Mystery Recipe

[deancox]

I live in north Los Angeles county. I brewed my first extract beer in 1987 using Papazian's book. I brew for a few years including a few all grain batches.

I am just coming back, so in all reality I am a noob.

Here is a puzzle for the experienced bewers. A few of months back I decided to get back into brewing. I reread Charlie P's book and most of Brian Palmer's just to refresh my memory. I decided to do a brown ale, all grain, and found a recipe, which I could swear was from Palmer's book. I took it to the Woodland Hills, CA shop that carries a nice selection of grains and supplies and measured and milled my grain bill. I also bought glass vial of White Lab's Pitchable Liquid Yeast, " British Ale Yeast, WLP005" sufficeint for a 5 gallon batch. I bought 1 ounce of Goldings and 1 oz of Galena in the pellet form.

I sealed the grain and the hops in oxygen impermeable plastic and froze them because I knew it was going to be a week or two before I brewed. I refrigerated the yeast. Life got in the way and I didn't get around to brewing....but now I am ready and for the life of me, I can not find the recipe nor when I review the sample recipe's in Palmer's book can I find anything close to it.....

I could just throw the supplies away and start over, but what the heck, I might as well brew it.

I need some help on hops...Which would you use as the boiling hops and which would you use as the finishing? Any suggestion on overall boiling times for a brown ale and when to add the boiling and finishing hops?

The milled grain bill weighs 11 pounds, and with out the recipe I can't tell you the mix or propoertions, but I know I was going to make a brown ale.

As read the taste profiles on the two hop varieties I bought, They don't seem like brown ale style hops and I am wondering if I have enough at an ounce each.

The worst thing that will happen is I have a completely random, amateur batch of beer, but with a little help you all might be help to improve it.

 

[chickypad]

Going off the info you have seems like this is supposed to be a little higher gravity English brown. I'd do something like 0.5 oz Galena at 60 minutes and then add your ounce of Goldings in around 5-10 minutes. That should get you in the right ballpark. Since the yeast is a few months older I'd also recommend a yeast starter (which I always do anyway).

Edit: BTW, I think you're talking about John Palmer, right?

 

[ruralbrew]

My first suggestion is that if it has been a while since you bought your ingredients you will need a yeast starter to make sure you have enough viable yeast. If you go to yeastcalc.com it will give you a pretty good idea of what you will need to do for a starter depending on the age of the yeast.

If you want a dryer beer I would mash the grains in the low 150's, if you want a little residual sweetness then mash in the mid 150's. Use the Galena at 60 minutes for bittering and the Goldings for flavor/aroma. The later in the boil they are added the more they will contribute to the flavor and aroma, if you want more bitterness from them they could be added with 15 minutes left in the boil, less bittering anywhere from 15 minutes to flameout.

There are various mash and sparge water calculators online that will help you figure out your water volumes. If it has been a while you probably don't know your boil off rate but shoot for 5.5 gallons post boil in the fermenter. I find if I don't figure close enough and have to add a bit of water to get back to the five and a half gallons it doesn't hurt anything. Others may have different opinions but that is what I do.

Aerate your wort with a vigorous stirring or shaking, pitch your yeast and wait for it to become beer.

 

[deancox]

Thank you Chick & Ru!

Chick, yes I meant John Palmer, Brian Palmer is a friend of mine and somehow I brain farted and use his name; as far as I know Brian knows nothing about beer except that he would like one.

 

[deancox]

First Brew day in 10 years went off without a hitch yesterday. I am pleased because I am using equipment that I have "manufactured" in the last couple of weeks. Rubbermade lauter tun, converted a keg to a brew kettle, built a wort chiller, made a hop bag from a large pvc fitting - a paint strainer - large stainless clamp and suspended it into the wort from a copper "axle.", etc. etc.

Lovely dark rich wort, right at 5 gallons after boiling, chiller worked great! Pitched the British ale yeast I had started a few days ago, and put it into my new 7 gallon plastic fermenter ( I used to use a glass carboy) and now it is happily bubbling away through the airlock. It has a O.G of 1.0471, so my extraction appears to been fine.

I found a great product, especially for those who are not close to a home brew supply. Smart & Final carries a Lysol product designed for commercial application in a bar for sanitizing glasses, milk equipment in dairies, etc. It is a no-rinse product. About $10 for a gallon, it only takes 1 oz per gallon of water, it has no discernable smell especially when diluted, only required 2 minutes of contact.....I am sure others have been using it for years but I hadn't heard of it and I didn't feel like driving 30 miles to the closest HBS through heavy traffic.

I will bottle in 3-4 weeks and the Ale should be well-conditioned and ready just in time for Thanksgiving.

Thanks for the advice