How do you think this beer will turn out?

[ejg700]

I'm pretty new to AG brewing. So far, I have about 10 batches under my belt. I have yet to make an enjoyable beer. They have all been drinkable, but not quite enjoyable. I keep making stupid mistakes... Too high temp on the fermentation... Too low mash temps... Adding flavoring extracts with potassium sorbate, and wondering why my gravity stalls out at 1.034, lol! (that one was the best!) Adding too much flavoring extracts... The list goes on. Anyway, I know that it's a learning experince, and I'm hoping that I have all of the really dumb mistakes behind me. I decided I was going to take as much care, and consideration in making my next beer. I wanted something that was extremely malty,with a thick, shaving cream head. I also wanted a good hop balance that wasn't too overwhelming. This is what I came up with:

10# Golden Promise
1# Melanoidin? malt
1# Golden naked oats
1# Honey malt
1.5# biscuit malt
.5# Aromatic
.75# Crystal 60
.5# Coffee malt
.5# Chocolate

I mashed at 149-50 for 30 minutes, and 156 for 45 minutes. I mashed with 5.2 gallons of water so I could "no sparge," in hopes of a maltier beer. I figured with such a relatively large grain bill, the first runnings would be pretty high gravity. They were. 4.5 gallons@ 1.079 I did do a 1.5 gallon sparge, and set that aside in a separate vessel, as top off. I boiled the separate mini wort for 30 minutes to remove any nasties that might spoil the final product. I used 1oz of Summit hops, boiled separately for 60 minutes, and strained as well. I'm not sure which IBU calculator is the most accurate, as I've gotten widely varying results- so I decided to use taste as an indicator- infusing the hop tea until the desired hop level is achieved. It seems as though using a tea ball, or hops bags, I don't get full hop utilization. I know if I had a bigger brew kettle, none of those extra steps would be necessary

The first time I tried the taste method, I didn't account for all of the hop residue floating around in the wort- so my IBU's were waay lower than I thought they'd be. After the addition of the hop tea, and top off wort, gravity was still at 1.079, and if I were to estimate, the IBU's are sitting somewhere between 25-30. Right now it's sitting in my spare bathtub being chowed away on by hungry US-04 troops@64 degrees. One oz of cascade will go in the fermentor once the vigorous fermentation dies down.

To all the experienced AG'rs out there, what what you have done differently- besides buy a bigger brew pot? Were any ingredients in the grist too much for what I'm trying to accomplish? How do you think this beast will turn out? If it means anything, it's the best tasting/smelling/looking wort, I've produced so far

 

[erikpete18]

Your grain bill looks alright by me, actually had to look up coffee malt. Looks like its a variety of a roasted malt, so you've got a honey/coffee stout there maybe? Either way it looks pretty tasty, and it looks like you did pretty well as far as efficiency goes without actually doing the math.

I used 1oz of Summit hops, boiled separately for 60 minutes

This part did confuse me. So you collected 4.5 + 1.5 gal of wort from your mash and boiled both of them for 30 min, and you boiled your hops in water for 60 min.? Maybe I missed it, just wondering why you boiled your hops in water rather than your wort.

 

[wonderbread23]

Personally, looks a bit complicated and muddled to me. That is a lot of specialty grain and crystal malt. The golden promise character will likely be lost in everything you have doing on.

It seems like most of your problems stem from adding too many things to your beer. Why not keep it simple until you can consistently brew great beer? There is something pure and awesome about 100% pilsner malt, a nice clean hop, and good clean ale (or lager) ferment.

 

[ejg700]

I guess I'm still getting over my "experiment with everything," phase. I was looking for a complex brew, with a lot of different flavors, but perhaps that was a bit overboard. I think from now on, I'll be one base malt brews with one or two specialty malts, and see how they work with each other.

to Eric: I boiled the hops in water, and strained the hop residue to try to get a indication of the IBU's after the boil. I infused the hop tea to the wort, as I didn't want to over/under hop, since I'd be adding unhopped wort to as a top off. My next purchase will be a bigger brew kettle, so I can boil down to five gallons in one pot.

 

[devilishprune]

Wait....why didn't you boil hops in a partial boil? You can still get utilization there you know right? I think that a partial boil with hops is better than your "tasting" method, because every time I brew the bitterness is way more pronounced than it is post-fermentation, for whatever reason.

