Help with my first All-grain Recipe...

[TerapinChef]

It's attempting to be a Holiday English Brown...It's my first all grain and my 3rd batch ever...it was adapted slightly from a recipe in Homebrewing for Dummies.
(God that's so embarrasing to say!)

Anyways here it is:

7.5# Marris Otter
1.25# 60L Crystal
6oz Chocolate Malt
1 oz Fuggles (60min)
1/2 oz Fuggles (30min)
1 oz Kent Goldings (5 min)
1# Dark Brown Sugar
4 oz Dextrin powder
1t Irish Moss (10 min)
1 oz sliced fresh ginger root (10 min)
1T whole allspice (10 min)
1 cinnamon stick (10 min)
3 green cardamom pods (10 min)
1 orange rind (realistically, probably from a navel orange) (10 min)

Single infusion mash, (90 min at 156, sparge at 170)

Any feedback on the recipe in general, especially spices and their quantities (and the method of their infusion into the wort) would be greatly appreciated.

-Also I'm new to the forums, so hello everyone!

 

[Ó Flannagáin]

Sounds interesting for sure, you could probably cut all of the spices in half and still be happy with it though. I've learned that overspicing the holiday ale as a VERY easy thing to do. This one looks really good though.

Homebrewing for dummies, eh? Who wrote that book?

 

[Chad]

Hi, Terapin, welcome to HBT. I've been following your adventures on eGullet. Chris's class seems to have made a lot of converts. Looks like you're doing really well.

I plugged your recipe into Beersmith and don't see anything too weird. I have to admit, I've not made a holiday beer yet, so others can better advise you on spicing. Are you making a 5 gallon batch or 5.5? The OG, color and bitterness changes depending on which you are doing, with the 5 gallon batch being stronger, darker and more bitter (although still pretty mild and on the sweet side).

By the way, if you haven't tried Beersmith yet, you need to. There's a 30-day free trial, but I'd sent them my $20 by day five or so. Very helpful in understanding what minor tweaks do to the final beer.

Chad

 

[PseudoChef]

Chefs unite!

Welcome to the forums. This recipe also looks pretty good to me, but (and it makes more work, so I don't really know how feasible it would be) I'd cut all the spices in half as well. Upon transfer to secondary, give it a taste. If it's not spiced to your liking, you can also boil a cup or two of water on the side with some more spices and add that to secondary.

Really easy to overspice a beer from what I've gathered.

 

[TerapinChef]

I'd cut all the spices in half as well. Upon transfer to secondary, give it a taste. If it's not spiced to your liking, you can also boil a cup or two of water on the side with some more spices and add that to secondary.

I think that sounds like a very reasonable approach. I'd rather have to add them later than put too much in at the beginning. Everyone seems to agree that they are worried about the spice levels, so that makes me feel better.

Homebrewing for dummies, eh? Who wrote that book?

This was written by one Marty Nachel and I did find it to be quite informative. If nothing else it got me far less drunk than Charlie Papazian's book. Man if I drank a beer every time that guy told me to I'd be dead!

Also, it was recommended to me on Egullet that I perhaps increase the amount of malt involved as "strongly spiced ales don't really work well at lower gravities". The person who started their homebrewing course recommended that I increase the base malt to at least 9 pounds.

 

[ohiobrewtus]

Homebrewing for dummies, eh? Who wrote that book?

I think it was this guy:

[youtube]sAJKWCdaPq4[/youtube]

 

[Chad]

I'd cut all the spices in half as well. Upon transfer to secondary, give it a taste. If it's not spiced to your liking, you can also boil a cup or two of water on the side with some more spices and add that to secondary.

I think that sounds like a very reasonable approach. I'd rather have to add them later than put too much in at the beginning. Everyone seems to agree that they are worried about the spice levels, so that makes me feel better.

That makes a lot of sense.

Also, it was recommended to me on Egullet that I perhaps increase the amount of malt involved as "strongly spiced ales don't really work well at lower gravities". The person who started their homebrewing course recommended that I increase the base malt to at least 9 pounds.

Hmm, I dunno. Beersmith is showing an estimated OG of 1.060 for a 5 gallon batch with an ABV of 5.78%. That's with 75% efficiency from your mash. The OG changes to 1.054 if you are making a 5.5 gallon batch (to account for losses to hydrometer samples, Kettle Krud, etc.). Nine pounds of Marris Otter puts you at 1.068 and 6.63ABV. I'd certainly defer to Chris's experience, but that does seem a bit high. Maybe some of the folks who do holiday beers can chime in.

Chad

 

[eviljafar]

I think it was this guy:

That's hilarious. At least I know where I've been going wrong. I haven't been using A-D-J-U-N-C-T and I haven't got one of those spatulas either.