First Partial Mash...

[dantodd]

Howdy all,

New here and just returning to homebrewing. I went to the LHBS today and picked up their "all plastic" kit and a recipe for "Liberty Style" APA. I did replace the cascades pellets with Amarillo Gold whole hops.

This is my first batch since brewing extract only 12 years ago back in college. I also made a lot of mead but that's another thread...

Here is the recipe:


BeerSmith Recipe Printout - www.beersmith.com
Recipe: Liberty -Style-
Brewer: Dan Todd
Asst Brewer:
Style: American Pale Ale
TYPE: Partial Mash
Taste: (35.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Boil Size: 6.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.058 SG
Estimated Color: 8.8 SRM
Estimated IBU: 45.8 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
6.00 lb Pale Liquid Extract (8.0 SRM) Extract 68.6 %
1.75 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 20.0 %
0.50 lb Victory Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 5.7 %
0.25 lb Barley, Flaked (1.7 SRM) Grain 2.9 %
0.25 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 2.9 %
0.50 oz Centennial [10.00%] (60 min) Hops 17.5 IBU
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [9.20%] (10 min) Hops 11.7 IBU
0.50 oz Centennial [10.00%] (20 min) Hops 10.6 IBU
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50%] (5 min) Hops 5.9 IBU
1 Pkgs Nottingham (Danstar #-) Yeast-Ale


Mash Schedule: SF Brewcraft, Liberty, No Mash Out
Total Grain Weight: 2.75 lb
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temp Step Time
Mash In Add 12.51 qt of water at 157.3 F 154.0 F 40 min

 

[dantodd]

Well the brewing went "MOSTLY" well.

I screwed up the hopping but knew it immediately and was able to change later additions so it didn't screw up the ultimate IBU.

It is happily fermenting away in the kitchen at around 77d I'll move it downstairs to a slightly cooler room this evening so it should be around 72d by morning.

 

[LBbrew]

get that doggy down. one of the best investments i made lately was a $4 large plastic tub that I plop my carboy in, add some water and ice as needed to keep the temp down. works nice, and gives me an excuse to look at it.

 

[dantodd]

I did move it downstairs yesterday morning and it is happily bubbling away at about once every 50 seconds or so. I'm out of town tomorrow and sunday so it will get racked off to secondary on monday.

 

[dantodd]

We moved the brew to secondary today. We hit our target of 1.052 and today's SG was 1.014 from a target of 1.013

I didn't filter out the hops (leaves) or the hot/cold break from the wort when it moved to secondary. The beer tasted a pretty green today but was fairly well balanced and just a little sweet. I am quite happy with the results so far. My brewbuddy who has never brewed before was estatic he had only ever tasted bad homebrew before and was afraid we'd end up with the same. I think he was elated that it was even drinkable.

Our beer of the evening included (since we have no homebrew yet)
Lagunita IPA (very nice, well balanced beer)
Firestone Double barrel (also very nice)
Delerium Tremons (not terrible but too thin for me, not impressed for the price)

Needless to say I am happily buzzed and the meatloaf in the oven smells divine. I think I'll have a couple Lagunitas IPAs with dinner.

 

[disaffected]

That's really good that your beer is drinkable after a week. It should get much better as it conditions.

The main reason for racking from primary to secondary is to get the beer off the trub and yeast ahd grunge that accumulates at the bottom of the fermentation vessel. If you're going to transfer all that stuff to secondary anyway, there's really no point.

Did you pour it or siphon it? If you siphon, you can easily leave the trub and flocculated yeast and other debris behind. I like to put my primary up on the counter in the kitchen a day before I rack to secondary so that the debris has a chance to settle again before transferring.

 

[dantodd]

sorry, I mis-spoke (typed) I did leave it behind when racking to secondary. I should have filtered it off before primary. There are a couple leaves in secondary but I did manage to avoid most of that. I was nice and sanitary. Everything soaked in 1-step and my primary has a spigot so I hooked my sanitized hose to that and managed to move it with minimal aeration.

Hopefully it will clarify in secondary, I didn't add any irish moss or any other fining so it is possible that I can have a cloudy beer at the end of it all.

 

[dantodd]

Well, I just bottled my first beer in 12 years....

I am not thrilled at this point. It tastes a little flabby. It is supposed to be within the APA style guides but doesn't seem to have adequate hops for my taste. It's almost like an extra malty ordinary bitter, quite odd.

I also screwed up and used a primary/bottling bucket as a secondary. When I opened the tap to move the beer to the bottling bucket it got a little bit cloudy. I need to use a carboy for secondary in the future.

I also had trouble getting most of the beer out of bucket without getting lots of hops leaves in the bottling bucket. I need to use a hop sock for dry hopping in the future.

Live and learn, I'm sure it will be drinkable once conditioned but certainly not excellent yet.

 

[david_42]

I'd say give it a month. Amarillo & centennial is an good combination.

 

[dantodd]

Thanks. I'm hoping it will get more balanced as time goes on. It is a recipe kit from the lhbs; mostly. I did pop the IBU up but only a couple points, glad I did that!