My First All-Grain Recipe

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kjjohns5

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Hello, all! I've been doing extract brews for the last couple of months (only 3), and I'm going to be building a mash-tun this weekend, as well as purchasing a larger pot to boil whole 5 gallon batches in. I'll then make my own immersion cooling coil within the next couple of weeks and hopefully do my first AG at the end of the month.

I made a recipe about a week ago, before I was planing on moving on up to AG, for my gf's birthday. She, like me, LOVES really bitter beers. My personal favorite beer is Stone Ruination IPA (7.7%, 100+ IBU) and she's equally obsessed with it. Like me as well, she's really into homebrew, but doesn't understand it as much as I do... yet. LOL, I'm teaching her as I learn.

Anyway, I originally wrote this recipe as an extract. Over the last 2 days, I got BeerAlchemy and have not been able to stop playing with it, lol. I converted her "Birthday Celebration Ale" into an AG recipe. Just seeing if I can get some feedback on it?

Birthday Celebration Ale:

Grains: 2-Row 8 lb 8 oz; Carapils 2 lb; Caramel 40L 2 lb; Caramel Munich 1 lb; US Chocolate Malt 0.5 oz
Hops: Chinook 1 oz (60 min); Chinook 1 oz (45 min); Chinook 1 oz (40 min); Centennial 1 oz (5 min); Simcoe 1 oz (DH)
Yeast: White Labs California Ale (WLP001)
Misc: Irish Moss (15 min)

BeerAlchemy shows OG at 1.073, FG at 1.016, ABV 7.6%, 111.8 IBU.

What do you think?
 
I don't see any base malt in there...am I missing it? You've got way too much crystal malt in there. 2lbs of any crystal is a lot, but you've got over 6 pounds of crystal. You need to start off with some US 2-row or other base malt, and build from there. Experiment with Beer Alchemy, but IMHO, you need to dial the crystal malts waaay back. Like maybe use .25 pounds each of the 20L and 60L
 
With no base malt, 7 lbs crystal and a dash of chocolate, you're going to have a very unbalanced beer. You need to keep the crystal down to < 20%, and many of us think < 10% is better.

-a.
 
Try something like this:

9 pounds US 2-row (or Maris Otter or Golden Promise)
.25 lbs Crystal 20L
.25 lbs Crystal 60L
.5 lbs Carapils

Just for starters, just a humble suggestion...
 
Sorry, I need to edit it. I'll edit it after dinner... lol, my father messed with my BeerAlchemy recipe to play around with the program, last night. The recipe is way off. My fault.
 
Since folks have already dealt with issues in the grain bill, I have suggestions about the hops. I would tend to concentrate hop additions at 60 minutes (where they'll contribute most bitterness) and >20 minutes (when they'll contribute more to the flavor and aroma). So, without changing the overall bitterness much, you could do 2 oz. of Chinook @ 60 minutes and 1 oz. @ 15 minutes (and skip the 45 & 40 minute Chinook additions). Just my opinion, though, not a right/wrong thing.
 
Stone Ruination IPA Clone (out of BYO Magazine):

5 gallons
OG - 1.072
FG - 1.012
IBU - 100+
SRM - 12

14 lb. 2 oz. 2-row
14 oz. Crystal 15
36 AAU Magnum @ 90 minutes
16 AAU Centennial @ 15 minutes
2 oz Centennial whole hops (Dry Hop)
White Labs WLP002

Mash at 149. Ferment at 68.

And there you have it.
 
Birthday Celebration Ale:

Grains: 2-Row 8 lb 8 oz; Carapils 2 lb; Caramel 40L 2 lb; Caramel Munich 1 lb; US Chocolate Malt 0.5 oz
Hops: Chinook 1 oz (60 min); Chinook 1 oz (45 min); Chinook 1 oz (40 min); Centennial 1 oz (5 min); Simcoe 1 oz (DH)
Yeast: White Labs California Ale (WLP001)
Misc: Irish Moss (15 min)


THAT is my recipe. Sorry for the confusion. Apparently my dad was screwing around with the knobs on the recipe and was adding and removing things, didn't realize that he saved it, so I just copied and pasted. Then I found my sheet of paper that I had the actual recipe saved on.

I like the suggestion on the hops. Just throw 2 oz @ 60?
 
Also, there is no way we can calculate hop bitterness without the alpha acid content.

I was just going by what BeerAlchemy said. When I actually purchase the hops, which come with their alpha acid on the package, I can plug those numbers in and see what I get.
 
Birthday Celebration Ale:

Grains: 2-Row 8 lb 8 oz; Carapils 2 lb; Caramel 40L 2 lb; Caramel Munich 1 lb; US Chocolate Malt 0.5 oz
Hops: Chinook 1 oz (60 min); Chinook 1 oz (45 min); Chinook 1 oz (40 min); Centennial 1 oz (5 min); Simcoe 1 oz (DH)
Yeast: White Labs California Ale (WLP001)
Misc: Irish Moss (15 min)


THAT is my recipe. Sorry for the confusion. Apparently my dad was screwing around with the knobs on the recipe and was adding and removing things, didn't realize that he saved it, so I just copied and pasted. Then I found my sheet of paper that I had the actual recipe saved on.

I like the suggestion on the hops. Just throw 2 oz @ 60?

Ok, thanks!
Still, WAY too much crystal malt, though. 5 pounds of crystal malt is about 4.25 pounds too much. I don't know why the chocolate malt is in there- it's bitter, coffee-like and roasty, and that surprises me.

