Crtique my extract recipe: Wild Ass Wheat IPA

[agrazela]

First time poster, brief intro: I am a chemist by education, and a food and beverage formulator and tester by profession. Wife got me a decent brewing kit some months ago for my birthday. Have made a few kit extract brews to hone technique, now ready to try some formulating of my own.

Would like to get into mashing, cold-crashing and kegging eventually, just sticking to extracts and bottles for now. I did rig up a mini-fridge / Johnson control for fermentation.

I am using a partial boil method with a lot of late addition to keep from darkening too much. I estimate my hops utilization is probably about 2/3 (67%) of a full-boil method. I do not yet have a wort chiller, so I just use an ice bath and fridged top-up water.

Please critique this recipe, which was inspired by some of the products coming out of Lagunitas and Firestone, my love of bright, dry, hoppy IPA's, and by dribs and drabs of leftover syrups and stuff I have in the food lab:

"Wild Ass" Wheat IPA (Extract) recipe:
5.50 gal, 2 gal cold tap (in boil) plus 3+ gal distilled, refrigerated water (top-up)
Estimated: O.G. 1.071, F.G. 1.019, ABV 6.7%, SRM 10°, 70 IBU

Grain:
0.5lb Crystal 15L (steeped 150-160°F for 30 min)

Malts/Adjuncts:
60min:
3lb Wheat DME (60% wheat / 40% barley)
30 min:
2lb Light DME
15 min:
1lb Dextrose (corn sugar)
At flame-out:
1lb White Sorghum Syrup, 45DE
1lb Dextrose (corn sugar)
0.5lb Clarified rice syrup, 45DE
0.5lb Tapioca syrup, 63DE
0.5lb Agave nectar
0.5lb Honey

Hops (pellet):
2oz Magnum for bittering (60 min)
3oz Centennial for flavor/aroma (1oz at 30 min, 1oz at 15 min, 1oz at flameout)

Other:
60 min:
7g CaSO4-2H2O (gypsum)
5g CaCl2-2H2O
1g citric acid (to bring water to pH 5.9-6.0)
0.3g ascorbic acid (to scrub chloramines)
15 min:
100g (~3.5oz) Maltodextrin
5g kappa-carrageenan
2g gum acacia
0.75g yeast nitrogen base / vitamin mix
0.75g peptones

Yeast:
2 11g packs SAFALE S-04, dry-pitched at 60-65°F

Fermentation:
Primary in 6.5gal glass carboy at 65°F (expect 7-10 days).
Secondary in 5 gal Better Bottle at 70°F 7-10 more days, then dry hop (pellet) 5-7 days with 1oz Centennial, 1oz Cascade, 1oz Amarillo.
Bottle (primed with corn sugar for 2.4-2.5 volumes) and bottle condition 2-3 weeks before refrigerating.

What do you think?

 

[JR_Brewer]

Welcome to HBT! Looks like you've really jumped right in on the hobby, and it looks like you know your stuff! Nice work on the fermentation fridge; temperature control is huge! Here are my comments on the recipe.

There are a lot of non-malted adjuncts in here, nearly half of your fermentables by weight. I understand you're trying to finish off some leftover "dribs and drabs" but I would cut down the amount. If nothing else, get rid of the dextrose (save it for bottling). The other syrups/sweeteners will be plenty to dry your beer out . If you get rid of those 2 lbs of dextrose, you could replace them with a pound each of your malt extracts.

I notice you're adjusting your water chemistry, nice work! What is your calculated mash pH?

Overall, hop schedule looks decent, but here's a quick comment about the 30 minute addition. And to make it as painful as possible, a metaphor. In tennis, you never want to be in No Man's Land... i.e., between the service line and the baseline. Either play the net or get back behind the baseline. 30 minute hops are in No Man's Land. It's not really a bittering hop, and it's not really an aroma hop. Use your aroma hops in the last 20 minutes (or at flameout or for dry-hopping). Maybe a 20, 5, FO? 15, 1, DH? Ok, sorry about the soapbox, I learned the hard way and hope to help someone else out.

Best of luck, and keep brewing!

