I'm new I don't know what to do!

[Kerkove]

I bottled my first extract brew 2 weeks ago and am ready to start my next batch. This is the info for the first:

American Pale Ale
4 lbs - Pale LME
2 lbs - Amber DME

1 oz - Nelson Sauvin @ 12.5% alpha - 60 min
.75 oz - Cascade @ 7.2% alpha - 15 min

Total: 43.2 IBU's

OG: 1.045
FG: 1.013
Estimated ABV: 4.3%

I'm going to brew this pale again but the ABV, color, and OG are all on the bottom end of style and it's a little more bitter than I would like. I gather however from what I have read that the hops will mellow out quite a bit with bottle conditioning. I don't mind so much because I enjoy the occasional IPA but my friends and family won't enjoy it I'm afraid. My plan is to add 1 extra pound of Amber DME to darken the color slightly, increase alcohol and balance out the bitterness. I will also decrease bittering hops 1/4 oz to total 36.9 IBUs. This is my theory, I have no idea if I'm right or wrong. Any Input?

 

[Demus]

There's really no "right or wrong" answer. Both your increase in malt and decrease in hops will have the desired effect of reducing perceived bitterness. You might want to stick with one or the other unless you thought it was really over the top bitter. This will also help you get a good understanding of how that one changed variable altered the flavor. New brewers typically are all over the place with enthusiasm and usually miss important learning opportunities like this. If I had to pick, I'd leave the hops and add the DME...

 

[PJ912]

That sounds fine, or reduce your Nelson hops to 0.5-0.75 ounces depending on how much bitterness you want to lose. Amber malt might add too much colour too, LDME will add less colour. Up to you.

 

[Cathedral]

I agree with these guys, but I guess the question is: which are you more worried about, color or bitterness?

If color, adjust your malt. If bitterness, adjust your hops.

Focus on one instead of trying to change both before you really understand what each contributes.

And I understand that you can read what people say about what will change what, but to you, you have to taste it to understand. That's why the "experts" say to focus on just one thing at a time to change. That way you know exactly what happened. If you changed both and it came out to be an awesome beer, how would you know which one it was that did that?

 

[Sir-Hops-A-Lot]

I typed in your recipe on Beer Calculus
4# LME and 3#amber DME = 5.7% alcohol with a 5 gallon batch
With your hop schedule the IBU would be 52.4. An IPA lover would enjoy that but some others would not.
If you only put .5 ounces of Nelson Sauvin your IBU would be 30 which is easier for most.
If you did 1 ounce of cascade at 60 mins (bittering), .5 cascade at 5 mins (taste), and .5 cascade at 2 mins (aroma), you would have a 23 IBU beer that would be malty and easier to drink. You could even forego the extra # of amber DME and have 4.8 % alcohol and 25 IBU.
It's a good idea to follow some recipes for your first batches. And remember that the hardest thing to do is wait. After 2-3 months your beer with taste its best.

 

[Kerkove]

Alright so I will increase the extract this time and see what effect it will have. The original recipe called for 17 AAU's. Depending on what I use to calculate the IBU's I get something totally different. Beersmith says 44 IBU's. Other calculation tools say almost 70 IBU's. I guess I don't know which is right. I used the formula from John Palmer's book and got 43.2

 

[edb]

I think you were on track with your original recipe a couple minor tweaks and you'll be set. If you want to keep using the same ingredients I would just change the timings on your hop schedule. This is based on guessing right now but you'll want to verify this in Beersmith.

.5 oz - Nelson Sauvin - 50 min
.5 oz - Nelson Sauvin - 30 min
.5 oz - Cascade - 15 min
.25 oz - Cascade - 5 min

If you want more abv do another pound of Extract and boil your Nelson Sauvin 10 min more at each addition. I would suggest steeping some Crystal 10L or 20L grains, the benefit will be added body to the beer, better head retention and adding some more color.

The other thing to keep in mind is your boil volume, 5 gallons will provide better hop utilization many brew kits are designed for 3 gallon boils so when upping the boil volume to 5g your getting more ibus.

 

[Clonefan94]

For darkening it up some, what about steeping some specialty grains?

I'm not near Beersmith right now, nor do I have the expertise to reccommend anything specific, but all of my favorite extract brews included some grains to steep? Might help to give it a little bit more malty backbone as well?

 

[glockspeed31]

If it was me, I would reverse the hops boil schedule. Add the Nelson at 15 min. That hop is more of a flavor/aroma hops than a bittering hop. Just my opinion.

 

[Kerkove]

OK so i tried another bottle a week later and it's not so bitter now. Maybe just needed some time to settle down. Has a nice head and is crystal clear but I would still like to raise the abv 1 - 2% maybe without drying it out next batch.