My first brew and "will my second recipe work?"

[Nebuch]

So, thanks to you guys I have the itch.

I just finished my first batch and it's drinkable. It came out like a malty bitter, nothing great but I've learned enough to attempt a better brew.

For my maiden batch, I started with a Munton's millennium ale kit which is meant for only a 2 gallon batch. I added 1.3kg (2.9 lbs) of pale LME and 0.75oz of Williamette. I boiled it all up in 2-3 gallons of water for 60 min and cooled it in an ice bath. Then I transferred it to a 6gal glass carboy. It stayed in the carboy in my basement for 13 days. My basement temperature varies a lot throughout the day. At night the temps hit 56 F, and during the day it goes up to 68 F.

Boiling wort pic and here's the ghetto way I filled the rest of the carboy with water:

Bottled brew:

After letting it sit in the bottle for 6 days I poured a glass (I couldn't wait any longer):

I've learned a lot since brewing this batch like:
-Allowing the wort to boil without the lid on.
-Cooling the wort as fast as possible after boiling.
-Keeping the beer at a stable temperature during fermentation and higher temperature than 60 F for Ales.
-Auto siphons are amazing!

I've already put together an immersion chiller:

Personally, I love dark beers like stouts or porters, so my next attempt will be one. In the Brewsmith trial I slapped together a recipe for extract and steeping.

Malts, sugars:
3.9 kg (8.6 lbs) Pale LME
0.5 kg (1.1 lbs) Black Patent Malt
0.5 kg (1.1 lbs) Crystal Malt
0.25 kg (0.6 lbs) Chocolate Malt
0.25 kg (0.6 lbs) Roasted Barley
0.1 kg (0.2 lbs) Molasses

Hops:
1 oz Bullion hops (60 min)
1 oz First Gold hops (60 min)
1.25 oz Williamette (20 min)
1 oz First Gold hop (dry hops)

I want to know if you think this recipe will work. I don't have a sparge setup and I'm kitchen bound, so I'm hoping steeping will be enough to extract the goodness from those malts.

I'm also working on a temperature controlled chamber with a microprocessor control. I've got the temperature working and writing the temperature to a USB drive every second. This is how I discovered my basement temps. I'll post more details when it's finished.

 

[impatient]

That is a lot of Patent and Chocolate.

 

[Yooper]

That is a lot of Patent and Chocolate.

Yeah. A little BP goes a long, long way. You may want to consider dropping the BP a lot. I'm not a molasses fan, so I'll let someone else comment on the correct amount for it. That seems like a heckuva lot, though.

 

[McGarnigle]

That's a big beer, so maybe it can hold all those specialty grains. You are making a yeast starter, right? And don't count on drinking it for a while. Also, that poster looks to be upside down.

 

[impatient]

That's a big beer, so maybe it can hold all those specialty grains. You are making a yeast starter, right? And don't count on drinking it for a while. Also, that poster looks to be upside down.

Very observant.

 

[Nebuch]

That's a big beer, so maybe it can hold all those specialty grains. You are making a yeast starter, right? And don't count on drinking it for a while. Also, that poster looks to be upside down.

Thanks for the advice. I guess I will do a starter and knock the Black Patent back a bit. At this alcohol level (~7.5%), can I use a standard Ale yeast or should I get a high alcohol tolerant strain?

And the poster is probably the package of styrofoam insulation that's leaning against my desk.

 

[Bob]

Standard ale yeasts ought to be fine. Most ale yeasts don't start to suffer from alcohol toxicity until ~10%ABV.

Agreed 100% on the black patent. My rule of thumb with black patent is twofold: First, never use it alone, always use it in conjunction with another roasted grain (unless in very minute quantities). Second, when you do use it, use it at a rate not to exceed 50% of the other roasted grain. For example, in my Porter I use black patent and chocolate malt - 8 oz of chocolate and 4 oz of black patent. Black patent malt has a very astringent flavor which I find objectionable alone, much less in excess.

