My very first original recipe - Let's hope it's not a disaster!

[sappnasty]

Fellas,

In the last three batches, I feel that I have learned a ton. I have educated myself on the hop varities, yeast strains, sanitization practices and everything else I could read about. So after making 3 batches, I felt that it was time to just make something up with stuff I had on hand. I did not follow any directions and based my yeast and hops decisions on personal preference. So here is what I came up with:

Cooper's LME Amber (3.3lb)
Cooper's LME Light (3.3lb)
8.0 oz of Carapils (at 140f for 15 minutes)
Wyeast Smack-Pack Ringwood Ale (#1187)
1.2oz of Santium whole hops (added at hot break)
1.0oz of Hallertau whole hops (30 minutes)

I first placed the 8.0ozs of Carapils (pre-crushed at brew store) in 6.0 gallons of spring water at 140f for 15 minutes. Then brought to a boil and cut flame to add both the Cooper's Amber and Cooper's Light LME. Brought back to a boil and at the hot break, I added the 1.2 oz of Santium whole hops. Continued to stir and allow to boil and then added the Hallertau at 30 minute mark.

After boil was finished, I immediately cooled with wart chiller and brought down to 75f. Then pitched the Ringwood Ale which I activated earlier in the day to the wart which came out to be slightly more than 5 gallons. Now as compared to the Wyeast German Wheat yeast, this one had an almost two day lag time. The Wheat yeast was killer by the following morning and I had to use blow off valve.

But yesterday when I went to check, it was bubbling furiously and thank god I had alreadya attached a a blow off valve. Looking good as of this morning and I can't wait to see how it turns out. I have heard that the Cooper's are "pre-hopped" but I did not see anything on the can that advised this. Anyone have any thoughts on this or got any ideas on what I just created? lol - Any advice would be helpful, or pointing out any mistakes I made. Thanks

-Sapp

 

[JimRausch]

Love the name of the brew- gave me a good chuckle.
Some of the Coopers cans are hopped extract, but they would say so.
I don't see that you made any mistakes, although the 75* might be a little high. I tend to try to ferment my ales in the low-mid 60's. It looks like the recipe is solid. Hope you enjoy it!

 

[Copbrew133]

Never used the Coopers.

Just a word of advice though; If this recipe turns out to be something you like or is close to something that you will like, brew it several times while making small adjustments (one at a time) that you think will make the beer better, i.e. different hops or hopping schedule, different yeast, ferm temp., etc. This will give you the chance to gain first hand knowledge, on your particular equipment setup, as to what these minute changes bring to the table. It's a great way to perfect a recipe and to learn at the same time. Good luck.

 

[sappnasty]

Jim:

I am not fermenting at 75f, only pitched at this temperature. I seemed to have great sucess with the other yeasts when pitched at this temp. The room I ferment in stays at about 66f give or take, so for the entire 3-4 weeks it never goes above 70f.

Copbrew: I have heard that from others as well and so far I am partial to Briess DME's until I go full grain. I plan to get a few more batches under my belt and get my process down before I move to all grain. However, this was the part of my inventory before I really started to learn about whats what...more of a knee jerk reaction buy while at the brew store. Thank you very much for the advice.

-Sapp

 

[sappnasty]

Oh and I'm glad you liked the name...my wife laughed when I told her too...lol

-Sapp