Plan of attack- wordy

Im going to brew a American Pale ale from extract, I'm still a beginner and have made a mistake or two that is for sure- this is my 16th beer and I still have not created a beer that my beer snob of a wife is happy with.

Here is my plan of attack

1) Make a yeast starter with a American Ale smack pack, 1 cup DME, 1/2 tsp nutrient, and a liter of water. I will add the yeast at 70° than I will slowly cool to 61° for 24 hours.

2) Boil 5 gallons of water adding 12 oz Victory, 8 oz Munich and 8 oz white malts at 100° steeping up to 160° for a total of 30 min. Remove

3) Turn off heat at boil add 2 lb of Briess DME bring back to rolling boil for 5 min.

4) .Hops as follows, 5 oz Magnum at 60, .5oz Cascade at 15, .5 oz Cascade and .5 oz Centennial at 5

5) 1/2 tsb Nutrient and Whirlflock at 15 min remaining

6) 4 lbs LME at the end of boil- flame off

7) Add water to 5 gallons- Recirculate wort through pump and chill plate until mid 60's

8) Transfer to 6 gallon better bottle and aerate with bottled Oxygen through stone for 1 min

9) Place in cooler until 61°- add wort, seal with 1" blow off tube - maintain temp

10) At 2 days replace with another cap attached to hose that will fill another 5 gal better bottle outside the cooler with CO2-

11) At end of fermentation (aprox 1 week) transfer to the CO2 filled 5 gal better bottle slowly raising temp to 70° for 1-2 weeks

12) Transfer to C02 filled bottling bucket with priming sugar and bottle

13) Temp control bottles at 71° for 1 week- than let them sit in garage for a min of 3 weeks

14) Drink

Thoughts?

A few thoughts:
The Munich should be mashed, and possibly the "white malt" but I've never heard of that before, so I'm not sure. Is it a base malt? A caramel/crystal malt? To do it as a mini-mash, hold at 152F for 30 minutes, minimum. If the Munich is the only diastatic malt you have there, then go for 60 minutes. Munich can convert itself, but not much else. Assuming that the "white malt" is a base malt, then 30 minutes should be sufficient.

I wouldn't bother with your secondary scheme. It's a lot of trouble for no real benefit. You don't need to secondary unless you're doing extended aging (>6 weeks), racking onto fruit or dry hopping - and many (most?) of us are now dry hopping in the primary. Leave your beer in the primary for 3 weeks, them bottle.

Leave your bottles at 71F for 3 weeks before chilling. You can try one after a week to see how it's coming along, but 3 weeks is where it kind of plateaus.

Cool... I'll skip the secodary and keep in fermenter for 2-3 weeks?

The white malt should have been typed white wheat malt

I second the "keep it in primary 3 weeks"....dont do secondary....

Just a thought, if your wife is a 'beer snob' then you might want to consider dry hopping after active fermentation is over (day 10 - 21ish). I think she would appreciate the additional hop aroma from dry hopping. To keep it simple just dump 1oz of centenial pellets into a muslin bag and drop into the beer for 7-14 days.

The white malt should have been typed white wheat malt

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Okay, white wheat malt will act as a base malt. A handfull of rice hulls probably isn't necessary, but wouldn't hurt. So if you;ve got 'em throw them in, if not, don;t sweat it.

dump 1oz of centenial pellets into a muslin bag and drop into the beer for 7-14 days.

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If by muslin bag you're referring to the muslin "gymsock" steeping bags, the mesh of those is too wide to provide any kind of barrier to the hop particles once the pellets hit the beer. If you do want to dry hop you can drop the pellets directly in your primary or use a fine-mesh bag (e.g., a nylon 1 gallon paint straining bag works well).

Any thoughts on cold crashing?

I also have some questions for you:

What is her critique of your beer? What isn't measuring up? Flavor, Aroma, are there off flavors in your beer? Maybe she is looking for something a bit malty or toastier?

Captain Damage said:

Okay, white wheat malt will act as a base malt. A handfull of rice hulls probably isn't necessary, but wouldn't hurt. So if you;ve got 'em throw them in, if not, don;t sweat it.

If by muslin bag you're referring to the muslin "gymsock" steeping bags, the mesh of those is too wide to provide any kind of barrier to the hop particles once the pellets hit the beer. If you do want to dry hop you can drop the pellets directly in your primary or use a fine-mesh bag (e.g., a nylon 1 gallon paint straining bag works well).

