my first recipe need help

[milliser]

we started a recipe and wondered how it might turn out here it is

steeping grains 40 mins
.5 lbs vienna malt
.5 lbs dingemans aromatic malt
.5 lbs munich malt

full boil

4 lbs pale lme
2.8 lbs amber dme

2 oz target hops pellets 60 min boil
1 oz cascade pellets 30 min
1 oz cascade pellets 15 min
1 tsp irish moss 15 min

and white labs british ale yeast
7 days in primary dry hop with 1 oz of citra hops secondary for 14 days


well if it wont work let me have it since i am new to this and dont mind bieng told i suck lol thanks

 

[Yooper]

It looks fine, although your "steeping grains" are actually grains that are mashed, and not steeped, so I assume you mashed them.

There are only a couple of things I'd change. One is to not use amber DME. It has crystal malt in it, and maybe other malts, like Munich, so it's hard to use in a recipe since you don't know what's in it. It should be fine, though, since you didn't use crystal malt in your grains.

I'd change the hopping just a bit. Any hops added before about 20 minutes from the end of the boil will provide bittering, but not much in the way of flavor and no aroma, so I'd rather bitter at 60 minutes (bittering), 15 minutes (flavor) and 5-0 minutes (aroma). The recipe you have will provide a very bitter beer, with some hops flavor and little to no hops aroma. I'd prefer less bitterness.

I also don't like to dryhop for more than about 7 days. Ideally, I dryhop for 5 days. I like to dryhop just before packaging the beer for the best and freshest hops aroma.

 

[Calder]

You are looking at a Pale Ale here. I'd add half a pound of Crystal (I suggest C60) to the grains.

Vienna, Aromatic and Munich, all need to be mashed. Either learn, or leave them out. It's not too difficult, here is a quick description:

- Use 1.5 quarts of water for every lb of grain to be mashed.
- Heat water to 160 - 165 F.
- Remove from heat and add grains. Stir. I would get a 5 gallon paint straining bag from Home Depot and line the pot with it and put the grains inside. The grains will drop the temperature by about 10 F.
- Maintain temperature at 150 -155 for 30 to 60 minutes. Stir occasionally.
- Drain grains.
- Rinse grains with hot water.
- Bring to the boil and brew as normal

Any Crystal malts can be added to the grains while they mash.

The beer will taste more complex if you mash the grains.

I usually dry hop for 14 days without issue. If using pellets, it takes 10 days for most of them to drop.

 

[milliser]

Thanks for the ideas on how to tweak it and make it better.

 

[milliser]

Well it has been brewed and bottled, opened the first trial bottle to see if was carbed and low and behold i had head lol tasted very hoppy and good thanks again for the info on how to make this better..

 

[bobbrews]

You are looking at a Pale Ale here. I'd add half a pound of Crystal (I suggest C60) to the grains.

Vienna, Aromatic and Munich, all need to be mashed. Either learn, or leave them out. It's not too difficult, here is a quick description:

- Use 1.25 to 1.50 quarts of water for every lb. of grain to be mashed.
- In a smaller kettle than your main, heat water to 160 - 165 F.
- Remove from heat and add grains. Stir. I would get a 5 gallon paint straining bag from Home Depot and line the pot with it and put the grains inside. The grains will drop the temperature by about 10 F.
- Maintain temperature at 148 -154 for 45 to 60 minutes. Stir occasionally.
- Drain grains.
- Dip the grain bag several times in main kettle holding 170 F water. Drain the grain bag again into a bowl (using gravity) while you bring the wort to a boil. You can add the runnings from the bowl to the boil to save as much wort as possible.
- Brew as normal and find some use for the spent grains. You can bake with them or make dog treats, potting mix, etc.

Any Crystal malts can be added to the grains while they mash.

The beer will taste maltier and more complex if you use a percentage of crushed mashing grains to supplement light DME and crystal. I suggest ditching amber dme and solely using extra light DME.

I usually dry hop for 14 days without issue. If using pellets, it takes 10 days for most of them to drop.

Good, straightforward advice. I made some minor tweaks that could benefit the new homebrewer by helping them understand different ways you can go about brewing partial mash - brew in bag (in red).

 

[outofstep]

I second the idea to ditch the amber DME, unless your looking to darken it up quite a bit. The first time i tried it, i used 2 pounds of it and it turned my brew into almost a brown ale. I don't know if it was the yeast but i had a serious residual sweetness too