Need help with recipe - American Pale Ale

[tarmenel]

Hi all,
Not sure to post this in the beginners forum or here but here goes.
The place I buy my ingredients from does not give the instructions for preparing the mash. I'm moving onto my second batch of beer and thought that might be a could idea to throw out the ingredients and not try to wing it. If anyone can help me with the directions of the boil with the following ingredients I'd really appreciate it.

American Pale Ale
3kg Liquid Malt (Light)
250g Caramalt
150g Crystal
600g Pale Ale

30g Cascade (60 Min)
30g Cascade (30 Min)

US-05 Yeast

150g Sugar for bottling

OG: 1.048 - 1.050
FG: 1.010 - 1.012
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That's basically the recipe I got from them. This is translated from Hebrew so hope the names come out correct.
Basically I'd appreciate some help with how to turn this into beer without messing it up

 

[brewkinger]

It looks like an extract with steeping grains, so there is really not a mash to prepare.
I'm guessing 2.5 gallon batch?
The instructions you seek are difficult to give without knowing more info.

How big is your kettle?
Assuming this is a kit, did it come with a grain bag to steep the grains in?

 

[JohnSand]

I think you would be okay with standard extract+grains procedure. You can read John Palmer's How to Brew online, for free. Or search homebrew supply sites for instructions. But here is a summary: Steep the crushed grain in a mesh bag for 30 minutes at 150f. You will need at least a 12 quart pot, 16 would be better. You are making 5 gallons, 19 liters, I think. So start with half the necessary water. After steeping your grains, pull them out and throw them away. Add your extract gradually, stirring often, with the heat off. Once it is all dissolved, heat it to boiling. Watch the heat carefully, this can boil over quickly and make a big mess. Stir it or spray it with water if it gets close to the top of the pot. When you achieve a good steady boil, start your clock and add your hops, 60 minute addition first. After 30 minutes, add the other hops. After 60 minutes total, turn off the heat, remove the pot to a sink full of ice water to chill it. You can add more cold, clean water to the pot to help chill. You have to add the rest of the water to reach 5 gallons in your fermenter. Any water added at the end should be pure, either filtered or boiled and cooled. When your wort is down to about 70f, pour it aggressively into the fermenter to aerate it, or close and shake the fermenter. Sprinkle your yeast on top. Keep it in the dark, about 65f for two to three weeks. You will have sanitized you fermenter and anything else that touches your cooled wort.
That's it in a nutshell. There are variations, of course. Study and practice. Have fun and let us know how it goes. This is a great pastime.

 

[chickypad]

No that's a partial mash, though a small one with just a kg of grain (600 g of which is pale ale malt - a base malt). You could mash that kg in about 3-4 liters of water at around 152, you will need to heat the strike water to about 164 or so then add the grains and check the temp. Use a bag that is big enough so the grains are very loose and you can stir them well. When at the right temp wrap the pot in a blanket for 30-60 min then lift and squeeze the bag. You can rinse it with a couple more liters if you want by dunking in a second pot or pouring it over the grain in a colander into the brew kettle. Then top off the brew kettle to your desired boil volume if needed. If you are not doing a full boil I would only add a small amount of extract at the beginning and save 1/2 to 2/3 of it for flameout.

 

[JohnSand]

Good call Chicky. I didn't even look at the grain types.

 

[tarmenel]

How big is your kettle?
Assuming this is a kit, did it come with a grain bag to steep the grains in?

18 litres (4.7 Gallons)
I have a grain bag.

Thanks John and Chicky for the replied. Just want to make sure I have this right and also ask a few questions:


Heat 4 litres of water to 164 and then add the grains in a bag to the water.
This bag should be open open top, stretched over the pot? This way I can stir it?
Check temperature to make sure its at 152 after the bag has been added.
Add 1/3 of the liquid malt.
Remove from heat and wrap in a blanket?
In the mean time have another pot with water (boiled or not?) to remove the grain bag into so removed some more goodness. What temperature should this be at?
Add the remaining 2/3 of liquid malt.
When would I then add the hops?

Feel that this seems a bit more complicated than what John suggested

 

[chickypad]

18 litres (4.7 Gallons)
I have a grain bag.

