First Brew Advice

My goal is a simple DME recipe for a quickly fermenting and clarified beer...dry, refreshing, lightly hopped American Ale, 4-5% ABV, good for a hot summer day.

These are the ingredients I have so far...
Munton's
3 lbs Extra Light DME
2 lbs Light DME
2 lbs Plain Amber DME
1 1/4 oz of Cascades pellets
1 teaspoon Irish Moss
1 teaspoons Yeast Energizer
I packet Knox Gelatin for clarifying
1 cup of Corn Sugar for bottling
Nottingham Yeast
5 gallon bucket as primary
4 and 5 gallon Carboy for secondary?
Reverse Osmosis water or Chlorinated City Tap water (boiled)?
Fermenting at about 65 degrees f
21 quart Enamel Stock pot

Bring 3 gallons of water to a boil add extra light DME and Hops, boil for 15minutes, add remaining extract and Irish moss boil for 15 minutes (30 minute total boil), chill quicky in sink of ice water and add remaining water. Mix in yeast energizer. When cooled pour through stainless stainer to aerate into primary, pitch yeast. After vigorous fermenation slows, rack to secondary, when fermentation ceases, add dissolved gelatin to clarify, when clear, rack to bottling bucket and add 1 cup of corn sugar, bottle, when PET test bottle is hard chill and drink.

Questions...
Will aging this simple DME any longer matter?
Do the hops pellets disslove? If they don't dissolve should I avoid straining the wort?
Reverse Osmosis water for neutral flavor but lacks minerals, add a 1/4 teaspoon of epsom salt for minerals?
4 or 5 gallon batch?
Maybe 1 tablespoon of Vanilla extract at bottling?
Maybe 4 oz of Quick oats in a grain bag during the boil to add unconverted starches for mouth feel and head retention?

Thoughts and advice are requested.
Thank you

You are not going to get any responses if you mention washes. Sorry, but we have an unspoken rule. If you remove that section from your post I would gladly give you some advice.

You might learn a lot from brewers of unhopped wort. Anyway there is no reason for it to be unwritten, I took the time to review the rules. Anyway now I know. I am learning a new hobby and could use feedback from experienced brewers. Thanks.

With a 30 minute boil, you'll not get as much bittering from the hops. I usually do a 60 minute boil, so that you get better hops utilization.

I'd probably not use the amber DME, and just get more light DME, and add a pound of steeping grains for better flavor.

I'd do this:
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L

3 lbs Extra Light Dry Extract
3 lbs Light Dry Extract (near the end of boil)

1.00 oz Cascade [8.50 %] (60 min)
0.25 oz Cascade [8.50 %] (15 min)
0.25 oz Cascade [8.50 %] (5 min)

Steep grains in a grain bag in 3 gallons of 160 degree water for 20 minutes, keeping it between 150-160 degrees. Stir well to thoroughly wet the grains, and "tea bag" the bag. After 20 minutes, take out the grains and discard. Bring to a boil, and one of the 3 pounds bags of DME. Bring back to a boil, and add the 1 ounce cascades. Set the timer for 60 minutes. When there is 15 minutes left in the boil, add .25 ounce of cascades and the other 1/2 of the extract. Stir and whisk well off of the heat, to blend the DME. Bring back to a boil. Add the final .25 ounce of cascade with 5 minutes left in the boil. Turn off the flame when the timer hits 0, and chill the wort as quickly as possible to 70 degrees, pour into a santized fermenter, top up to 5 gallons, and add the yeast. Airlock, and keep in the mid 60s.

You'll need a bigger bucket than 5 gallons, though! More like 6.5 or larger, to allow for krausen.

I don't use a secondary very often, and I've never used gelatin at all, so I can't help you there. I don't use yeast energizer either, as there is no need in a beer of this size.

I'd use bottled spring water for RO water, as that will give you good results and won't require preboiling.

Don't throw oats in there! Starch isn't a good thing in beer.

Vanilla extract? I wouldn't. I can't imagine a light pale ale tasting good with vanilla in it.

For yeast, use a good quality dry yeast like Safale S05.

Thanks for the feedback. Your right the vanilla and oats dont make sense. I have the 4 gallon carboy so maybe I should reduce the recipe to use the 5 gallon bucket I already have. I havent acquired the taste for a lot of bitterness nor do I apreciate the grassy late hops....I know I know beer sissy...so I was going for the flavor timing? 10 l Crystal malt adds what qualities? Do the last minute Hops pellets disolve?
Thanks for teaching. Gonna boil in a few days so it sounds like I need a nylon bag and some malted grain. Anything else missing?

bigdaddybrew said:

Thanks for the feedback. Your right the vanilla and oats dont make sense. I have the 4 gallon carboy so maybe I should reduce the recipe to use the 5 gallon bucket I already have. I havent acquired the taste for a lot of bitterness nor do I apreciate the grassy late hops....I know I know beer sissy...so I was going for the flavor timing? 10 l Crystal malt adds what qualities? Do the last minute Hops pellets disolve?
Thanks for teaching. Gonna boil in a few days so it sounds like I need a nylon bag and some malted grain. Anything else missing?

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I've never seen a 4 gallon carboy- are you sure about the size? 3, 5, 6, and 6.5 gallon carboys are common sizes but I have never yet seen a 4 gallon carboy.