Unlike Yooper, I am a molasses fan, and use it all the time. I even brewed an all-molasses beer once (it's an historical recipe). 2 oz in five gallons, with the specialty grains you've listed, is going to be totally lost. 2 oz in a Bitter will give a bit of color and a hint of flavor. 2 oz in a Porter or Stout isn't enough to have an impact; I'd use at least 4 to 6 fluid ounces.

Cheers,

Bob

 

[T-rags]

Just a suggestion, use oxi-clean and get the glue and labels off your bottles.

 

[944play]

Unless your tap water is unchlorinated, you do not want it in your beer!
EDIT: For that matter, if it is unchlorinated, probably a good idea to boil it first.

 

[Shawn Hargreaves]

I think that will make ok beer, but if this was me I would simplify it a little. When I first started formulating my own recipes, I tended to throw a little of many different grains in, because there were just so many to try and I wanted to use them all. More recently, I've been simplifying things down, and finding I get stronger and crisper flavors from just mixing two or three kinds of grain, wheras five or six can be a little muddy.

In this case, do you really need all three of roasted barley, chocolate, and black malt? Especially when you also have crystal and molasses, that strikes me as a lot of different flavors fighting for attention.

I make a stout with 1 lb of roast barley, 0.5 lb chocolate malt, and 1 lb dark crystal. That comes out with a strong roast/coffee flavor, but not overpowering. I bet a blend like that would go pretty well with molasses, too.

For a more traditional dry stout, you really just need 1 lb roast barley, plus 1 lb flaked barley. No need for any chocolate, black, or crystal.

A porter would typically have the crystal, plus chocolate, plus black malt, but no roast barley. I would do the proportions the other way around, though, as black malt can be really overpowering! Something like 0.4 lb black malt and 0.75 chocolate should give you plenty of flavor. Molasses would go well with that, too.

I've only brewed with molasses once, but definitely will again someday. I used 0.25 lb, which was pretty subtle at first, but became more prominent with age. So I'd say 0.2 lb is reasonable as a starting point. You can always increase it later if you like the recipe but want more prominent molasses - better that way around than too much!

 

[Nebuch]

Here's an updated grain list, I didn't realize Patent was so strong. I like the idea of making a stout with roasted barley.

3.9 kg (8.6 lbs) Pale LME
0.5 kg (1.1 lbs) Crystal Malt
0.5 kg (1.1 lbs) Roasted Barley
0.25 kg (0.6 lbs) Chocolate Malt
4 fl oz. Molasses

My water is chlorinated city water. I wonder if the chlorine affected the yeast in my first beer and made it malty.

 

[hayabusa]

So, thanks to you guys I have the itch.
I'm also working on a temperature controlled chamber with a microprocessor control. I've got the temperature working and writing the temperature to a USB drive every second. This is how I discovered my basement temps. I'll post more details when it's finished.

Do you have more details on this? I need something like this so know what my temp ranges are during the daytime.

 

[magnj]

Which Grado's are those? I have the 80's

 

[Saccharomyces]

My water is chlorinated city water. I wonder if the chlorine affected the yeast in my first beer and made it malty.

Chlorine causes an astringent aftertaste which is a burnt band-aid flavor. Boiling the water or filtering it with a carbon filter is one way to deal with the chlorine. If your water has chloramine as opposed to chlorine, you will need to use campden tablets to remove it (1/4 tablet per 5 gallons for 20 minutes) or use bottled water.

 

[Nebuch]

Hah, my headphones are the SR60s.

Turns out my water does have chloramine. I'll try the tablets or I'll just buy some distilled.

I'll post more about the temperature sensor in the next few days, but you'll need a bit of skill in C as the LCD I'm using seems pretty proprietary.

 

[Nebuch]

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/diy-electronic-fermentation-chamber-heater-99180/#post1081223

I made a thread in DIY for the temperature sensor and chamber.