My First Recipe

[cmscott]

Hi all,

I posted this in the grain forum but found this and thought it belonged here.



I have been doing home brewing for about a year and have always done all grain. I have about 12 brews under my belt with the first few being kits and than the rest being recipe follows (the later few I did a few minor tweaks).

I am making my first attempt to do a recipe of my own. I am looking for a nice citrusy IPA with a decent malt backbone and little bit of creaminess to it.

Here is what I have

10 lb United Kingdom - Maris Otter Pale 38 3.75 75.5%
0.75 lb American - Caramel / Crystal 40L 34 40 5.7%
2 lb American - White Wheat 40 2.8 15.1%
0.5 lb American - Carapils (Dextrine Malt) 33 1.8 3.8%
13.25 lb Total

Hops
0.5 oz Columbus 60 min
0.25 oz Amarillo 30 min
0.25 oz Citra 30 min
0.5 oz Columbus 30 min
0.5 oz Amarillo 5 min
0.5 oz Citra 5 min
0.25 oz Amarillo 0 min
0.25 oz Citra 0 min
1 oz Amarillo Dry Hop 7 days
1 oz Citra Dry Hop 7 days

I do not want a lot imparted from the yeast and I can set temp control pretty steady at 65-67 for this time of the year. I am looking at using San Diego Super Yeast which I have never used.

I am getting about 65 Ibu's and a OG of 1.068


Does it look like I am on track? Any thoughts or suggestions for this newbie is much appreciated.

 

[skunkfunk]

Sounds delicious. Brew it and enjoy.

 

[Marc77]

I'm going to come out of left field here so bear with me. Move the 5 minute and zero minute additions of Amarillo could be moved to first wort hopping. If you're going for a malt backbone the FWH will make the back end taste of the hops smoother. From what I entered in my phone app (it's all I have at work) it would also raise your IBU's from 40'ish to around 59. Not sure about getting 65 IBU's but I'll take your word for it.

The other thing I'm going to throw out is that according to the recipe calculator I have you're spot on with your OG of 1.068. But don't know what your thought is of adding a .5 lb of lactose. Three Floyds did it with their Apocalypse Cow beer. The style is almost exactly what you're wanting too. I'm assuming you're going to stay in the 148-154 range to get more maltiness out of your mash correct?

Looks like an awesome recipe!

 

[skunkfunk]

I'm assuming you're going to stay in the 148-154 range to get more maltiness out of your mash correct?

148 would be much too low if he wants it to be full bodied.

 

[Marc77]

148 would be much too low if he wants it to be full bodied.

While he wants malty I'd think he'd want to stay in the style of IPA which is a lighter and dryer beer. Just my two cents.

 

[RonPopeil]

I do mine ~150.

i think you should go bigger on the 5 minute and flame out additions. you have 1.5oz when I would do 3-4.

 

[cmscott]

I'm going to come out of left field here so bear with me. Move the 5 minute and zero minute additions of Amarillo could be moved to first wort hopping. If you're going for a malt backbone the FWH will make the back end taste of the hops smoother. From what I entered in my phone app (it's all I have at work) it would also raise your IBU's from 40'ish to around 59. Not sure about getting 65 IBU's but I'll take your word for it.

The other thing I'm going to throw out is that according to the recipe calculator I have you're spot on with your OG of 1.068. But don't know what your thought is of adding a .5 lb of lactose. Three Floyds did it with their Apocalypse Cow beer. The style is almost exactly what you're wanting too. I'm assuming you're going to stay in the 148-154 range to get more maltiness out of your mash correct?

Looks like an awesome recipe!

Thanks for the input.

I fed the recipe into Brewers Friend and the IBU's were calculated by that program. As I have just relied on book recipes in the past this is new to me also.

I originally had the hop schedule more spread out but the calculator was giving me above 100 IBU's. I wanted to stay below 70.

I love a bitter IPA but my brew partner is not a huge fan - so this is our compromise beer. Playing up the citrus aspect of the hops and keeping the bitterness in check.

I also am for the first time using a cooler as a mash tun (previously splitting the batch on the stove top in large pots). Our temp control should be much better and we were aiming for about 150.


Per John Palmer:

Dextrin Malt 3 L Also known as American Carapils, this malt is used sparingly and contributes little color but enhances the mouthfeel and perceived body of the beer. A common amount for a five gallon batch is 1/2 lb. Dextrin malt has no diastatic power. It must be mashed; if steeped it will contribute a lot of unconverted starch and cause starch haze.

-

The body is what I am after so I am using the 1/2lbs for my mash.

 

[cmscott]

double

 

[cmscott]

Okay finally going to brew this up this weekend.

My main question is on the Caramel 40L - should I do 60L instead?

I really want a good malt flavor - does the marris otter give me enough so I do not have to worry that much about the Caramel?

 

[novahokie09]

IPA's really aren't intended to have good malt flavor. Maybe you should consider making a Pale Ale.

