First Stab at a Recipe

[OldStyler]

Hey guys,

I've got a few extract kits making their respective ways through my fermenters and I have got to thinking maybe I would like to start branching out and making more mistakes along the lines of "I don't know what I'm doing with ingredients" as opposed to "I don't know what I'm doing at all".

That being said, I just decided I would try to come up with something that seemed to make sense in some style, but isn't something I could just buy in a box. Could you take a look at this hair-brained attempt at a recipe and help fill me in on what it would take for this to make sense? Oh, and I'm sticking to extract for now, not ready for AG. Thanks dudes.

Speciality Grains:
Golden Naked Oats - 1 lb is that enough? Or do I go to 2 lbs or so?

Malt:
Pilsen Malt - 6 lbs
Wheat Male - 3.3 lbs
Was going to had half the malt right away, and then the 2nd half 30 min into the boil. Does that help with anything? I thought it helped the color, I would like this to be a lighter colored beer.

Hops: (lots)
60 min: 2 oz Galena
40 min: 1 oz Mt. Hood
25 min: 1 oz Mt. Hood
10 min: 1 oz Amarillo
Dry hop for 5-7 days, 1 oz Amarillo

Yeast:
I like the Wyeast 1056 American Ale. Would this suffice given how much malt I'm throwing into the pot?

Also, how do I figure out what the OG should be vs. the FG? I don't think I've gotten to that point in Palmer's book yet...

Also, since I'm such a rookie, is the hop schedule just ridiculous? Would it be a better idea to maybe just stick to one kind of hop at 60 min and another oz or so at 15 min?

Any critiques, jokes, or help would be appreciated. Thanks again!

 

[NigeltheBold]

When I first started coming up with my own recipes, I used a website called Hopville.com. It has a recipe maker that helps you make good beers. It will do many calculations for you and tell you where your gravities should be relative to one another. You can also choose a style from a list and it will look at your recipe and tell you if it's within the style's parameters. IBU's are also calculated for you based on your hop schedule, so depending on how hoppy or bitter you want your beer to be, you can change the hop schedule to your liking.

 

[BigEd]

Hey guys,

I've got a few extract kits making their respective ways through my fermenters and I have got to thinking maybe I would like to start branching out and making more mistakes along the lines of "I don't know what I'm doing with ingredients" as opposed to "I don't know what I'm doing at all".

That being said, I just decided I would try to come up with something that seemed to make sense in some style, but isn't something I could just buy in a box. Could you take a look at this hair-brained attempt at a recipe and help fill me in on what it would take for this to make sense? Oh, and I'm sticking to extract for now, not ready for AG. Thanks dudes.

Speciality Grains:
Golden Naked Oats - 1 lb is that enough? Or do I go to 2 lbs or so?

Malt:
Pilsen Malt - 6 lbs
Wheat Male - 3.3 lbs
Was going to had half the malt right away, and then the 2nd half 30 min into the boil. Does that help with anything? I thought it helped the color, I would like this to be a lighter colored beer.

Hops: (lots)
60 min: 2 oz Galena
40 min: 1 oz Mt. Hood
25 min: 1 oz Mt. Hood
10 min: 1 oz Amarillo
Dry hop for 5-7 days, 1 oz Amarillo

Yeast:
I like the Wyeast 1056 American Ale. Would this suffice given how much malt I'm throwing into the pot?

Also, how do I figure out what the OG should be vs. the FG? I don't think I've gotten to that point in Palmer's book yet...

Also, since I'm such a rookie, is the hop schedule just ridiculous? Would it be a better idea to maybe just stick to one kind of hop at 60 min and another oz or so at 15 min?

Any critiques, jokes, or help would be appreciated. Thanks again!

First, congratulations on jumping in. Brewing your own recipes can be a lot more satisfying than simply buy kits. It would be helpful if you let us know what it is you are trying to make. It looks sort of like an American IPA/IIPA from the list. The oats need to be mashed. Using them alone as a steeping grain is pretty much a waste of time and money. They are only going to get wet if you steep them. If you are after body there is already about 50% wheat in the wheat extract so you should be good there. If you are looking for oat flavor you will need to do a mini-mash with the oats. In that case just use a half pound and mix them with a pound of pale malt. Even if you just steep that combination it will give you some amount of converted sugar and flavor.

Chabutna has a good suggestion regarding recipe calculators. There are versions on-line like Beertools and the previously mentioned Hopville. By plugging in your recipe it allows you to see what the anticipated results of OG, IBU, etc are and they can be very useful.