Cali Common PM Critique - Steamy Nugs

[brianmc27]

I've brewed about 10-15 beers in the last few years, mostly kits and modifications of existing recipes. I just built a fermentation chamber this last week to deal with the atrocious Sacramento summer heat and I'm ready to create my own custom recipe.

I went on the brew tour at Anchor Brewery (GREAT tour, btw) and the tour guide told me the main bittering hop they use is Nugget, not Northern Brewer - as is seen in the majority of Cali Common recipes. Armed with this information, I've decided to tackle my own recipe. Let me know what you think.

CHEERS!

Steamy Nugs

OG - 1.052
SG - 1.013
Abv - 5.12
IBU - 40.0
SRM 12.2

60 Minute Mash at 152
1.5 lbs Crystal 40L
1.0 lbs Carafoam
0.5 lbs Biscuit Malt
0.5 lbs Victory Malt

90 Minute Boil
4.0 lbs Light DME (60 Minutes)

0.25 oz Nugget (60 min)
0.25 oz Northern Brewer (60 min)
0.75 oz Northern Brewer (20 min)
0.50 oz Nugget (20 min)
0.25 oz Nugget (7 min)

21 Day Ferment at 60
1.5 litre starter WLP810
1 oz Northern Brewer Dry Hop (7 Day)

 

[brianmc27]

After reflection my concern is the Carafoam, would something like Vienna be a better fit here?

 

[giraffe]

carafoam is a 0L crystal malt. So you are using 2.5 of crystal malt, thats a ton. You are likely to have a thicker beer than youd like. Id drop it.

Biscuit and victory are two different maltsters versions of the same thing. A lb total is aggressive.

You can certainly use the vienna. If you are mashing for 60 mins that would be good, cause the other malts are base malts, and dont have enough enzymes left to convert the starches, so adding vienna will make the mash work better. Id use 1.5 lbs of vienna (ax the carfoam and either the biscuit or victory) it will give more of the amber lager toasty malty flavor you are generally looking for.

 

[brianmc27]

Excellent! Thanks.

I subbed 1.5 lbs of Vienna for the biscuit and Carafoam.

Does the hop schedule look ok?

 

[giraffe]

Looks reasonable, the hop flavor should be medium, noticeable but not too assertive. I see no problems there.