JoeSchmoe here!

[JoeSchmoe]

Hi everyone... I've been lurking here for the last couple of months.

I'm a cider maker from many, many years ago (mostly college). I'm also a BBQ'er going back nearly as long. From my cider days, I made a few beer pre-hopped extract kits out of the can when the dented cans were on clearance at the wine supply store... They were SO cheap, but it was good since I was so broke. I had read a bit about all-grain brewing, but the whole process seemed like too much work, so I stuck to cider.

Anyhow, I got married, had a couple kids and got out of the cider game. I never did get rid of my stuff though. With my oldest son off to college next month, I've been on the lookout for new hobbies to occupy my time. Through the magic of the internet, I stumbled on a YouTube video of someone doing a BIAB brew. After watching it I had a eureka moment and thought I can do that... And between my cider and BBQ equipment all I needed was the Brew bag.

So by now, I've made an Amber Ale, an American Pale Ale, and have just bottled a Cherry Wheat. In my highly biased opinion, the APA is one of my favourite beers I've ever drank (extreme bias). All have been made with basic ingredients and US 05 yeast. Most of my knowledge has been gained from lurking here and YouTube.

Anyhow, I'm considering branching out on some of my recipes and have some questions so I thought I'd join. Thanks to all the prior contributors who have provided me many hours of lurking through posts while I learn about my new hobby!

Edit: my daughter made me some custom labels for Father's Day for my APA (I love the Adirondacks). I've officially adapted High Peaks Hops as my "company" name.

 

[Snuffy]

6.2 and 55. Good combo. Looks tasty. Bottle conditioning is kickin'.

 

[JoeSchmoe]

6.2 and 55. Good combo. Looks tasty. Bottle conditioning is kickin'.

My daughter made me the labels using ChatGPT when the amber ale was fermenting. She had no idea what the terms meant, it's just what the AI kicked out. I said to her, rather me putting these on my amber ale which was about 5.2 and 30, I would make my next batch to match the label. I missed the ABV by 0.2 due to poor efficiency.. but its easily close enough.

 

[Snuffy]

30 sounds better, TBH.

 

[wallyLOZ]

Welcome to HBT!

 

[wsmith1625]

6.2 and 55. Good combo. Looks tasty. Bottle conditioning is kickin'.

I thought you were referencing his height and age before I took a 2nd look at the bottle. I was thinking that this thread was going in a very different direction. LOL!!!

 

[Snuffy]

I thought you were referencing his height and age before I took a 2nd look at the bottle. I was thinking that this thread was going in a very different direction. LOL!!!

Contrary to current misconception, I cannot make change for a 9.

 

[wsmith1625]

Contrary to current misconception, I cannot make change for a 9.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

 

[Snuffy]

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

I should save that as my standard disclaimer.

 

[madscientist451]

Hi everyone... I've been lurking here for the last couple of months.

I'm a cider maker from many, many years ago (mostly college).

In my highly biased opinion, the APA is one of my favourite beers I've ever drank (extreme bias). All have been made with basic ingredients and US 05 yeast. Most of my knowledge has been gained from lurking here and YouTube.

Anyhow, I'm considering branching out on some of my recipes and have some questions so I thought I'd join.

Welcome HBT. I also started with cider, then got into wine, then beer and mead. Want to share your APA recipe? BTW I’m in the High Peaks area of the Adirondacks right now, love that beer bottle label you made.

 

[Kickass]

All have been made with basic ingredients and US 05 yeast.

Simple grain bills, basic ingredients and quality dry yeast. That’s the foundation for amazing beer.

 

[JoeSchmoe]

Welcome HBT. I also started with cider, then got into wine, then beer and mead. Want to share your APA recipe? BTW I’m in the High Peaks area of the Adirondacks right now, love that beer bottle label you made.

Have fun!!!! Doing any hiking?

My daughter made the label using AI. I really liked it, so I took the image, removed the Adirondack Style-Pale Ale wording along with the 6.2 and 55 and got a bunch of labels made up from an online label company. Now for future batches, I can write in the beer name, ABV, and IBU.

For the recipe, I went with

5lb 2-row
2.2lb Munich
1.1lb Flaked Wheat

I'm a 45min boil guy so I went with the hops below.

0.5oz cascade 0.5oz Citra 45min
0.5oz cascade 0.5oz Citra 1oz Simcoe 2min

Pitched with a packet of US 05.

I only have a 5 gallon pot, so I tried to get as much out of the grains as I could as a concentrated wort, then watered it down with some ice cold water in the right proportion to get close to my target OG. Looking back at my notes I had around 3.25 gal of wort at 1.056 (terrible efficiency I know). I ended up with 21 pint bottles when it was said and done. Sadly there's only a few left.

 

[madscientist451]

Yeah, was able to get up on some pretty dramatic summits.
I put your numbers into brewers friend, as yes as you stated above your efficiency is pretty low. If you get a cheap 16 qt pot from Walmart, you can use that as a side pot and do a dunk sparge and bring your numbers up a little.

 

[mashdar]

As long as you don't mind spending a few extra dollars on grain, I wouldn't chase efficiency. Just learn what yours is and design around it.
I guess if you want to hit higher gravity than your gear allows, that's another reason. But at some point a bigger pot is the way to go.

I used to do mash/boil in an 8 gallon pot on the stove. It worked OK but made the house smell of grain. Certain parties found that objectionable. Now I have a 35L "all-in-one" that I can use outside.

edit: for 5 gallon batches, a 10 gallon pot is highly preferred over 8 gallon. I got the 8 as a present, so I stuck with it.

 

[JoeSchmoe]

As long as you don't mind spending a few extra dollars on grain, I wouldn't chase efficiency. Just learn what yours is and design around it.
I guess if you want to hit higher gravity than your gear allows, that's another reason. But at some point a bigger pot is the way to go.

I used to do mash/boil in an 8 gallon pot on the stove. It worked OK but made the house smell of grain. Certain parties found that objectionable. Now I have a 35L "all-in-one" that I can use outside.

edit: for 5 gallon batches, a 10 gallon pot is highly preferred over 8 gallon. I got the 8 as a present, so I stuck with it.

Part of me getting into this was to see what kind of beer I could make with equipment I already had. Right now, all I have is a 5 gallon pot, so I'm limited on how much grain I can use. Doing better than the 60% I'm consistently getting would be kind of nice. Through my lurking here, my guess is the LHBS isn't crushing fine enough. Last time I asked if they could go finer, and they basically said what you get is what you get.

While going bigger would be nice (to see more bottles for all my work), there's only so much beer I can responsibly drink. That said, it'd be kind of nice to throw a party or BBQ and have all the homebrew you can drink for some friends.

 

[TexasTea]

Welcome to the forum from a Texas Brewer.

 

[mashdar]

A lot of people do smaller batches. A significant benefit is being able to iterate recipes faster or change things up more.

IMO the primary downside to small batches is volume beer per hour spent goes down. That's only a problem if brew time is limited and you're running out of beer!