recipe feedback

Looking to get some feedback on the recipe I brewed this weekend. I was hoping for hoppy pale ale that’s not too bitter, but I’m not sure how this will turn out. Also, this was my first time brewing with spring water instead of tap water and using a 1:1 ratio between gallons of water and lbs of malt extract during the boil. Any help is greatly appreciated, and I’ll make sure to report back once it’s finished up:

1lb crystal 40 (steep 30 min)
0.5lb roasted barley (steep 30 min)

7 gallons of spring water
4 lbs light LME (6o min)
3 lbs light LME (0 min)
0.5oz Cascade leaf (60 min)
1oz Cascade leaf (15 min)
1oz Willamette leaf (15 min)
1 Whirlfloc Tablet (15 min)
0.5oz Cascade leaf (5 min)
0.5oz Willamette leaf (5 min)
1 pkg Safale Ale Yeast S-04

OG: 1.050 at 76F
FG: <>

Bring 2 gallons of water to 160F, add the grains to the water using a grain sack, and maintain 148F-156F for 30 minutes. Fill brewpot with additional water (in my case 2 gallons for a total of ~4 gallons) and bring to a boil. Remove from heat, stir in 4 lbs light LME (1:1 gallons of water to lbs of malt extract) and add 0.5oz cascade leaf boiling hops using a hop bag. Bring to a boil and start the timer for 60 minutes. At 15 minutes add 1oz Cascade leaf, 1oz Willamette, Whirlfloc Tablet, and wort chiller if you have one. At 5 minutes add 0.5oz Cascade leaf and 0.5oz Willamette. At flameout add 3lbs light LME. Cool to 78F or below, transfer wort to carboy using strainer to catch the hops, add enough water over the hops to reach 5 gallons, attach stopper to carboy, and shake the carboy like it owes you money . Add yeast and attach one end of 1” blowoff tube to carboy and stick the other end in a jar of water.

Fermentation started about 8 hours later and was going strong at 16.

Open questions:

At 15 minutes left in the boil, I added an additional gallon of water because a significant amount of water had boiled off. Not sure what effects this has on the process, if any. Any thoughts?

Normally, I just sprinkle the yeast on top and call it good. I read around on a few posts to sprinkle it on top, wait 30 minutes, and then shake the carboy a few more times. This seemed to initiate fermentation a bit faster, but I’d have to do a side by side to be more convinced. Should I just rehydrate the yeast and call it good?

Any thoughts on the S-04 yeast? I’ve used this a few times now, and the fermentation is always ultra violent and blows a fair amount of foam through the blowoff tube. I haven’t seen this with any of the other yeasts I have used.

Airlock activity stopped last night for a total of 3 days, but I'm going to leave it in the primary until I have time to rack on the weekend. Any takers on the following:

At 15 minutes left in the boil, I added an additional gallon of water because a significant amount of water had boiled off. Not sure what effects this has on the process, if any. Any thoughts?

Normally, I just sprinkle the yeast on top and call it good. I read around on a few posts to sprinkle it on top, wait 30 minutes, and then shake the carboy a few more times. This seemed to initiate fermentation a bit faster, but I’d have to do a side by side to be more convinced. Should I just rehydrate the yeast and call it good?

Any thoughts on the S-04 yeast? I’ve used this a few times now, and the fermentation is always ultra violent and blows a fair amount of foam through the blowoff tube. I haven’t seen this with any of the other yeasts I have used.

shuf said:

Normally, I just sprinkle the yeast on top and call it good. I read around on a few posts to sprinkle it on top, wait 30 minutes, and then shake the carboy a few more times. This seemed to initiate fermentation a bit faster, but I’d have to do a side by side to be more convinced. Should I just rehydrate the yeast and call it good?

Any thoughts on the S-04 yeast? I’ve used this a few times now, and the fermentation is always ultra violent and blows a fair amount of foam through the blowoff tube. I haven’t seen this with any of the other yeasts I have used.

Click to expand...

I always rehydrate my yeasts and find that this makes the early stages of fermentation faster. Simple put 150ml of 25c water into a small PET bottle (coke bottle will do), sprinkle the dried yeast on top (do not mix/stir) put a bit of aluminium foil on tope and leave for 15-20 minutes, then shake it up and mix well and place the foil back on top for another 20-30 mins. By the end of this there should be a nice creamy head in the bottle, pitch into your primary then siphon off some wort into the bottle to wash it out and pitch this as well. Using this system I have always had a very vigourous initial fermentation.

S-04 is a good yeast, however I have found S-05 to be slightly better, ferments more fully and gives a cleaner clearer beer.

shuf said:

At 15 minutes left in the boil, I added an additional gallon of water because a significant amount of water had boiled off. Not sure what effects this has on the process, if any. Any thoughts?

Click to expand...

Why do this? Just continue to boil and add the extra when you place it in the carboy. Any effects? I would think by add the extra gallon, you reduced the water temp a few degrees, so it would take some time to get back up to the boiling. Big deal? Probably not, but think about it next time you brew.

Plus if you've been reading the forum, airlock activity doesn't mean much. Just not the levels of CO2 at the moment to be pushing out. Let it be and measure your gravity if you want to transfer it to a secondary, or wait 2 weeks.

lx302 said:

Why do this? Just continue to boil and add the extra when you place it in the carboy. Any effects? I would think by add the extra gallon, you reduced the water temp a few degrees, so it would take some time to get back up to the boiling. Big deal? Probably not, but think about it next time you brew.

Plus if you've been reading the forum, airlock activity doesn't mean much. Just not the levels of CO2 at the moment to be pushing out. Let it be and measure your gravity if you want to transfer it to a secondary, or wait 2 weeks.

Click to expand...

Great, thanks for the feedback. I wasn't sure if adding the additional gallon of water would help with hop utilization because the majority of my hops were late in the boil (i.e. flavor and aroma). Not really sure if this even matters, and I probably should have just added the water to the carboy as you suggested below.

I totally understand that airlock activity doesn't mean a whole lot, but it's the best way I have shy of taking a sg measurement with a sample. I measured 5 days after pitching, and it came in on 1.012 at 70F. That looks done to me, and this week I'll rack into the corny with some hops.

OK, cool.
As a general guideline, I'll do 2 weeks primary then secondary for 2 weeks, or just 3 weeks primary and bottle.
I've been brewing similar batches at the same temps for years and personally don't take readings anymore. Works for me.