A good guideline for making recipes is to think in percentages. You probably want 85-90% of the grain bill of an IPA to be base malt. So, more like this:

90% two row
10% crystal malts

You can add up to a pound of Munich malt ( but NOT caramel Munich!) instead of one of the pounds of two-row, if you want a particularly malty IPA.
 
Ok, thanks!
Still, WAY too much crystal malt, though. 5 pounds of crystal malt is about 4.25 pounds too much. I don't know why the chocolate malt is in there- it's bitter, coffee-like and roasty, and that surprises me.

A good guideline for making recipes is to think in percentages. You probably want 85-90% of the grain bill of an IPA to be base malt. So, more like this:

90% two row
10% crystal malts

You can add up to a pound of Munich malt ( but NOT caramel Munich!) instead of one of the pounds of two-row, if you want a particularly malty IPA.

Sweet! Ok, how about this:

2-Row 11 lb 8 oz (88.5%)
Carapils 8 oz (3.8%)
Caramel 40L 8 oz (3.8%)
German Munich 8 oz (3.8%) (or just drop the Munich all together..?)
 
Sweet! Ok, how about this:

2-Row 11 lb 8 oz (88.5%)
Carapils 8 oz (3.8%)
Caramel 40L 8 oz (3.8%)
German Munich 8 oz (3.8%) (or just drop the Munich all together..?)

That's good! You can drop the Munich altogether if you want, or keep it. It gives a nice reddish color.

I don't use carapils, but that amount is fine. I like the 40L in there. You could even go to 12 ounces with the 40L, to give it a bit more crystal without being too sweet.

That seems like a nice base for an IPA.
 
Sweet! Ok, how about this:

2-Row 11 lb 8 oz (88.5%)
Carapils 8 oz (3.8%)
Caramel 40L 8 oz (3.8%)
German Munich 8 oz (3.8%) (or just drop the Munich all together..?)
That looks much better.
I don't think I've ever seen anybody improve a recipe so much so quickly.
Good luck.

-a.
 
Nice! Thanks guys! I'll play around with it a bit more perhaps, with later brews? Keep this one for the first, try it again later with more 40L, maybe drop the carapils. Can't wait!
 
So let's see here... 13 lbs of malt.

1.25 quarts/lb = 16.25 quarts = 4.06 gallons (4, approximate)

Grain will absorb about 0.1 gallon/lb = 1.3 gallons (approximate)

Dead space assumption = 0.20 gallons

Dead space and absorption = 1.5 gallons (approximate)

Starting with 4 gallons, you get 4 - 1.5 = 2.5 gallons

Boil off (60 minutes) assumption = 1 gallon

Initial mash = 2.5 gallon yield, so 4 gallons of sparge water

2.5 gallons + 4 gallons = 6.5 gallons = 5.5 gallons after 60 min boil (likely going to loose that half gallon throughout the rest of the process so I calculated it in).

Using BeerAlchemy, I set my Tun T/M to 0 (since I'll be pre-heating my mash-tun with a gallon of boiling water), and plug in the numbers.

Mash Temp: 151
Strike Temp: 161

Did I do all of this correctly?
 
It looks ok. I usually lose more than 10 degrees from strike to mash, so make sure you have some extra boiling water on hand just in case you miss the temperature. (My grain is brought up from the basement, so it's quite cold)

If you do find that your temperature is a bit off, don't be superquick to adjust it though. Stir well, to make sure it's equalized throughout. Take the temperature in several different places in the mash- it it's different, stir some more. If you do have to adjust, add some boiling water, stir well, and wait about 5 minutes. So many times, people add hot water, then cold water, then hot again- because it takes a couple of minutes to equalize throughout.

I do most of my mashing for IPAs and APAs at 152, but can live with 151-154.
 
Don't be afraid of a thinner mash. I've been mashing at 1.5qt/lb and doing a single batch sparge, and I'm routinely hitting 80-58% eff.
 
Update: So I built my mash-tun and tested it out with hot water, no leaks, everything works perfectly :)

Now, I noticed that because of the shape of my particular cooler, more water gets stuck under the ball valve than I had anticipated. So based on what KayaBrew suggested in bumping up the qt/lb, and the assumption that I'll be loosing more like 0.5 than 0.2 gallons due to dead space, I decided to 1.4qt/lb. This puts me at about 4.5 gallons of initial mash water. Minus the 1.5 gallons that I'll likely lose from dead space and absorbtion, I'll be at the 3 gallons of yeild.

As well, I didn't calculate a mash-out, which is a part of the sparge, just now separated into 2 sparges.

So, mash out will be about about 1.5 gallons of boiling water, and the 2nd sparge will be 2 gallons.

Again, if I have this all wrong, please let me know, lol. Thanks.
 
Hey guys! Just wanted to update on this recipe! I brewed it about 6 weeks ago and it's awesome! Everyone's telling me to make sure I brew it again, soon. I entered it into the Hogtown competition in Jacksonville, as an IIPA. My first beer entry. Question: do they give you any feedback on how your beer was? Or is it just winner/loser kind of deal?

I just want to say thanks to all of you guys for helping me out on my first AG recipe. I'm freaking hooked!
 
I want to thank everyone here for helping me out on this recipe! I actually entered it into Hogtown Brewoff in Florida, and it placed 2nd in the IPA category!

Thanks so much guys! I'm hooked!
 
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