First time brew - 1 gal american pale ale

[elninbo]

Yesterday was brew day, here are my recipe and notes:
Steeping grains: 8oz caramel 40
Fermentables: 1 lb. breiss golden light DME
Hop schedule: .2 oz cascade (6.9%AA) @ 60
.1 oz cascade @ 30
.2 oz cascade @ knockout
Yeast: ~6g Safale US-05 dry ale yeast

This is a modified recipe that came with a kit from my local brewstore. So I started with ~1.5 gal of tapwater in a 3 gal stainless steel brewpot. Steeped @160 F for 30 min, got an extremely dark color. So much for pale ale lol. Drip drained the grain bag, brought to boil. Removed from heat, added DME. Brought to boil, followed hop schedule. Cooled wort in ice bath in the sink (got to ~70 in 15 min. with lots of ice and the water running on a slow draining sink).
Siphoned the wort into the fermenter (1 gal glass jug) and shook vigorously. There was a lot of trub in the fermenter.
Here's where I might have messed up: I didn't have any preboiled water on hand to rehydrate the yeast, and I was worried my tapwater would stall/kill it. So I skipped that and pitched directly into the fermenter. Capped with a bung & airlock.
It is currently stored at 66F. It's been about 12 hours. Theres a small layer of foam on top, I THINK this is the kreusen (sp?). No visible bubbling yet. I'm hopeful, but worried! I'll keep y'all updated.

 

[kombat]

Is that a typo? Did you seriously use 8 oz of crystal malt in a 1-gallon batch?

 

[TheCADJockey]

Hey buddy, sounds like everything went well. I use US05 for all of my APA's and I never rehydrate for my 5 gallon batches. Just be patient and enjoy seeing how it progresses. Don't worry about the bubbling in an airlock, its not a big deal. Color can be hard to keep light when using extracts, so don't worry about that either. It will come with time. Looking forward to hearing how it works out for you, good luck!

 

[elninbo]

Yeah recipe is correct.

 

[kombat]

OK, in general you're on the right track, but there are a couple of issues here. First of all, if you really did use 8 oz of Caramel 40, that's waaaay too much crystal malt for such a small batch. Generally, you should limit non-fermentable grains/ingredients to no more than 20% of your grain bill. In your case, it's a third. This is the reason your wort looked so dark, and it's also going to severely impede your attenuation. This beer will stall out well above 1.020 and will be very sweet.

The yeast, it would have been better if you'd rehydrated, but even still, you probably pitched the right amount for this brew, but only because there's not much in there for them to chow down on. The only thing they'll be able to consume is the pound of DME, which accounts for roughly 1.035 points of gravity, which would ordinarily require 28 billion cells. 6 grams of dry yeast will yield 120 billion cells if properly rehydrated. Sprinkled dry, as you did, will reduce their viability by up to 50%, but that still leaves you with at least 60 billion cells, or roughly double what you need. Don't worry, that's a good thing. Overpitching is far better than underpitching.

Lastly, the DME, you can hold back up to half of it and add it at the very end of the boil. You need to add some near the beginning (or at least, with your first hop addition) in order to facilitate hop utilization, but boiling it for too long will result in a darkening of the wort and transformation of the sugars into unfermentables, resulting in a sweet beer.

I predict this beer will ferment fine (you pitched enough yeast), but will stall out quite high, and leave you with a cloyingly-sweet beer. Next time, for a 1 gallon batch, limit the crystal malts and other unfermentables to a maximum of 15% of your grain bill, or roughly 3 oz in total.

 

[TheCADJockey]

Sorry for the overly positive feedback, I've never done a 1 gallon batch and math makes me sleepy. It will be a nice learning experience with 1 gallon, and much cheaper than having something go wrong with a larger amount.

 

[BrewHound]

I think you have plenty of room for some hope here. SOME of the sugars from the Crystal malt will remain in your beer and leave it sweeter than expected but I doubt you'll find it so sweet that you won't enjoy it. The roasting process converted grain starches to sugars. I'd employ an optimistic wait and see approach.

 

[elninbo]

Alright, visible fermentation happening at 24hrs. I'm going to brew another batch today using 2oz of the caramel 40.
I didn't take an OG reading of the first batch because I didn't want to pour out the wort. I only have 1 gal and the hydrometer cylinder probably needs about 6-8oz. Today I'm going to do it and pour it back in. I feel pretty confident in my cleanliness/sanitary practice. And I really want that OG.
Here's a question for y'all: how much should I concern myself with hitting a target OG? At this point I think I'm just going to live with what I have, and not concern myself with what it "should" be.

 

[McKnuckle]

It's fine to take a "whatever" attitude towards OG. But I'd suggest that you do measure it (as you already stated), and compare it to an online calculator so that you know what the OG potential is for that grist. Doing this will tell you your mash efficiency, which is a pretty important variable in designing future recipes.

