Please critique my recipe

[O-Ale-Yeah]

I am shooting for an non sweet, non hoppy, very full bodied, darkish, flavorful Ale. I like these stats the calculator produced from my ingredients:

OG: 1.080
FG: 1.029
ABV 6.78%
IBU: 21.54
SRM: 13.88

My Grain Bill:
5 lbs. Wheat

4 lbs. Pilsner Malt ​

3 lbs. German Dark Munich
2 lbs. Biscuit malt
2 lbs. Flaked oats
1 lb. Unmalted wheat
0.25 lb. Cara Munich II

Wyeast STRAIN: 1469 West Yorkshire Ale
1.8 oz Hallertau Mittelfruh Pellets, 60 minute addition

Strike water: 170 Fahrenheit
Mash Temp: 157 (shooting for full bodied)
Mash duration: 60 min
Mash water volume: 5.5 gallons???
Fly Sparge: 170 degrees, 30 minutes, 4.5 gallons???
Boil 7 gallons at 201 degrees for 60 minutes producing 5.5 gallons???
1-2 Weeks in primary fermenter, 6.5 glass carboy at 67 degrees
1-2 Weeks in secondary fermenter, 5 gallon glass carboy at 67 degrees
2 weeks in bottles at 67 degrees

Should I tweak anything? This will be my second attempt at brewing. The all grain kit I bought for my 1st attempt came out well and I decided to try an create my own plan now.

 

[McKnuckle]

There's a lot to unpack in this recipe! First of all, you mention non-sweet, but FG of 1.029 is very sweet indeed. If you hit your gravity targets, then it represents 64% attenuation which is reasonable given the high mash temp.

The grain bill is unnecessarily complex, but that doesn't mean it's bad. You have 46.4% adjuncts in the recipe (wheat, oats). Pils base malt and Munich make up 40.6%. Then you have a bit of toast with your Biscuit malt, and a teeny (imperceptible probably) bit of crystal malt.

To me this makes the grain bill that of a strong, copper colored wheat beer. You'll use German hops at a low rate, just for bittering, and English yeast (a good one) in the high 60's which will yield some esters. This could be nice with a dark, heavy beer. So it's a mish-mash of things.

All this is a way of saying that even though it's unconventional, and I might not choose this combination, it also has nothing glaringly wrong with it - and it might end up very nice.

A few things:

Consider mashing lower, 152-154. It's just not necessary to go up so high to have body in the beer, and you want more attenuation if possible. If you truly want to avoid sweetness, lower the OG as well.

In fermentation, skip the secondary, and do 2-3 weeks in primary before bottling. I have a good amount of experience with 1469, and it will need time to clean up and mature in the bottles. You might have it carbonated in 2 weeks, but no way will it taste its best right away, especially at a high gravity. Sure, go ahead and drink it - but keep them for a few months and you'll learn one of the essential lessons of brewing: Patience pays off.

 

[kh54s10]

The grain bill looks too complicated for my tastes, but I have no suggestions there other than I would cut out 2-3 of the ingredients and make it up with the others.

Mash temp seems high to me. It will give you a lot of unfermentable sugars.. I would drop that to 154.
Mash water is OK for that amount of grain.
I've never fly sparged but from what I know you stop when you have your preboil volume, or reach a certain gravity. I think I have seen 1.010
Your preboil depends on altitude, humidity, kettle shape, heat intensity. So that could be right or way off.
Primary should be done to final gravity plus a couple of days rather than time.
No need for a secondary unless you are adding something that you don't want in your primary for some reason.
Try to bottle condition at around 70 degrees. And try one at 2 weeks. It may take longer. I say ALL of mine have tasted better at 3 weeks or longer.

 

[Bobby_M]

Can't consider the balance without knowing the alpha acids of the hops. Generally you want to quote recipe hop additions either by their weight + alpha or the IBU contribution of the addition.

 

[McKnuckle]

The recipe has an estimate of 21.5 IBU listed at the top. So it's a low bitterness recipe (BU:GU = ~0.27). Seems reasonable for a wheat beer, but possibly a bit lightweight for a beer of 1.080 OG.

 

[O-Ale-Yeah]

Can't consider the balance without knowing the alpha acids of the hops. Generally you want to quote recipe hop additions either by their weight + alpha or the IBU contribution of the addition.

IBU = 21.54
AA = 3.75
Util = 0.234
AAUs = 6.8
Weight = 1.8 oz

 

[O-Ale-Yeah]

The grain bill is unnecessarily complex, but that doesn't mean it's bad. You have 46.4% adjuncts in the recipe (wheat, oats). Pils base malt and Munich make up 40.6%. Then you have a bit of toast with your Biscuit malt, and a teeny (imperceptible probably) bit of crystal malt.


To me this makes the grain bill that of a strong, copper colored wheat beer. You'll use German hops at a low rate, just for bittering, and English yeast (a good one) in the high 60's which will yield some esters. This could be nice with a dark, heavy beer. So it's a mish-mash of things … Consider mashing lower, 152-154. It's just not necessary to go up so high to have body in the beer, and you want more attenuation if possible. If you truly want to avoid sweetness, lower the OG as well.


