Please Critique my Cascadian Dark Ale Recipe

[bgkast]

Hello. First time poster, long time lurker. For my third brew I would like to try a Cascadian Dark Ale/Black IPA. This will be my first partial mash brew, and is my first time modifying a recipe using beer smith. It is based on This recipe with some changes to the hops, mostly to use up some extras I have and because my LHBS had a great price on Cascade hops.

Please let me know if you see any changes I should make. I plan to brew this in the next few days when I bottle my porter, and to use the porter's yeast cake.

Thank you!

Black Hole Cascadian Dark Ale
Type: Partial Mash Date: 2/11/2012
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.00 gal Brewer: bgkast
Boil Size: 4.00 gal
Boil Time: 60 min Equipment: Pot ( 7.5 Gal) - Mini-BIAB
End of Boil Volume 3.25 gal Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Final Bottling Volume: 4.78 gal Est Mash Efficiency 65.0 %
Fermentation: Ale, Two Stage

Amt Name Type # %/IBU
3 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 25.5 %
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain 2 8.5 %
12.0 oz Midnight Wheat Grain 3 6.4 %
3 lbs Amber Dry Extract (12.5 SRM) Dry Extract 4 25.5 %
3 lbs Amber Dry Extract [Boil for 60 min](12.5 SRM) Dry Extract 5 25.5 %
2.00 oz Chinook [11.80 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 6 54.7 IBUs
1.00 oz Northern Brewer [9.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 7 20.9 IBUs
1.00 oz Mt. Hood [4.20 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 8 4.8 IBUs
2.00 oz Cascade [7.10 %] - Aroma Steep 20.0 min Hop 9 0.0 IBUs
1.50 oz Crystal [6.20 %] - Aroma Steep 20.0 min Hop 10 0.0 IBUs
1.00 oz Willamette [9.30 %] - Aroma Steep 20.0 min Hop 11 0.0 IBUs
1 lbs Brown Sugar, Light (8.0 SRM) Sugar 12 8.5 %
6.00 oz Cascade [7.10 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 Days Hop 13 0.0 IBUs
Beer Profile

Pitch onto Wyeast London Ale Cake from porter

Est Original Gravity: 1.084 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.017 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 8.9 %
Bitterness: 80.4 IBUs
Est Color: 32.3 SRM

 

[Dynachrome]

That looks like a large amount of grain even for 1.08-ish OG. There are a lot of hops for a 4 gallon boil too.

It does sound like a beer I would enjoy.

I have used Cascade quite a bit. I love the aroma. I used whole leaf at flame out for aroma - tasty stuff.



I'm wondering if another sparge might produce enough fermentable wort for a small beer too.

 

[Yooper]

I'd not use amber extract. It has crystal malt and maybe Munich malt in it, but you don't know how much, or what kinds. I'd go with all light or extra light, and get the color and flavor from specialty grains. I don't like brown sugar, and would go with table sugar or corn sugar.

The hops look good, but I might not use 3 ounces at 60 minutes, and instead use an ounce later in the boil for more hops flavor and aroma. I'd definitely add some hops at 10 minutes and/or 5 minutes. I'd use less hops for dryhopping.

I'd do something more like this:

2.00 oz Chinook [11.80 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 6 54.7 IBUs

1.00 oz Northern brewer 15 minutes
1 oz cascade or willamette 10 minutes
1 oz cascade 5 minutes
1 oz willamette 1 minute
1 oz cascade flame out
1.00 oz Willamette flame out

2 oz dryhop- cascade or willamette or 1 oz each.

 

[bgkast]

Thanks. It's on the stove now, and I went with the 3 oz at 60 min. I will use some of my cascade in the last few minutes of the boil and use less for the dry hopping. I got 4 gal of 1.033 wort from my partial mash giving me a calculated efficency of 77%, which seems high to me.

 

[Dynachrome]

How much wort did you collect?

