I brewed an experimental recipe a few weeks ago...

[Hoochin'Fool]

Brewed this up mid December, and bottled just after New Year's.

3 gal into fermenter, about 2.8 gal to be packaged
2 gal "london" water, 1 gal RO water, topped up to 3 gal in fermenter with RO water

Briess Golden Lite DME 3 lb
Briess Amber DME 1 lb
6oz cara 40L steeped
4oz black patent steeped
4oz chocolate malt steeped
2oz pale chocolate malt steeped

0.3 oz Magnum 15.1% AA @ 60
0.2 oz Kent Golding 5.5% AA @ 60
0.2 oz Kent Golding 5.5% AA @ 10

US-05, fermented between 60F and 64F 12 days, 68F 3 days

OG: 1.061, FG: 1.012, ABV: 6.7%, IBU: 35, SRM: 33

It's finally tasting pretty danged good, gonna brew this again, soon as I see how another porter I recently made turns out -- bottling tomorrow, hopefully.

-- tasting note update: I wish it had a touch more roastyness flavor. I'm hopeful that the batch that I just finished bottling today (Fawcett Dark Crystal 85L instead of caramel 40L, 5 oz victory, 4 oz pale choc, 4 oz choc, 4 oz midnite wheat) might get a little closer to what I'm searching for, but I think I might need to break down and add some roast barley, even if that only belongs in stouts, no matter what sort of german nonsense @Miraculix might say)!

-- 05-feb-2023 buzzed tasting-note-update:
Bah on the "needs more roastyness", this tastes very good, definitely the best beer I've made so far! Wish there were more than 13 bottles left!!!

 

[RM-MN]

Brewed this up mid December, and bottled just after New Year's.

3 gal into fermenter, about 2.8 gal to be packaged
2 gal "london" water, 1 gal RO water, topped up to 3 gal in fermenter with RO water

Briess Golden Lite DME 3 lb
Briess Amber DME 1 lb
6oz cara 40L steeped
4oz black patent steeped
4oz chocolate malt steeped
2oz pale chocolate malt steeped

0.3 oz Magnum 15.1% AA @ 60
0.2 oz Kent Golding 5.5% AA @ 60
0.2 oz Kent Golding 5.5% AA @ 10

US-05, fermented between 60F and 64F 12 days, 68F 3 days

OG: 1.061, FG: 1.012, ABV: 6.7%, IBU: 35, SRM: 33

It's finally tasting pretty danged good, gonna brew this again, soon as I see how another porter I recently made turns out -- bottling tomorrow, hopefully.

Try to save a few bottles. I think it will be noticeably better by March.

 

[Hoochin'Fool]

Try to save a few bottles. I think it will be noticeably better by March.

Someone famous once said "but the waaaaaaaiting, is the hardest part".

 

[RM-MN]

Someone not so famous said, "Don't waste your time, brew another beer".

 

[Hoochin'Fool]

This beer was bottled just 2 and a half weeks ONE week ago, but the bottle I just tried tastes really nice. Best beer I've made so far, gonna re-brew it this weekend!

3 lb Briess Golden Light DME
8 oz brown sugar
6 oz Thomas Fawcett Dark Crystal 85srm [labels on this seem to vary a lot, anyways, it's the one from RiteBrew]
5 oz Briess Victory
4 oz Briess Chocolate
4 oz Midnight Wheat
4 oz Thomas Fawcett Pale Chocolate

Used 0.4 oz Magnum @ 30 for 28 IBU, and 0.5 oz Kent Goldings @ 20 for 11 IBU
S-04, first week temps around 60F to 64F, then another week around 68 to 70F

2.7 gallons into the fermenter, og: 1.065, fg: 1.016, abv: 6.3%, ibu: 39, bu/gu: 0.6

I think I will add a little more Kent Goldings, just at the end of the boil, and see what that does for me.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

topic title: I brewed an experimental recipe a few weeks ago...

