Extra grain? (and other recipe questions)

[DerCribben]

So, I think this is my first actual brewing related post. I got a recipe from my buddy Nick for a nugget/citra IPA and I couldn't get any citra at the time so I swapped out fuggles/zythos and Amarillo for the citra additions. The brew I made looked like this:

5.5 gal boil, 5 gal batch

60 mins boil
1lb Caramel 40L
1lb LME
6lbs LME
1lb honey

hops
60min 1oz nugget 13% pellet
45min 1 oz nugget 13% pellet
30min 1oz fuggles 4.5% pellet
15min 1oz zythos 10.90% pellet
21 days dry hop in secondary at 62 degrees 1oz Amarillo 8.5% leaf

ferm steps
12 days primary (ale pail) @ 75 degrees
21 days secondary (5 gal glass carboy) @ 62 degrees
14 days in bottle @ 75+ degrees

I was thinking of adding an extra .5lb of crysal 40L to see what it does to the beer (as well as a couple of other modifications I'll list down below), and I know you can't "ruin" a beer (supposedly but I have heard of more than a few batches of homebrew that people didn't want to have anything to do with taking a second pull off of after the first sip) and I am pretty happy with the way the first batch came out. This will be my third batch of beer and I think that I have made some good mods to the recipe but I have to ask what the extra half lb of crystal is going to do to the finished product?

Here is the full recipe:

DerCribben IPA ii

boil 5.5 gal
batch 5 gal

12 days primary (ale pail) @ 75 degrees
21 days secondary (5 gal glass carboy) @ 62 degrees
14 days in bottle @ 75+ degrees

grains/adjuncts
1.5lb Crystal 40L
2lbs light DME
6lbs Amber LME
2lbs clover honey

60 minute boil

hops (possible hop timing changes in parenthesis)
60min 1oz nugget 12.5% pellet
45min 1oz nugget 12.5% pellet
(20)30min 1oz zythos 11.9% pellet
(15)20min 1oz zythos 11.9% pellet
(5)15min 1oz zythos 11.9% pellet
21 days dry hop @ 62 degrees 1 oz Amarillo leaf hops 8.6%


I curious what you think the addition of the extra lb of crystal will do, and what you think of the hop timing profile change I'm thinking of. Thanks in advance for any insight.

 

[ThreeSheetsBrewing]

The crystal will add more sweetness and mouthfeel to the beer. Be wary of adding to much. Your modification does have added bittering hops and extra extract, so it may balance out. I'm sitting at work and don't have any of my calculators available, perhaps someone can chime in if they think these additions will be cloyingly sweet.

I would strongly suggest brewing the recipe as is and then making some modifications. That way you can truly observe what your changes do to the beer and you can begin to develop your knowledge of what ingrediants do. As well, you can the then develop recipes to your taste knowing how to get you to your end point.

 

[DerCribben]

Ok, so unless I get somebody chiming in here saying NO STOP!! then I'll stick with the crystal addition. I've tried the original hop addition profile twice before so I think I'm going to go with the 60/45/20/15/5 to see what happens.

ingredients come today, brew day is Sat so I'll know how it all works out in a month or two

Oh yeah, also, the first time I brewed I used a wyeast activator american ale yeast pack, this time I'm going to pitch two packs of Safale-05 instead

 

[evrose]

Couple suggestions:

1. Download the trial version (free) of Beersmith. You can input your recipe and it will tell you exactly what your change will do in terms of SRM, bitterness ratio, and other relevant factors. I find the program a bit awkward when first using it, but it's fairly powerful and has a lot of nice tools.

2. You likely don't need two packets of dry yeast (05). One will be more than enough. Use a yeast calculator to determine the correct pitch volume.

3. I highly doubt the addition of more crystal will hurt the beer. It will be darker and maltier, which is fine if you like that.

 

[evrose]

..

 

[DerCribben]

I downloaded the free trial of beersmith, I feel like I am going to need a little more time to figure it out fully though. I do use the IBrewmaster app on my iphone and that I dig a lot. I'm having a little trouble with the formatting pasting the info page here but I will try and post a screenshot of it.

 

[DerCribben]

Here's a copy of the iBrewmaster profile:

 

[dcp27]

that will be too sweet. 1.5lbs of crystal is already alot in an IPA and amber extract has C60 in it and the light has carapils, so you're really over 2lbs crystal in this. the honey will help dry it out, but its more crystal than I would use. personally I'd go with something closer to 2lb light DME, 6lb light LME, 0.5lb C40, 2lb honey

also, i would strongly suggest altering you hop schedule, almost all of your hops are top loaded, where they should be closer to the end of the boil. I'd go with 60/15/10/5/0/DH instead or something like
1.5oz Nugget @60
0.5oz Nugget @15
2oz Zythos @5
1oz Zythos @DH
1oz Amarillo @DH

 

[DerCribben]

This is the one I am drinking now and it's pretty great:

I just hopped the heck out of the Midwest brewing Irish Red Ale kit and added a bit of honey and DME