In fermentation, skip the secondary, and do 2-3 weeks in primary before bottling. I have a good amount of experience with 1469, and it will need time to clean up and mature in the bottles. You might have it carbonated in 2 weeks, but no way will it taste its best right away, especially at a high gravity. Sure, go ahead and drink it - but keep them for a few months and you'll learn one of the essential lessons of brewing: Patience pays off.

Ok thanks. I took off the caramunich. I wasn’t sold on it anyway, I’ll drop the temp to 153. Cool, I’ll skip the 5 gallon carboy. It’s just extra work anyway. And I’ll be sure to go bare minimum 3 weeks in the bottles. Tahnks!

 

[O-Ale-Yeah]

The recipe has an estimate of 21.5 IBU listed at the top. So it's a low bitterness recipe (BU:GU = ~0.27). Seems reasonable for a wheat beer, but possibly a bit lightweight for a beer of 1.080 OG.

If I raised my IBU to 40 would it seem less sweet? 40/80=0.5

 

[O-Ale-Yeah]

... You have 46.4% adjuncts in the recipe (wheat, oats) ...

So when I chose wheat from the possible grist as opposed to a wheat malt, It means "wheat" isn't malted? I would need to choose "wheat malt", to get modified wheat?

 

[O-Ale-Yeah]

The recipe has an estimate of 21.5 IBU listed at the top. So it's a low bitterness recipe (BU:GU = ~0.27). Seems reasonable for a wheat beer, but possibly a bit lightweight for a beer of 1.080 OG.

What is light weight?

 

[z-bob]

Should I tweak anything? This will be my second attempt at brewing. The all grain kit I bought for my 1st attempt came out well and I decided to try an create my own plan now.

There's nothing wrong with that; in fact it's commendable. But I recommend simpler recipes. You'll be able to figure out what each ingredient actually contributes much easier, meaning you'll learn faster. My beers really improved when I started brewing minor variations on a very simple recipe (85% pilsner, 15% munich) over and over. I did that for about a year.

Also, what kind of unmalted wheat? Flaked or torrified (puffed) is okay. Raw wheat needs to be cooked.

 

[dmtaylor]

The original recipe there looks good, except I'd ditch the Biscuit malt or reduce it to just 1/2 pound and add more base malt to make up for it. Biscuit malt is pretty powerful stuff. Mash temp of 157 F and IBUs and everything else look fine to me.

EDIT: Oh... and unless your boiloff rate is insanely high, you'll only need to sparge with about 3 gallons, not 4.5.

 

[O-Ale-Yeah]

The original recipe there looks good, except I'd ditch the Biscuit malt or reduce it to just 1/2 pound and add more base malt to make up for it. Biscuit malt is pretty powerful stuff. Mash temp of 157 F and IBUs and everything else look fine to me.

EDIT: Oh... and unless your boiloff rate is insanely high, you'll only need to sparge with about 3 gallons, not 4.5.

Great, thanks for the info. So does it taste like biscuits?

 

[dmtaylor]

Great, thanks for the info. So does it taste like biscuits?

Yes I think so. Kind of like Saltine crackers or Cheese-Nips.

 

[McKnuckle]

What is light weight?

It wasn't a technical term, sorry. I just meant that the bitterness was wimpy in conjunction with the high gravity. It would accentuate the sweetness that you are saying you'd like to avoid. Bitterness and sweetness are usually a balancing act.

 

[kevin58]

What is light weight?

The IBU's for a beer with that OG.

 

[O-Ale-Yeah]

Tweaking the recipe. If my new final gravity is 10.79 and my IBU is 38.63 then my BU:GU is .48 so it shouldn't seem sweet correct?

Will it seem hoppy at 38.63?

In general I don't like hoppiness above 25, but will this seem lower than 25 because of the high gravity?

 

[dmtaylor]

Tweaking the recipe. If my new final gravity is 10.79 and my IBU is 38.63 then my BU:GU is .48 so it shouldn't seem sweet correct?

Will it seem hoppy at 38.63?

In general I don't like hoppiness above 25, but will this seem lower than 25 because of the high gravity?

Glad you brought up the BU:GU ratio. That truly is the right thing to be looking at, more important than the IBUs. If you want balance, 0.48 is just about perfect. But if you have concerns about being overhopped, why not split the difference and come down from 39 IBUs to like 30-32 IBUs. That will do the trick and give you a ratio of like 0.40, which is certainly not "hoppy".

 

[O-Ale-Yeah]

Glad you brought up the BU:GU ratio. That truly is the right thing to be looking at, more important than the IBUs. If you want balance, 0.48 is just about perfect. But if you have concerns about being overhopped, why not split the difference and come down from 39 IBUs to like 30-32 IBUs. That will do the trick and give you a ratio of like 0.40, which is certainly not "hoppy".

Ok, perfect! Thanks so much.