Feedback on recipe and results

[cegan09]

So I opened my first bottle of my first all grain batch last night. It's darker than I expected (I have theories). I knew it would be once I saw it in the fermenter with the debris dropped out, but this was even more than I expected. So I'm trying to track down exactly why as a learning exercise and get comments on how to improve it overall. Picture at end of post. In general I'm happy with the beer for my second ever brew, but we can always do better right?

It's supposed to be a belgian pale, based on allagash's house beer. (http://www.allagash.com/beer/house/). 3.5 gallon BIAB recipie.
Here's my grain bill, mostly sticking to Allagash's except for one addition.
4.5lbs Pilsner 2 Row Bel
1.5lbs CaraPils
8oz Victory Malt
8oz Crylstal 80L
8oz wheat, flaked

So let's start with things I have already learned are wrong.

1. carapils. I had a dyslexic moment and read that as ingredient #2 when it's really #3. I've since learned it shouldn't really exceed 5% the grain bill as it's mostly unfrementable sugars. oops.

2. Crystal. I'm sure this is a lot of my color. I added some because beer smith was telling me I would be coming in too light. Without the Crystal i was looking at about 5 SRM which was really low side of the beer smith scale. I added the 80L and landed on 10SRM, right in the middle. Thinking for the next batch I knock that down either to less, or just a lighter version. Increasing the victory would also help darken the beer.

3. I also mashed way too high. I got about 30 minutes spot on, but it wasn't even. I heated it thinking it cooled when in fact I just had pockets, and did the rest at least 8 degrees too high. Don't know if this does anything to color, I know it effected my gravity some.


Hops. The Allagash has a good bit more hop flavor. Mine is really subdued. My schedule was as follows.
0.75oz Tettnang for 60 minutes
0.5oz Cascade at 5min
0.5oz Nelson Sauvin at 5min
0.5oz Saaz at 5min
0.5oz Nelson Sauvin dry hop after about 10 days in the fermenter. Dry hopped for 5 days.

So, again. My issues.
1. Tettnang is more of an aroma hop. I shouldn't have used it as my main bittering.
2. I should have used more at the 60 minutes.

I'm still learning hops and how to properly use each.
Yeast was Wyeast 1214 (Belgian Ale Yeast)

I think for Version 2 I'm going to try this:
4.75lbs Pilsner 2 Row Bel
1.5lbs Victory Malt
8oz wheat, flaked
6oz CaraPils

0.75oz Nelson Sauvin for 60min
0.5oz each of Tettnang, Cascade, and Saaz as a hopstand
Maybe light dry hop, maybe not.


So. Did I get any of that right? How would you switch things up to make this better next time.

 

[chickypad]

I would expect a half lb of C-80 in 3 gals to make it amber so I think you've got that right. As for the updated recipe, 22% is a lot of victory, I wouldn't personally do that but rather go more in the 5-7% range. IME victory in large amounts can leave a sharp dry taste, which I would be careful of on a light, low OG beer. Speaking of, what OG and IBU are you aiming for? The Allagash is only listed at 1.042, I don't know your efficiency or AA's but I'm getting like 1.056 and 53 IBU's plugging that in quickly. They don't list the IBU but I'd be surprised if it's that high. Does the beer seem very bitter or just have good hop character?

 

[Aristotelian]

80L crystal malt is pretty dark, and 6% is a lot. If I want some color, I usually use about 2-3% 20L or 40L and that is plenty. That does look like a pale beer and the website does not mention crystal malt at all (it does call for biscuit malt, which is about 20L).

The grainbill according to the website:

Grains: Allagash 2-row Malted Barley Blend, Victory, Carapils, Raw Wheat

 

[cegan09]

I would expect a half lb of C-80 in 3 gals to make it amber so I think you've got that right. As for the updated recipe, 22% is a lot of victory, I wouldn't personally do that but rather go more in the 5-7% range. IME victory in large amounts can leave a sharp dry taste, which I would be careful of on a light, low OG beer. Speaking of, what OG and IBU are you aiming for? The Allagash is only listed at 1.042, I don't know your efficiency or AA's but I'm getting like 1.056 and 53 IBU's plugging that in quickly. They don't list the IBU but I'd be surprised if it's that high. Does the beer seem very bitter or just have good hop character?

I'm still learning about all the malts, which ones land in what percentage of recommended use. So thanks for the tips.

I aimed higher for Og than Allagash. I was trying to hit about 5.5% with 1.054OG. Missed that buy a lot and hit 1.043 so I accidentally matched Allagash. My original IBU prediction was 27, and it's really low in the flavor. It's not super sweet, but there isn't much noticeable hop flavor. I was trying to correct that. The Allagash is a little drier, much more hops. I have some house left, so I'll compare tonight.

 

[chickypad]

I aimed higher for Og than Allagash. I was trying to hit about 5.5% with 1.054OG. Missed that buy a lot and hit 1.043 so I accidentally matched Allagash. My original IBU prediction was 27, and it's really low in the flavor. It's not super sweet, but there isn't much noticeable hop flavor. I was trying to correct that. The Allagash is a little drier, much more hops. I have some house left, so I'll compare tonight.

It looks like the main difference with your old and revised hop schedule is to up the IBU's. You may preserve a little more aroma moving the 5 min addition to hopstand but you haven't increased the total flavor and aroma hops, in fact you'll be going down if you leave out the dry hop, and you've left the Nelson out of those late additions which will be more potent than the saaz and tettnang. I'd be careful about upping the IBU's too much, especially if you hit the 1.040's again, and think about upping your late hop additions and dry hop instead. What was the FG on the first beer? Also what do you do for water?

 

[cegan09]

It looks like the main difference with your old and revised hop schedule is to up the IBU's. You may preserve a little more aroma moving the 5 min addition to hopstand but you haven't increased the total flavor and aroma hops, in fact you'll be going down if you leave out the dry hop, and you've left the Nelson out of those late additions which will be more potent than the saaz and tettnang. I'd be careful about upping the IBU's too much, especially if you hit the 1.040's again, and think about upping your late hop additions and dry hop instead. What was the FG on the first beer? Also what do you do for water?

All good points. I'll revise the hop stuff again once I've done some more reading. I actually put down all the late additions as hopstands in beersmith, but then wrote 5minute above in a moment of stupid.

The OG of the first beer was 1.043. It should have been 1.05+, and I know why I missed. I didn't do anything to the water for the first one. It was just tap run through a PUR filter to try and get rid of some of the chlorine from my city's supply. Tomorrow I'm making an IPA and I plan on working on water. I have a PH meter showing up today and I'm going to start with distilled just to give me a clean baseline to start with.

A million things to learn, which is cool. For the first time I actually care about chemistry and biology. Hated those classes in school. Much preferred my physics and engineering classes.