With that said, if you're looking for more malt complexity, consider adding victory/biscuit or even some munich/vienna and backing the crystal malt to below 5% and using a combo of 20L/40L or 20L/60L (say 2.5% each).

Hop adjustments I'd make to this recipe:

(1) Increase your Columbus bittering 60 minute charge to get around 50 IBU.
(2) Remove all of your 30 minute addition hops and move to a 10/5 minute addition to around .5 - 1 oz each.
(3) Increase flameout hops to 1 oz each and do a 20-30 minute hop stand.

One last thing to consider (depending on your water chemistry) is mash pH. Consider adding some acid or cutting your water with distilled to cut down on your water's akalinity, so you get a mash pH around 5.2 - 5.5,

 

[thegreatmaibockaddict]

Okay finally going to brew this up this weekend.

My main question is on the Caramel 40L - should I do 60L instead?

I really want a good malt flavor - does the marris otter give me enough so I do not have to worry that much about the Caramel?

Do you know the brand of Maris Otter? If its Crisp or one of the other higher end malts and not Muntons, I would drop the Carmel malt.

You should always do a 15 minute pre boil before adding hops, as that is when the boil over will occur if it happens. And I do recommend 90 minutes for the boil with a 15 minute pre-boil.

 

[Yooper]

You don't need any carapils at all with two pounds of wheat malt. Wheat will give you a bit of a haze with that amount, but it will also give you great head retention (as will the hops themselves).

I'd increase the base malt, and get rid of the carapils. I'd cut the wheat malt to 1 pound. The maris otter will give you plenty of malt flavor, but if you want the beer to really have a "malt" flavor you could add .5 pound of aromatic malt. It is described as "intensely malty" in aroma and flavor, and will give a strong malt backbone perception. Maris otter is bready tasting in a good way, but sort of mutes the hops in an IPA.

For the crystal, .75 pound of 40L is about right. If you want some more caramel sweetness, you could go up to a pound with it.

For hopping, I'd move all of the 30 minute hops to 15 minute hops and for a 1.068 beer, I'd shoot for 35 IBUs from the 60 minute hops, with the rest coming from late additions. Bigger later additions make great hops flavor without strong bitterness.

Your yeast choice and temperature is good. Make sure to make a properly sized starter or use 2-3 packages of yeast.

I'd end up with a recipe more like this, I think:

11-12 lb US two-row (to get an OG of 1.068)
.5 pound aromatic malt
0.75 lb American - Caramel / Crystal 40L
1 lb American - White Wheat

Hops
0.5 oz Columbus 60 min (or up to about 35 IBUs with this addition)
1 oz amarillo 15 minuutes
.5 columbus at 10 minutes (dank, so a little goes a long way!)
1 oz amarillo 5 minutes
1 oz citra flame out
dryhop with 2 oz (your choice) 5-7 days before bottling

 

[cmscott]

So it is Muntons that I have.

From talking it out with my partner a pale ale approaching an IPA would be best to describe of what we want with the bittering and hop additions.

At one point I was also using cascade (in conjunction with the amarillo and citra additions) but decided to back off a hair.


What the main source of confusion is per what I put in Brewers Friend I have about 65 IBU's with my recipe as originally posted. That is what I am aiming for.

I did have the columbus almost all at the beginning but that was sending my IBU's too high. Not sure why I am getting such a high number against what you guys are saying.

 

[RonPopeil]

So it is Muntons that I have.

From talking it out with my partner a pale ale approaching an IPA would be best to describe of what we want with the bittering and hop additions.

At one point I was also using cascade (in conjunction with the amarillo and citra additions) but decided to back off a hair.


What the main source of confusion is per what I put in Brewers Friend I have about 65 IBU's with my recipe as originally posted. That is what I am aiming for.

I did have the columbus almost all at the beginning but that was sending my IBU's too high. Not sure why I am getting such a high number against what you guys are saying.

if you're used to super bitter beers then i would recommend getting 75-100% of your goal IBU's from a bittering addition or two. basically, don't count IBU's for your late additions. instead just figure out an amount that you prefer. for pale ales i like 2-4 ounces of late hops. the bittering addition will be whatever it takes to get to my goal IBU for the style. if you go on the lower side for late addition kettle hops then go big for dry hops.

 

[Yooper]

So it is Muntons that I have.

From talking it out with my partner a pale ale approaching an IPA would be best to describe of what we want with the bittering and hop additions.

At one point I was also using cascade (in conjunction with the amarillo and citra additions) but decided to back off a hair.


What the main source of confusion is per what I put in Brewers Friend I have about 65 IBU's with my recipe as originally posted. That is what I am aiming for.

I did have the columbus almost all at the beginning but that was sending my IBU's too high. Not sure why I am getting such a high number against what you guys are saying.

Munton's yeast? If so, get something else. Munton's Gold can be somewhat tolerable in lower OG beers, but I wouldn't use regular Munton's in an all-malt extract/malt beer (and it's not recommended to do so) as it has trouble fermenting more complex sugars. For a higher OG beer, it's important to have high quality yeast so that it ferments out completely.