First extract American ipa

[Drummerbrew1985]

Hey everyone, I'm new to brewing and this forum so forgive my social short comings.
Just wanted to see what anybody thought about the following recipe I will be trying this week.
5 gal batch
3.5kg ex light dme
500g wheat malt dme
750g caragold
25g summit 60m
25 summit 30m
Flameout hops for 30m steep
10g cascade
10g citra
10g Amarillo
Fermentation at 18 oC for 10 days
21 oC for 2 weeks
Cold crash for 4 days
Bottle for 3 weeks
English ale yeast
Beersmith says ibu of 61.5
And abv of 6.8.
Will it be good? Any tips from experienced brewers is welcomed
Thanx for reading.

 

[peterj]

Welcome to brewing!

For your recipe I would recommend cutting the caragold in half and maybe replacing some of your extract with corn or cane sugar (maybe 0.25-0.5 kg depending on how dry you want it). Sometimes extract alone has trouble fermenting out as low as it needs to be in an IPA.

Also on a related issue, I would use a high attenuating American ale yeast (US-05, WY1056, WLP001, etc.). These usually attenuate better than English ale yeasts and will accentuate the hop flavor more.

Which brings me to my next suggestion which is add more hops. Your bittering addition looks fine, though I'm not sure the 30 min addition is necessary. But I would increase your flameout hops to 25 g each. The hop steeping is a good idea. Then I would add some dry hops. At least 25 to 75 grams.

And you can probably shorten the time it's at 18C from 10 days to about 5 days, or whenever vigorous fermentation starts winding down.

Also, are you doing a full boil or partial? It's not possible to get a high enough IBU level without doing a full boil or very close to a full boil. So I would suggest boiling as much wort as you can.

Hope this helps! Good luck!

 

[Drummerbrew1985]

Thanx for the speedy reply.
I will alter the recipe in the following ways
3.5kg dme down to 3kg plus 500g cane sugar
750g caragold down to 350g
Shall I ditch the 30m summit addition and add more at 60m to bring the ibu back to the same?
That much hops really? Ok will do.
I haven't dry hopped successfully yet as I've had contamination issued which almost definitely weren't from that but I want to eliminate potential sources until I solve the problem, so I won't dry hop this time but defo venture into it soon
I will try some us-05 as I've heard good things.
I guess it's best to keep an eye on the fermentation activity and gravity as to when I should remove it from the 18oC chamber. It's supposed to ferment out to 1.016 so any suggestions as to when to move it?
Fantastic advice btw. I'm do glad I joined.

 

[Drummerbrew1985]

And full boil I forgot to add

 

[DarthCitra]

I find that 1oz of hops at 60 minutes is nice enough bittering to me. Its all about the taste you're going for. I like a lot of hop flavor so most of my hops start at 15minutes and add more hops every 5. plus an oz during whirlpool and 2 ounces dry-hopping for 5 days for a nice nose on the beer.

 

[Drummerbrew1985]

Ok so I've made adjustments just to see what beersmith says.
60m summit addition - 63.4 ibu
3kg dme
.5kg cane
.35kg caragold
.5kg wheat dme

Gonna get down from 1.067 to 1.012
So ends up at 7.3% abv.
Phew! Not a driving beer then!!

If I can't get hold of any us-05 in time for brew day (only comes around once a month at the mo) will english yeast be ok or will it give some undesirable flavours?

 

[peterj]

I guess it's best to keep an eye on the fermentation activity and gravity as to when I should remove it from the 18oC chamber. It's supposed to ferment out to 1.016 so any suggestions as to when to move it?
Fantastic advice btw. I'm do glad I joined.

I usually start ramping up the temperature a little bit when fermentation starts to slow down (judged by looking at krausen, churning, etc., usually about 3-5 days) to make sure it attenuates fully.

Ok so I've made adjustments just to see what beersmith says.
60m summit addition - 63.4 ibu
3kg dme
.5kg cane
.35kg caragold
.5kg wheat dme

Gonna get down from 1.067 to 1.012
So ends up at 7.3% abv.
Phew! Not a driving beer then!!

If I can't get hold of any us-05 in time for brew day (only comes around once a month at the mo) will english yeast be ok or will it give some undesirable flavours?

That looks like a good recipe to me. Though when I put it into my software for a 5 gallon batch I'm getting around 1.077 OG. But you're settings and process may be different than mine.