If you have a 5 gallon bucket, you could make a 3 gallon batch if you want. Or, get a bigger bucket.

The earliest hops provide bitterness, to counteract the sweet malt. The late hops provide flavor and aroma. If you don't like them, that's fine, but you may want to try it the way I wrote it just to see what you think. That's not very much in the way of hops at all, and it shouldn't taste the least big "grassy".

Hop pellets dissolve into sludge. Some people like to strain their wort on the way to the fermenter, but I don't. What happens is the "sludge" falls to the bottom along with excess proteins and flocculated yeast to be part of the trub. If you let that fermenter sit for about two weeks without moving it, you can easily siphon ("rack") off the clear beer.

To make it even easier, I suggest using S04 yeast instead of the S05. S04 clears the beer very well, and makes a tightly compacted yeast cake that is much easier to rack off of. However, don't let it get above 70 degrees! Then it'll get "estery" as it's an English yeast and can produce some fruity flavors when it gets above 70 degrees.

Actually is a 4 gallon PET water bottle not a carboy. Worked well for wine. I'll do the stepped hops as you noted as I want something light but not totally boring. My fermenting space is a steady 64 to 66 degrees F. I take it you dont care for the nottingham?

theredben said:

You are not going to get any responses if you mention washes. Sorry, but we have an unspoken rule. If you remove that section from your post I would gladly give you some advice.

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Washes? What does that mean and why is that taboo or offensive?

The OP removed the reference so I can't tell by context. I don't see anything in the faq...

Washes refers to a sugar based fermentation that one might intend to distill which is illegal unless you get a micro distillers license and pay the appropriate tax so apparently even an brief reference is not welcome here. Why it isn't a written rule is unclear.

+1 to Yooper's post

Nottingham is a good yeast, it is just that it is a little unforgiving if the fermentation temps get too high and will produce some fruity esters that are not usually present in an APA. Safale US-05 by fermentis is a traditional American ale yeast.

Since this is your first go, just ferment the beer in one vessel. Three weeks in the primary and you'll be ready to bottle and not have to worry about the trouble of racking to a secondary or adjusting the recipe to fit four gallons.

Experience racking wine so its no problem. For wine you rack to help clarify and avoid yeasty flavors. If its not needed I'd save my self the trouble. For my wines temp is a steady 64 to 65. I have 5 gallon buckets and 4 and 5 gallon PET water bottles. Wont it overflow the 5 gallon bucket with foam if I dont reduce the recipe to 4 gallons or less?

Wait a minute...I said Amercan Ale...but I bought English yeast....I do catch on enventually. So change the goal or buy different yeast....got it. Get a grain bag some fresh malt, american ale yeast, step in the hops to balance with a little bitterness. Now reduce recipe for my 5 gallon bucket to 4 gallons to avoid blowing off the airlock?

bigdaddybrew said:

Experience racking wine so its no problem. For wine you rack to help clarify and avoid yeasty flavors. If its not needed I'd save my self the trouble. For my wines temp is a steady 64 to 65. I have 5 gallon buckets and 4 and 5 gallon PET water bottles. Wont it overflow the 5 gallon bucket with foam if I dont reduce the recipe to 4 gallons or less?

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Its pretty common for people to set up a "blow off" tube. Basically, instead of an airlock in your stopper, you would stick a tube that is long enough to dip into a plastic bottle with a bit of water in it. Once the fermentation attenuates, you can replace that with an airlock.

Your temperature control sounds spot on! Good on you!

I feel more confident that I am not gonna brew 5 gallons of swill that I'll have to force on my friends. Thanks for the help everyone. I'll let you all know how it tastes in about a month. Now hurry up and wait. Of course I still need to collect/drink 2 more cases of longnecks. Oh how one must suffer for ones creativity....ha ha

Boiled it up 4/28, 1/2 oz cascades 50 min, 1/2 oz 20 min, 1/4 oz 10 min, first 30 minutes of the boil with water and hops only (hop tea), added 1/2 the dme for 20min, Irish moss for 15min, rest of light and amber dme last 10 minutes, 1/2 teaspoon yeast energizer, pitched Nottingham fermented at about 64 degrees, 4.25 gallons, used all 7 lbs of dme...O.G. 1.077 too much DME?... Oh well smells like beer to me...24 hrs later blew off the air lock and made a mess then I placed a blow off tube but i had used the wrong lid on the bucket so it popped off overnight spraying the wall with more brown foam, matching lid on...okay Newbie get it together...5/16 no more bubbles will check gravity and clarity this weekend... Not fancy but I'm still excited.

5/22 no bubbles noted for about 6 days. Gravity 1.017 a dark amber color (darker than I expected), Force carbed a pint with my Sodastream, slightly bitter, slight hop aroma, malty aroma, smooth, no sweetness, still slightly cloudy, slight yeasty flavor yet. Drank the hole pint and got quite hammered sitting on the back porch ended up taking a nap, didn't taste hot so I didn't expect that...did some math after I sobered up...8% ABV wow should have expected that with so much DME for batch size. Racked to secondary as bucket had lots of hop/kruesen residue? around the rim so I thought it would help it clarify, topped off the 4 gallon PET bottle with a Bells IPA and a Mackinaw Pale Ale. Should be even better when it clears. It's been 24 days. I may add gelatin to push it. How much longer to clarify naturally?