So what do you guys think?

For my second beer, I decided to sort of venture out and create my own brew. I feel I have a fairly decent idea of the process, so I wanted to see how I could do own my own without a kit or any ideas. I plugged everything into HopVille and BeerSmith and it all looks pretty good. (Still haven't ventured into all grain though.)

6lbs of Briess Pilsen LME
2lbs of Honey Malt grain
1lbs of Briess Sparkling Amber DME

90 Minute Boil (just so I can compare 60min vs 90min)
1oz of cascade hop pellets at 30
1oz of fuggle hop pellets at 15
1oz of glacier hop pellets at 5

Also going to pitch Burton Ale yeast.

Everything looked good in the calculators, as I'm going for something easy on the IBU this time since my first beer was an IPA.

So what do you guys think? What sort of beer should I expect?

Thanks guys!

Looks closest to an English pale ale I think. Do you have experience using honey malt? I don't, but I understand it can be intensely sweet and you've got it over 20% there. The amber will give you a little crystal, I would back down on the honey unless you've used it in those amounts before and liked it.

Not sure if the cascade would be too citrusy in this, although at 30 min less so than a later addition I guess. I'd consider instead doing a 60 min addition of fuggle or glacier (no experience with glacier but I understand it pairs well with fuggle).

Or, you can brew it as it - just my impressions!

Definitely tone down the honey malt. 0.5 lbs honey malt in a 5.0 gallon batch gives noticable sweetness. 1.0 lbs give pronounced sweetness. 2.0 lbs is going to be wayyyyy too sweet. You want to keep the honey malt under 10% of the total grain bill.

I come up with around 35 IBUs with that hop schedule. That's APA territory, which is fine, but I'd consider using some Crystal Malt as a steeping grain instead of that Amber extract to get this more to style as an APA. The Amber extract doesn't add enough color. Just replace the Amber extract with a pound of Crystal 60.

Those two changes will leave you with a light, refreshing American Pale Ale:

Expected OG 1.053
Expected FG 1.015
ABV: 5.0%
SRM: 11
IBUs: 35

I don't think adding another 30 minutes to the boil will do much besides requiring to add more water at the end to compensate for the boil off, unless you are doing something special with hops. It might make your beer darker if anything.

What were you wanting to compare between the 60 minutes and 90 minutes?

jpabian said:

I don't think adding another 30 minutes to the boil will do much besides requiring to add more water at the end to compensate for the boil off, unless you are doing something special with hops. It might make your beer darker if anything.

What were you wanting to compare between the 60 minutes and 90 minutes?

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I'm guessing since he's using a good deal of Pislen malt, he's trying to boil off the DMS. Pilsen malt is more susceptible to DMS - although this is more for all grain. I'm with you on this, the extract has already been boiled and has very little SMM left.

Actually that's a good point if there's no 60 min hop additions. OP's using LME.

edit - oops late to the party

TopherM said:

Definitely tone down the honey malt. 0.5 lbs honey malt in a 5.0 gallon batch gives noticable sweetness. 1.0 lbs give pronounced sweetness. 2.0 lbs is going to be wayyyyy too sweet. You want to keep the honey malt under 10% of the total grain bill.

I come up with around 35 IBUs with that hop schedule. That's APA territory, which is fine, but I'd consider using some Crystal Malt as a steeping grain instead of that Amber extract to get this more to style as an APA. The Amber extract doesn't add enough color. Just replace the Amber extract with a pound of Crystal 60.

Those two changes will leave you with a light, refreshing American Pale Ale:

Expected OG 1.053
Expected FG 1.015
ABV: 5.0%
SRM: 11
IBUs: 35

Click to expand...

This is a good point. If you are saying you wanted something with toned down IBUs to be a departure from your first brew - an IPA, you may want to tone down more. It's up to you of course, but an APA at 35 isn't going to be all that different than an IPA if you had lower style range of IBUs in that.

J187 said:

I'm guessing since he's using a good deal of Pislen malt, he's trying to boil off the DMS. Pilsen malt is more susceptible to DMS - although this is more for all grain. I'm with you on this, the extract has already been boiled and has very little SMM left.

Click to expand...

But it's LME. I wouldn't worry about DMS in extract. A 60-minute boil is sufficient (I wouldn't do a late addition with Pilsen LME though).

A4J said:

But it's LME. I wouldn't worry about DMS in extract. A 60-minute boil is sufficient (I wouldn't do a late addition with Pilsen LME though).

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Exactly, did you maybe misread what I wrote? I said that DMS in pilsen malt is an all grain worry and since his extract has already been boiled, he should stick to the 60 min boil.

J187 said:

Exactly, did you maybe misread what I wrote? I said that DMS in pilsen malt is an all grain worry and since his extract has already been boiled, he should stick to the 60 min boil.

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oh yeah, oops, sorry. speed reading got the better of me.

A4J said:

oh yeah, oops, sorry. speed reading got the better of me.

Click to expand...

I did that like 5 times in the last two days - literally read something that wasn't there.

Thanks for the replies guys! I actually changed around that recipe a bit after I posted to get down to (around) 20 IBUs. Took the cascade hops out completely and added at 30 minutes. The only reason I really wanted to boil for the extra 30 was purely to experiment with cooking times, since I'd boiled for 60 previously. Just a learning experience!

I defintely think I'll tune down the honey malt, but I'll probably keep messing around with it until I finally go ahead and order. Sampling the first brew tomorrow! Can't wait!