Thanks John and Chicky for the replied. Just want to make sure I have this right and also ask a few questions:


Heat 4 litres of water to 164 and then add the grains in a bag to the water.
This bag should be open open top, stretched over the pot? This way I can stir it? If you can yes, really stir the grains up well.
Check temperature to make sure its at 152 after the bag has been added. Yes - but 150-156 is fine.
Add 1/3 of the liquid malt. Not yet
Remove from heat and wrap in a blanket? Yes, this is your mash.
In the mean time have another pot with water (boiled or not?) to remove the grain bag into so removed some more goodness. What temperature should this be at? I typically do 150-170, though there is a brewer by the name of Kai who has shown that even room temp water doens't make that much difference with batch sparging (which is what this is). You're going to be boiling the water anyway though so might as well preheat.
- after your mash is done, say 45 min or so, lift bag and squeeze. Then place bag in your second pot, again stir like crazy to rinse off the sugars, then lift and squeeze, adding that liquid to the water in your kettle.
-now add your 1/3-1/2 extract and top off with water to bring the boil volume up (should be able to fit 3.5 gal or so).
- start your boil, once it's boiling add the first addition of cascade and set timer for 60 min
- with 30 min remaining add second addition cascade
-at end of the 60 min boil turn off the flame and add the rest of your extract
- chill then add to fermenter and top off with water to the correct volume then pitch your yeast.


Feel that this seems a bit more complicated than what John suggested

See answers in red. Only other thing I would say is if you are aiming for an APA you really should add some flavor/aroma hops in this recipe. If I were making this at minimum I would throw in another 30g at about 10 minutes and 30g at flameout or dry hop (or do all 3).
Good luck!

 

[JohnSand]

Tarmenal, I understand you hesitation. All of this seemed confusing and intimidating at first, but over time it becomes easier. I highly recommend reading How to Brew. Then go ahead and make your beer. You will surely make mistakes at some point, we all did. But anyone can make good beer with some study and practice. It will all be worthwhile when you impress your friends with a really good homebrew. "You made this?" can be high praise.

 

[brewkinger]

Tarmenal, I understand you hesitation. All of this seemed confusing and intimidating at first, but over time it becomes easier. I highly recommend reading How to Brew. Then go ahead and make your beer. You will surely make mistakes at some point, we all did. But anyone can make good beer with some study and practice. It will all be worthwhile when you impress your friends with a really good homebrew. "You made this?" can be high praise.

Totally agree with above.

Read HTB and relax.

Follow the directions above from chicky and make yourself a brew plan and write it on a piece of paper.

Follow the plan and relax...

if it were me, I would skip the mash portion of the brew and compensate with a little bit of additional DME or LME at the end of the boil if your gravity is low.

Stick those grains in a bag

Steep them like a teabag in about a gallon of water at between 150 and 160 degrees for about 20-30 minutes with a regular dunking motion 2 or 3 times.

Stick a colander or strainer over the kettle and rinse the grains with a few more gallons of water to get up to whatever volume you are able to boil.

Bring to a boil.

remove from heat and add half the extract and stir until it is totally dissolved.

Bring up to boil and add 60 min hop addition

Add additional hops at appropriate times.

Add rest of extract (and any extra needed to get to OG)
I would also add some extra hops at this point as mentioned to bring this up to APA specs.
Sanitize anything that will touch the wort from this point on

Cool the wort.

Sanitize a fermenter and dump it in.

Cover and put a blowoff tube on and put it someplace that it will stay around 65 degrees.

Wait 2-3 wks and then proceed on.

The downtime is a great time to read up and research on this forum.

Most of all, relax and enjoy this process.

 

[tarmenel]

I reckon I'll go with the directions in red
Thanks for the help I really appreciate it. I'll post back what I did after I'm done.
When you say boil, that really mean's boil right 212? Or boiling at 150 - 160? Apologies for the silly questions.

BTW: Started reading the online guide. Looks like a brilliant resource

 

[chickypad]

When you say boil, that really mean's boil right 212? Or boiling at 150 - 160? Apologies for the silly questions.

Well it's 212 if you're at sea level. I suppose if you live at the top of Everest you might get a boil going at 150-160

 

[Sir-Hops-A-Lot]

You keep the water around 150 for the steeping of the grains.
You use a full "rolling boil" when you and the extract.
BTW when you add the extract, you get something called a Hot Break. The foamy top of the boil rises and it can do so suddenly and overflow your pot. Keep an eye on the pot until the hot break is past. Lift it off the element, turn the element down and keep going.

