Need Help, Reading Recipes

[rpalmer1392]

I have been brewing for almost a year now and I have really enjoyed it, but I have been brewing the kits which have everything ready to go for you. I am looking to venture out and brew from my first recipe but I don't know how to read the recipes. This must be a stupid question but I don't know if the process times are the same for all recipes. When I view the recipes they just list ingredients. Any help here would be greatly appreciated!

 

[RitsiGators]

Could you post an example of a recipe so that we could help decipher it?

 

[Revvy]

Yeah what are you having trouble with.

 

[doktorhook]

I haven't been brewing long but if you're looking at a recipe, ounces of grains will be specialty grains. Those should be put in a steeping bag obviously. LME or DME should be treated like normal I would think ( add after specialty grains have steeped) etc.

 

[DJG42]

Boil times are usually the same, 1 hour. Except when you're trying to limit the amount of DMS in the final beer, then the time is increased to 90 min boils.

regarding the hops schedule; Bittering hops are generally added at the 60 minute mark, regardless of boil times. Most recipes call out when to add based upon when the boil ends. (last 5 minutes)

Steeping times for partial mashes are generally just long enough to pull the color out of the grains and get some enzyme activity from the base malts in it. These can vary, but most of the mini-mashes, I've done are 45 min, depending upon the temperature. All-grain recipes are different, they vary by mash in schedule and what grains you have, but you're really just looking for full starch conversion. Iodine tests are next level stuff.

 

[jdubb75]

If you go to Norther Brewers website you can look at the actual recipe/instructions included with every kit. Almost everyone is very detailed in the kind and amount of ingredients included. You could download the trial version of Beer Smith (if you don't already have it) and input a couple of their recipes and then play around with the times/amounts to see how they effect the outcome of the beer, e.g. SRM, IBU's and ABV. Or input some of the recipes of kits you've already done so you have first hand experience of the beer it produced.

It sounds like I was on a road similar to yours and grew tired of the kits. I did exactly as I described above, as well as a lot of reading, and it really helped me understand the role each part of the process plays. I still have plenty to learn, but I'm headed down my own path now and now just what I can find available online.

 

[rpalmer1392]

Here is a perfect example of what I am talking about.

star with three lbs of really good honey like orange blossom or buckwheat added at flameout, also use a clean ale yeast like wlp 041 pacific ale. if there isnt enough honey there after its done fermenting add some more at secondary or prime with it. here is my recipe.

7#'s two-row
4 oz's honey malt
4oz's crystal 60
8 ozs munich
3 lbs raw buckwheat honey
1 oz amarillo 60 min
.5 oz cascade 30 min
.5oz amarillo 20 min
.5 oz cascade 5 min

single infusion mash at 150 for an hour. i batch sparge. boil then add honey at flameout.

 

[doktorhook]

The 7# two row is 7 lbs. Of cracked 2 row malted barley the cascade & Amarillo are hops, the honey is added after you turn the burner off , & the other oz's are specialty grains. I would. Take your OG & after a few days check the gravity again after a few days to see if the OG has changed much if not wait another couple of days take another gravity reading if it's not approaching FG add more honey

 

[doktorhook]

Honey malt, crystal & Munich are specialty grains

 

[rpalmer1392]

Thanks that helps. What about the boil and Steep times?

 

[rpalmer1392]

then those would be what I steep correct?

 

[doktorhook]

Yep that's what you steep. Actually recipes are pretty easy to read after you know some terminology & the names for various ingredients & know what their for

 

[husker]

I had the same problem. Still do sometimes.

 

[hogwash]

You understand that is an all grain recipe, right?

 

[doktorhook]

You understand that is an all grain recipe, right?

Yeah hogwash is right, It's all grain & while I've never done all grain before it seems to me that all grain, specialty or not, would go in the same grain bag to steep. Just make sure the grains aren't all bunched up in the grain bag so that more of it comes in contact with the water

 

[hogwash]

Unless specified, boil times are usually 60 mins. You typically steep for 30 mins.

 

[tre9er]

All grain involves a "mash". That's essentially when you steep the grains at the specified mash temp in order to activate the enzymes and get them converting starches to sugars that your yeast will later ferment.