 

[billl]

You've got a LOT of adjuncts here. 5lbs of DME + 5lbs of adjuncts. A good rule of thumb is to keep them under 20%. Also, I think you are complicating your addition schedule unnecessarily. 3lbs to start and then add the rest right at the end.

Have you plugged that hop schedule into an IBU calculator? 2oz of magnum at 60 is going to be over 70 IBU. A good chunk of your fermentables are going in late in the boil, so most of the time the wort is in contact with the the hops, it will be quite low gravity.

 

[agrazela]

Thanks for the replies so far.

Temp control was the first thing I knew I needed after my first batch (a basic kit English brown ale) ferm'd at 76-78°F and came out tasting like pear juice. I used that beer for cooking. Next few brews were some repeats of a basic kit IPA where I found out what adding the brewing salts, late malt addition, some different hop types, and adding a little maltodextrin bring to the table. Last one I did got praise from my brother-in-law, and he's quite the fermented beverage gourmand.

So in this recipe:
Strike the 1lb dextrose at flameout, that was a typing error. So that's 1 lb dextrose total; and thus 5lb dry malt extracts to 4lb non-malts, 1lb of which is dextrose and 3lb of which are syrups. The syrups stay, that's the leftovers I need to use up...and that blend tastes so good! Maybe I will strike the remaining dextrose and make this come in at a faster-finishing 6.0% ABV, I'm wanting this one to be prime at Thanksgiving. Thinking of trying a slightly bigger, darker, maltier IPA (something like a Deschutes Inversion, but with "danker" hops) on top of this yeast cake anyway, and I want that one ready for the Christmas party.

billl, based on the info and charts I've been looking at, this partial boil system should give me 2/3 the hop utilization that a full-boil would. The brews I've done so far suggest that this is pretty accurate regarding bittering. The schedule as I wrote it above calculates (in QBrew) to ~105 IBU, so I'm calling it ~70 in partial boil.

JR, I like your analogy. I have noted that I haven't gotten the depth of aroma I've wanted when following multi-addition schedules, maybe I will go to 60 bittering, then 15, 5 aroma/flavor (or just 10?) and flameout, and skip the 30 min. Don't know enough to answer your Q about mash pH, all I did on pH was figure out how much citric, on top of the ascorbic and minerals, it would take to get my 5 gal of water to pH 6.0 before any of the extracts or other stuff went in.

 

[tooldudetool]

Hmmm this looks like a recipe a chemist would come up with You don't have a mash pH because this is an extract recipe, right? No mashing required. Typically with extract brews if your water tastes fine, you would just use it as is. Water pH modifications are usually reserved for all grain mashes. Gypsum might be helpful for the IPA hop "bite", but other than that I don't see why you need all those other additions... of course, I'm no chemist, just an experienced homebrewer. I think if you spent some time looking at how other people have built IPA recipes you would see that you really seem to be over complicating things. Gum acacia, peptides?! Try using a half pound of carapils instead, it's made from barley... you know, one of the grains beer is made from? Over 40% simple sugars is kinda crazy, I don't know if you can even call that beer anymore! Maybe using 5-10% simple sugars to dry it out a bit, but anything over that is overkill, and you really aren't making an IPA anymore. If you really need to use up that many syrups, spread it out over 2 batches, otherwise you will have a very thin, watery, boozy pseudo IPA that may be hard to drink. As far as getting the most hop aroma and flavor, I have had great success with a single bittering addition, then waiting until flameout to add all of the rest of the hops, covering the pot, and letting it steep for 20 minutes before continuing to chill. Also, I would highly recommend an immersion wort chiller as your next purchase. The first time you use it you will wonder why you waited so long to buy one. Good luck, and remember, you are making beer (aka Liquid Bread) here, not a pharmaceutical product!

 

[BreezyBrew]

I can only comment by n the hops of this recipe. Instead of 30 min (no man's land for hops) move it to 15 min or closer to flame out. You will taste them a lot more instead of just adding bitterness. And I agree with the other poster... 2 Oz at 60 min is going to give you way over the top bitterness that you won't want to drink. Wheat is a very delicate beer and hops really show through. Good luck! Love the name!