 

[brewkinger]

You keep the water around 150 for the steeping of the grains.
You use a full "rolling boil" when you and the extract.
BTW when you add the extract, you get something called a Hot Break. The foamy top of the boil rises and it can do so suddenly and overflow your pot. Keep an eye on the pot until the hot break is past. Lift it off the element, turn the element down and keep going.

I thought of this last night after I posted.
If you are inside on a stovetop, it can make for a sticky, stinky mess.
Hop additions will do the same thing usually. Keep an eye on it.

I have to chuckle because my directions and chicky's directions (in red) are so very similar. The only variation that I really see in the two is that I recommened that you do not bother with the mash part of it.
You have such a small amount of base malt (600g) that it would offer very little fermentable sugars to the overall mixture.
I just figured that if the process could be made simpler for you, then it was worth mentioning.

Either way you choose, you are going to make beer.

 

[chickypad]

You have such a small amount of base malt (600g) that it would offer very little fermentable sugars to the overall mixture.
I just figured that if the process could be made simpler for you, then it was worth mentioning.

Agreed, the mash is only going to make up probably 20% of the fermentables so you could just replace that small amount of pale ale malt with extract and steep the crystal/cara malts. On the other hand, you could replace some of the extract with more pale malt and make a bigger partial mash. It's not a bad idea to become familiar with partial mashing IMO. Though this recipe doesn't require it, there are many recipes that do because they include ingredients that aren't appropriate for steeping or don't have an extract equivalent. As brewkinger said, in the end it will be beer.

 

[brewkinger]

On the other hand, you could replace some of the extract with more pale malt and make a bigger partial mash. It's not a bad idea to become familiar with partial mashing IMO.

Absolutely agreed.

If you are going to go the partial mash route, then you may as well as do it right.

 

[tarmenel]

Thanks so much for all the help. I was quite happy this evening. Alot more work than my first batch but the taste was lovely. Here's the process:

24 hours prior to beer prep boiled 10 litres of water
Let it cool and then poured into 1 litre and 2 litre tuperware that I sanitised.
Placed this it the freezer.
Also filled 5 1 litre bottles with water and placed those in the fridge too.


Started with 11 litres of tap water.
Heated up to 80C
Placed bag over smaller pot and poured in grain
Added water to grain, temperature at 72C
Stirred vigorously, covered with blanket, temperature at 69 C
Set timer for forty five minutes
In the mean time added hot water to bowl to warm up the liquid extract
Also added a teaspoon of bi-sulphate for a sanitizing solution.
Put the airlock, tap for fermenter, spoons and spray bottle in the sanitizer

After 15 minutes temperature of wort is 67.5C
After 40 minutes temperature of wort is 64 C

Removed the blanket. Squeezed out the bag and placed it in the other pot of heated water
Added the wort to the big pot. Temperature at 61 C
Squeezed out the bag that was in sparge really well.
Added sparge to the wort, total volume now at 10 litres, temperature 67 C
Added half the extract +/- and stirred really well to mix the extract
Temperature getting close to 70 C

Started timer to see how long it takes to get up to temp.
2 minutes: 75 C
5 minutes: 80 C
7 minutes: 82 C
10 minutes: 85 C
13 minutes: 90 C
18.5 minutes: 95 C
23 minutes: 99 C

Added first 30g of Palisade hops and started 60 minute timer
Gave it a stir when I saw that the yeast had cooked up against the side.
Temperature boiling between 100 - 102 C

Took out some wort and placed it in cold water to bring down to 25 C
Once it got down to 25 C I threw in the dry yeast Safale US-05
Gave it a good stir to start the yeast activation

After 30 minutes added second 30g packet of Palisade hops.
Water is boiling at 102 C. Started timer to 20 minutes so that I will then add the remaining extract

Sanitized the fermenter with a fresh batch of sanitiser.
Placed all the moving parts in and swished all the sanitiser inside to really get it all over.
Placed lid on with airlock filled with sanitiser

Checked on yeast. Starting to hydrate. Can't see any granules. Looks like muck.

20 minute timer up. Added the remaining liquid extract slowly while stirring
Set timer for 10 minutes

Everything from this point forward is in a strict sanitized mode
I have a basin of sanitiser that I dip my hands into before any contact with any beer related work

Started to remove ice packs from freezer to make a ice bath
and give some time for the ice blocks to separate so that it will be easier to put into mash.


