IPA Recipe - Too much crystal?

[tre9er]

I think your "mash" process held near 155 also added to the FG/maltiness. Lowering that to 152 or so next time would push you drier. Crystal malt not only has fermentables, but it's been shown to even be able to convert itself, despite popular belief that it's all dextrins and no enzymes.

 

[Thunder_Chicken]

I think your "mash" process held near 155 also added to the FG/maltiness. Lowering that to 152 or so next time would push you drier. Crystal malt not only has fermentables, but it's been shown to even be able to convert itself, despite popular belief that it's all dextrins and no enzymes.

I'll explore this next time around. I'm curious as to how this particular beer will turn out. The sample was extremely smooth, no real hop bite. I'm going to deliberately play with different CO2 volumes when priming and with serving temperatures to see how that will influence the experience.

 

[tre9er]

I'll explore this next time around. I'm curious as to how this particular beer will turn out. The sample was extremely smooth, no real hop bite. I'm going to deliberately play with different CO2 volumes when priming and with serving temperatures to see how that will influence the experience.

what was the FG?

 

[Thunder_Chicken]

Target FG was 1.017, measured 1.018 today.

 

[tre9er]

Target FG was 1.017, measured 1.018 today.

Interesting, how long has it been fermenting, just a week or so now? What yeast and what were the fermentation conditions (temps at various times)?

That grain bill should still yield a lower gravity, I would think, depending on the yeast. Might be worth letting it go a while, perhaps give the vessel a swirl.

 

[Thunder_Chicken]

It's been in just 7 days. Yeast is Danstar Windsor Ale Yeast, 72% attenuation average indicated in the beer recipe calculator. Had a nice big krausen and bubbled away merrily for a few days. Today there are a few stray floating flocs but otherwise the krausen has fallen.

Temps were between 65-68F pretty consistently through the week. The fermenter is in our kitchen and the thermostat is pretty solid. I left the spirit thermometer on the fermenter and checked it occaisionally.

I could give it a bit of a shake and put it in a slightly warmer area to finish out the primary. A little warmer conditioning temperature won't hurt it now I think.

 

[tre9er]

Yeah, considering 65-68 ambient temps, chances are the beer itself got into the 70's at some point and might have thrown off some flavors. Of course, letting it clean up after itself should help. If you have a heat register somewhere, move it closer, but not right next to it. I wouldn't let the beer get much above say 72, but that should be good.

 

[Thunder_Chicken]

I expect that the gravity will move a few more points. There are some minor bubbles on the surface of the beer.

 

[Thunder_Chicken]

Just a quick follow up on this recipe. Cracked my first one today, about 2.5 weeks in the bottle. Still young, but good. The balance is strange - as you drink it your sense is "Whoa, a bit malty" which then swings to "Whoa, a bit bitter". It will mellow out nicely I think, but is probably going to age toward the malty side.

I have a very similar batch in the primary now, only difference is that I used Nottingham vs. Windsor yeast, so it ought to attenuate out a bit more. I think that a change in the direction that I want it to go.

 

[tennesseean_87]

How long did you boil the hops? The recipe says 45 min, but one of your posts says you just boiled long enough to sanitize.

 

[Thunder_Chicken]

For this batch I boiled the majority of the hops per the schedule, but I reserved a small portion of the Fuggles and KG hops and dryhopped them in the primary after the krausen fell. It was maybe 4-5 pellets of each.

 

[tre9er]

Just a quick follow up on this recipe. Cracked my first one today, about 2.5 weeks in the bottle. Still young, but good. The balance is strange - as you drink it your sense is "Whoa, a bit malty" which then swings to "Whoa, a bit bitter". It will mellow out nicely I think, but is probably going to age toward the malty side.

I have a very similar batch in the primary now, only difference is that I used Nottingham vs. Windsor yeast, so it ought to attenuate out a bit more. I think that a change in the direction that I want it to go.

What was the measured FG? If it was in the mid-to-high teens, I can see why it tastes malty.

 

[Thunder_Chicken]

FG was 1.019 for that batch. That was with Windsor, so it was actually on target attenuation-wise, but yeah - the first thing I switched was to use Nottingham in the next batch, and I knocked down the crystal fraction of the bill. That batch just went into bottle so I'll know in a few weeks how things worked out.