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I brew my first AG IPa, feedback?

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Dutch_Brewer

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Hello All,

After al your help I crafted my own recipe (based on recipes I've seen). Brewersfriend.com indicated an of of 1.057 I hit 1.052 does this mean I have a slightly less efficency?

This is the recipe:

Screenshot_2017-11-24-12-21-25-144_com.android.chrome.png


I have added 30gr of sour malt to hit 5.3 pH. And I use the brew in a bag method.

Do you guys think this will taste anything like a drinkable beer?
 
Yes. So now you can change your efficiency number that you set in Brewers Friend and adjust future recipies accordingly. Easiest way to do that is to add a little extra base malt. I see that you are doing BIAB, so another option is to crush your grains finer. Once you can hit your numbers consistently then you know you have your system dialed in.
 
Thanks I will mill My. Grains finer and try to hit the 70% next time.is my recipe anything drinkable?
 
What is that Bio Light Swaen with 75 PPG? Did you manually enter that? Even dry extract isn't going to give you that PPG, I'd double check your calculations.
 
I indeed manually entered that. Because I don't know what ppg is. And I don't understand it after looking it up either. It wouldn't let me save the recipe without any number there.
 
PPG is the yield of the grain in gravity pts/lb/gallon. I assume that's a base malt, just enter 36 or 37 if you don't have the info. It will drop your expected gravity a bit as you had the potential value about double what it should be.
 
So in reality your efficiency is probably right where you expected. Remember, calculators are only as good as the data that's input into them. Garbage in, garbage out.
 
Also I just saw that is a caramel malt. 33% is a heck of a lot, next time I would cut that way back for an IPA and replace with more base malt.
 
I just did my dry hop in secondary today. It's been 3 weeks in the fermenter but I was on holiday. Is this a problem? I will leave to dry hop for 3-4 days then bottle?
 
I know, but it's a very light one and the package says it can use up to 50% so I thought 33% would be fine. Why would reducing it be better?

I tasted the sample I took for the OG reading and it was quite what I was hoping for.
 
I just did my dry hop in secondary today. It's been 3 weeks in the fermenter but I was on holiday. Is this a problem? I will leave to dry hop for 3-4 days then bottle?

I’ve done that before; it should be fine. And your recipe sounds good. Let us know how it turns out!
 
I know, but it's a very light one and the package says it can use up to 50% so I thought 33% would be fine. Why would reducing it be better?

I tasted the sample I took for the OG reading and it was quite what I was hoping for.

With that much caramel you might run the risk of it being overly sweet, but it sounds like you got it to ferment out OK and if it tastes good that's all that matters.
:rock:
 
Yesterday I drank the first bottle, it was by far the best brew I made so far. The color was good, the head retention was OK. It was a bit sour I think but more likely that was caused by the dry hopping?

I want to make this again but a little less sour tasting.
 
If it is sour, it is probably infected. It's not bad if it tastes good, but it will sour further with time in the bottle, so drink it fast.

Dry hopping does not sour a beer. Make sure to really sanitise your equipment very well after this brew, as the infection is very likely to stick to the equipment otherwise. If next batch turns sour as well, you would probably need to replace the fermenter, if using a plastic one.
 
If it is sour, it is probably infected. It's not bad if it tastes good, but it will sour further with time in the bottle, so drink it fast.

Dry hopping does not sour a beer. Make sure to really sanitise your equipment very well after this brew, as the infection is very likely to stick to the equipment otherwise. If next batch turns sour as well, you would probably need to replace the fermenter, if using a plastic one.

It's not the kind of sour caused by an infection. I'ts a great beer, but I would like it a little less sour the next time. Also i'm using glass equipment and sanitizing very well always.
 
I just saw that you also added sour malt, maybe that is the reason for the sour taste.
 
You don’t mention yeast or fermentation temperature. Many yeast strains can produce byproducts than can be mistaken for sour. Also fluctuations in fermentation temperatures during active fermentation, especially at the higher end of temperature tolerance can also cause flavors that can be perceived as sour.

I have used acidulated malt many times to achieve proper PH on grain bills that have little to no roasted malts, without producing any off flavors.
 
I just saw that you also added sour malt, maybe that is the reason for the sour taste.
I used the sour malt to correct for the PH.

You don’t mention yeast or fermentation temperature. Many yeast strains can produce byproducts than can be mistaken for sour. Also fluctuations in fermentation temperatures during active fermentation, especially at the higher end of temperature tolerance can also cause flavors that can be perceived as sour.

I have used acidulated malt many times to achieve proper PH on grain bills that have little to no roasted malts, without producing any off flavors.

For the yeast I used Safale US-05 and fermented between 17-19 Celcius.
 
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