1 Gal. IPA recipe critique for a newbie

[Bretso]

Hello all. Just getting started and set up.
Brewing seems like a great hobby while we're all trapped at home.

I have tried two different one gallon IPA kits from Brooklyn Brew Shop.
Their recipes seem simple enough so I plugged in some bulk ingredients in a recipe builder so I can try my first truly homemade beer.

How do you think this one will turn out?
(Edit: I did this in a Proper recipe builder as well - Brewer's Friend link)

Any advice is appreciated.

 

[bkboiler]

Would try to include some steeping grains to get a bit of color...maybe 2 oz of crystal 40?
Are you planning to BIAB?

I'd adjust the 2 row to aim for 1.060, but in your mind realizing that 1.055 is where you want to be. If you're short of that....THEN use some extract...it'll give you some margin on your first all grain brew.

Dial the IBU back to around 50...basically I'd do one bittering addition and then a bunch of hops at 5 minutes and flameout...the calculator won't tell you this but the flameout hops will give you some bitterness as I bet you're chilling in an icebath. A 1:1 of IBU to OG is common for old school west coast Pale Ales.

Are you sure you like Columbus? I've not used it much but many people characterize it as earthy, spicy, pungent and MAYBE some citrus when the beer is young.

If that's not your thing then you may want to go with a different hop for aroma.

The German ale yeast is not to style...but brew what you love and let us know how it turns out!
If you want something that's to style, try SafAle US-05 (the Chico strain, from Sierra Nevada Brewing afaik).

 

[bkboiler]

Also worth noting that historically, "pale ale" was named in comparison to darker "brown ales" after innovations in malting and processing reduced color and improved the efficiency of using pale malt rather than large proportions of brown malt.
"Pale ale" is a relative term...not necessarily meaning the beer is pale...but just pale-r than it used to be...

 

[Bretso]

Would try to include some steeping grains to get a bit of color...maybe 2 oz of crystal 40?
Are you planning to BIAB?

I'd adjust the 2 row to aim for 1.060, but in your mind realizing that 1.055 is where you want to be. If you're short of that....THEN use some extract...it'll give you some margin on your first all grain brew.

Dial the IBU back to around 50...basically I'd do one bittering addition and then a bunch of hops at 5 minutes and flameout...the calculator won't tell you this but the flameout hops will give you some bitterness as I bet you're chilling in an icebath. A 1:1 of IBU to OG is common for old school west coast Pale Ales.

Are you sure you like Columbus? I've not used it much but many people characterize it as earthy, spicy, pungent and MAYBE some citrus when the beer is young.

If that's not your thing then you may want to go with a different hop for aroma.

The German ale yeast is not to style...but brew what you love and let us know how it turns out!
If you want something that's to style, try SafAle US-05 (the Chico strain, from Sierra Nevada Brewing afaik).

Thanks BK!
I appreciate the advice.
I do not BIAB. Thus far.
My setup right now is a few stainless steel pots and a fine mesh strainer. Fermenting in a 1 Gal Carboy in my closet. 68-70F.
Columbus hops were a good deal at the time. I'm still building my arsenal. I'll shop around a bit more. Same with the yeast.
I have access to cheap DADY yeast but wasn't sure if this was a good application.

 

[RM-MN]

Thanks BK!
I appreciate the advice.
I do not BIAB. Thus far.
My setup right now is a few stainless steel pots and a fine mesh strainer. Fermenting in a 1 Gal Carboy in my closet. 68-70F.
Columbus hops were a good deal at the time. I'm still building my arsenal. I'll shop around a bit more. Same with the yeast.
I have access to cheap DADY yeast but wasn't sure if this was a good application.

BIAB is very easy, cheap, and I'd say ideal for the small batches. For that small batch a one gallon paint strainer bag should work well.

If you want to improve the flavor of your beer use some way to keep it cooler for at least the first 3 or 4 days. During that period the yeast go crazy with all the easy sugars to digest and throw off some interesting but not necessarily tasty esters and may also give fusel alcohol. Controlling the fermentation temperature made the biggest improvement in my beer.