As for yeast, if you can't get the us-05 I would just try to use a clean high attenuating English strain and keep the initial ferment temp around 17-18C. Danstar Nottingham is pretty clean at lower temps and will attenuate well. S-04 would also work as well as WLP007.

 

[Drummerbrew1985]

Thanx for all the advice, I have ordered some 05 from eBay coz why not.
Yeh I tweaked the app to suit my capacities etc.
hopefully will be tasty. Reduced the cane to 250g to get about 6.6%. Not quite ready for the bigger ones yet.
Great to hear from someone experienced and to know that I'm defo ballpark with my recipes, just a little fine tuning to improve and I'm away . Thanx a million for the tweaks.

 

[Drummerbrew1985]

That looks like a good recipe to me. Though when I put it into my software for a 5 gallon batch I'm getting around 1.077 OG. But you're settings and process may be different than mine.


I'm using imperial gallons

 

[Drummerbrew1985]

Failed attempt at quoting

 

[peterj]

I'm using imperial gallons

Oh ok, that makes perfect sense then!

 

[DarthCitra]

let us know how the brew comes out! good luck!

 

[Drummerbrew1985]

Failed attempt at quoting

Learned quoting.

Will do.
I will post og and some other specs later tonight after I finish cleaning.

 

[Drummerbrew1985]

Ok so it went fine up til the point where my chiller decided to get blocked!! Tool me half hour to clear it so ended up hop steeping for an hour after flameout. Not a huge deal but damn annoying!
Also my hop filter is too fine and cloggs up when transferring the cool wort to my fermenter. Live and learn.
Ended up with a 20 yield at 1.065.
Decided on
3kg ex light dme
250g wheat
500g caragold (just for some extra colour)
400g cane sugar
Us-05
Hold at 18 for 5 days
Hold at 21 for 2 weeks
Crash at 5 for 4 days
Bottle for 3 weeks min.
Supposed to be about 7.4 after carb

 

[Drummerbrew1985]

Finally the brew has started fermenting more aggressively. It took over 24 hours lag time.
Does anyone fund that with us-05 or could the 18oC be slowing the initial activity?

 

[peterj]

Finally the brew has started fermenting more aggressively. It took over 24 hours lag time.
Does anyone fund that with us-05 or could the 18oC be slowing the initial activity?

Yeah the 18C would cause it to be a little slower, but I don't think 24 hours is too bad. That's pretty normal for me. Mine are usually 18-36 hours.

 

[Drummerbrew1985]

let us know how the brew comes out! good luck!

Just thought I'd update on the aipa.
Just tasted a hydrometer sample and its down to roughly 1.015
At the mo. not clear but don't expect that yet.
Lovely grapefruit and lemon aroma and flavour balanced by a pleasant alcohol warmth at the end of the mouthful. Still got a while before I bottle but I've got very high hopes for this beer now.
I will update again on bottling night.
Happy homebrewer here

 

[Drummerbrew1985]

Another Apia update.
Gravity down to 1.012
Getting clearer slowly.
Going to sit for a few more days then cold crash at 4oC for a few days
Then bottle at room temp. Tastes very citrusy and spicy. Posdibly tone down on the Amarillo next time to let the cites through a bit more.
Still for a month before first drinkies night

 

[Drummerbrew1985]

This Aipa has been cold crashing for 4 days and I will raise the temp tomorrow in prep for bottling.
I will update again tomorrow during/after bottling

 

[wilserbrewer]

This Aipa has been cold crashing for 4 days and I will raise the temp tomorrow in prep for bottling.
I will update again tomorrow during/after bottling

No need to raise the temp prior to bottling, you can bottle it cold with priming sugar of course, then you must bottle condition / carbonate at room temps.

Also my hop filter is too fine and cloggs up when transferring the cool wort to my fermenter. Live and learn.

No real NEED to filter your hops out, they will settle nicely in the fermenter. Clear beer to the fermenter doesn't mean clear beer in the glass, gravity works wonders, is easy cheap and free!

 

[Drummerbrew1985]

Ok. Good info on the bottling temp.
The reason I wanna filter as much hops and break as I can is coz I put taps on my fermenters and if I don't filter it, the trub layer can settle as high as the tap and so it drags trub through wen I bottle. Should've mounted them higher, I've been tilting the fermenter during fermentation recently so it settles bias the back and doesn't cover the tap.
Thanx for da reply