My first beer design.

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RandyAB

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I thought I would try making my own recipe by tweeking Charley Papazian's Humpty Dumpty English Bitter. Can anybody give me there thoughts on how they think it will turn out?

Batch: 11gal
Efficiency: 80%
OG: 1.055
FG: 1.012
Yeast: White Labs Burton Ale Yeast with starter.
SRM: 12
ABV%: 5.7%
IBU: 33

13.5lbs Maris Otter
2lbs Crystal 80L
2lbs Aromatic
1.5lbs Carapils
1lb Cane Sugar

2.5oz EKG (4.8%) at 60 min
3oz Fuggles (5.1%) at 15min
 
I thought I would try making my own recipe by tweeking Charley Papazian's Humpty Dumpty English Bitter. Can anybody give me there thoughts on how they think it will turn out?

Just what is it you're trying to accomplish? Sorry, but I'm not familiar with the original recipe. With only 13.5 lbs of base malt in a 20 lb total bill I'd say the specialty malts are a bit over the top as is the 3 oz of Fuggles at the end. The CaraPils is adding body while the sugar is reducing it. Why both?

Batch: 11gal
Efficiency: 80%
OG: 1.055
FG: 1.012
Yeast: White Labs Burton Ale Yeast with starter.
SRM: 12
ABV%: 5.7%
IBU: 33

13.5lbs Maris Otter
2lbs Crystal 80L
2lbs Aromatic
1.5lbs Carapils
1lb Cane Sugar

2.5oz EKG (4.8%) at 60 min
3oz Fuggles (5.1%) at 15min

If you are looking for suggestions, up the MO to at least 15 lbs, 16 would be even better. I'd drop the crystal 80L down to 5% or 1 lb. If you want deeper color add an ounce of Chocolate malt. Aromatic seems unnecessary with a quality, rich flavored base malt like MO. If you feel you need it a pound should be plenty. As for the CaraPils and the sugar, choose one. I like CaraPils in many beers but with the base of MO and the dose of crystal I don't think it's needed here. Some sugar might give you a drier finish if that's what you're after.

Maybe something like this:
17# MO
1# Crystal 80L
1 oz Chocolate
1# Aromatic
1# sugar (if no sugar add another # of MO)

Reduce the late Fuggles to one, maybe two ounces.
 
I really don't know what I'm trying to accomplish. I think I'm out to brew a tasty beer..... Like I said, this was my first go at this with some of the malts that I've had sitting around for about a year and wanted to do something with.

The hops came from scaling Papazian's recipe. I too thought that the Fuggles was a bit overdone and will reduce it.

What is going to happen with the over the top specialty malts as far as taste? I could add some more base malt but that is going to be one high gravity beer.

The sugar (brown cane sugar) was for taste, not body.
 
I really don't know what I'm trying to accomplish. I think I'm out to brew a tasty beer..... Like I said, this was my first go at this with some of the malts that I've had sitting around for about a year and wanted to do something with.

The hops came from scaling Papazian's recipe. I too thought that the Fuggles was a bit overdone and will reduce it.

What is going to happen with the over the top specialty malts as far as taste? I could add some more base malt but that is going to be one high gravity beer.

Too many and too much specialty malt, in simple terms, can take over the beer. Specialty malts should be supporting players here, not the stars of the show. If your total grain weight stays the same the OG won't change but the FG will be lower with a higher % of base malt. The recipe's estimated FG of 1.012 is unlikely to be reached with all of that crystal and CaraPils.

The sugar (brown cane sugar) was for taste, not body.

The original posted recipe did not say brown sugar. I assumed it was white. In any event the Crystal 80L malt has caramel/toffee flavor already. I think you are falling into the trap of many first time recipes of overthinking the process and trying to use every ingredient in the pantry. In almost all cases, simpler is better. ;)
 
The grains are already mixed except for the sugar which I can omit. I'll look at perhaps adding a few more pounds of 2 row. Thanks for the input!
 
How do these mods look?

Increase batch size to 16gal

13.5lbs Maris Otter
10lbs Canadian 2row (I'm out of MO)
2lbs Aromatic
2lbs Caramel 80L
1.5lbs Carapils

4oz EKG 4.8% 60min
2oz Fuggles at 15min

OG 1.053
SRM 10
IBU 28.4

Is that better balanced than what I posted originally?
 
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