

lutherslagers said:

Here's a homebrewer trick when a beer doesn't turn out as expected, but is still drinkable... rename it. Looks like you have a session IPA on hand

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Nice

@Luthers,

1oz 60min Columbus 13.9%, 1/2oz 30min cascade and another 1/2oz at 15min (boil times)

It was supposed to be an American Pale Ale, I'm just thinking the OG should've been higher which would've brought the IBU's down and evened out the BU:GU... Oh well, IPA it is.


@Beerman,

I was an idiot and listened to the young shop keeper at the local brew store. I knew as soon as I walked out of there that I should've stuck to the recipe. He said (which isn't probably true) that it's easier not to use amber extract since it mainly just adds slight coloration... I'm sticking to the book for the next batch.

MC1 said:

@Luthers,

1oz 60min Columbus 13.9%, 1/2oz 30min cascade and another 1/2oz at 15min (boil times)

It was supposed to be an American Pale Ale, I'm just thinking the OG should've been higher which would've brought the IBU's down and evened out the BU:GU... Oh well, IPA it is.


@Beerman,

I was an idiot and listened to the young shop keeper at the local brew store. I knew as soon as I walked out of there that I should've stuck to the recipe. He said (which isn't probably true) that it's easier not to use amber extract since it mainly just adds slight coloration... I'm sticking to the book for the next batch.

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Lol why would he sell a kit that he is not good with. Your first batches need to be solid kits that you can get you process down with then move on to making changes to your taste.

6lb of LME will give you closer to 1.045 - your OG was probably off because of top off water

Amber LME is less preferred because it has some darker crystal malts in it and its usually best to adjust color with steeping grains etc

what he should have done was replace the amber with pale LME if he didn't want you to use the Amber

So, should I measure the OG sometime during the boil then? and then re-calculate for 5gal? In the fermenter I added most of the water first, then the wort so I assumed the gravity measurement would be spot on.


@beerman,

I didn't buy a kit, I just bought separate ingredients and followed a simple recipe. I told him it was my first beer though and I brought the recipe with me, so its funny he talked me out of it

I'm hoping the OG is higher now... Learning is a pain

terrapinj said:

6lb of LME will give you closer to 1.045 - your OG was probably off because of top off water

Amber LME is less preferred because it has some darker crystal malts in it and its usually best to adjust color with steeping grains etc

what he should have done was replace the amber with pale LME if he didn't want you to use the Amber

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Sorry for the ignorance but why would darker crystal malts be less preferred (fermentability?) ?

Wouldn't Amber LME give a different flavor than Pale LME or steeping grains though? for replications sake

MC1 said:

Sorry for the ignorance but why would darker crystal malts be less preferred (fermentability?) ?

Wouldn't Amber LME give a different flavor than Pale LME or steeping grains though? for replications sake

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Amber and dark LME are not preferred, simply because they already have other grains in there to make them dark, usually crystal malt. But how much and what kind, no one can say. That makes it hard to formulate a recipe, as you don't know how much crystal malt is already in there. It can mean you use too much crystal in the final recipe if you add it again.

The most dependable way to make a recipe is to use only light or extra light extract, and then use specialty grains to get your color and flavor. That's the way it's done in all-grain brewing also. You use base malt for the base, and then just the specialty grains for color and flavor in the amounts needed to make the beer you want.

Starting with dark LME would be a crapshoot.

It'll be bitter. How did you calculate your IBUs? If I assume 6% AA for your cascades I get 80 IBUs using Ray Daniel's formula. The Columbus addition alone is 62.5 IBUs.

To Terrapin's point, what was your brewing process? Did you add top off water?

You made beer. This site will point you in the right direction for your next brew go ahead and get started on it now.

beerman0001 said:

you made beer.

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+1

@Yooper,
Thanks for the Pale/Amber/Dark extract info, I had not thought of variance among brands/batches.

As far as IBUs I calculated them using the formula = (AAU)x(Utilization)x(75/5)

(75/5) value is a constant

AAU = columbus 1oz x 13.9% = 13.9 ; cascade 2x(0.5oz x 6%) = 2x(3)

Utilization = boil grav vs boil time (based on a chart, rounding off the top of my head)
Calculated boil gravity = OG of 1.036 x 5gal/3gal boil = 1.073

columbus 60min vs. 1.073 = 0.189
cascade 30min vs. 1.073 = 0.146
cascade 15min vs. 1.073 = 0.093

plugging this into the formula...
Columbus = 13.9 x 0.189 x 75/5 = 39.4
Cascade = 3 x 0.146 x 75/5 = 6.6
Cascade = 3 x 0.093 x 75/5 = 4.2 TOTAL IBU=50.2

BU:GU = 50.2:36 ~ 1.4:1 = >bitter

Here is the chart
http://www(dot)howtobrew(dot)com/section1/chapter5-5(dot)html

As far as brewing process,

I boiled 2gal of H20, added almost all to fermenter
Boiled 3.5gal of H20+LME+hops, added ~3gal to fermenter (about 0.25-0.5gal was lost to sediment/break)

Topped off without practically any additional H20
Quickly mixed with ladel and removed sample for OG @5gal = 1.036
added yeast and capped
Everything was sterile and the airlock is bubbling today! =)