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By Muslin I mean these: http://www.annapolishomebrew.com/p/1474/muslin-bag-small

I use them all the time for dry hopping and the pellets don't escape, they stay put. I've used them in the boil and in secondary and they work. Lots of people have success using this method.

Anyway, my point to the OP was consider dry hopping the pale ale to add a level of complexity that will definitely be appreciated from a hop aroma/flavor perspective, if that is what is desired.

She says that they are generally to sweet or syrupy. Some beers are to malty- the last one was to raisiny... In general I'm more flexible but I have not made a really good beer yet. She said quote, she wants it to be more bright.

She enjoys IPA's from Ninkasi, Stone, 10 Barrel and Caldera- not overly hoped.

I dry hoped the last beer
I'm cutting 1 lb of LME in this next round
The rasiny beer tasted great before bottling, it has been in the bottle 3 weeks- lost all sence of hops.

She says that they are generally to sweet or syrupy. Some beers are to malty- the last one was to raisiny... In general I'm more flexible but I have not made a really good beer yet. She said quote, she wants it to be more bright.

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Sweet/syrupy flavors often stem from a low IBU:OG ratio. Divide your calculated IBUs by the numbers to the right of the decimal in your projected OG. E.g., if your IBUs are 33 and your OG is 1.060, it's 33÷60=0.55. Most people will taste an even balance between sweetness and bitterness at about 0.5. I know it's adding apples and oranges, but it actually works for moderate gravity beers. So look at some of the beers she hasn't liked. What are the IBU:OG ratios? Have you been making beers with low ratios, or does she just want a more bitter beer (higher ratio)?

Sweet & Syrupy flavors also come from unfermented sugar. Assuming that your yeast hasn't been dying before doing all it's work, look at your sources of low-fermentable and unfermentable sugar. In an all-grain brew we'd lower the mash temperature, and you can lower your minimash temperature to 148F to help here, but it's still only a small protion of your total bill. Caramel/crystal malt contains mostly unfermentable sugars. When formulating extract based recipes, keep in mind that almost all extracts are made with a significant portion of crystal malts. For your extract base, I'd recommend using the lightest extract you can get. For Briess (per your recipe) I think it's called "Pilsen Light," and they say it's made from Pilsner malt and carapils - that's a crystal malt, but it has almost no flavor. It's used to increase body and head retention. You can dry out/thin out your beer a little by adding a little sugar.

Raisiny flavors come from crystal malts, especially the darker ones. Crystals in the 20L-80L range are mostly carmel-to-toffee flavors, higher than that you start to get prune, raisin and even cola flavors. For "too malty" look again at your darker malts, but mostly your darker base malts such as Munich, British pale malt and biscuit/victory (technically not a base malt, I know). Again, sticking with the Pilsen extract should help here. I can't imagine the tiny amounts of Munich and victory in your recipe will be objectionably malty, but then the idea of a beer being too malty is somewhat alien to me.

Bright = gypsum

This is all great stuff here, thanks so much!

CD- you said "You can dry out/thin out your beer a little by adding a little sugar.". Can you better define that.

Is it ok to add less LME?, say like 2 or 3 lbs vs 4 or 5

Can I raise the IBUs to mask the sweetness, she digs beers with higher IBUs just not full tilt ones

Captain Damage said:

A few thoughts:
The Munich should be mashed, and possibly the "white malt" but I've never heard of that before, so I'm not sure. Is it a base malt? A caramel/crystal malt? To do it as a mini-mash, hold at 152F for 30 minutes, minimum. If the Munich is the only diastatic malt you have there, then go for 60 minutes. Munich can convert itself, but not much else. Assuming that the "white malt" is a base malt, then 30 minutes should be sufficient.

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Captain Damage is correct. You absolutely need to do a mini-mash with these grains. The wheat malt also has good diastatic quality.

One thing I would add to this is that you must do the mash at a water volume of roughly 2.5 quarts or you will dilute the enzymes too much for conversion. Strike water of about 165 degrees should put you in the right 150 degree ballpark.

It's echoing some of the others, but it's easier for me to answer one-by-one.