You would use "strike water" that is 10-12* higher than the mash temp (because when you drop the grains in, the temp will lower by that amount, usually). If you're doing brew-in-a-bag (BIAB), you'd put your grain bag into the strike water, cover the pot, wrap with a blanket, and wait until the mash time is up.

Then you sparge with 168-170* water (usually). Sparging involves introducing water to your grains that is hot enough to denature the enzymes and stop the convesion of starch-to-sugar. For BIAB, this involves putting the grain bag into a separate pot that has sparge water in it and steeping for usually 10 minutes, then discarding the grains and adding the sparge and mash waters together to boil.

The Hops are added at the times shown on your boil timer (a 45 minute hop would be added when your 60 minute boil timer is down to 45, etc.). Zero is the end of the boil. Anything else is post-boil, like adjuncts such as honey.

 

[rpalmer1392]

I guess that I didn't recognize the difference. I understand that the boil time would be 60min and that's when you would add the extract correct? when do the hops get added? I thought the bitter hops were at the beginning.

I really appreciate all the feedback!

 

[ciphin78]

star with three lbs of really good honey like orange blossom or buckwheat added at flameout, also use a clean ale yeast like wlp 041 pacific ale. if there isnt enough honey there after its done fermenting add some more at secondary or prime with it. here is my recipe.

7#'s two-row
4 oz's honey malt
4oz's crystal 60
8 ozs munich
3 lbs raw buckwheat honey
1 oz amarillo 60 min
.5 oz cascade 30 min
.5oz amarillo 20 min
.5 oz cascade 5 min

single infusion mash at 150 for an hour. i batch sparge. boil then add honey at flameout.

This is all-grain. There is no extract. The total amount of fermentables will come from the grain and honey. If you are not familiar with the general process of all-grain brewing then you should start by looking that up. In the process of learning how to brew all-grain the recipes should become more clear. FYI...the hop additions are listed in minutes left in the boil so "1 oz amarillo 60 min" would mean that you would add 1 oz. of amarillo hops with 60 minutes left in your boil - so those would go in right at the beginning and so on down the list until you get to "flame-out" which is after the hour boil and when you kill the heat. Hope this helps a bit.

 

[chickypad]

Here is a perfect example of what I am talking about.

star with three lbs of really good honey like orange blossom or buckwheat added at flameout, also use a clean ale yeast like wlp 041 pacific ale. if there isnt enough honey there after its done fermenting add some more at secondary or prime with it. here is my recipe.

7#'s two-row
4 oz's honey malt
4oz's crystal 60
8 ozs munich
3 lbs raw buckwheat honey
1 oz amarillo 60 min
.5 oz cascade 30 min
.5oz amarillo 20 min
.5 oz cascade 5 min

single infusion mash at 150 for an hour. i batch sparge. boil then add honey at flameout.

If you want to do this recipe as an extract you just need to convert your base grain. In general 1lb grain = .75 lb LME = .6 lb DME.
So in your recipe replace the 7lbs of 2 row with 5.25 lb light LME or 4.2 lb light DME. You are not doing all grain or partial mash so ignore directions for mash temps and sparging. You would do the following:
- Steep your specialty grains at about 150-155 for 30 min (fairly standard steep)
- Add your extract per your normal process (for example half at beginning and rest at flameout, or all at beginning if doing full boil - especially with DME this is probably okay).
- As was mentioned, times for hops are listed as total boil time per addition: 1 oz amarillo goes in at the beginning of the 60 mn boil, .5 oz cascade with 30 min left, etc.
- add your honey at flameout

 

[BrewMU]

How big is your mash tun? You can just put it all in there - the mash/sparge/mash-out will get the sugar out of your specialty grains.
The Amarillo is listed as a 60 minute hop, so you have to boil at least that long.
The boil time does depend on the size of your pot, projected OG and desired batch size. I collect wort until the gravity drops below 1.010.
Regardless, you can put the Amarillo in right after the hotbreak, then start your countdown. You can add a few minutes to that time if you need to boil down, but you want to get the times right on your late additions. What is your physical set-up - mash tun, pot size, etc.?