Need a little help with a recipe

[Dark_Ale]

I used this recipe last year, but I cant find any of my records. I was trying to make a barley wine and it turned out very good but I remember it being very bitter. I cant remember, and did not write down when I added the hops and how much. I do remember I used all the hops. I would still like to use all the hops mabe dryhop, get more aroma and less bitter? any way the recipe is as follows and help with the hop bill would be appreciated...Thanks.
8lbs LME
2lbs Old Barvarian Munich Extract
1lb Domestic Two Row Grain
2lbs Cara-vienne light crystal grain
2oz chinook (Pellets)
2oz Northern Brewer (Pellets)
1 dry pack of safale yeast

 

[SwAMi75]

I'd only use 1 oz of the Chinook at 60min, then spread the remaining additions throughout the boil. For more aroma, concentrate on additions late in the boil....like 15min and later. You could also sub a hop like Columbus for bittering, which is said to give a "cleaner" bitterness than Chinook, but be careful, it's some high alpha stuff!

 

[Sir Sudster]

I agree with Sam75, if you take the chinook down to 1 oz. you will move from a total of 106 ABU's to 57 ABU's which will put you in the ball park.
Assuming a 60 min boil.

 

[Dark_Ale]

I agree with Sam75, if you take the chinook down to 1 oz. you will move from a total of 106 ABU's to 57 ABU's which will put you in the ball park.
Assuming a 60 min boil.

I have decided to go 1oz chinook, and convert the recipe to an all grain. I may loose a little bit fermentables, I have only done a few all grains but they have all turned out awesome, I have become more efficient with each one so hopefully everything will turn out good. How about the northernbrewer hops, I think I have some cascade in the icebox I was thinking about dry hopping, anyway I plan on drinking this one around christmas time, I mean I will have to sample along the way....LOL. Any ideas on the aroma hops?

 

[Sir Sudster]

Good idea about the Cascade. Go for it!

 

[Dark_Ale]

Good idea about the Cascade. Go for it!

Ok, going to change it to all grain with the following recipe
11lb Two row
3 pound Lt. Munich
2 pound cara- Vienne
1.5 oz Centenial 60Min
1 oz Northern Brewer @ 20min
1 oz Northern Brewer @ 5min

Still have not made up my mind on dry hopping what ya think?

 

[Sir Sudster]

Yeast is going to play a big role in this recipe. What are you considering?

 

[Dark_Ale]

Yeast is going to play a big role in this recipe. What are you considering?

Safale s-04(Dry Ale Yeast) 23grams.... This is the yeast I used last time with the malt extract and it finished very well. What ya think?

 

[Dark_Ale]

Safale s-04(Dry Ale Yeast) 23grams.... This is the yeast I used last time with the malt extract and it finished very well. What ya think?

Ok just finished mashing, I dont have promash or anything to figure up how good I mashed the grain but I got a 1.070@60F.

 

[SwAMi75]

Promash gives me 62% efficiency. It's going to be a little mild for a BW, but I'll bet it's still good! Hey, it'll take less time to age!

 

[Dark_Ale]

Promash gives me 62% efficiency. It's going to be a little mild for a BW, but I'll bet it's still good! Hey, it'll take less time to age!

Its my second all grain, I found out today I have not been mashing correctly, but lesson learned, and yes not so much time to age Thats a good thing, but my hops are probably off now

 

[SwAMi75]

I've only managed 65% with my first two. I'm going to modify my sparge routine, and try a "mashout" next batch. Hopefully that'll help some. Oh, that, and hopefully get some pH stabilizer.

 

[Dark_Ale]

I've only managed 65% with my first two. I'm going to modify my sparge routine, and try a "mashout" next batch. Hopefully that'll help some. Oh, that, and hopefully get some pH stabilizer.

Well I was mashing grain for an english ale yesterday, my OG was 1.048 @5gal, so I started my boil at 5gallon, ended up with about 4 gallons. Not sure how much this increased my gravity, I was kinda getting frustrated and did not take a gravity @4gal, so I sacrificed 1gallon of brew to get my gravity up a bit. Not sure where I am going wrong, mabe I need to increase my amount of grain until I can figure out what I am doing wrong.

 

[Sir Sudster]

Dark Ale , what was your boil time 60 or 90 minutes? You'll lose water during the boil sometime as much as 15 to 20%. It really depends on the dew point of the day.

 

[Dark_Ale]

Dark Ale , what was your boil time 60 or 90 minutes? You'll lose water during the boil sometime as much as 15 to 20%. It really depends on the dew point of the day.

My boil was 60 min. I have foundout that my process was a little wrong and have learned some ways to get a better extraction. I have already racked to secondary, and the smell was absolutly wonderful and the beer was very clear for some reason. I cant wait to taste the final product. I figured 1.070 was not too bad for my second allgrain, it should have a little bite to it. Not sure what the FG will be but I cant wait to find out. I will just get better. I was gonna dryhop but the smell was so wonderful I decided not too.

 

[Sir Sudster]

My boil was 60 min. I have foundout that my process was a little wrong and have learned some ways to get a better extraction. I have already racked to secondary, and the smell was absolutly wonderful and the beer was very clear for some reason. I cant wait to taste the final product. I figured 1.070 was not too bad for my second allgrain, it should have a little bite to it. Not sure what the FG will be but I cant wait to find out. I will just get better. I was gonna dryhop but the smell was so wonderful I decided not too.

Promash tells me you were losing 20% per hour. You need to calculate your water volumes based on the number of pounds of grain and losses left behind in your setup. Grain will absorb quite a bit of water.Since you started your boil at 5gal you could have added 1.5 gallons of water to your initial boil and ended up with a 5.5 gal in your fermenter. I calculate this would have brought your OG to 1.062 assuming a 1.038 before boil SG.