Big Red Ale (~ 9%)

Statistics: 1.75 gal into fermenter; OG 90; FG: ~ 20; IBU: ~70; SRM ~16

Grain bill: 2 lb Briess Amber DME, 1 lb Brewers Crystals, 0.5 lb sugar; 5 oz Simpons DRC

Flavor salt addition: 0.6 g CaCl

Hops: your choice

Yeast: your choice

Process:

• Cold steep in OG 22-ish wort for 45 minutes, shake occasionally;
• add CaCl, sugar, crystals, DME (in that order) at ~ 140F;
  • visually confirm each of the ingredients dissolves
• 35 min boil with first hop addition at 30 min

Notes: hydro sample was 'promising'.

Background:

• a fresh attempt at making a 9% DME-based beer that I like
• a bunch of things were changed at the same time
• a bunch of 'forum wisdom's were ignored

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

Big Red Ales "Little" Brother (7.5%, Muntons Amber DME).

Statistics: 1.5 gal at end of boil; 1.25 gal into fermenter; OG 72; FG: ~ 16; IBU: ~65; SRM ~14
Grain bill: 24 oz Muntons Amber DME, 8 oz Brewers Crystals, 4 oz sugar; 3 oz Crystal Wheat

Flavor salt addition: none

Hops: your choice

Yeast: your choice

Process:

• Cold steep in OG 22-ish wort for 30 minutes, stir/shake occasionally;
• add sugar, crystals, DME (in that order) at ~ 140F;
  • visually confirm each of the ingredients dissolves
• 35 min boil with first hop addition at 30 min

It's not my intent, with these recipes, to compare different brands of DME in the same recipe side-by-side (that's already been done by others).

---

This recipe also 'completes' a set of observations that I started back in 2019. As I've mentioned in another topic a while back, when I add Briess DME at 140F, I consistently see 'flakes' forming in the wort at about 170F. When I brewed with Muntons DME a couple of times back in 2019, I didn't see this. And I didn't see this ('flakes' forming) when I brewed with Muntons DME today.

Does it matter? Probably not. So it's probably nothing more than just an observation on the differences between brands of DME.

For those curious in the process, here's what I do:

• at flame on: add water to kettle and heat to 140F
• when the water gets to 140F, add the DME. I've found that I can add sugar, brewers crystals, and wort from steeping as well. DO NOT ADD HOPS.
• observe the wort every 5 minute or 5F increase in temperature

Like I said early, it's probably just a visual difference and doesn't impact the beer.

 

[ncbrewer]

Big Red Ales "Little" Brother (7.5%, Muntons Amber DME).

Statistics: 1.5 gal at end of boil; 1.25 gal into fermenter; OG 72; FG: ~ 16; IBU: ~65; SRM ~14
Grain bill: 24 oz Muntons Amber DME, 8 oz Brewers Crystals, 4 oz sugar; 3 oz Crystal Wheat

Flavor salt addition: none

Hops: your choice

Yeast: your choice

Process:

• Cold steep in OG 22-ish wort for 30 minutes, stir/shake occasionally;
• add sugar, crystals, DME (in that order) at ~ 140F;
  • visually confirm each of the ingredients dissolves
• 35 min boil with first hop addition at 30 min

It's not my intent, with these recipes, to compare different brands of DME in the same recipe side-by-side (that's already been done by others).

---

This recipe also 'completes' a set of observations that I started back in 2019. As I've mentioned in another topic a while back, when I add Briess DME at 140F, I consistently see 'flakes' forming in the wort at about 170F. When I brewed with Muntons DME a couple of times back in 2019, I didn't see this. And I didn't see this ('flakes' forming) when I brewed with Muntons DME today.

Does it matter? Probably not. So it's probably nothing more than just an observation on the differences between brands of DME.

For those curious in the process, here's what I do:

• at flame on: add water to kettle and heat to 140F
• when the water gets to 140F, add the DME. I've found that I can add sugar, brewers crystals, and wort from steeping as well. DO NOT ADD HOPS.
• observe the wort every 5 minute or 5F increase in temperature

Like I said early, it's probably just a visual difference and doesn't impact the beer.