I'll second the opinion that your brew has WAY too many different malts in it. I was like that, too, when I first started brewing because they make all the grains sound so good. You will quickly learn that it's not good when you put all of them together, like I did. Mixing them all together isn't going to make it more complex, it's going to make it muddy so that you can't pick out any of the flavors. If you want to learn what individual malts taste like, you should add them one at a time to a brew along with a base malt.

 

[Yooper]

Personally, looks a bit complicated and muddled to me. That is a lot of specialty grain and crystal malt. The golden promise character will likely be lost in everything you have doing on.

It seems like most of your problems stem from adding too many things to your beer. Why not keep it simple until you can consistently brew great beer? There is something pure and awesome about 100% pilsner malt, a nice clean hop, and good clean ale (or lager) ferment.

I agree- way, way overcomplicated. Why not try a simple grain bill with simple hopping (IN the wort, not by itself), until you get it right? Once you nail the processes, then it's time to experiment.

I'd suggest something very simple, like this:

10 pounds marris otter
.5 pound British crystal

1.5 ounce bittering hops (EKG is good)
.5 ounce flavor hops (again, EKG)
.5 ounce aroma hops (EKG)
______________________________________________________
That'd be for a very simple English bitter. If you want it to be an American pale ale, just sub US malt and US hops (like cascade) for the British ingredients.

Mash with 1.25 quarts of water per pound of grain, and sparge up to your boil volume. Top up with water at the end to get 5 gallons, or an OG of 1.050ish.




Or, do one of our "proven" recipes that are in the database. I posted a really great oatmeal stout recipe, but there are tons of proven recipes in there.

Some of the best beers I've made have been the most simple. One thing about simple beers is that you can work on any issues aside from the complex grainbill- like fermentation temperature, mash temperature, sparge issues, etc, so that you don't have to worry about the grainbill itself or the hopping schedule.

As to the actual recipe you made, it's pretty much a mess to be honest. Too many sweet malts, too much chocolate malt, etc. The stepped mash is really weird if you want a full bodied beer- next time mash at a single temperature and don't do the first rest at 149.

 

[Malticulous]

10# Golden Promise - you probably want a simple grain bill to let this malt shine
1# Melanoidin? malt - intensely malty, I would not use over 8 oz in any beer
1# Golden naked oats - sweet and nutty (I'm told) like crystal malt
1# Honey malt - sweet and biscuit like
1.5# biscuit malt - I would not use more than a pound
.5# Aromatic - similar to melanodin malt
.75# Crystal 60 - more sweet stuff here
.5# Coffee malt - I don't care for this malt
.5# Chocolate

You have some kind of intensely malty sweet brown ale there.

The thing I don't understand is you say you boiled the hops separate? I don't believe that is going to work very well. You need to use a brewing calculator program. You can set it for partial boil. Hops need to be in your main boil.

 

[ejg700]

Thanks for all the advice, I'm definitely going to take it all in. That's why I come here! Ideas really sound good in my head, until I run them past people that actually know what they are doing.

What is the most accurate IBU calculator?

I think my next recipe will be be a simple one.

12 pounds Golden Promise
1 pound Golden naked oats
.5 pounds honey malt.

Maybe one oz fuggles in the boil, and cascade on the finish. Sound OK?

 

[Mutilated1]

nah dude, that beer is ruined

send it to me for safe and proper disposal

 

[Pommy]

I think the best advice here is to keep is simple. Have a look here and choose a beer you like (or like the sound of)

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/can-you-brew-database-178064/

I know its fun to throw things together and imagine how it all melds together but in order to do that you need a lot of practice. Do one or two simple brews or brews from the CYBI database then start posting recipes up for feedback a couple of weeks before brewday to get feedback in the recipes forum.

Its great fun brewing your own recipes and in the last 15 months of brewing over 90% of mine have been my own designs. Keep it simple and build up from there, get your process down and you will be making beer that is certainly enjoyable.

Learning to control and channel that passion for creating great beers and balancing that with the patience required to get there is the secret to brewing those great beers

Happy Brewing

 

[ejg700]

Thank you for the advice. I will definitely keep it simple from now on. In the meanwhile, I wonder how much USPS will charge to ship 5 gallons of beer to Alabama from Minnesota

 

[RichC999]

I'll be honest right up front. I don't have a lot of experience, but I did a very simple AG beer for my first.

5 gallon batch,
8 lbs 2 row
1 lbs munich 10
1 lbs Carafoam
perle hops (60 min)
Cascade(10 min)
WL 1056 (?) american ale yeast.

Simple, and best damn easy drinking bear I've ever had.

Cheers,

Rich