1st all grain recipe help/suggestions?

Brewing my first all grain batch, 10 gallon cooler mash tun and sparge vessel with 10 gallon pot. I know I need to adjust a bit in beersmith for total volume and such, but looking for a little critique on the amounts and balance of malts and hops...

Big Bad Brown
American Brown Ale
Type: All Grain Date: 1/3/2012
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.00 gal Brewer: Oposition Brewing Co.
Boil Size: 6.52 gal Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 60 min Equipment: Pot and Cooler ( 5 Gal/19 L) - All Grain
End of Boil Volume 5.98 gal Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Final Bottling Volume: 4.60 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
9 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 80.0 %
8.0 oz Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 2 4.4 %
8.0 oz Chocolate Wheat Malt (400.0 SRM) Grain 3 4.4 %
8.0 oz Rye Malt (4.7 SRM) Grain 4 4.4 %
4.0 oz Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) Grain 5 2.2 %
4.0 oz Special Roast (Briess) (50.0 SRM) Grain 6 2.2 %
4.0 oz Victory Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 7 2.2 %
1.00 oz Willamette [5.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 8 18.1 IBUs
1.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop 9 13.9 IBUs
0.50 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 20.0 min Hop 10 5.5 IBUs
1.0 pkg California Ale (White Labs #WLP001) [35.49 ml] Yeast 11 -

Thanks in advance, be gentle, this is the first recipe I have created from scratch! Yooper/Remy please chime in, lol!

Anyone?

To me that looks like it'll turn out pretty dark with the chocolate malts and roasted barley. You might want to consider omitting one or decreasing it some. You sure do have a crazy variety in your grain bill, so I'd suggest simplifying it some so you know what to do next time. Wheat, rye, special, chocolate, roasted, victory... that probably isn't a bad combination, but you won't learn what tastes like what.You might have a bit too much hops going on, maybe decrease your 30 minute addition. I use willamette for my porters and they taste great!

Disclaimer: I'm very new to brewing myself.

Also, I'm making a brown in a couple weeks with toasted oats, brown malt, biscuit, and maris otter for a base. I have high hopes for this brew!

ChadChaney said:

Anyone?

Click to expand...

Resist the beginner's urge to use every grain on the HBS shelf and simplify the recipe. I also agree with the poster above that it's going to be too dark for a brown ale. With the chocolate and roasted malts @ 11% this beer will be close to the color of Guinness. Not that that's bad but it isn't a brown ale. Pick a chocolate malt and use a half pound. Get rid of the rye malt, the roasted barley and pick either Victory malt or Special Roast. Replace the deleted grains with additional pale malt.

Thanks all, i have the recipe in beersmith, and it falls in the guidelines for an American brown ale, but this is the exact thing I am looking for! I want to leave the Rye in, for a little spice, but I will defiantly adjust based on these comments. I was curious about the hops, thought I might be a little high. I will post the adjusted recipe tomorrow, thanks again!

Big Bad Brown
American Brown Ale
Type: All Grain Date: 1/3/2012
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.00 gal Brewer: Oposition Brewing Co.
Boil Size: 6.52 gal Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 60 min Equipment: Pot and Cooler ( 5 Gal/19 L) - All Grain
End of Boil Volume 5.98 gal Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Final Bottling Volume: 4.60 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
9 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 81.8 %
8.0 oz Chocolate Wheat Malt (400.0 SRM) Grain 2 4.5 %
8.0 oz Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) Grain 3 4.5 %
8.0 oz Rye Malt (4.7 SRM) Grain 4 4.5 %
8.0 oz Victory Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 5 4.5 %
1.00 oz Willamette [5.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 6 18.2 IBUs
0.50 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop 7 7.0 IBUs
0.50 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 20.0 min Hop 8 5.5 IBUs
1.0 pkg California Ale (White Labs #WLP001) [35.49 ml] Yeast 9 -

Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.056 SG Measured Original Gravity: 1.046 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.010 SG Measured Final Gravity: 1.010 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 6.0 % Actual Alcohol by Vol: 4.7 %
Bitterness: 30.8 IBUs Calories: 151.6 kcal/12oz
Est Color: 26.6 SRM


How about now?

