Recommendations for tomorrow's brew day

[whip]

So I'm trying my first all grain recipe that came completely out of my head. This is gonna be a BIG beer. 15lbs. of grain for a single 5 grain batch.
5lbs pale malt
5lbs Marris Otter pale malt
1lb Crystal 60L
1lb Crystal 120L
1lb 6-Row pale malt
1lb Briess Victory malt
1lb flaked oats

1oz Brewers Gold 8.5%AA - 60 min

Wyeast 1318 Londan Ale III

Mash in w/18.75 quarts @ 168F

Manual Vourloff

I literally put this together as my first experimentation in developing an all-grain recipe of my own.

I'm looking for recommendations on sacchrification rest times. Beersmith gives me a 45 minute rest, but I reall want to go 60 minutes or maybe even longer. What do you fine people think?

I'm also going to ferment this on the warm side (72F - 74F) to bring out the fruit esters in the yeast. Opinions?

I'm making an open invitation to flex your brewing/chemistry/beer geek muscles to help me learn more about my newest addiction ! ! ! :rockin:

Thanks in advance!
Jim

===================================
English Brown Ale - Secondary
Dark Cherry Stout - Bottle Conditioning
Irish Red Ale - Bottle Conditioning

 

[hanuswalrus]

What are you trying to make here? Some kind of barley wine? I haven't plugged this into any calculator or anything, but it seems that only 1 oz of Brewers Gold @ 60 minutes might not get you the bitterness needed to balance all the sweetness you're going to get from all that Crystal/Victory malt.

I would cut the Crystal 60 and 120 both down to a 1/2 pound each. I don't know why you're using 1 pound of 6-row, I would just add that into your 2-row.

As for your ferm temps, I don't think you should ferment that high. I think if you're able to keep it right around 66-68 at the highest, you'll still get some of those esters w/out any undesirable fusel alcohols. The vigorous primary fermentation is going to kick the actual temp in the beer up about 5-7 degrees (given you pitch the proper amount of yeast). Personally, I would keep it closer to 66 for at least the first 5 days.

 

[m00ps]

agreed, you will not get pleasant flavors from that yeast in the 70s

cutting back on teh crystal is a good idea. In any "BIG beer" you need to be extra careful about keeping residual sugars to a minimum. There will be enough sweetness from just the 15lbs of grain anyway

 

[brewcat]

I'd probably add some Munich, maybe some Vienna. Would add some hop at the end of the boil.

I'd drop those mash temps. If you want to go longer, go 90 @ 150 or something.

I guess what do you want out of style/flavor?

 

[SawDoctor]

If your asking for opinions, I would scrap this recipe all together. There's a lot that doesn't make sense. You probably won't like the result. For a first AG, I would find a tried and true recipe that is simple so you can work on getting the process down. There are plenty of pale/amber recipes on here that you should start with

 

[Calder]

Lots of good advice above.

Mash lower, maybe 150. 156/158 will leave a sweet beer.

More IBUs

Cut crystal.

Unless you have a water bath, don't ferment that high, as the temp of active fermentation could take you to 80 F +.

 

[applescrap]

What style if any would this fall in? It reminds me of fat tire but stronger...my first thought was also vienna instead of victory....i dont brew with crystal much cause i dont make a lot of ipa i would trust above advice to cut but definitely brew it i am adventurous and playful....i brew beer like this but for reasons like i want to add pumpkin and don't want hops over taking....for example with this recipe you were going to add apple and cinnamon at bottling to go with oats or peach extract...or pumpkin! If not flavoring add hops at 5 min...ok done my 2c appreciate the opp really....and Belgian yeast if not flavored i think

 

[Gnomebrewer]

Honestly, that recipe looks awful. For a first recipe design, choose a style to brew. Read the guidelines for the style (aroma, taste, ingredients) and choose your ingredients based on those guidelines. Change one or two things if you want (you don't have to stick completely to listed styles) but only if you have thought about what it is you want to achieve with the changes.

IMO, the recipe above will be cloying, bordering on undrinkable. If you are going to go with a version of it, the advice above is good - halve the crystal and victory, mash cooler and for longer, and ferment cooler. Check your balance between sugar and hops as well (OG to IBU ratio).

 

[sky4meplease]

Maybe scale it down and do a one gallon batch. That way if it falls short or your expectations you don't have to choke down 5 gallons of it.

 

[whip]

So this batch is finally done and sitting in my fridge.

It's very malty and a little sweet. Adding only the 1 oz of hops @ 60min didn't quite get me where I wanted to be with it, but never the less, it's still very drinkable. I think the next time I brew this I'll use a higher AA hop to bitter with and maybe a pinch of hops @ 15min and 0min.

I fermented at regular temps instead of the warmer temp like I thought I wanted too. Oddly enough, it took an extra week to condition in the bottle. We had a cold snap and the area of my basement where I store conditioning bottles was a little to cold to get it to carb. I moved it upstairs into a warmer area and it carbed up real nice.

All in all, I think I created a nice beer. Please read that last sentence as, "I got lucky!"

 

[VladOfTrub]

Now, that you have a decent handle on producing Home Made American Style Malt Liquor, it might not be a bad time to start to learn how to produce beer.

 

[Auger]

So this batch is finally done and sitting in my fridge.

It's very malty and a little sweet. Adding only the 1 oz of hops @ 60min didn't quite get me where I wanted to be with it, but never the less, it's still very drinkable. I think the next time I brew this I'll use a higher AA hop to bitter with and maybe a pinch of hops @ 15min and 0min.

I fermented at regular temps instead of the warmer temp like I thought I wanted too. Oddly enough, it took an extra week to condition in the bottle. We had a cold snap and the area of my basement where I store conditioning bottles was a little to cold to get it to carb. I moved it upstairs into a warmer area and it carbed up real nice.

All in all, I think I created a nice beer. Please read that last sentence as, "I got lucky!"

Out of curiousity, what were your OG and FG measurements with that grain bill, and what was your mash temp?

 

[poptarts]

too much crystal, dial it back sparkey

 

[whip]

Auger - OG was 1.076 and FG was 1.038. Mash in @ 165F

poptarts - You were right, too much pale malt.

 

[Auger]

What was your resting mash temp? Are you saying you added 165 degree water, or added hot water to get to a resting temp of 165? If the latter, then that's probably what did it....that's way too high a mash temp, for pretty much any beer, never mind one this big.

 

[whip]

Resting temp was 150

 

[FatDragon]

Auger - OG was 1.076 and FG was 1.038. Mash in @ 165F

poptarts - You were right, too much pale malt.

I see you own a refractometer...