First attempt at recipe should I steep or mash

[Whitehead]

Okay, this is my first attempt at creating my own recipe and need to know if I should steep or mash
Here is the recipe.

1 lbs 13.6 oz Carared
3 lbs 9.2 oz Amber Dry Extract
1.07 oz Willamette
0.53 oz Cascade
0.25 tsp Irish Moss
Irish Ale (Wyeast Labs #1084)
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L
5.00 gal water

I am shooting for a red ale. Any thoughts on my hop additions would be appreciated as well. I was thinking about dry hopping the Cascade, any thoughts?

 

[regulark]

Crystal malts don't contain enzymes that convert starch to sugars so mashing won't work for them.

(I think, correct me if I'm wrong. Fairly new to brewing)

 

[Golddiggie]

No Diastatic Power in the grains... Easily solvable if you add a pound, or a few, of 2 row malt to the recipe...

Also carared is a 20L grain. You can skip it, or most of the Crystal 20L... Or combine them (reduce the amount though)...

You do need more fermentables in there. As it stands, without any 2 row, your OG will be in the neighborhood of 1.035...

Go with a partial mash method (BIAB?), adding 2# of 2 row, drop the carared completely, but go to 1.25# on the Crystal 60L and you're on target for a solid American amber ale. Hell, you could go to 1.5#, drop the 20L and still be there.

Also, run this through software to get your actual brew water volumes you'll need. It may be a 5 gallon batch, but you'll use more than 5 gallons of water. You'll probably need about 7-7.5 gallons of water for the batch. A lot will depend on how much you boil-off.

I've been creating my own recipes since my third batch (got #17 into primary last weekend) and can tell you that software makes a HUGE difference. I can only imagine what I would have gotten had I not run my recipes through software. Even having the formulas available, it's hard to visualize things without some representation. Things like the brew color. Also, tweaking the hop amounts, depending on the OG is easier (by far) via software. Sure, you can do it manually, but you'll need to run the numbers EVERY time you change your OG to find out what your IBUs will be. Not an issue with software.

 

[Calder]

Too much Crystal. Reduce it to between 0.5 and 1 lb, and up the DME to compensate. Since you are using Amber DME, probably go for just 0.5 lbs of 60L. Just steep it. Most of the sugar in Crystal does not ferment, so if you have too much you end up with a high FG, which is very sweet.

If you use 3.5 lbs of DME+0.5 lbs of Crystal, you will get something around 1.034 for 5 gallons. An extra lb of DME would get you to 1.043. If you want to push it any higher, you probably would want to up the hops.

 

[Yooper]

Too much Crystal. Reduce it to between 0.5 and 1 lb, and up the DME to compensate. Since you are using Amber DME, probably go for just 0.5 lbs of 60L. Just steep it. Most of the sugar in Crystal does not ferment, so if you have too much you end up with a high FG, which is very sweet.

If you use 3.5 lbs of DME+0.5 lbs of Crystal, you will get something around 1.034 for 5 gallons. An extra lb of DME would get you to 1.043. If you want to push it any higher, you probably would want to up the hops.

WAY too much crystal! Either choose the carared, or the other crystal malts, but not both. For an amber, I'd use less than 2 pounds total of crystal, ditch the amber DME and use light DME. Amber DME has crystal malt in it already, so your recipe has about 2-3 times the amount you want. Even the recipe I posted below has a bit too much crystal, but you could push it that high if you like a sweeter beer.

You don't have anything to mash there, as those are all steeping grains.
You don't have enough hops for an American amber.

A better version (I hate "weird" amounts, so I just went with even numbers):

1 lbs Carared (This basically IS crystal 20L)
.5 pounds crystal 60L
5 pounds light dry Extract

2 oz Willamette @ 60 minutes
0.50 oz Cascade @ 10 minutes

.5 tsp Irish Moss
Irish Ale (Wyeast Labs #1084)

 

[Whitehead]

Wow! Thanks for all the feedback. You guys have helped me out tremendously. Cant wait to brew it up. I know I should probably start off with extract kits or even all grain kits but I like to dive in head first and get creative, hands on learner so to speak. Again, thank you guys.

 

[jonmohno]

Also use something like Tastybrew to plug in your recipe to get an idea of style guidlines og, fg ibu's etc... I use it every batch i make for refernece.Very helpful in obtaining all of your values.

 

[Calder]

A better version (I hate "weird" amounts, so I just went with even numbers):

1 lbs Carared (This basically IS crystal 20L)
.5 pounds crystal 60L
5 pounds light dry Extract

2 oz Willamette @ 60 minutes
0.50 oz Cascade @ 10 minutes

.5 tsp Irish Moss
Irish Ale (Wyeast Labs #1084)

That is still a lot of Crystal even with the Light Extract, and you know he is going to use the Amber, since that is what he has.

I would recommend he keep it to about 0.5 lbs Crystal if he is going to use amber extract.

This also seems low in finishing hops. It's what he has, but maybe another 0.5 ozs at flame out too.

 

[billf2112]

I learned recently to add the extract towards the end of the boil. I always did at the beginning and wondered why my color was always too dark.