Within 17 minutes I had brought the temperature down below 20 C, added the yeast and sealed the fermenter
There is still some ice inside so the tempereature might go down a bit more
I hope this does not shock the yeast too much
I have no way of measuring temperature during fermentation but took a sample for the hydrometer check

OG: 1.061 @ 22 Celsius

 

[tarmenel]

Apologies if the terminolgy is not spot on. But these are teh notes I made as I went along.
I took photo's that I will also try and upload:
https://plus.google.com/photos/1097...s/6131387502087941105?authkey=CImd1aDY77GL9AE

 

[tarmenel]

 

[JohnSand]

It does sound like fun. I'm not sure what effect the remaining ice may have. It may only slow down the process. But I'm pretty sure you will get beer. I find that a regular thermometer, the kind you would hang on a wall, placed on top of the fermenter, gives a good indication of the inside temperature. Good luck, keep us updated.

 

[tarmenel]

Does the hydrometer reading not seem a bit high?

 

[brewkinger]

Does the hydrometer reading not seem a bit high?

Well yeah. Looks like 1.064-ish

Given that you said that your OG was supposed to be 1.048-1.050

The temp looks like 15-16* C, so that is 59-61 degrees F and that is standard temp for hydrometer calibration.

Let me look back at your process and see if I can help figure it out.

EDIT: Nope. Cannot see where you would have gotten extra sugars from.
You stuck to the original recipe that you posted right?

Hydrometer not stuck to the side of the cylinder? Or sitting on the bottom?

 

[chickypad]

Plugging your recipe in to beersmith your estimated OG 1.048-1.051 seems to be for 22-23 liters (this is assuming about 73% efficiency on the small mash). If you are more like 18-19 liters that would explain your OG. Did you accurately measure the ending volume in the fermenter? I can't really tell by your description how much you topped off with and what your ending volume is. The other explanation for missing OG on a mostly extract batch is inadquate mixing prior to taking the reading - it's really hard to get the top off water throuroghly mixed.

 

[brewkinger]

Plugging your recipe in to beersmith your estimated OG 1.048-1.051 seems to be for 22-23 liters (this is assuming about 73% efficiency on the small mash). If you are more like 18-19 liters that would explain your OG. Did you accurately measure the ending volume in the fermenter? I can't really tell by your description how much you topped off with and what your ending volume is. The other explanation for missing OG on a mostly extract batch is inadquate mixing prior to taking the reading - it's really hard to get the top off water throuroghly mixed.

I knew that I was missing some obvious possibilities.

 

[tarmenel]

Thanks. The volume might explain it. Probably closer to 19-20 liters. Once I get the hang of things I'll need to start playing around with beersmith.
The fermentation has not started yet but this could be because I actually cooled it down correctly this time.
By the way, is my method of chucking in ice OK? Made sure to boil it so that it was sterile. Or is this too much of a shock?

 

[tarmenel]

Know there is a sticky on the fact that ferentation can take a few days to start. As of yet no bubbling has started although I did take a peak by removing the airlock and saw lots of foaming mess on top. Should I just let it run its course and check the reading in two weeks to see that fermentation did take place?

 

[JohnSand]

It is fermenting. That sticky mess on top is evidence of that. My airlock isn't bubbling either, the gas is escaping around the lid. Let it go two weeks, even three. The top mess called krausen, will have collapsed. There may be a few bubbles or residue on top. The beer will clear too.

 

[tarmenel]

Will do. Just a surprise from my last batch that bubbled away

 

[JohnSand]

It might bubble if you press the lid on tighter. Or press the airlock in a bit. Don't let it worry you.

 

[tarmenel]

I left the beer alone for almost three weeks and plan on bottling this weekend. I took a measured the gravity this evening while preparing the bottles. It's now at 1.011, pretty much spot on the recipe. Using this (http://www.brewersfriend.com/abv-calculator/) I came up with an alcohol level of 6.5%. If thats right I'd be pretty happy with it.
I also snuch a taste. It is extremely light with some serious bitterness. At the moment too bitter for me. I'm hoping that in the bottle and with carbonation that will come into balance.

 

[JohnSand]

I've never been able to determine final taste by sampling flat brew. Check a bottle in a few weeks. Bitterness will fade over time, though there may be other reasons it is too bitter.