Lake Walk Pale Ale

Hi all,

I will be brewing the Lake Walk Pale Ale per the recipe in this thread...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f66/lake-walk-pale-ale-32939/

This is only my second brew and I had a few queries:

I'm using the free Hopville Beer Calculus recipe calculator to plug the numbers into. However I ended up with 65.4 IBUs - should I just bring the 60 minute additions down so I get 45 IBUs per the recipe? Or maybe shoot for an OG:BU ratio of 1:1 (so hit 55 IBUs)? Adjusting for the AA of the hops I have, I only need 1/2 oz of Amarillo and 1/2 oz of Simcoe at 60 minutes to hit 52 IBUs (keeping 1oz of each at 5 minutes). Does this seem right?

Also as I have not used this equipment before (I used a friend's equipment the only other time I brewed), where should I set my efficiency? (The recipe states 80% but how likely am I to achieve this?)

I've converted everything into metric as I am from the UK but I;ve ended up with

19l batch

89% Maris Otter - 3.7kg
6% Crystal (around 50L) - 0.23kg
6% Wheat Malt - 0.23kg

14g Amarillo @ 60 (9.5% AA)
14g Simcoe @ 60 (12.2% AA)
28g Amarillo @ 5
28g Simcoe @ 5

boil 20.8l for 60m

Cheers!

Dan

Unless I'm misreading something, are your timing numbers off? You have all hops going in at 60 minutes, whereas the recipe has a staggered setup.

Regardless, I'd adjust the 60min addition to balance the IBUs to in the vicinity of 45-50. If you want to do the 1:1 ratio and bring it to 55, that'll probably be OK as well, but I've also never tried the beer.

For efficiency, that's just something that comes with experience with your equipment. 80% is probably a bit high for going in blind, especially for your second batch. I'd suggest 70% instead and then adjusting as needed in future batches.

Oops, thanks for pointing that out - I've edited my post to show the correct timings for the 2nd lot of hops (5 minutes).

Will drop down to 70% for the efficiency and bump up the grain bill accordingly, shouldn't be too far off I guess. Thanks for your comments.

That is a great beer, don't mess it up.


_

Now that the timings reflect your intended values, why did you shift the original hop bill? Are you trying to brew the recipe, or just a batch inspired by it? Should be tasty regardless, but I was confused to see all the alterations .

smagee said:

Now that the timings reflect your intended values, why did you shift the original hop bill? Are you trying to brew the recipe, or just a batch inspired by it? Should be tasty regardless, but I was confused to see all the alterations .

Click to expand...

I'm trying NOT to alter it!! But the values I plugged in originally gave me way too many IBUs. I didn't change the schedule from my first post, I accidentally typed it as having all the additions at 60 minutes but the 2nd additions in the recipe should have been at 5 minutes.

Basically to get to roughly 50 IBUs I needed to drop the 60 minute additions to 1/2 oz (14 grams) from .75oz (21g) as stated in the recipe, otherwise beer calculus puts me at something like 65 IBUs.

Not sure if this makes sense? I have just come home after having a Harvey's Best Bitter, St. Austell Tribute, UBU Purity Amber Ale, Thornbridge Jaipur and a fff Pale Ale and trying to explain everything through text is always difficult

Basically I typed this...

14g Amarillo @ 60 (9.5% AA)
14g Simcoe @ 60 (12.2% AA)
28g Amarillo @ 60
28g Simcoe @ 60


But meant this...

14g Amarillo @ 60 (9.5% AA)
14g Simcoe @ 60 (12.2% AA)
28g Amarillo @ 5
28g Simcoe @ 5

I'm trying not to eff with the original recipe but needed to adjust the 60 minute additions to get to the right IBUs. I think I'm going about this the right way but now I am slightly drunk so perhaps I should revisit this tomorrow...

Cheers

Dan

**EDIT** Ah, ok, I see what you mean... I now see that one of the additions is at 20 minutes, I thought that there were only 60 minute and 5 minute additions. Will re-check and see what happens...

wildwest450 said:

That is a great beer, don't mess it up.

Click to expand...

LOL... I'm trying not to!

monkeydan said:

I'm trying NOT to alter it!! [...]
**EDIT** Ah, ok, I see what you mean... I now see that one of the additions is at 20 minutes, I thought that there were only 60 minute and 5 minute additions. Will re-check and see what happens...

