First Recipe!! Any suggestions?

[GeoffreyKerns]

So my wife and I have spent the last three and a half months reading and collecting equipment and prepping for our first brew day, which is looking like it will be this coming Saturday.

A couple days back, we went to our LHS and picked up some ingredients for a sweet stout recipe that I had modified a bit to our tastes. Of course, after I bought everything, I thought that I should probably offer up my ideas for some critique so my first brew doesn't end up tasting like formaldehyde. So here it is... All comments, suggestions, and humorous ridicule are appreciated.

Steeped Grains @ 165 deg F for 30 min:

Caramel Malt 40L - .75 lbs
Chocolate Malt - .75 lbs
Roasted Barley - .75 lbs

Extract:

Dark DME - 5.0 lb

Bittering Hops:

Target (8.5%) - 1 oz - boiled 60 min

15 Min Additions:

Fuggle (4.0%) - 1.25 oz

Molasses - 0.5 lbs

Lactose - 0.5 lbs

Fermax - 5 tsp

10 Minute Addition
Whirlfloc Tablets - 1 Tab

Yeast
White Labs WLP002 English Ale Yeast pitched from a starter.

Beer tools gave me the following based on the above:

OG: 1.059
TG: 1.015
Color: 31.62 deg SRM
ABV: 5.79%
IBU: 38.9

Ill be doing a 5 gallon batch fermented in glass carboys at 68-70 degrees.

Planning on a week in primary, two weeks in secondary, and two more weeks in bottles before enjoying the first batch.


Does anything look really wrong/bad/laughable to anybody? Your input is greatly appreaciated! :rockin:

 

[HOPCousin]

When I entered it into beer calculus it showed up as 4.9%. And I think it is assuming a 60 minute mash for your grains. You may want to do a 60 minute mash and sparge to get all the flavor and more fermentable sugar to get to your target %abv. If you don't have a cooler you can stick the grains in a pot in your oven set around your target mash temp.
Mash with 2.8 quarts of water 12 degrees above your target temp (steeping for 30 or 60 which ever way you go)and sparge with the same amount of water at 172 degrees and let it steep for 15 minutes.
I think that you're fine because the extract will get you close to where you want to be regardless. That's how I've done most of my partial mash's and they have come out well.
Are you working from a kit with directions or have you put the steps together your self?
Have fun!

 

[HOPCousin]

I can post the directions from one of my old yankee brewer kits if its helpful. They are partial mash with similar ingredients as your are doing.
There are a lot of little steps and timing of things that are helpful to know as you go through it to make it smoother.

 

[dcp27]

you can't mash specialty grains, there's no enzyme activity. just keep with the 30min steep @150-165F
skip the secondary, its unnecessary. just leave it in the primary for 3 weeks then bottle. also, during the peak of fermentation, the internal temp will raise 5-10F, so you actually want the ambient a few degrees lower to prevent extra phenols/fusels from forming if it gets too high in the 70s

 

[MBasile]

When I entered it into beer calculus it showed up as 4.9%. And I think it is assuming a 60 minute mash for your grains. You may want to do a 60 minute mash and sparge to get all the flavor and more fermentable sugar to get to your target %abv. If you don't have a cooler you can stick the grains in a pot in your oven set around your target mash temp.
Mash with 2.8 quarts of water 12 degrees above your target temp (steeping for 30 or 60 which ever way you go)and sparge with the same amount of water at 172 degrees and let it steep for 15 minutes.
I think that you're fine because the extract will get you close to where you want to be regardless. That's how I've done most of my partial mash's and they have come out well.
Are you working from a kit with directions or have you put the steps together your self?
Have fun!

Call me drunk, but it looks like he's doing an extract brew with specialty grains steeped.

 

[Downhillfromhere]

throw in a pound of Pale Two Row when you steep to Convert the starches in the specialty malts.

 

[GeoffreyKerns]

you can't mash specialty grains, there's no enzyme activity. just keep with the 30min steep @150-165F
skip the secondary, its unnecessary. just leave it in the primary for 3 weeks then bottle. also, during the peak of fermentation, the internal temp will raise 5-10F, so you actually want the ambient a few degrees lower to prevent extra phenols/fusels from forming if it gets too high in the 70s

Thanks for the input. I had been thinking about skipping the secondary, as I have read that you really do not start to have problems with autolysis for quite a long time, but was told by somebody at my LHS to go ahead and do the secondary.... I think I will take your advice and just leave it in the primary.

My fermentation setup allows me to monitor the internal temp and titrate the ambient temp accordingly, so I was definitely planning on keeping the beer <72F.

Also, I had a little bit of hesitation in using Whirlfloc with the WLP002. Is this addition really necessary given the high floculation of WLP002?

 

[GeoffreyKerns]

throw in a pound of Pale Two Row when you steep to Convert the starches in the specialty malts.

Pardon my ignorance, but I was under the impression that the roasting of these malts sufficiently converts the starches and that this is why they are considered acceptable for steeping.

Can I really make a big difference by providing the enzymes present in the pale two row in 30 mins? If so, I am totally down to do so.

 

[dcp27]

Pardon my ignorance, but I was under the impression that the roasting of these malts sufficiently converts the starches and that this is why they are considered acceptable for steeping.

Can I really make a big difference by providing the enzymes present in the pale two row in 30 mins? If so, I am totally down to do so.

nope, you were right.

adding the whirlfloc wont hurt anything, but if u go with the 3 week primary its benefits will basically be moot (at least it seemed that way in a recent BYO)

good luck!

 

[GeoffreyKerns]

nope, you were right.

adding the whirlfloc wont hurt anything, but if u go with the 3 week primary its benefits will basically be moot (at least it seemed that way in a recent BYO)

good luck!

Thanks for the information; you've been a great help. I feel a lot better about going forward now.