First time brewing questions

[GuinnessGuy74]

Hey guys/gals, I am new to brewing and I am looking for a few pointers. I have done a fair bit of reading (John Palmer s How to, Complete Joy, few message boards). I am fairly familiar with the process. I got my two stage kit and bought a recipe kit (Brewmaster's Select Belgian Witbier). I know the directions are a little incomplete, but I can cope. Here are the ingredients and directions:

Most extracts I see use a 60 min boil. This one looks like 47 (odd number) minutes. Is an hour OK or will it release too much bitters into the beer? Speaking of IBU, when I enter this recipe into BeerSmith, it says the IBU is too high for this style of beer. Should I trust BeerSmith and reduce the amount of hops to bring it down? This is my first homebrew, so I am hesitant to change the recipe.

Also, BeerSmith tell me the OG of this recipe is too low, again for this style. Should i add another half or full pound of Wheat DME to raise the OG?

I was also thinking of dropping the cumin, halving the corriander and using sweet instead of bitter orange...

Am I thinking too much. If so just tell me to shut up and brew...


Sorry for being long winded, and thanks in advance for any help/comments/suggestions!

Jim

 

[dkmitg]

Ive only been brewing for 4 months or so but I think I can help you out a bit. Some directions are off from kits but if your worried about the ibu being to high you can throw the hops in later it take around 60 minutes for the lupilun gland to be broken down to release the alpha acids fully. Relax and have a home brew

 

[Balto]

It looks to me like a 60-65 minute boil. If this is your first brew don't make things complicated and follow the instructions.

 

[beerman0001]

When you used beersmith did you have the bittering hops in for 47 min? I would not change any of the ingredients in the kit if this if your first brew. The big thing is make sure everything that touches the wort after the boil is sanitized, you pith the right amount of yeast and you keep you fermentation temperatures in the low to mid sixties.

 

[Captain Damage]

The style guidelines that Beer Smith shows you are the guidelines that competition judges use. These guidelines were chosen by committee as examples of a sort of mythic archetype of the styles against which the judges will compare the entries. For most styles, there are many commercial examples of good beer that exceed the guidelines in one way or another.

Your kit was designed so that brewers with little or no experience could make a good tasting beer - hopefully good enough that you'll go out and buy another kit right away!

In other words, don't worry about following the style guidelines too closely.

 

[tektonjp]

All pretty good advice above. Follow the recipe for times and additions. You can always brew another with changes and see how you like it.

One side note, I would pull the bag of steeping grains out at 180F. Just to be on the safe side of getting any tannins out of the husks.

Other than that, brew it up and drink one for me.

BTW, what are you doing to cool the wort down?

 

[beerman0001]

All pretty good advice above. Follow the recipe for times and additions. You can always brew another with changes and see how you like it.

One side note, I would pull the bag of steeping grains out at 180F. Just to be on the safe side of getting any tannins out of the husks.

Other than that, brew it up and drink one for me.

BTW, what are you doing to cool the wort down?

Not sure where the fear of boiling grains comes from. If it was an issue how would would we be able to do deconcotion mashes?

 

[Captain Damage]

In a decoction mash you boil some of the wort midway through the mash, adding it back into the mash. You shouldn't be boiling the grains.

The rule of thumb with steeping grains is to keep the steep water below 170F. I think the risk of tannin extraction in re to steeping grains is often a little overstated since it would require both prolonged high heat and high pH to get significant tannin from the 1-2 lbs of grain usually used for steeping. But if you can monitor and control your temperature, why push it? Keep in the 150F-170F range and you'll be safe.

 

[VladOfTrub]

Usually a brewer who has moved to doing decoctions, pays attention to their water chemistry regarding Ph, etc.. When a decoction that has the right Ph is boiled, the tannins won't be released. High mash temp, high sparge temp and high Ph equals a keg of tannin.

 

[GuinnessGuy74]

I appreciate all the help. I was pretty sure I was over-thinking this. And BeerSmith makes that VERY easy to do. I will just brew it straight up that way if it is way wrong, I will know it was my methodology rather than me tinkering with the ingredients...

@tektonjp: I will be cooling the wort by placing it in an ice water bath. I do not have an immersion cooler, yet.

Thanks to all,
Jim