I might have posted my email from Muntons earlier in this thread, but I'll post it here for clarity:
"Our spraymalts are designed primarily to supplement home brew kits (used instead of brewing sugar), or to act as a yeast growth medium when propagating and storing yeast. There is nothing wrong with using these for the main source of wort fermentables, but we do not design a grist to give the complexity of flavour you ordinarily get from a using a host of different malts. For this purpose I would direct you towards our liquid range Homebrew Malt Extracts Archives - Muntons. Unfortunately our website does not currently display the full range. Full range is made up of;
• Vienna
• Munich
• Maris Otter
• Oat
• Sour
• Wheat
• Light
• Light hopped
• Extra light
• Amber
• Amber hopped
• Medium
• Dark
• Dark Hopped
I advise that you contact ABC Cork at ABC Cork Co. if you want to understand the availability in your region.
So, in answer to your question, I recommend that you use speciality malts such as light crystals and caras in order to get the full depth of flavour you would expect from an amber ale, instead of relying on the amber spraymalt that will give you colour but less of the fruity, crystalised sugar flavours."


I've just started using Muntons DME to see how I like it - only one batch so far, and it's just been bottled. But their email states that their amber DME only gives color - little of the expected flavor. It looks like you're using it successfully and getting the expected flavors. Am I understanding this correctly?

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

But their email states that their amber DME only gives color - little of the expected flavor.

So perhaps a grain bill of "base malt" + "de-bittered black malt" (for coloring)?

If so, that might be noticeably different than Briess's Amber: "a robust malt profile that gives the beer a nice caramel flavor note".

It looks like you're using it successfully and getting the expected flavors.

Don't know yet (I brewed the recipe yesterday).

It may be that the 1st attempt at Big Red Ales "Little" Brother is short on malt flavors. If so, maybe the hops will "step up their game".

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

Some background notes on #46 & #47:

• As I've mentioned earlier, I get poor results (sorry, no tasting notes for readers to ponder) when I brew DME-based recipe in the OG 90 range (double IPAs, barley wines, ...)
• It's probably a personal taste taste thing
• Is it related to over-'mineralization'? or something else?

The recipes in #46 & #47 purposefully changes a couple of things (and ignored some 'forum wisdom') in an attempt to find a different starting point for these recipes.

For me commercial double reds and red IPAs (two different styles) are hard to find, so trying something "red" for the 1st attempt added some enjoyment to the process. I also have access to a known fresh commercial double IPA, so my next attempts (if any) will probably be double IPAs. When the results are good, I'll probably try a barley wine recipe.

The recipes are making assumptions about ingredients (e.g. low mineral content in brewers crystals, ...) which may not be true. And all-grain recipes may not 'algorithm-magially' convert to this approach.

So this is going to take some time (reasonably a two months between attempts) - maybe I'll have an update late this year.

 

[CascadesBrewer]

I brewed up a 2.5 gallon batch of extract American Pale Ale today (target 2.75 gal into the fermenter). Pretty much all the extract batches I have done over the past many years have been small (mostly 0.75 to 1 gallon) batches to try out hops or yeasts. I figured it would be worth trying to combine some of what I have learned brewing those extract batches with my current all-grain brewing practices to see if I could actually make a good beer. Plus there is an area competition with a special award for the best extract based beer.

I debated about how much I wanted to "simplify" my process with stuff like a zero boil or room temp with Voss. I decided to go with a 30 minute boil and use a half pack of US-05 I had on hand. I looked at my hop stash and decided a Columbus and Cascade combo sounded good. I also tossed 1 gram of Gypsum into the water (tap water, I would likely use 2.5 to 3 grams for an all-grain batch).