Click to expand...

Here I was all prepped to write a long rambling post explaining that very fact and I see you already noticed . I think you're on the right track, just trying to confirm that you have what you want before it starts. Good luck!

...and as if by magic, since I amended the erroneous 60 minute addition to 20 minutes in line with the recipe, the IBUs are now spot on according to Beer Calculus.

I'm sure you are all dying to know how this turns out so I will keep you updated after brew day (or post any additional questions I have)

Cheers

Dan

Glad it worked out. Do post back with updates; I haven't tried that recipe yet, and am always looking for the next batch!

smagee said:

Glad it worked out. Do post back with updates; I haven't tried that recipe yet, and am always looking for the next batch!

Click to expand...

It's a good one! I really like that hop combo.

I see that dude said this was one of his first extract recipies. Anyone have the extract version recipie for a fellow extract brewer??

Sorry, I just searched and found the extract version.

Yooper said:

It's a good one! I really like that hop combo.

Click to expand...

As do I, which makes me doubly sad that I can't get ahold of *either* of those hops anymore (without paying exorbitant rates, anyway). Maybe Falconer's will be an acceptable sub until they come back in season .

Well, brew day was yesterday and it went reasonably smoothly.

I thought I had managed to calculate everything correctly and well in advance but from my very limited experience of brewing, nothing ever seems to work out quite how you thought it would.

I overshot my mash temp a little bit, kept stirring away until it dropped to where I wanted it to be which took about 10 minutes or so. Hopefully this is ok.

I also underestimated a couple of things: the amount of sparge water I needed - I did measure the dead space in the mash tun and account for grain absorption but still needed to heat an emergency few litres of water.

I also underestimated the loss in the kettle to evaporation, hops, trub and all that good stuff. Actually only got about 16 litres into the fermenter and was shooting for 19.

Overshot my gravity a little (1060 instead of 1056) but I'm not bothered, I guess if I actually had enough pre-boil volume then this would have worked out OK.

Pitched the yeast around 7.30pm yesterday and just checked it - there is some delicious krausen on top and the airlock is bubbling a little.

It smells SO effing good, I cannot wait to drink this. Gonna give it 2-3 weeks, throw the dry hops in for a week and bottle after that. Hopefully I can start drinking this in 6 weeks...

Thanks to all on HBT for making this site so helpful!!

Alrighty, just checked the gravity of this to see what's happening - I plan to bottle this weekend so it will have been in primary for 3 weeks.

The hydrometer sample I took was very cloudy - the beer looks clear if I look in to the FV from the top but this FV has a tap from which I drew the sample. Is this anything to worry about? I did move the FV to get a sample so perhaps I stirred up some trub or something.

It's probably done (gravity is now 1012) and tastes really nice but just want to put my mind at ease with regard to the clarity of the sample.

Cheers

Dan

Time is the great clarifier; if you're really concerned about it, give it another week or so on the cake before bottling. A lot of my beers look *significantly* cloudier at 3 weeks than they do at 4; it always surprises me how much difference a few days can make.

That said, I'd bet it'll clear up as things settle out in the bottle too, especially after chilling.

Cool, I'm probably gonna bottle this weekend regardless and just hope for the best. I want to get another batch on the go asap!

I MADE BEER!!!!1

Bottled last Saturday so has only been in there 9 days. Really tried my hardest to leave it another week but failed. I was a little worried as it didn't taste that great from the bottling bucket (whereas my only previous batch was delicious). However it's nicely carbed already and tastes pretty darn good (if I do say so myself!) It is *almost* clear but there was no need to worry, it is significantly less cloudy than when I sampled from primary.

Temps have been climbing up here in London recently so ordered a fridge which should be here tomorrow, temp controller will arrive in the next couple of days so hopefully will get another batch on the go this weekend. Something tells me this one will not last long!

So, once again, many thanks to all of you on HBT who contribute your time and share your knowledge with people like me so that we can brew better beer

Cheers,

Dan

Man, this just keeps getting better and better, I really should have left it a bit longer as I now only have a few bottles left. Oh, a lesson for next time that I'll probably ignore...