Hey guys, I'm back--Recipe Help

[Somerville]

Hey, I don't know if you guys remember me from late last year, but I'm back. I went to community college in Santa Cruz and the kitchen in the place I lived couldn't accomodate brewing. Anyways, I'm back and going to community college near home so I can start brewin' again! Totally stoked. Anyways, my last brew, the California Pale Ale was good but I realized I had been measuring my hops wrong the whole time. I don't remember how...but I was getting less hoppy beer. It was still good though, just not callin' it a pale ale haha. Gettin' to the point, I'm goin at an other American Pale Ale. The following is what I have ordered from Northern Brewer. I know I should have consulted the forum first before I ordered but I couldn't stop myself. So, please inform me if theres something terrible wrong. Also, I'm not too sure how to calculate bittering units so I might be putting too much in for an american pale ale (I'll probably search the forum for an answer to this). Here goes:

Extract: NortherBrewer Gold Malt Syrup 6lbs

Steeping: .5 lb of Med. Crystal
.5 lb of Briess Carapils
1 lb of Gambrinus Honey Malt (Will this make my beer too sweet?)

Bittering: 2oz Cascade
1 oz Perle

Flavoring: 1oz Cascade

Finishing: 1 oz Willamette

Yeast: White Labs American Ale Blend

Thanks guys.

 

[homebrewer_99]

Looking at your recipe, it doesn't mention HBUs just ounces. By your recipe you could use 1 oz at 2% or 11%. That's your problem....

 

[Somerville]

hm, well, perhaps I'll wait until I get them to see. Any other recommendations? Does it look good?

 

[Dude]

In the meantime you can use a program like the recipator to figure out an estimate so you know where you are headed with the recipe. Just google recipator.

I think SNPA is around 35 IBUs so if you shoot for something around 35-40 you'd be good. I find a recipe is just about perfect if you go for a 1:1 (or slightly less) BU:GU ratio. That is, if your starting gravity is 1.045, shoot for IBUs of around 45. As I said, slightly less is always good too, for the non-hop heads.

 

[Somerville]

ok, I went to recipator and came up with this edit:

6lbs light extract

steep: .5lb 40L American crystal
.5lb carapils
hops:
60min: 1oz cascade
30min: 1oz cascade, 1oz perle
15min: .5oz cascade
end/aroma: 1oz willamette

I dont want it to be too hoppy and recipator said this would make it 42 IBUS...much higher than SNPA. So, should I ditch that 30 min cascade and put it somewhere else...what do you think? Oh, and I ditched the Honey Malt grain...afraid it will be too sweet.

 

[SwAMi75]

Welcome back!

I'm willing to bet the kit includes instructions detailing the hop additions.

 

[Cheesefood]

ok, I went to recipator and came up with this edit:

6lbs light extract

steep: .5lb 40L American crystal
.5lb carapils
hops:
60min: 1oz cascade
30min: 1oz cascade, 1oz perle
15min: .5oz cascade
end/aroma: 1oz willamette

I dont want it to be too hoppy and recipator said this would make it 42 IBUS...much higher than SNPA. So, should I ditch that 30 min cascade and put it somewhere else...what do you think? Oh, and I ditched the Honey Malt grain...afraid it will be too sweet.

Looking at you Malt:Hops, you won't have to worry about it being sweet. It should be plenty bitter for you.

Looks good. I'd have thrown in the honey malt, but that's because I like a malty beer with strong hop afternotes.

 

[Dude]

Looks good. I'd have thrown in the honey malt, but that's because I like a malty beer with strong hop afternotes.

Wha?

 

[Somerville]

Welcome back!

I'm willing to bet the kit includes instructions detailing the hop additions.

Actually, its not a kit. Even when I first started I never bought a kit. I thought they were kind of cheap. Plus, my HBS didn't really sell them. I told him I wanted a german beer and he started stacking the grain and hops up. I had to quickly learn what the hell I was dealing with haha.
So, from what you guys are saying, its going to be a really hoppy beer. Im looking for a nice balance. I don't want it any hoppier than SNPA and idealy, a tad less than SNPA. I could add the honey malt... but, Northern Brewer, where I bought it, said that it would add a great amount of sweetness or something. I definitely don't want too malty of a beer. A nice balance. So from what I have...what do you think? Should I add the honey malt, should I take some hops away? Thanks guys! :rockin:

 

[Somerville]

Ok ok, I got the evaluation version of ProMash (I'm sure I'll buy it soon) so this is what I'm down to. For some reason I always thought that APAs had a lot of hops but then again I consider myself a semi-beginner (2 batches under my belt). I guess APAs have an avg of 3 ozs of hops and an oz to dry hope. Well, feel free to comment on my final recipe. I ditched the Willamette hops for aroma (I didn't see it in anyone elses recipes so I figured it was a no go zone).