The core fermentable was a 3 lb bag of Briess Pilsen Light DME. I have found that about 10% sugar helps to lighten the body of extract, so I added a 5 oz bag of corn sugar (a spare bag of priming sugar from a kit). I steeped 4 oz of Crystal 40 in the water as it heated up. The goal was a simple way to add a little "grain" character to the beer. I was targeting a gravity of 1.051, but measured 1.055.

Overall, the beer looks like a good color. It was a simple brew day that took just over 2 hours from filling my kettle with water to having chilled wort in the fermenter (with just a little cleaning left).

Fermentables:

• 4 oz Crystal 40L - Steeped
• 3 lb Briess Pilsen Light
• 5 oz Corn Sugar

Hops

• 0.2 oz Columbus - 30 min - 14.6 IBUs
• 0.25 oz Cascade - 15 min - 4.5 IBUs
• 0.25 oz Columbus - 15 min - 12.6 IBUs
• 0.5 oz Cascade - 0 min - 2.0 IBUs
• 0.5 oz Columbus - 0 min - 5.7 IBUs
• 0.5 oz Cascade - Dry Hop
• 0.5 oz Columbus - Dry Hop

Yeast/Misc:

• 1/2 pkg Safale US-05
• 1/4 tablet Campden
• 1g Gypsum
• 1g Irish Moss

Dump of pictures:

 

[Hoochin'Fool]

This beer was bottled just 2 and a half weeks ONE week ago, but the bottle I just tried tastes really nice. Best beer I've made so far, gonna re-brew it this weekend!

3 lb Briess Golden Light DME
8 oz brown sugar
6 oz Thomas Fawcett Dark Crystal 85srm [labels on this seem to vary a lot, anyways, it's the one from RiteBrew]
5 oz Briess Victory
4 oz Briess Chocolate
4 oz Midnight Wheat
4 oz Thomas Fawcett Pale Chocolate

Used 0.4 oz Magnum @ 30 for 28 IBU, and 0.5 oz Kent Goldings @ 20 for 11 IBU
S-04, first week temps around 60F to 64F, then another week around 68 to 70F

2.7 gallons into the fermenter, og: 1.065, fg: 1.016, abv: 6.3%, ibu: 39, bu/gu: 0.6

This beer was really good at one week in the bottle, and it's fantastic at 8 weeks in the bottle. I have made it twice since, giving it a touch more roast (changed 4 oz midnite wheat to: 2 oz midnite wheat + 2 oz roasted barley 300srm), and another 0.5 oz KG once cooled to 175F. I call it a "smooth porter", cuz it doesn't have the rough roasty bite that a robust porter does.

 

[Hoochin'Fool]

[much snipped]

View attachment 815751

We have that same ridiculous kitchen faucet -- didn't occur to me that a pump would mean it doesn't matter that nothing can be attached to the faucet!
If I was to go looking at HomeDepot or the like, what sort of specs do I want? Submersible obviously. Gallons-per-hour? Minimum lifting height? My 5.5 gal pot is 11" high, so I think it shouldn't need to lift more than say 18".

 

[CascadesBrewer]

If I was to go looking at HomeDepot or the like, what sort of specs do I want? Submersible obviously. Gallons-per-hour? Minimum lifting height? My 5.5 gal pot is 11" high, so I think it shouldn't need to lift more than say 18".

This is the one I have: https://a.co/d/ioUTupc

It seems plenty powerful to pump water through my immersion chiller at the same rate that water comes out of my faucet. The barbs make it pretty easy to attach a small section of garden hose.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

Classic American Pale Ale (LME)
1st of a series of classic American Ales (pale, amber brown) using style specific LME.