 

[Psylocide]

Since you're doing extract, "hitting the OG target" really doesn't matter much.

You'll hit your target if your water volume/recipe is correct.

 

[bernardsmith]

Lastly, the DME, you can hold back up to half of it and add it at the very end of the boil. You need to add some near the beginning (or at least, with your first hop addition) in order to facilitate hop utilization, .

Apologies if anyone thinks this off-topic and I certainly do not want to hijack this thread but I often read that there needs to be sugars for hop utilization to be effective. What is the basis for that claim? I make meads and I make hopped meads and I add bittering hops to spring water and I don't think I have any problem with utilization. Quite the opposite since the greater the gravity (ie the more sugar in the water ) the less the alpha acids are isomerized. Can you point me to published data (not assumptions or assertions) that show utilization of alpha acids require sugar in the boil? Coz if they don't there would seem to be very little reason to add LME to the boil before flameout unless this was to make use of the enzymes to extract sugars from grains that were not suitably malted. And if there is no good reason to add LME (or DME) to the boil the problems of unnecessarily darker brews (because of the boiling of boiled extracts ) would be immensely reduced ...

 

[adamdillabo]

I was curious so I went to a recipe I had in brew friend.

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1426277547.089878.jpg

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1426277560.621510.jpg

Bottom one is with all fermentable turned to late addition.

Brewers friend is also a great way to see how your late additions will effect your IBU's I suggest trying it before you try a late addition of malt extract so you won't get something way too bitter.

 

[elninbo]

Here's batch #1. Currently brewing #2 with the revisions. Already I can tell the color will be much lighter. (30 min into the boil)

 

[elninbo]

So the second batch is in primary now, visible signs of fermentation after ~12 hrs. I took the OG of this one and got 1.051.

I got nervous and ended up taking a sip and then tossing the rest instead of pouring the sample back in. It wasn't exactly pleasant. Didn't taste anything rancid/foul/funny. That was encouraging.

 

[elninbo]

Don't have a program but I used Palmer's 'How To Brew' to calculate IBUs for batch #2. He has Tinseth's utilization table in there. Here's the recipe again (remember, 1 gallon):

1 lb. dme
.3 oz caramel 40
.2 cascade (6.9AA) @ 60
.1 cascade (6.9AA) @ 30
.2 cascade (6.9AA) @ 0

.5 lbs dme added @60
.5 lbs dme added @0

First I calculated boil gravities for 60 and 30 minutes (0 min is negligible)

.5(lbs dme) x 40(palmer's # for dme) / 1.75 (volume at 60min) = 1.023

.5 x 40 / 1.25 (volume at 30min) = 1.016

Using the utilization table (and some estimation) I get utilization values of .301 and .241
Plugging those into the IBU equation gives me

IBU60 = 1.38 x .301 x 75 / 1 = 31
IBU30 = .69 x .241 x 75 / 1 = 12

Total IBUs for batch #2 should be around 43.

Did anybody follow that?

 

[elninbo]

Update: first part of fermentation has finished on #1 after 5 days. Krausen has all but settled. Batch#2 was topped off a little high and I got some krausen in the airlock. Swapped out for a blow off. #2 is still very active.

 

[elninbo]

Update: could absolutely not wait any longer to check these two out. So I took two gravity readings. Batch #1 clocked in at 1.013 after 12 days in primary. Looked okay and tasted...good! That's all I can say. That's all that matters.

 

[elninbo]

Batch #2 has been in primary for 10 days and clocked in at 1.011! Attenuation is real! Yeast make beer from wort! Hah. Ok so this one is noticeably lighter in appearance, "cleaner" tasting (is that a thing?), and weaker. I'm used to drinking 6%+ beers, so both of these are noticably sessionable at ~4.5%.

I'm happy I did this though, put some worries to rest. I have beer!

Gonna bottle this weekend.

 

[BrewHound]

Update: could absolutely not wait any longer to check these two out. So I took two gravity readings. Batch #1 clocked in at 1.013 after 12 days in primary. Looked okay and tasted...good! That's all I can say. That's all that matters.

Right on! Esp this early in, as long as you enjoy what you've made and are having fun that should be your main driver. Glad to see batch 1 is okay despite some of the warnings that you heard.

 

[TheCADJockey]

Looks like everything is going well for you, congrats. You should try letting one primary for 2 weeks and see if it comes out any different for you. It is amazing what a little time can do. My latest pale ale was in primary for 2 weeks, then I kegged and force carbed it for the couple days as I usually do. It was alright, disappointed at how cloudy it was though. The new week I had to go on a short trip and when I came back (4 week mark in keg) it had dropped crystal clear. A little time, in almost any part of the brewing process goes a long way.