Planning on brewing this for my regular easy drinking house beer but I need some help on my recipe. I am going for cheapness but I also want something everyone can enjoy around 5% alcohol. I'm looking to spend ~$30 per 10gallon batch with this recipe but I don't want to leave out any complexity. I am a hophead but I do fine with american pale ales. I brewed a similar 5gallon batch 2 weeks ago and its tasting good out of the secondary. It is currently cold crashing awaiting bottling in 3 days. Was planning on a black IPA next but I'm almost out of brews and want something that will ferment fast so I have plenty to drink before summer is over. I thought the recipe needed a little work so I'm asking for some help.
Here is a link to my recipe that I am bottling soon. http://hopville.com/recipe/786448/american-ipa-recipes/cheap-summer-ale
Here is a link to the new recipe I'm working on. http://hopville.com/recipe/819314/american-pale-ale-recipes/cheap-american-pale-ale
My brewing buddies thought the last batch tasted too alcoholic and was a little sweet. I think we overdid the citra so I tried to change some things up for the better but I'm new to all grain so I don't know how things are going to turn out.
I am planning on fermenting 2 5gallon batches with different yeast strains in seperate carboys. For yeast I have started a yeast starter from sweetwater IPA (Atlanta Georgia.) After this I am planning on propagating some rogue pacman yeast from a 6 pack of dead guy. I was thinking of mixing the 2 yeasts but am unsure how it will turn out but I know I will never know unless I try it. I was also thinking about stealing some yeast from dragonmeads final aboslution and brewing 5gallons with that to see how it turns out. My brewing buddies and I recently tried flying dogs "raging *****" which is a belgian ipa and got us thinking about brewing one. What would you guys do? I can't get sweetwater beer up here and really like the taste so I am hoping the yeast will bring back some of the flavor I miss.
anyways here is my grain bill for 10gallons
8lb. 2-row
6lb. vienna
1.5lb. honey malt
1.5lb victory malt
1lb. caramel 20L
steep all grains together at 152* for 75 minutes
hops schedule
boil 60 mins 1.0 Cascade pellet 5.0
boil 60 mins 0.5 Magnum pellet 14.0
boil 30 mins 1.0 Cascade pellet 5.0
boil 10 mins 1.0 Brewer's Gold pellet 8.0
boil 5 mins 1.0 Amarillo pellet 7.0
boil 5 mins 1.0 Cascade pellet 5.0
boil 5 mins 2.0 Simcoe pellet 13.0
dry hop 7 days 2.0 Cascade
Last brew I ended up with too much efficiency and higher gravity/more alcohol than I was expecting. I used my corona grain mill for the first time and I think I might have crushed my specialty grains too much. I'm unsure about where I will end up with my efficiency so its a little hard to work on my recipe. Last time seemed like about 85%. Is it bad to crush your grains too much or does it just make for cloudy/harder to clean beer?
I was also wondering how much wort I should bring to a boil with my hops because its messing with my IBU's. I assumed the more wort I bring to a boil the better but I'm clueless. I am using a 10gallon pot and a cooler mash-tun. I usually end up with 8gallons or so after I'm done with the boil. I just steep 150* water over my grain for 15-20minutes to top my carboys off at the end of the boil is this a good way to do it or should I be doing something different to top off my carboys?
More questions to come after a few are answered thank you everybody for all the help already
Here is a link to my recipe that I am bottling soon. http://hopville.com/recipe/786448/american-ipa-recipes/cheap-summer-ale
Here is a link to the new recipe I'm working on. http://hopville.com/recipe/819314/american-pale-ale-recipes/cheap-american-pale-ale
My brewing buddies thought the last batch tasted too alcoholic and was a little sweet. I think we overdid the citra so I tried to change some things up for the better but I'm new to all grain so I don't know how things are going to turn out.
I am planning on fermenting 2 5gallon batches with different yeast strains in seperate carboys. For yeast I have started a yeast starter from sweetwater IPA (Atlanta Georgia.) After this I am planning on propagating some rogue pacman yeast from a 6 pack of dead guy. I was thinking of mixing the 2 yeasts but am unsure how it will turn out but I know I will never know unless I try it. I was also thinking about stealing some yeast from dragonmeads final aboslution and brewing 5gallons with that to see how it turns out. My brewing buddies and I recently tried flying dogs "raging *****" which is a belgian ipa and got us thinking about brewing one. What would you guys do? I can't get sweetwater beer up here and really like the taste so I am hoping the yeast will bring back some of the flavor I miss.
anyways here is my grain bill for 10gallons
8lb. 2-row
6lb. vienna
1.5lb. honey malt
1.5lb victory malt
1lb. caramel 20L
steep all grains together at 152* for 75 minutes
hops schedule
boil 60 mins 1.0 Cascade pellet 5.0
boil 60 mins 0.5 Magnum pellet 14.0
boil 30 mins 1.0 Cascade pellet 5.0
boil 10 mins 1.0 Brewer's Gold pellet 8.0
boil 5 mins 1.0 Amarillo pellet 7.0
boil 5 mins 1.0 Cascade pellet 5.0
boil 5 mins 2.0 Simcoe pellet 13.0
dry hop 7 days 2.0 Cascade
Last brew I ended up with too much efficiency and higher gravity/more alcohol than I was expecting. I used my corona grain mill for the first time and I think I might have crushed my specialty grains too much. I'm unsure about where I will end up with my efficiency so its a little hard to work on my recipe. Last time seemed like about 85%. Is it bad to crush your grains too much or does it just make for cloudy/harder to clean beer?
I was also wondering how much wort I should bring to a boil with my hops because its messing with my IBU's. I assumed the more wort I bring to a boil the better but I'm clueless. I am using a 10gallon pot and a cooler mash-tun. I usually end up with 8gallons or so after I'm done with the boil. I just steep 150* water over my grain for 15-20minutes to top my carboys off at the end of the boil is this a good way to do it or should I be doing something different to top off my carboys?
More questions to come after a few are answered thank you everybody for all the help already