• 2.75 gal (end of boil), 2.5 gal into fermenter
• ABV 5.7% (est); OG 56; FG 13 (est); IBU ~ 50 (est)

Ingredients

• 4 lb Williams Pale LME; 4 oz sugar /1/
• 21 g Magnum (12.3) @ 30
• 14 g Cascade (6.2) @ 15
• 14 g Cascade (6.2) @ 0
• ~5.5 g Nottinghm @ 65F

Process

1. place LME pouch in warm tap water while heating ~ 2.5 gal water to ~140F /2/
2. remove kettle from heat, add LME to kettle, verify no LME is stuck on bottom of kettle
3. add water to get to ~ 2.75 gal; observe wort color /3/
4. add water to get to ~ 3 gal (I boil off about 0.25 gal in 35 minutes)
5. heat to boil, observe the wort as it heats
6. 35 min boil with 1st hop addition @ 30
7. (wort cool down went from boil (210F to below 170F) in about 10 minutes)

Notes
/1/ Recipe is targeting a ~ 5.7% ABV pale ale using 4 lb of LME. I decided to use some sugar rather than brew a smaller batch size.

/2/ I didn't know how much water was in the LME - so heat most of the water, add the LME, then "top up" to the pre-boil volume. (Yes, well configured recipe software can calculate the water volumes automatically).

/3/ wort color came out 'as expected'. Wort color is indication of DME/LME freshness (BYO Big Book on Home Brewing, 1e). It may be that shipping wort in sealed pouches is another line of defense against LME going stale.

 

[CascadesBrewer]

Below is an image of that extract Pale Ale I posted about a few entries up. It seems to look a bit more clear in person, but I expect it will clear up a bit more over the next week or two. It has been in the keg for 10 days.

Overall I am very happy with this beer. The the malt flavors seem right on par with what I would expect in an American Pale Ale. A little bit of malty sweetness and a medium mouthfeel.

The biggest flaw is that it is a touch too bitter. I tend to like reasonably bitter beers, but this one has a touch more than what I want in a Pale Ale. BeerSmith calculates it at 39 IBUs, but I feel like it is more than Sierra Nevada Pale Ale (which claims 38 IBUs). It might have a bit too much hop flavors. I am not sure if I ever used Columbus before for a flameout or dry hop addition before. The Columbus + Cascade combo is nice, but has a very old school vibe.

I am not 100% sure where I will lower the hops. This was a 2.5 gal batch with 2.7 oz of hops (or 5.4 oz per 5 gal). I made a 2.5 gallon batch of Pale Ale in early 2022 with 2.4 oz of hops (Cascade, Citra and Centennial) that I really liked. That one was calculated at 38 IBUs.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

Over in "Advanced Extract Brewing" (link), I mentioned a technique that I have used in the past to "dial in" flavor salt additions (CaS04, CaCl). Here's a variation on that technique that I will likely try with the batch I brewed back in #55.

The proposed approach is to add a small amount of either gypsum (adding 100ppm S04), calcium chloride (adding 100 Cl ppm), or table salt (adding 50 ppm Na & 75ppm Cl) to a bottle at bottling time.

After bottle conditioning is complete, sample beers by blending 1 oz pours from the different bottles to 'dial-in' amounts for the next attempt at the recipe.

(FWIW, I have a pair of 50/±0.001g scales so I'm not concerned about the small weights or the (relative) need for accuracy).

---

And an update to #55: I took a sample of the beer for a color / flavor check. Color was appropriate and there was no hint of off flavors associated with 'stale' LME. Shipping from CA to the "north coast" took 7 calendar days (snow storm in CO / NE turned a Sat delivery into a Mon delivery). I have a thought as to what went wrong with the previous (non-Williams) LME that I ordered. I also know what to do going forward, so I'll keep the focus on that.

 

[IslandLizard]

I have a thought as to what went wrong with the previous (non-Williams) LME that I ordered.

I can't be the only one who's curious about your take on that.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

I have nothing new to add about the (stale) LME from the previous batch. I'm viewing it as a "one-off" event and moving forward.

I will mention (again) is that the technique for evaluating the quality of LME (that I've mentioned in the past) was simple, effective, and accurate. (Details available upon request).

Finally, it appears that I have found a quality source of fresh LME. I suspect others exist.

What's next?

Maybe a "hop sampler" / "hop steep" brew day process using style LME and a blend of hops? Can one do this with an Irish Red this way? ... with an American Amber? ... a dark mild? ... an American Brown? ... a porter? ... a stout?

