Beginner trying to replicate 1 gallon recipe

[KikoSanchez]

So I just brewed my first batch of craft-a-brew's OG (Orange Golden) 1 gallon kit. I haven't even tried it yet, but I'm already beginning to brew a new batch. I went out and bought similar ingredients to those listed for the OG recipe:

"Recipe Kit Includes: Golden light malt extract, brewers grains (Carapils), hops (Cascade), yeast (Safale S-05), sweet Belgian orange peel, sanitizer and a brewing bag."

What I didn't realize was that I threw away the packaging the ingredients came in, plus their website gives no help, and I have no idea what the measurements were for the extract, grains, hops, or yeast. Now I just have a bunch of bulk ingredients, but unsure of how much to use of each. Could anyone help me out on this? It's for 1 gallon.

Thank you,
Kiko

 

[Indianhead_Brewer]

Never fear you will make still be able to make beer! What brand of light malt extract and what amount do you have on hand? How much carapils do you have (oz./grams), how much hops do you have (oz./grams)? Can't say you will replicate the exact recipe that you got from Craft-a-Brew though.

 

[woozy]

Well, lessee. Just making some estimates with other extract batches... I'd say about 1.25 lbs of Golden extract will give you beer an original gravity of 1.046. Let's up it to 1.5 lbs for a stronger beer with original gravity of 1.056, shall we? Grains are usually half a pound to a pound for 5 gallons. So lets say 2 to 3 oz. of Carapils.

Okay, hops. This is the tricky part. I'm not familiar with this beer. You have one type of hops. Cascade. Do you remember how many times you adding hops and when? Hops serve three purposes. If you boil them for an hour they temper and bitter your beer. We call those "bittering hops". If you boil them for 10 to 30 minutes the impart flavor. We call those "flavor hops". And for less than ten minutes they impart an aroma or nose. We call those "aroma hops". (It's actually more of a gradient then a distinct step-wise procedure.)

I'm going to make a suggestion that you take 1/2 an oz total and divide into 3 equal parts and add one at the start of the boil (bittering), one 45 minutes (flavoring) into the boil, and one at the end (aroma) of the hour long boil. If you want more of a "bouquet" I'd take a pinch from the flavoring and add to the aroma. With more cooks in the soup, we can hash this out later.

Do you need to reconstruct the instructions? (Steep and remove grains, and some extract, bring to boil, add bitterring hops, boil, add more hops, boil, add last of hops and extract and turn of the flame.)

 

[zzARzz]

I was looking at the OG's ingredient list and had a difficult time trying to classify exactly what style of beer it is, but eventually settled on a Belgian Specialty Ale that is close to a Belgian Golden Strong Ale. If you want to jazz up your own version of the kit, here is the recipe I came up with:

Style: Belgian Specialty Ale / Belgian Golden Strong Ale
Type: Extract w/ Specialty Grains
Size: 1 gallon
Boil Time: 30 minutes
Equipment: 2 gallon pot
OG: 1.073
FG: 1.017
ABV: 7.5%
IBU: 30
SRM: 5.5

Ingredients

Specialty Grains:
4 oz -- Dingemans Cara8 Crystal Malt
2 oz -- Briess Carapils

Extract:
1.5 lbs -- Briess Golden Light DME

Other:
2 oz -- Clear Candi Sugar

Flavoring:
1 tsp -- Sweet Orange Peel

Hops (0.5 oz total)
0.25 oz -- Styrian Goldings (5.4% AA) @ 30 min
.125 oz -- Styrian Goldings @ 10 min
.125 oz -- Styrian Goldings; Dryhop 14 days

Yeast:
1 pkg -- SafBrew Ale S-33; rehydrated per package instructions

Instructions

1. Steep grains in muslin bag in 2 quarts water @ 155F for 30 minutes. Remove bag and allow to drain. Rehydrate the yeast per the package instructions.

2. Add 3 more quarts of water to the wort and bring to a boil. Remove from heat, stir in DME until completely dissolved, return to a boil and add first addition of 0.25 oz of hops. Begin 30 minute boil countdown.

3. @ 10 minutes left in the boil add 0.125 oz hops.

4. After 30 minutes, remove the pot from heat and stir in the candi sugar and orange peel until candi sugar is completely dissolved.

5. Top off to 1 gallon (you may want to boil 1-2 quarts of water the night before, store in a sterilized jug and chill in the fridge to help chill your wort faster), chill wort to 70F, transfer to primary fermenter, aerate and pitch yeast. Leave in primary 7 days @ 68-70F then add 0.125 oz hops to dry hop for an additional 14 days @ 68-70F. Or primary 7 days, transfer beer to secondary, add dry hop addition and leave for an additional 14 days.

6. Prime and bottle with 0.60 oz Corn Sugar (2.7 vol) and age for 30 days.

 

[woozy]

The web site says it is "Orange golden ale is infused with sweet Belgian orange peel for a funky citrus flavor" which makes me wonder if the actually know what the word "funky" means. It says it is light on hops.

I think zzARzz has hit it on the head though as a Belgian specialty Ale.

zzARzz, did you make up this recipe or where'd you get it from?

....googles some more...

BINGO! Here's someone who has, apparently, reposted the Craft a Brew recipe. (Did the recipe use honey?)

Actually, I'm going to assume the poster simply replaces some of the extract for honey. I'd just use 1.5 lbs of Golden Extract and 2 oz. of Carapils.

 

[Indianhead_Brewer]

Decided to go fishing this afternoon. Looks like this problem has been solved.

 

[zzARzz]

The web site says it is "Orange golden ale is infused with sweet Belgian orange peel for a funky citrus flavor" which makes me wonder if the actually know what the word "funky" means. It says it is light on hops.

I think zzARzz has hit it on the head though as a Belgian specialty Ale.

zzARzz, did you make up this recipe or where'd you get it from?

....googles some more...

BINGO! Here's someone who has, apparently, reposted the Craft a Brew recipe. (Did the recipe use honey?)

Actually, I'm going to assume the poster simply replaces some of the extract for honey. I'd just use 1.5 lbs of Golden Extract and 2 oz. of Carapils.

I made it up in BeerSmith quickly as a simple extract version of a Belgian Golden Strong. It's a bit closer to a Belgian style as well since the original was using a lot of U.S. ingredients.

 

[woozy]

Well, why don't we make up one using the OPs ingredients? Well basically that's your recipe but with Carapils and Cascade.

 

[zzARzz]

The recipe above is basically a heavier duty version of the kit, though in retrospect I'd probably use Citra hops instead of Cascade or SGs if the emphasis is going to be on the citrus notes.

 

[woozy]

Okay, your recipe is probably better.

I'm basically taking the OP question to be "Can we replicate the Craft a Brew recipe as Craft a Brew wrote it" rather than "Can I make a similar beer and what can I do to improve it". (I tend to be a literalist when answering questions online.) I think the Brew Toad link has reproduced the Craft a Brew recipe (although I'm not sure about the honey).

Nonetheless, your recipes are probably better.