My first recipe.

[Unlike a Bull]

This is my first attempt at making my own recipe, and before I spend money on ingredients I wanted to get some opinions on it. Prior to making this recipe, I have only followed, or slightly modified, other people's recipes. But now I feel like making something thats "mine". The problem is I don't really know if I'm doing everything (or anything) right. What I'm going for here is something of a light, strong ale. For a 5 gal batch I plan on using:

4 lbs Alexander's pale light malt extract
6 lbs briess golden light dried malt extract
4 lbs caramel 40 L briess crystal malt

1 oz glacier pellet hops boiled for 45 minutes
1 oz cascade pellet hops boiled for 10 minutes
1/2 oz willamette hops steeped for 2 minutes
possibly 1/4 oz cascade pellets for dry hopping, not sure yet though.

And, I plan on using Nottingham ale dry yeast

I calculated the OG to be 1.098 and the FG to be 1.015. And by "calculate" I mean "guess". And by "guess" I mean "I have no idea if those numbers are even close". I figured a 46 gravity point increase per lb per gallon for the DME and 36 points for LME and 17 points for the crystal malt. If those are right, that would give me an ABV of about 10.9% ... If I "calculated" right. I also don't know if the yeast will handle that alcohol or if it'll get the FG that low.

I also think that this beer would do well with a long soak in the bottle. I was thinking at least 6 months, maybe even a year.

Do you think this recipe will work?

 

[uglygoat]

too much crystal malt. try a half pound, or one pound if you want... the crystal malt is not gonna give you many fermentable sugars.

 

[Professor Frink]

Definitely decrease your crystal malt. I haven't done the calculations, but it looks like your IBUs are too low for the SG. I would shoot for about a 1:1 ratio or so of IBUs:SG points. You may also want to pitch 2 packets of rehydrated Nottingham.

 

[Poindexter]

Well, it will be beer and it will be heavy.

I would suggest backing off the crystal, down to half a pound or so.

I would suggest bumping up the hops, a lot, to get something near balance. I suppose you could switch to Cara-Munich or Cara-Pils, leave the hops small and callit an Octoberferst.

At the end of the day I think you should brew it. My personal theory is a long time a go a new brewer who just loved seafood put some seaweed (and who knows what else) into his brew kettle and now we all use Irish moss.

I think you recipe (as written) is going to going to have an alcohol wallop with a hint of barley and a faint memory of hops. You will probably learn more by brewing it than you will by reading what other people think about the recipe.

I encourage you to get a thermomenter and learn to "steep" your grains at 150°F. Once you can steep at 150, then you can mash at 150. When you can run a mini-mash at 150° you will have a lot more options.

Good luck.

 

[HOOTER]

My experience as a home brewer is extremely limited, so my opinion may not be worth much, but it seems to me that 6-8 lbs. of extract along with around 1 lb. of crystal malt is sufficient. That along with the hops you have would make a pretty tasty brew.

 

[Unlike a Bull]

Thanks to everyone who replied. I appreciate your help.

I will reduce the crystal malt to 1/2 pound, but I was trying to keep the hops light as bitter beers aren't my favorite. I guess with that much malt though I wouldn't really over-bitter the beer. I think I'll just increase the times though. Maybe do 60 minutes on the glacier, 45 on cascade and leave the willamette the same.

Poindexter, I agree that I should go ahead and brew it anyway, but I wanted to make sure I would have something that's at least drinkable in the end. "alcohol wallop, faint barley, memory of hops" doesn't really sound all that good. Maybe I'll try this recipe (with less crystal, and longer boil on the hops), and then learn to mash.

I'm really new to this hobby, I've only made about 10 batches of beer, so there's still a lot I have to learn. I've read Charlie Papazian's book "the new complete joy of homebrewing" and have read a lot online also. But reading is no substitute for actual experience.

Thanks again everyone, and when this beer's done, I'll post to let you know how it turned out.

 

[uglygoat]

a malty beer is fine. if you put four pounds of crystal malt in a five or even a ten gallon batch it's gonna be ruff...

as for the hops, one to one ratio if you prefer, but i like a more malty beer, balanced by some bitter.

it's mostly preference.

 

[Ooompa Loompa]

Alright, I just inputted the recipe into promash. Using what you listed above (8 oz of crystal malt instead of 4 lbs) you will at 1.086 SG, and 17.1 IBUs (this is assuming a 2 gallon boil....I'm guessing this is what you do). If I were you I'd shoot for an IBU range of around 40. That would still be a pretty malty beer, but would have enough bitterness to balance it out. If you doubled the glacier (so 2 oz total) and put that in at 60, then put the cascade in at 45 (still 1oz), then put the Willamette in with 2 min left you'd be at 43.2 IBU which I think would work quite well for you.