First recipe batch questions

[Patcreery]

Hi all, I'm new to the forum and to brewing. I've got my first non-kit batch in primary now ( my 4th batch overall), and me being the overachiever that I am, took some liberties with a few tweaks to make it my own. One of the tweaks was: the recipe called for dry-hopping with Amarillo for 7 days in secondary, but I wanted to double dry hop with Amarillo and citra, so I am dry hopping in primary with Amarillo and racking to secondary for the second charge.
My first question is a: is this a sound practice, and b: is this overkill? ( I love piney, citrusy dry hopped ipas)
My second question is: having loaded the recipe as I tweaked it ( copy below) into beersmith, it looks like my abv is going to be kind of low, and my color kind of high, any suggestions for my next try for this recipe would be great.
( I know, I know, not really a question...)
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1466798061.062448.jpgView attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1466798253.511243.jpg

 

[Sammy86]

Question 1: no need to rack to secondary...dry hop in primary and then bottle/keg. No need to move the beer unnecessarily and risk oxidation and contaminants getting in there.

Question 2: what do you mean by ABV low and color kind of high? Need more info on what you're looking to change/do.

 

[Sourz4life]

Yea, as far as question 1, dry hopping can be done in just primary. You can do it in secondary if you want but its not really necessary. If you are planning on kegging you can dry hop in the keg as well. Question 2 doesn't really have an answer. The grains you use pretty much affect the color of it, beersmith isn't always 100% right on that as well but its a guesstimate. As far as the ABV's it calculates it off the known ferment able sugar content of the grain you chose. So to increase that you'd just up the grain amount your using, up your efficiency or you could even use things like dextrose or honey to up the ABV%. I would suggest just altering the grain bill though as its more cost effective and only makes sense unless your brew is planned to have something extra in it.

 

[Patcreery]

I was concerned about the "grassy" flavor from leaving the first charge on for 2 weeks, and my abv and color were out of range in beersmith American IPA, but on reflection, I should probably wait until I try the finished product before trying to find ways to change it

 

[Sourz4life]

Yea, the tastings of it before its had time to settle will be different then the finished product. Most beers taste "green" until at least 2-3 weeks of aging after fermenting.

 

[brewpool]

Double dry hopping is certainly practiced. The Pliny the Elder clone I'm doing dry hops with 3 different hops.

As far as Beersmith, if you haven't already, you'll need to create an equipment profile for your setup and dial the parameters in (kettle size, tun volume, boil off rate, etc). How did your starting gravity compare to Beersmith?

 

[Patcreery]

I set all of that up, I'm still a noob, extract only, and this is my first foray into specially grains, even...beersmith came up with 1053, I hit 1052

 

[brewpool]

Ah, got it. If the beer looks dark you could always split your extract additions. Add about half at start of boil then add the other half at flame out. I did that back in my extract days and noticed my IPAs lighten up a good amount.

 

[Patcreery]

I did a late extract addition, only dme at beginning of boil, and all lme at 15 min left

 

[Patcreery]

Like I said, I'm jumping the gun with my second question, I'll revisit after I've actually tasted what is in the tank.. But I am taking the advice about not racking. From what I've read, Amarillo takes about 7 days for the hop oils to integrate, while citra only takes 3-4 days, so my new plan for the hopping schedule is to add citra at the day 4 of the Amarillo charge, and then bottle on day 7-8 , (assuming gravity is good) after starting the dry hopping process on day 6 of primary, giving me a full 2 weeks

 

[Yooper]

Like I said, I'm jumping the gun with my second question, I'll revisit after I've actually tasted what is in the tank.. But I am taking the advice about not racking. From what I've read, Amarillo takes about 7 days for the hop oils to integrate, while citra only takes 3-4 days, so my new plan for the hopping schedule is to add citra at the day 4 of the Amarillo charge, and then bottle on day 7-8 , (assuming gravity is good) after starting the dry hopping process on day 6 of primary, giving me a full 2 weeks

That's not been my experience. I get great extraction from Amarillo, and typically will dryhop 3-5 days with it.

I generally add my dryhops at the same time, as to not expose the beer unnecessarily to oxygen for each addition.

 

[Yooper]

I did a late extract addition, only dme at beginning of boil, and all lme at 15 min left

Next time, consider using 1 pound of DME in the boil for every gallon of water, and add the rest of the DME and all of the LME at flame out. Then you don't have to wait for the wort to return to a boil like you do with the 15 minute addition, and the wort won't darken as much. It will also mean a 'cleaner' flavor, with less "cooked extract" taste to it.

 

[Patcreery]

I only used 1lb dme, the rest was lme, so I should have had more total extract for the full boil? Also, I lay down a blanket of co2 when I open up to dry hop, is this useful, or am I wasting time and effort?

 

[Yooper]

I only used 1lb dme, the rest was lme, so I should have had more total extract for the full boil? Also, I lay down a blanket of co2 when I open up to dry hop, is this useful, or am I wasting time and effort?

If you did a full boil, adding 1 lb DME was fine, and also the wort from the grains you steeped.

No one commented on your recipe, but for next time maybe consider running it by us first so we could help you not make a mistake with steeping too much crystal malt or with too much biscuit malt and take a look at your hopping schedule, until you get more comfortable with recipe formulation.

Flooding the vessel with c02 won't hurt, but it won't help as much as many people would assume (simply due to the laws of physics). It's always good practice to do everything you can to minimize oxygen exposure to your beer, so it's a good idea to use c02 when you can. Every little bit helps.

 

[Patcreery]

So I went ahead and hit it with the citra, pulled a sample with my thief, checked the gravity and tasted, that was on Saturday, the sg showed 1014, I'm hoping for 1012 and to bottle on Friday [emoji120], the flavor was kind of harsh, but I am at about 73 IBU according to beersmith, and at room temp, full of yeast, and not carbed, but I actually like the color, update to follow

 

[Patcreery]

Not only did I hit 1012 on the nose, but, wow, this is one tasty IPA ...the Amarillo and citra layered together nicely with pine and grapefruit, with tropical fruit in the background on the nose, on the palate, none of the bitter harshness that I got a week ago ( save a tiny tannic bite that I hope will fade with bottle conditioning) and nice balance with a malty sweet note balanced by the 70+ IBU's, and dry hop aromas for days... I think I did pretty good...(shameless back pat) oh, and I came out to 5.2% with 76% attenuation

 

[Patcreery]

Update: I just tasted ( by tasted I mean drank..4) after two weeks in the bottle.... I did good! Color is just a tad dark, but I will address that on the next batch, nice citrus and pine aromas, and great balance, if a touch malty for my taste, overall, I'm very happy with this brew for my first IPA! Thanks for all of the input, I'm re-upping this recipe with some minor tweaks, and will let you know how my new house brew evolves. I would send a pic, but I drank all of the chilled bottles