I like pale ales. I also like beers with some sweetness. I go outside the recommended range for pale ales and sometimes add some C60, C80, or even some C120. Then other times I will only add C10 or C20.

Only you will know if you like Columbus hops or not. It's a one gallon batch so you won't have a huge amount of the beers to drink up if you decide you don't like the flavor. I would suggest that the hop addition at 25 minutes be moved either to 50 minutes for the additional bitterness you might get from it or to 10 minutes or less for the flavor/aroma.

 

[VikeMan]

<nevermind. deleted.>

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

I have tried two different one gallon IPA kits from Brooklyn Brew Shop.

Where the kits extract or all grain? I only found one gallon all grain kits (and refill mixes) at their site (but I may have missed a link).

Personally, I would replace the DME with base malt (for a number of reasons). I prefer to use full (1 lb) packages of DME. I find that larger grain bills help with temperature control. DME is easier to add cold (at "flame-on") vs at the end of the boil.

 

[Bretso]

Where the kits extract or all grain? I only found one gallon all grain kits (and refill mixes) at their site (but I may have missed a link).

Personally, I would replace the DME with base malt (for a number of reasons). I prefer to use full (1 lb) packages of DME. I find that larger grain bills help with temperature control. DME is easier to add cold (at "flame-on") vs at the end of the boil.

They were all grain kits. Their single hop Cascade IPA kit is in the fermenter now.
I'm taking notes. Thanks to everyone for the feedback. I'll post the final recipe and results after I've done some more shopping.

 

[Bretso]

I like pale ales. I also like beers with some sweetness. I go outside the recommended range for pale ales and sometimes add some C60, C80, or even some C120. Then other times I will only add C10 or C20.

Can you recommend somewhere affordable to pick up those specialty grains online? The selection/price on amazon doesn't seem great.

 

[RM-MN]

I usually make my orders through Ritebrew. Based in Wisconsin it is a relatively close supplier to me. There are lots of others that may be closer to where you live but i don't know where that is.

http://www.ritebrew.com/

 

[mashpaddled]

I don't think you need to change the recipe too much--if you want a straightforward columbus only IPA. You could add some munich, vienna or light crystal at 5-10% but you don't need to. I think on the other hand you should add another ounce of hops as a dry hop addition. You could do another ounce of columbus to keep it all columbus or do something similar like simcoe or chinook.

 

[dnr]

I'm new also, but most research I've done says that hop additions between 50-15 minutes don't change much. So buttering should be around 50-60, and going towards aroma should be <15.
Hops are flameout/whirlpool will still give bitterness. I've also learned to check my AA (alpha acids) listed on packaging. Sometimes they're off a bit from what the calculators say.

Do you have any other hops?
Hops Direct and Northern Brewer had great sales in pellets recently. I went from none to 12 lb in a few weeks and paid less than $25 before shipping.

 

[VikeMan]

I've also learned to check my AA (alpha acids) listed on packaging. Sometimes they're off a bit from what the calculators say.

Just FYI, this is not a fault of any calculators. Hop alpha acid content varies from field to field and from harvest to harvest. Calculators/software typically default to a value that's somewhere in the middle of the typical range for each hop variety.

 

[dnr]

Just FYI, this is not a fault of any calculators. Hop alpha acid content varies from field to field and from harvest to harvest. Calculators/software typically default to a value that's somewhere in the middle of the typical range for each hop variety.

I don't mean to come off as though you shouldn't use calculators. They are very helpful. What I mean is, there's a difference with those numbers depending on which calculator you're taking and your hops should give you an actual AA% so you can more accurately punch in numbers to make YOUR brew the best you can.

 

[dnr]

Basic Brewing Radio
May 25, 2017 - Hop Timing Experiment

Steve Wilkes and Casey Letellier help James evaluate an experiment comparing three beers with single hop additions at 60 minutes, 30 minutes and flameout.

iTunes | Streaming mp3

 

[Bretso]

What I mean is, there's a difference with those numbers depending on which calculator you're taking and your hops should give you an actual AA% so you can more accurately punch in numbers to make YOUR brew the best you can.