Extract: 6lbs NortherBrewer Gold Malt Extract

Steep: 1lb carapils
1lb 40L Crystal
1lb Honet Malt

Hops: 60 min 1oz Cascade (pellet)
30 min 0.5oz Perle
5 min 1oz Cascade
Dry Hop 1oz Cascade

Yeast: NEW WLP060 American Ale Blend

ProMash says 41 IBUs...sounds kind of high...what do you think?

 

[Dude]

Ok ok, I got the evaluation version of ProMash (I'm sure I'll buy it soon) so this is what I'm down to. For some reason I always thought that APAs had a lot of hops but then again I consider myself a semi-beginner (2 batches under my belt). I guess APAs have an avg of 3 ozs of hops and an oz to dry hope. Well, feel free to comment on my final recipe. I ditched the Willamette hops for aroma (I didn't see it in anyone elses recipes so I figured it was a no go zone).

Extract: 6lbs NortherBrewer Gold Malt Extract

Steep: 1lb carapils
1lb 40L Crystal
1lb Honet Malt

Hops: 60 min 1oz Cascade (pellet)
30 min 0.5oz Perle
5 min 1oz Cascade
Dry Hop 1oz Cascade

Yeast: NEW WLP060 American Ale Blend

ProMash says 41 IBUs...sounds kind of high...what do you think?

Hops look good, but the grain bill needs some changes. A pound of honey malt will make that beer undrinkable--a little goes a long way with that stuff. Try a quarter lb. for a start, trust me. And for the crystal and cara-pils, you'll be steeping these, correct? Knock both amounts down to a half pound.

 

[Somerville]

Hops look good, but the grain bill needs some changes. A pound of honey malt will make that beer undrinkable--a little goes a long way with that stuff. Try a quarter lb. for a start, trust me. And for the crystal and cara-pils, you'll be steeping these, correct? Knock both amounts down to a half pound.

Thanks man. So I'm assuming that the honey malt must give off a lot of sugar, thus the decrease. I'll definitely make the changes that youve said here but just to increase my knowledge, why the changes in crystal and cara-pils? Thanks!

 

[Dude]

Thanks man. So I'm assuming that the honey malt must give off a lot of sugar, thus the decrease. I'll definitely make the changes that youve said here but just to increase my knowledge, why the changes in crystal and cara-pils? Thanks!

Well, the cara-pils might not need to be changed for an extract recipe, but in an AG recipe a half pound is all that is necessary. Also in an extract beer, you can always add dextrine powder to get more body. I'm not even sure steeping cara-pils will do the trick anyway.

As for the crystal malt--too much unfermentables added to the grist will make the beer overly sweet. If that is what you want--keep it in there. I'm more of a fan of the middle road--slightly dry, but a touch of sweetness and the half pound of crystal in a 1.050-1.057ish APA usually is just about right.

One more note on the honey malt--it is a sweetness but it has a really strong flavor. I use 1/4 lb. now and it is good, but DEFINITLEY detectable. Too much would ruin a beer, IMHO.

I'm no recipe expert--and hopefully the extract afficianados will chime in to what they do. I'm just suggesting what works for me.

 

[Somerville]

So its been 5 days in the PF and fermentation has slowed to 1 min intervals. I decided to try just a wee bit and my first impression was that it tasted a bit like really hoppy watery beer...I could be mistaken though, I only had a tiny taste...heres was my final recipe:
6lb LME
steep .5lb crystal 40l
.5 lb carapils
60min 1 oz perle 7.7%
30min 1 oz cascade 5.6%
15min 1 oz cascade
aroma: .5oz cascade
WLyeast American Ale (new)

I decided to ditch the honeymalt. I'm going to put it 1-2weeks in secondary...what do you guys think? Do I have a potential bad batch or do you think my first impression was flawed?

Oh yeah and the reason why the hops are so high is that I am only boiling 2.5 gals and then filling it up to 5gal in PF...