Any idea how this will turn out?

[malvado78]

Well this is my first post I have been reading (and learning for a few weeks).

My friends and I have started home brewing.

We purchased a couple buckets and a carboy.

First batch we brewed was the Brewers Best Brown Ale Kit. This has been in the bottle for about a week now. Tasted at bottling and overall seemed good. Obviously was flat and had the "green" taste that is talked about.

Second batch is a Cider has been in the primary for about 3 weeks now still bubbling...

This get me to my current question:

This past Saturday we decided to get the third batch started (get that pipeline going).

Decided to go with the Mill Run Stout out of the "How to Brew" book.

We modified the original recipe the following:
1. Book suggests 6# Pale DME. Can use 6# of Dark DME for all extract. We read this wrong and used Dark DME and used the Roasted Barley and Crystal Malt 60L. Infact we actually used 3# of Dark and 3# of Extra Dark DME.

2. Book recommend 0.75 oz of we used the full 1 oz we purchased.

3. Book recommends a Mash Temp of 152 (Depending on the version of the book you bought. Some show 154 with a few other changes). I had been reading on some of the stout recipe that a temp of 156 will give a better mouthfeel so this is what we targeted.

4. Book recommends to use WLP004. Our brew store did not have 004. They suggested 005 as a substitute. Now that we have done some looking it looks like 005 is nto used for a stout and 004 is very often used in this style. How much is this going to change things?

So this brought us to the following recipe:

Brentwood Stout (Tentative Name Still being debated)
Style: Foreign Extra Stout Calories: 188
Type: Partial Mash IBU's: 56.43

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Primary: 14 days @ 68°F
Volume: 5 Gallons
Secondary: 14 days @ 68°F
Efficiency: 70 %
Aging: 14 days @ 68°F
Color: 23.9 SRM
(All time still undecided so any suggestions will be welcome.)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Estimated Actual
Orig. Gravity:1.057 1.060
Fin. Gravity:1.017 TBD
ABV:5.24% TBD

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Grains & Adjuncts
0.50 lbs Roasted Barley
0.50 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L
3.00 lbs Dark Dry Extract
3.00 lbs Extra Dark Dry Extract

Hops
1.00 ozs Nugget (13.7%) - 60 mins
1.00 ozs Fuggles (4.8%) - 30 mins

Yeasts
1.0 pkg British Ale - White Labs WLP005

Notes
Single infusion Mash 60 min @ 156 deg
Add 2nd 3lbs of DME at knockout

So I am very impatient to find our how this will turn out. Any one have any idea?

Also we had one oops during mashing. We kept the temperature fairly well at 156 F except for one time during the 60 mins where it dropped to 141 F. We had read that you really do not want the mash to go below 140 in general. When we saw this we brought it back up to 156 F. Anyone have any idea what this will effect.

As well does the other changes seem like they are not too out of the ordinary?

And lastly thanks for all the information as we are new and trying to learn as much as possible.

Thanks,
Brad

 

[Yooper]

Welcome!

I'd have to make a guess to the results, since I've never actually done the exact same thing you did, but I think I can make a reasonable guess.

Using dark DME instead of light may give you sweeter, darker results. But, since you used 25% more hops, the extra bittering may balance it out just fine. It seems like it would be very good, and balanced.

Since you didn't have any base malt in with the caramel malt and the roasted malt (it doesn't look like you steeped anything besides that, right?), the temperature isn't critical at all, as long as you didn't go above 170. That recipe isn't a partial mash- that's an extract recipe with steeping grains.

 

[Yooper]

By the way, when I run it, I get a totally different amount of IBUs than you do. What's your boil volume?

 

[malvado78]

Really. Well it was a 2.5G boil volume. The IBU's were actually from a calculation from my friends Iphone App. Don't know what it is called.

And thanks didn't realize exactly what was the difference between a partial mash and extract with steeping grains.

We added the extra hops due to the dark malts so looks like we may have assumed right.

We did not have anything is except for the crystal and roasted barley and I think the highest it started at was like 161-2 so we should be good there.

Also does the English Ale Yeast vs Irish Ale Yeast make much difference?

Thanks for the help. We have had a lot of fun doing it, the worst part about it is waiting to see how it turned out.

Also I have dial up at home so I should be back tomorrow.

 

[Yooper]

A smaller boil volume almost always will impact hops utilization, so that you'll use more bittering hops. A late addition of the extract helps offset this, but not completely in this case. I come up with 34 IBUs with the recipe you did. That's right about perfect, or even a tad bit low. So, it should be fine.

 

[malvado78]

Great thanks for the help.

I was looking through the BJCP guidelines and it seems that it may line up closest to the Foreign Extra Stout.

Vital Statistics:
OG: 1.056 – 1.075
IBUs: 30 – 70
FG: 1.010 – 1.018
SRM: 30 – 40
ABV: 5.5 – 8%

I believe that the SRM I posted is incorrect. The App did not have Extra Dark DME so he put in 6# of Dark into the recipe. I should be a little darker.

If we put 3# of DME in at beginning of boil and 3# in at knockout does it make a difference if it was the dark or extra dark?

The App he was using is the iBrewmaster. We can change the Brewhouse Efficieny. I believe it defaulted to 70%. Should we change this for for a more accurate IBU calc? It looks like it calculated the OG pretty close though.

I know there are some spreadsheet and programs for recipes. Is there a pretty good free one that you know of.

Again thanks for your expertise.