Thank you very much for the tip DNR.
Default AA for Columbus in the calc was 15%, actual on the batch I purchased is 17.4%.
This is really fun. I appreciate all of the input.

 

[Bretso]

I've made a bunch of the suggested changes to the recipe that I received. Thanks again everyone. I think I'm ready to brew next week. Updated Recipe w/ a label in the photo section.

Using a more traditional yeast, added some other grain for color, larger grain bill, BIAB, no DME, set OG:BU ratio to 1, varied the hops and timing and included a dry hop. I also wanted a bit higher ABV. Things seem to be lining up with the style I chose now.

 

[Bretso]

I tried this recipe today. My OG was very low. 1.042 instead of 1.069 as expected from the calculator.

I believe I made two mistakes that may have caused this.

1) I have 5 lb. bags of milled grain and I scooped 2.5 lbs off the top for my grain bill. I think this left me with mostly hulls. There's a lot of fine sediment at the bottom the grain bags and I got none of that. I probably should have mixed up the grain before measuring out my ingredients.

2) I made a mistake pre-boil and topped off my water volume to 6 quarts instead of 5. I thought I was going to end up short but since I boil in a covered kettle, I lost almost nothing to boil off. My wort was too diluted with that extra quart.

One oddity - my pre-boil and post boil gravity were nearly equal. 1.040 vs 1.042.
I used both refractometer and Hydrometer and corrected for temp. Got similar readings from each method.

As a last resort I added 1/4 lb. DME and brought it up to boil again and ended up with 1.053 OG now in the fermenter.

Also, using the yeast pitching calc, I ended up pitching 5g of US-05 which feels excessive but that's somewhere between MFG 0.5 Ale and Pro Brewer 0.75 pitch rate @ 35 billion cells.

Should I have pitched less with MFG 0.35 ale? Especially with lower than expected OG?
That would have been about 3g instead of 5g.

I'll try again next week.

 

[VikeMan]

I thought I was going to end up short but since I boil in a covered kettle, I lost almost nothing to boil off.

You really shouldn't boil with the kettle covered. You want certain volatiles (particularly dimethyl sufide) to escape.

One oddity - my pre-boil and post boil gravity were nearly equal. 1.040 vs 1.042.

That would be because you lost almost nothing to boil off.

Also, using the yeast pitching calc, I ended up pitching 5g of US-05 which feels excessive but that's somewhere between MFG 0.5 Ale and Pro Brewer 0.75 pitch rate @ 35 billion cells.

Should I have pitched less with MFG 0.35 ale? Especially with lower than expected OG?
That would have been about 3g instead of 5g.

0.75 B cells / ml / degree plato is a reasonable default pitch rate. There's some debate about the true number of cells in dry yeast packs though. Personally, I don't think 5 grams for a gallon of 1.069 (planned) wort is too much of an overpitch, if at all.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

Also, using the yeast pitching calc, I ended up pitching 5g of US-05 which feels excessive but that's somewhere between MFG 0.5 Ale and Pro Brewer 0.75 pitch rate @ 35 billion cells.

Should I have pitched less with MFG 0.35 ale? Especially with lower than expected OG?
That would have been about 3g instead of 5g.

For my 1 & 1.25 gal batches in the OG 40 - 70 range, I typically pitch around 2.5 grams. The beer comes out fine. Within the past month, as a trial, I pitched just 1.2 grams in a couple of packages. The beer fermented without problems. 1st bottles will be in about a week.

And, FWIW, Lallemand currently has a pitching rate calculator (link) at their web site.

 

[Bretso]

I've made and drank two batches of this so far. It turned out good and I'm happy with the result as my first homemade all grain recipe.

It looks and feels like a brown ale. The hop flavor is just right. I do taste the "red fruit, dankness" from the Columbus hops and I think it compliments the flavor nicely. I think I'll do a variation where I add some fruit to the boil as an experiment.

OG is still rather lower than the calculated value 1.051 instead of 1.069 but I'm not too worried about that. ABV is in the 6.1-6.2% range on both batches.