1st own recipe and questions.

[Naidirem]

Red Cobblers just finished its 3rd brew and first own recipe. I imagine it was not truly original as it really lacked any complexity but we did what they called 'winging it'.

The recipe ended up being:

6 lbs Amber DME
1 lb Dark DME
1 oz. Yakima Magnum @ 60 mins
2 oz. Cascade @ 20 mins
1 oz. Cascade @ 5 mins

60 minute boil time total, partial boil of 2 gallons.

We bottled after 10 days fermentation. We neglected to take hydrometer readings at initial and final. Truly a bad idea on our part.

We adjudged our brew to be sufficiently carbonated after 1 week. I got freaked out after reading about bottle bombs. I assumed all bottle bombs were due to improper priming sugar additions and did not even consider unfinished fermentation. We popped open a sample which was well carbonated so we fridged the rest (most of them at least).

I have a few questions for anyone kind enough to give their 2 cents.

1) We steeped no specialty grains relying soley on DME for color and flavor. How could we achieve a similar taste by using a lighter DME and *which* grains?

2) What is the best way to filter out hop pellet floaties while racking? Funnel or an attachment to the racking cane?

3) I think the beer tastes wonderful. I enjoy the hoppy flavor which I find to be somewhere between an IPA and double IPA (closer to IPA though). Would racking to a secondary change the flavor profile significantly? We would hate to lose our nice aroma.

Enough questions for now. This brew was my baseline and I plan to modify from here while my buddy works on his favorite styles.

P.S. What 'style' do I call it other than good?

 

[Poindexter]

Well, if you want to make another IPA and kick it up a notch I have my brew log open to brew #2.

1. Steep one pound of 40L crystal malt at 155°F for thirty minutes.

Now, this is not a big deal. Crystal malt does not have any enzymes in it, all you are _really_ doing is making tea. But if you keep shooting for 155°F when you do this, sooner or later you will start to hit it.

2. Separate water and grain. You could use a bag, a kitchen strainer, whatever. Don't spend money here, just use some ingenuity. What you want is to taste how your beer tastes different when you use real grain; you do not want to see how much money you can spend.

Add 1 ounce of Chinook (~13 or 14%) and 6.6 pounds of unhopped liquid amber malt extract to your 1.5 to 2.0 gallons of crystal tea. Boil 45 minutes. Add one ounce of Cascade hops (5-7%) with 1 or 2 minutes left in the boil.

Add water to 5 gallons, ferment with Nottingham yellow dry yeast.

Trading the dark amber for the steeped Crystal malt will keep your color ~~about~~ the same, but dramatically improve your over all flavor profile.

FWIW, your tea water is ~155°F when you see bubbles forming on the floor of the pot. If you don't have a thermometer, with 6 quarts of water in the pot run your stove for one more minute after you first notice bubbles on the floor of the kettle. Then remove from heat, pour in your crushed Crystal malt, cover, and wait 30 minutes.

I promise this will taste enough better than what you are drinking right now that you will be ready to spend $5.99 on a thermometer so you can get closer and closer to that 155° mark next time.

 

[Poindexter]

BTW, a whisk works real good for incorporating both dry and liquid malt extract into your brews.

 

[malkore]

here's some info on grains. note some of them are base malts, which need to be mashed.

http://www.realbeer.com/jjpalmer/Malt101.html

 

[TheJadedDog]

1) Yes, personally I use only extra light DME and use specialty grains for color and flavor. I would recommend crystal malts for an IPA, darker varieties of it will give you darker beer.

2) I use a mesh strainer to keep the hops from getting into my fermenter, it works very well.

3) Using a second stage will produce a clearer beer and will give it some more time to age. It is not at all necessary with an IPA.

Congratulations on making a beer you really enjoy!