 

[agrazela]

OK I've taken this all into consideration, and here's what I'm gonna do:

Y'all are right, way too much adjunct in here. I'm going to save the sorghum, rice, agave and honey for another brew, probably a PA or ESB that might better "feature" the agave and honey flavors. Replace that 3lb of syrups with another 2lb of DME. Probably cut the dextrose to 3/4lb. That would ultimately leave this more of a straight-up wheat IPA with a slightly lower ABV--perhaps not so "wild," might have to change the name.

Do 1oz of Magnum at 60 min and 1oz at 30 min to reduce the total bitterness contribution, or maybe better yet the 2oz Magnum at 45 min (or 30 min?) and cut the total cook time. Or maybe just 1oz at 60 min? I'll figure it out. I do like me some bitterness, though!

 

[agrazela]

OK, so here's what's went in this past weekend:

"Wild Ass" Wheat IPA (Extract) recipe:
5.25 gal, 2 gal cold tap (in boil) plus 3+ gal distilled, refrigerated water (top-up)
O.G. 1.060; Estimated F.G. 1.011, ABV 6.3%, SRM 8°, 60 IBU

Grain (steeped):
0.5lb Crystal 15L

Malts/Adjuncts (17% of pts from non-malt adjuncts):
3lb Wheat DME (60% wheat / 40% barley)
3lb Light DME
0.75lb Dextrose (corn sugar)
0.5lb White Sorghum Syrup, 45DE
0.25lb Tapioca syrup, 63DE

Hops (pellet):
1.5oz Magnum, bittering (60 min)
2oz Centennial, flavor/aroma (1oz 15 min, 1oz flameout)

Other:
7g CaSO4-2H2O (gypsum)
5g CaCl2-2H2O
0.5g citric acid (to bring water to pH~6.0-6.2)
0.3g ascorbic acid (to scrub chloramines)
100g (~3.5oz) Maltodextrin (for body)
5g kappa-carrageenan (wort fining)
2g gum acacia (for head retention, flavor emulsification)
0.3g yeast nitrogen base / vitamin mix (to make up for non-malt adjuncts)
0.3g peptones (ditto)

Yeast:
11g pack SAFALE S-04, dry-pitched at 62°F

Fermentation:
Primary in 6.5gal glass carboy at 62-65°F (expect 5-7 days).
Secondary in 5 gal Better Bottle at 70°F 7-10 more days, then dry hop (pellet) 5-7 days with 2oz Centennial, 1oz Amarillo.
Bottle (primed with corn sugar for 2.3 volumes) and bottle condition 2-3 weeks before refrigerating.
(Won't bother fining at bottling, I expect this brew to be cloudy and hazy)

Hoping to be able to give some of this away at Halloween, though I know it will be very green at that time (probably be prime closer to Thanksgiving).

Thanks again for all the help, and for talking me out of doing something with over 40% pts from non-malt adjuncts!

 

[billl]

There is 0% chance this beer is ready by Halloween. If you were bottling it today, it MIGHT be carbonated by then, but you are still 3 weeks+ from bottling. Just relax and don't try to rush the processes. As they don't have ears, yeast respond very poorly to anyone trying to boss them around.

 

[agrazela]

There is 0% chance this beer is ready by Halloween. If you were bottling it today, it MIGHT be carbonated by then, but you are still 3 weeks+ from bottling. Just relax and don't try to rush the processes. As they don't have ears, yeast respond very poorly to anyone trying to boss them around.

My bad, I was looking at the wrong date (a week ago) on the calendar when I worked out "green by Halloween." And I guess even that was highly optimistic. I'm now at "hope to bottle on Halloween."

And yes, I agree that is still rushing it a bit. But then again krausen has already fallen, refrac reading I took this morning indicates it's already at 65% attenuation, and I fully expect it to get to 80%+ attenuation before the end of the week. Then 10 or so days' secondary, 4-5 of that dry-hopped...not ideal I know, but doable I think. The Brother in Law will just have to take some freshly capped bottles home and wait!