 

[Hoochin'Fool]

What's next?

I'm hoping to hear what you thought of your Big Red Ale, the one with a whole pound of Brewer's Crystals in it!

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

"Big Red Ale" (#46) and "Big Red's Little Brother" (#47) were highly experimental beers, trying to brew imperial / double red ales with Amber DME. In the past, I've brewed a couple of small batch DME-based barley wines (10%) or Triple IPAs (9%) - and dumped most of the those batches.

"Big Red Ale" confirmed one idea, but it isn't the final base recipe. With this batch, I didn't get the off flavors from my previous attempts with a 9% ABV DME-based recipe. I could see using this base recipe as a starting point for darker beers (or other beers where clarity doesn't matter).

The results from "Big Red's Little Brother" seem to support what @ncbrewer mentioned in #48. This was my first recipe with Munton's Amber - and after this batch, I'm skeptical that the two brands of amber DME are easily interchangable.

I have a couple of BIAB batches and couple of LME batches in the queue right now so it may be a while before I get back to the next iteration(s) of "Big Red Ale".

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

It was bottling day to day for ...

Classic American Pale Ale (LME)
1st of a series of classic American Ales (pale, amber brown) using style specific LME.

FG, color, and taste (hydro sample) came out as expected /0/.

With this batch, I dosed individual bottles (sugar + a "smidgen" /1/ of CBC-1 + a "dash" of ascorbic acid) and will bottle condition at 75F (bottles in a beverage cooler with water at 75F, adjusting water temperature twice a day). The 'early' 1st bottle will be ready-enough to sample in about a week. /2/

Also, I did package one bottle each ...

The proposed approach is to add a small amount of either gypsum (adding 100ppm S04), calcium chloride (adding 100 Cl ppm), or table salt (adding 50 ppm Na & 75ppm Cl) to a bottle at bottling time.

... of these bottles.

---

/0/ Shipping for the order of LME (dock to door) was seven days in early April - so I suspect I should have no concerns about shipping LME in spring, later fall, or winter.

/1/ 'smidgen' and 'dash' are names of measuring spoons

/2/ With a recent BIAB batch, it appears that I forgot to dose a set of four of bottles using this approach. While the dosed bottles were delightful, the un-dosed (and un-carbonated) bottles were an oxidized mess. It may be that bottle conditioning without fresh yeast at 75F is an 'less than ideal' idea .

 

[Hoochin'Fool]

Fun fact: smidgen is 1/32 teaspoon, and dash is 1/8 teaspoon. Oh, and a jiffy is 1/100 of a second

I'll be curious to hear what you think about the bottles with the added salts vs the "plain" ones. I believe you should notice a taste improvement (when I switched from 100% RO water to 50% RO / 50% tap, the otherwise same recipe's hops seemed a little "brighter" for lack of a better way to describe it. Disclaimer: odds are good my process improved over time, and I stopped peeking into the bucket as much, so who knows?)

 

[ncbrewer]

With a recent BIAB batch, it appears that I forgot to dose a set of four of bottles using this approach. While the dosed bottles were delightful, the un-dosed (and un-carbonated) bottles were an oxidized mess. It may be that bottle conditioning without fresh yeast at 75F is an 'less than ideal' idea

That finding really throws me. "Un-dosed" is pretty much the standard and generally gives "good" results, at least by most measures. Was there something unusual about this batch that caused the undosed bottles to be bad? Or have I just missed something?

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

"Un-dosed" is pretty much the standard and generally gives "good" results, at least by most measures.

With this batch, I was dosing with sugar, CBC-1, and AA. For those four bottles, it appears that I forgot the sugar, CBC-1, and yeast - so those four bottles, uncarbonated, sat at ~75F for about a week.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

I'll be curious to hear what you think about the bottles with the added salts vs the "plain" ones. I believe you should notice a taste improvement (when I switched from 100% RO water to 50% RO / 50% tap, the otherwise same recipe's hops seemed a little "brighter" for lack of a better way to describe it.