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

I'd not use amber extract. It has crystal malt and maybe Munich malt in it, but you don't know how much, or what kinds. I'd go with all light or extra light, and get the color and flavor from specialty grains. I don't like brown sugar, and would go with table sugar or corn sugar.

i totally agree. use some light or extra light extract and get the color and flavor from your specialty malts. i'd also skip the brown sugar, there's really no need for it in the beer, and it may take it away from being a CDA. if you want to add some simple sugars to dry the brew out, try a very small amount of table or corn sugar, but you shouldn't need it.
t have a pretty good recipe in the pulldown under my handle to the left. it can easily be converted to extract by replacing the 2 row malt with light or extra light DME. (1# grains = ~.75# DME = ~.6# LME)
i also wrote a bit on the style in my blog here on HBT, it has some good tips and guidelines for putting together a good CDA recipe.

 

[bgkast]

Thanks for the help. I collected 4 gal of wort from my partial mash that I used for the boil. I used light DME, the amber in the recipe was a typo. I'm cooling it down now...smells great!

I ended up adding 2 oz Chinook and 1 oz N. brewer at 60 minutes, 1 oz cascade at 10 minutes, 1 oz cascade at 5 min and the 1 oz crystal and 1 oz willamette at flame out. I had a huge pile when I strained them out of the wort!

 

[bgkast]

Here is the final recipe based on your sugestions. Thanks! Next time I may back off a bit on the bittering hops. I will post back how it turns out.

Black Hole Cascadian Dark Ale
American IPA
Type: Partial Mash Date: 2/11/2012
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.00 gal Brewer: bgkast
Boil Size: 4.00 gal Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 60 min Equipment: Pot ( 5 Gal/19 L) - Mini-BIAB
End of Boil Volume 3.25 gal Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Final Bottling Volume: 4.78 gal Est Mash Efficiency 9.9 %
Fermentation: Ale, Two Stage Taste Rating(out of 50): 30.0
Taste Notes:
Ingredients

Ingredients
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
5.00 gal Portland OR Water 1 -
3 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 2 27.9 %
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain 3 9.3 %
12.0 oz Wheat, Roasted (425.0 SRM) Grain 4 7.0 %
3 lbs Light Dry Extract [Boil for 60 min](8.0 SRM) Dry Extract 5 27.9 %
2.00 oz Chinook [11.80 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 6 72.1 IBUs
1.00 oz Northern Brewer [9.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 7 27.5 IBUs
1.00 oz Mt. Hood [4.20 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 8 6.4 IBUs
1.00 oz Cascade [7.10 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 9 7.1 IBUs
1.00 oz Cascade [7.10 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 10 3.9 IBUs
1.50 oz Crystal [6.20 %] - Aroma Steep 20.0 min Hop 11 0.0 IBUs
1.00 oz Willamette [9.30 %] - Aroma Steep 20.0 min Hop 12 0.0 IBUs
3 lbs Light Dry Extract (8.0 SRM) Dry Extract 13 27.9 %
2.00 oz Cascade [7.10 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 Days Hop 14 0.0 IBUs
Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.077 SG Measured Original Gravity: 1.084 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.020 SG Measured Final Gravity: 0.000 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 7.6 % Actual Alcohol by Vol: 0.0 %
Bitterness: 117.0 IBUs Calories: 0.0 kcal/12oz
Est Color: 30.7 SRM
Mash Profile

Mash Name: Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge Total Grain Weight: 10 lbs 12.0 oz
Sparge Water: 2.32 gal Grain Temperature: 72.0 F
Sparge Temperature: 168.0 F Tun Temperature: 72.0 F
Adjust Temp for Equipment: FALSE Mash PH: 5.20
Mash Steps
Name Description Step Temperature Step Time
Mash In Add 9.00 qt of water at 159.7 F 152.0 F 45 min
Sparge Step: Batch sparge with 2 steps (0.32gal, 2.00gal) of 168.0 F water
Mash Notes: Simple single infusion mash for use with most modern well modified grains (about 95% of the time).
Carbonation and Storage

Carbonation Type: Bottle Volumes of CO2: 2.3
Pressure/Weight: 3.75 oz Carbonation Used: Bottle with 3.75 oz Corn Sugar
Keg/Bottling Temperature: 70.0 F Age for: 30.00 days
Fermentation: Ale, Two Stage Storage Temperature: 65.0 F