ChadChaney said:

Thanks all, i have the recipe in beersmith, and it falls in the guidelines for an American brown ale, but this is the exact thing I am looking for! I want to leave the Rye in, for a little spice, but I will defiantly adjust based on these comments. I was curious about the hops, thought I might be a little high. I will post the adjusted recipe tomorrow, thanks again!

Click to expand...

If you want to use rye malt then use a couple of pounds. The eight ounces won't do a hell of a lot.

BigEd said:

If you want to use rye malt then use a couple of pounds. The eight ounces won't do a hell of a lot.

Click to expand...

+1 to that, IMO that is kind of a waste need a pound or two for any noticeable effect...

Another suggestion is to adjust the default efficiency on Beersmith. I think it sets it at 72% total efficiency, and most people don't get that high on their first AG batch (although it is always possible of course).

If you leave it at 72% and get, say, 60%, which is not uncommon, you will end up with a pretty low OG. You can always boil your wort down to get where you need it, but it can be hard to estimate and take forever. I think you are probably better off setting it closer to 60 or 65% and adjusting your grain bill to get your OG to where you want it, if you happen to get much better efficiency it is always easier to dilute a bit if necessary, the worst thing that happens is you have to throw a little out and you waste a pound or so of grain.

Oh, and I tend to agree with what the others said about simplicity, but no reason you can't try whatever you want to!

Good luck!

Guys, thanks for the input about the Rye, I will definitely adjust the amount to a couple of pounds. As for the rest of the bill, I was having some issues with hitting the acceptable color if I yank the roasted barley, thinking now I will play around again and see what i can come up with minus the barley. As for BeerSmith, I know I need to adjust the efficiency still, still kind of figuring out the equipment set up, righ now I have it set up for the 10 gallon mash tun (cooler) with the big pot, but I will only be making 5.5 gallon batches, so when I get that finished I will adjust the rest. I will post new version when I get a chance!

OK, I think I have it all figured out, well this recipe at least, lol.


Big Bad Brown
American Brown Ale
Type: All Grain Date: 1/3/2012
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.75 gal Brewer: Oposition Brewing Co.
Boil Size: 6.75 gal Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 60 min Equipment: My AG Setup
End of Boil Volume 5.62 gal Brewhouse Efficiency: 60.00 %
Final Bottling Volume: 5.00 gal Est Mash Efficiency 65.2 %
Fermentation: Ale, Single Stage Taste Rating(out of 50): 30.0
Taste Notes:
Ingredients


Ingredients
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
10 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 71.4 %
2 lbs Rye Malt (4.7 SRM) Grain 2 14.3 %
1 lbs Chocolate Wheat Malt (400.0 SRM) Grain 3 7.1 %
1 lbs Victory Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 4 7.1 %
1.00 oz Willamette [5.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 5 17.1 IBUs
0.50 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop 6 6.6 IBUs
0.50 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 20.0 min Hop 7 5.2 IBUs
1.0 pkg California Ale (White Labs #WLP001) [35.49 ml] Yeast 8 -

Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.051 SG Measured Original Gravity: 1.046 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.011 SG Measured Final Gravity: 1.010 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.3 % Actual Alcohol by Vol: 4.7 %
Bitterness: 28.9 IBUs Calories: 151.6 kcal/12oz
Est Color: 28.2 SRM
Mash Profile

Mash Name: Single Infusion, Medium Body, No Mash Out Total Grain Weight: 14 lbs
Sparge Water: 4.06 gal Grain Temperature: 72.0 F
Sparge Temperature: 168.0 F Tun Temperature: 72.0 F
Adjust Temp for Equipment: FALSE Mash PH: 5.20

Mash Steps
Name Description Step Temperature Step Time
Mash In Add 20.70 qt of water at 161.9 F 152.0 F 60 min

Sparge Step: Fly sparge with 4.06 gal water at 168.0 F
Mash Notes: Simple single infusion mash for use with most modern well modified grains (about 95% of the time).


Seems to fall right in the middle of all the categories for an American brown ale..

Thoughts?

the 30 min cascades i would bump to 15 mins then bump 20 mins to 10-5 mins. they are not doing a lot of bittering at 30 and and your losing a bunch of flavor boiling that long.