The bottle with the added NaCl (non-iodized table salt) is the one I'm most uncertain about.

Part of the plan with these bottles is to blend 1 oz pours from various bottles to create additional mineral profiles. So if any of the three bottles taste "minerally", blending with a pour from a different bottle should correct that problem.

 

[ncbrewer]

With this batch, I was dosing with sugar, CBC-1, and AA. For those four bottles, it appears that I forgot the sugar, CBC-1, and yeast - so those four bottles, uncarbonated, sat at ~75F for about a week.

Yes - I did miss something. I didn't realize the sugar wasn't added. One observation - it would be bad if some bottles got a double dose of sugar instead of no sugar. Dangerously bad.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

Without going into details, preventing double dosing of bottles is built into my bottling process. And I see where/how I could have missed a set of bottles.

The observation that the un-carbonated bottles staled that rapidly (while the dosed bottles came out really good) was a bit of a surprise. I would have expected staling to have taken longer.

In an up-coming batch, I may try conditioning a couple of bottles at 75F with just sugar & AA. I'm getting good results (so far) with the new approach, so I'm not sure how much I more want to "exBEERiment" (lower temp? less CBC-1?) with it over the next couple of months.

 

[ncbrewer]

The observation that the un-carbonated bottles staled that rapidly (while the dosed bottles came out really good) was a bit of a surprise. I would have expected staling to have taken longer.

I would have expected staling to take longer also. I think this is also an indication that the yeast consuming the priming sugar is doing more to minimize oxidation than I thought.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

I think this is also an indication that the yeast consuming the priming sugar is doing more to minimize oxidation than I thought.

Note that I haven't set aside any bottles for evaluation 60/90/120 days after bottling. Currently, my approach to slowing down stalling is small (2.5 gal or less) batches and refrigeration.

---

I'll write myself a note to do this ...

I may try conditioning a couple of bottles at 75F with just sugar & AA.

... with my next batch.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

I think this is also an indication that the yeast consuming the priming sugar is doing more to minimize oxidation than I thought.

FWIW
View attachment 818521 has a couple of statements on bottle conditioning with healthy yeast starting at about 31:15 through about 32:15. Also some statements on oxygen barrier bottle caps at starting at about 40:45 through about 44:00.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

I think this is also an indication that the yeast consuming the priming sugar is doing more to minimize oxidation than I thought.

has a couple of statements on bottle conditioning with healthy yeast at about 31:15. Also some statements on oxygen barrier bottle caps starting at about 41:00.

eta (and FWIW): the information in the video is similar to what's in The New IPA.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

results are in (yes, the batch was bottled on Saturday, a bottle on Tuesday was carbonated, so I chilled the test bottles and and sampled last night).

The dosing process:

The proposed approach is to add a small amount of either gypsum (adding 100ppm S04), calcium chloride (adding 100 Cl ppm), or table salt (adding 50 ppm Na & 75ppm Cl) to a bottle at bottling time.

After bottle conditioning is complete, sample beers by blending 1 oz pours from the different bottles to 'dial-in' amounts for the next attempt at the recipe.

and the reply to the follow-up request.

I'll be curious to hear what you think about the bottles with the added salts vs the "plain" ones. I believe you should notice a taste improvement (when I switched from 100% RO water to 50% RO / 50% tap, the otherwise same recipe's hops seemed a little "brighter" for lack of a better way to describe it.

Overall, the dosing process worked (and I will use again in the future).

For my tastes, the bottle with NaCl (added at bottling) was harsh - perhaps heading towards mineral-y. The bottles with gypsum and calcium chloride were different, both were enjoyable.

Blending different bottles seemed to support that I can notice 50 ppm differences, but probably not 25 ppm differences.

Note that this is just one informal tasting with one recipe - so don't read too much into an anecdotal story that might lead to curiosity and/or a different opinion in the future.