1. Don't cool your yeast starter. Keep it at the correct temperature until it's all fermented out. THEN stick it in the fridge if you want to decant the spent wort, or to chill to pitching temps. Healthy yeast is the goal here, and yeast HATE being chilled during fermentation.

2. Close, but since Munich must be mashed, use 1.5-2 quarts of water per pound of grain and put the grains in the water when the water is 165-ish. Turn off the heat, stir in the grains, and let sit for an hour. In the meantime, you can bring some more water up to heat. After your hour is over, lift up the grainbag in a colander and pour 170 degree over the grains to "rinse" them. Throw away the grains, and bring up your boil volume to 5 gallons (or whatever it is) and bring it up to a boil and proceed.

3. Yep!

4. May be low on hops, depending on your goal (IPA or an APA). But that's a decent start for a lightly hopped American pale ale.

5 & 6- Yep. I don't use nutrient, but if you do that's fine.

7. I would chill the wort FIRST, then top up to 5 gallons. It'll chill faster, and you'll get a better cold break, giving you clearer beer. Chill to 62 degrees or so, before pitching the yeast.

8. One minute is pretty long, as I think you'd max out the o2 ppm in 30 seconds, but it won't hurt.

9. Again, chill the wort FIRST. Use the wort chiller, and then top off with ice cold water if need be- but get to pitching temp, and then aerate and then pitch the yeast.

10. I have no idea what that means.

11. No, don't transfer, especially after only 1 week. Leave it alone.

12. Check the SG after two weeks. Check it again in three days. If it's the same, the beer is done. When you check the sample, look at the beer for clarity and suspended stuff. If the beer is clear, it can be bottled. Then rack to the bottling bucket into which the priming sugar was dissolved in boiling water and added to the bucket. I don't fill my bucket with c02, but it won't hurt if you feel that it's something you need to do.

13. Keep them at 71 degrees for three weeks. Then you can move them wherever you want, including into the fridge to cool before sampling.

CD- you said "You can dry out/thin out your beer a little by adding a little sugar.". Can you better define that.

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I'm hesitant to suggest it because I don't thin k it should be used as a "fix." Adding either table sugar (sucrose) or corn sugar (dextrose) will raise the OG with 100% fermentable sugar, which gets completely turned to alcohol. It raises your ABV and tends to make your beer a little drier and thinner. The most common examples of beers that have added sugar are Belgian dubels and tripels and English bitters. In the Belgians it's mostly done to boost the ABV; in the bitters it's to balance out the crystal heaviness. Similarly, Budweiser converts rice starch to maltose as a source of low-flavor fermentable sugar. These are positive uses of sugar. On the downside there are "kit-n-kilo" beer kits where a single can of extract (~3-4lbs) is combined with a kilogram (2.2lbs) of sucrose. The beers made this way are invariably flavorless and thin tasting.

The Belgians add quite a lot of sugar, but these beers are supposed to be very dry and the flavors are dominated by the products of the yeast. (Belgians aren't my specialty, so I'll stop commenting before I start typing out my...) English bitters are low alcohol beers (<4%ABV). I might add 1/4lb of sucrose to a 5 gallon batch.

Can I raise the IBUs to mask the sweetness, she digs beers with higher IBUs just not full tilt ones

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I think you're on the right track with focusing on the late hop additions. People who don't count IBUs as a hobby often perceive hop flavors as bitterness, although not in a sweetness-masking way.

Is it ok to add less LME?, say like 2 or 3 lbs vs 4 or 5

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In principle you can, but 4-5 lbs of extract is not an outside amount of extract to have in a recipe. On it's own, 5lbs is still <1.040 OG and and ABV of <4%. I've been trying not to rewrite your whole recipe. While I sympathize with your desire (need) to make a beer that your wife likes, I can only guess about her perceptions based on your short description. A better strategy might be to ask what are some commercial beers she likes. Maybe we can help you nail down a clone of one of those.

A couple things I will suggest are 1) Use brewing software if you're not already. I like Beer Smith, but there are others, including a number of smartphone apps. Software will make keeping track of your numbers and calculations much, much easier. 2) Get Designing Great Beers by Ray Daniels. It's my Bible! It's a superbly written guide to understanding the ingredients and how to create balanced recipes. Brewing Classic Styles is another popular guide, but I haven't read it. Maybe ask for one or both of them for Christmas or whatever winter gift-giving holiday you celebrate.

Thanks, good stuff here- big boy moves