First all grain recipe, am I doing this wrong?

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MistFM

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So just a little bit about what I'm trying to make, I want a red rye pale ale. I feel that I may have too much carared, but beersmith "says" that this ratio will make a color that I want with a gravity and ibu that I am happy with. Please tear this apart. :mug:

Grains:
American Pale Ale - 3 lbs 4 oz
Rye Malt - 2 lbs
Carared - 6 lbs

Hops
Centennial - 1.25 oz 60 minute boil
Fuggles - 1 oz 10 minute boil

Yeast
Safale American US-05 1 package


Est. OG 1.060
IBU 40.2
Color 14.6 SRM
Est ABV 5.8%
 
Whoa way too much carared! If its a 5gal batch then 1lb is plenty. If you are looking for color try adding a few oz of roasted barley. It won't affect the taste only color. Carared is a crystal malt that has no enzymes to convert. Use more base grains
 
Whoa way too much carared! If its a 5gal batch then 1lb is plenty. If you are looking for color try adding a few oz of roasted barley. It won't affect the taste only color. Carared is a crystal malt that has no enzymes to convert. Use more base grains

Exactly. Something like this would give you same color and gravity and only 11% crystal malt:


8 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) 70.4 %
2 lbs Rye, Flaked (2.0 SRM) 17.6 %
12.0 oz Carared (20.0 SRM) 6.6 %
8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM) 4.4 %
1.9 oz Roasted Barley (500.0 SRM) 1.1 %

Edit, didn't mean flaked there, just the rye malt
 
Carared is not a base malt. A good rule of thumb with caramel and crystal malts: no more than 10% of your grain bill, total.

I might switch your grain bill to:
8lb Pale Ale Malt
2lb Rye Malt
1lb Carared
Roasted Barley (enough to hit the right color, only)

Hops look fine, although you might consider another addition at flameout.
 
As a general rule of thumb, more than half of your grain bill should be pale malt (or a similar base malt, like maris otter, pilsner, etc). There are some exceptions (like wheat beers), but it's safe to start w/ 70-90% pale malt.
 
What they said! ;) FYI there are several free recipe calculators online, my fav. is beercalculus, which will help you.

Maybe the OP was celebrating with the american outlaws a little to much after the Nats big win last night! WOO!!!!!
 
So just a little bit about what I'm trying to make, I want a red rye pale ale. I feel that I may have too much carared, but beersmith "says" that this ratio will make a color that I want with a gravity and ibu that I am happy with. Please tear this apart. :mug:

Grains:
American Pale Ale - 3 lbs 4 oz
Rye Malt - 2 lbs
Carared - 6 lbs

Hops
Centennial - 1.25 oz 60 minute boil
Fuggles - 1 oz 10 minute boil

Yeast
Safale American US-05 1 package


Est. OG 1.060
IBU 40.2
Color 14.6 SRM
Est ABV 5.8%

Try this:

8# pale malt
2# rye malt
3/4# CaraRed
1 oz Carafa II or Chocolate malt

Unfortunately recipe programs aren't going to let you know the grain mix is all wrong, they are only going to calculate numbers for color, gravity and IBU based on what you input.

What you are doing wrong is not knowing the properties and roles of the ingredients. Base grains are the meat and specialty grains are the seasoning.
 
Haha, totally partied too hard! It's like Haley's comet, we only beat Mexico in Estadia Azteca once every 75 years!

Thanks for the tips everyone, I didn't really know what else I could do to get the color I wanted. Will let y'all know what happens.

Update: So instead of sleeping I got on beersmith and did some research as to what I wanted to change. Below is my updated recipe and I think I'm going to just go for it and see what happens. I went with the crystal malt vs. roasted barley because I didn't want a roasted flavor in this beer, plus it seemed like it darkened my beer more than I was wanting.

Grain Bill:
American Pale Ale (2-row Malt) - 7 lbs
Caramel/Crystal Malt 120L - 8 oz
Carared - 1 lb
Rye Malt - 2 lbs

Hops:
Centennial - 1.25 oz 60 min boil
Fuggles - 1 oz 10 min boil

Yeast
US-05 dry packet

Est OG 1.062
IBUs 39.4
Color 14.3 SRM
Est ABV 6.1% <- Hell Yeah!
 
i got this one in the primary right now

Naughty Kitty Calico Pale Rye Ale
American Pale Ale
Type: All Grain Date: 8/7/2012
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.00 gal Brewer: Glynn Brown
Boil Size: 6.60 gal Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 60 min Equipment: Pot and Cooler (8gal/12gal)
End of Boil Volume 5.50 gal Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Final Bottling Volume: 5.00 gal Est Mash Efficiency 82.8 %
Fermentation: Ale, Two Stage Taste Rating(out of 50): 30.0
Taste Notes:
Ingredients


Ingredients
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
8.0 oz Rice Hulls (0.0 SRM) Adjunct 1 4.2 %
8 lbs Pale Malt - 2 Row (Cargill) (2.0 SRM) Grain 2 66.7 %
2 lbs Rye Malt (Briess) (3.7 SRM) Grain 3 16.7 %
1 lbs Caramel Malt - 60L (Cargill) (60.0 SRM) Grain 4 8.3 %
8.0 oz Carapils (Briess) (1.5 SRM) Grain 5 4.2 %
0.75 oz Mt. Hood [7.50 %] - First Wort 60.0 min Hop 6 20.0 IBUs
1.00 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins) Fining 7 -
1.25 oz Mt. Hood [7.50 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 8 15.1 IBUs
1.00 oz Mt. Hood [7.50 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 9 8.8 IBUs
0.50 oz Mt. Hood [7.50 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 10 2.4 IBUs
0.20 oz Centennial [10.80 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 11 1.3 IBUs
1.0 pkg Dennys Favorite 50 (1450) (wyeast #1450) Yeast 12 -
2.00 oz Cascade [8.90 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 Days Hop 13 0.0 IBUs
 
That looks much better. You might want to toss in about 8oz of rice hulls as well. I understand rye can be pretty sticky, and stuck sparges are a giant headache. (I made an oatmeal stout last weekend with a hefty portion of oats and no rice hulls. It was less of a mash and more like concrete. That was a very long and frustrating brew day.)
 
Caraaroma is a good to use to get a nice red color, and it's much darker than Carared, so you don't need to use as much.
 
So I am bumping this. I brewed today and I have a question for everyone. Beersmith has my calculated OG at 1.062, but when I measured it it was closer to 1.058 (hard to see with foam, but I think that is perfectly close). So what exactly happened? Was my mash tun not efficient as beer smith calculated? This beer is going to be hoppy, I think. I seriously can't wait until it's ready.
 
MistFM said:
So I am bumping this. I brewed today and I have a question for everyone. Beersmith has my calculated OG at 1.062, but when I measured it it was closer to 1.058 (hard to see with foam, but I think that is perfectly close). So what exactly happened? Was my mash tun not efficient as beer smith calculated? This beer is going to be hoppy, I think. I seriously can't wait until it's ready.

What happened is your efficiency wasn't what you assumed or your volume was off. But seriously, that is close enough and very good for a first try. Read up on efficiency but no need to push it, just aim for predictability.
 
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