But, like I said earlier, I'll probably use the process in the future to help "dial in" flavor salt additions.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

Classic American Amber Ale (LME)
2nd of a series of classic American Ales (pale, amber, brown) using style specific LME.

• 2.75 gal (end of boil), 2.5 gal into fermenter
• ABV 5.9% (est); OG 58; FG 13 (est); IBU ~ 40 (est)

Ingredients

• 4 lb Williams American Amber LME; 6 oz sugar; 2.0g CaS04
• 14g Magnum (12.3) @ 30
• 14 g Cascade (6.2) @ 30
• 0.2 g : it might be a 2.5 gal #epicfail @ 15
• 1.0 g yeast nutrient / Irish Moss @ 5
• 10 g Centennial (10.7) @ 0
• ~5.5 g Verdant @ 65F

Process

1. heat 2.5 gal water to 140F; add CaS04, sugar, and LME
2. add water to get to ~ 3 gal (I boil off about 0.25 gal in 35 minutes)
3. heat to boil, observe the wort as it heats
4. 35 min boil with 1st hop addition @ 30
5. wort cool down went from boil (210F to below 170F) in about 4 minutes..

Notes
The amount of CaS04 is an 'educated guess' based on samples from the Classic American Pale Ale recipe.

 

[ncbrewer]

I'm not used to using on-line calculators for IBU, but I tried Brewers Friend and got 92 IBUs. If I did it right, that seems really high for an American Amber.

Also, the third line of hop additions doesn't show up - is there a problem with that? (I didn't include that in the bitterness calculation.)

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

IBUs.

I'm using a custom spreadsheet; classic Tinseth for estimating IBUs. Brewer's Friend IBU calculator (which I used to cross-check the initial spreadsheet equations) shows this:

Also, the third line of hop additions doesn't show up - is there a problem with that? (I didn't include that in the bitterness calculation.)

Most of the that line is hidden behind an "in-line spoiler". A click / tap on the blurred text should show the "spoiler".

 

[ncbrewer]

My bad - I made an entry error.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

My bad - I made an entry error.

No worries. I appreciate that you read the recipe, took the time to verify it, and mentioned something that might have been wrong.

 

[Hoochin'Fool]

I made this back in February, and it's turned out very nice (still got a seriously spicy hop burn, hoping that fades in a few more months)...

Water: half RO, half TAP, 3.3 gal into fermenter
3 lb Briess Golden Lite DME
3 lb Briess Amber DME
8 oz chocolate 350L
8 oz Fawcett Dark Roast Crystal 85L
8 oz Fawcett Pale Chocolate 205L
6 oz caramel 120L
6 oz Dark roasted barley 550L

Magnum @60 for 50 IBU
Kent Goldings @30 for 8 IBU
Magnum @30 for 10 IBU

S-04 held around 62F - 64F for 4 or 5 weeks then bottled with CBC-1 and 2 oz 94 proof bourbon, per gallon (so like 6.25 oz)

Was planning for 3.0 gal into fermenter, but miscalculated, so OG was not 1.097
Ended up with:
OG: 1.088
FG: 1.021
ABV: 8.8% (I forget how much the bourbon added, I think it was only like 3/4 of a percentage point)
IBU: 68

Taste: A lot of chocolate flavor, decent but not overpowering roast (I'd call it about perfectly what I was hoping to get), a little too much spicy hops, and just a hint of bourbon.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

Classic American Amber Ale (LME)
2nd of a series of classic American Ales (pale, amber, brown) using style specific LME.

I took a hydrometer sample today:

• SG was higher than anticipated. Recently, I have done a couple of batches using Verdant yeast where the beer was at FG within a week. I'll wait a week and take a 2nd sample.
• Color (hydrometer sample) was amber. Certainly not "darker than expected".

Classic American Pale Ale (LME)
1st of a series of classic American Ales (pale, amber brown) using style specific LME.

The last bottle (of this batch) was the best bottle. Perhaps a sign that an "experimental" recipe deserves a "promotion"?