Three Recipes from a Newbie

[Alan_Tyson]

Hello, folks. Nice place you got here!

I'm a brand-new brewer, and I mean brand spanking new-car-smell new. So new that I only just got access to a brewkit, thanks to a friend of mine who has one, but has no idea what to do with it. Now, we're going to start off simple, probably with a kit beer or, if we decide to go from scratch, a super-basic brown ale without a whole lot of trimmings. However, I do eventually want to move on to some odder, more experimental brews, and I've put together a trio of recipes for things I'll eventually want to try.

Naturally, this is gonna be months (if not a little longer) into the future, but there's never too much time for preparation, and so I'd like to post the recipes up here to see what you guys and gals think. What I'm looking for are any red warning lights that come up when you read these, anything that looks like I'm doing something really, really wrong, or something I'll need to pay especially close attention to during the process.

If you're more of a veteran brewer and want to try one of them yourself, to see how it comes out, that would be EVEN BETTER, though I'm sure you've all got plenty of your own recipes you'd want to try first! If you've brewed or even just had something like these before, any taste, color, or aroma notes you might have would be greatly appreciated, as well - that way I can have a little idea of how these brews are supposed to come out.

Alright, here we go:

“Goblin Queen” Mint IPA

5.5 lbs. Light Plain Malt Extract Syrup
1 lb. Light (12-20) Crystal Malt
.5 lbs Toasted Malt Barley
2 oz. Chinook Hops (boiling)
.5 oz. Horizon Hops (finishing)
1 cup Chopped Fresh Sweet Basil
2 cups Chopped Fresh Mint Leaf
2 cups Dry Matcha Tea Powder
American-type Ale Yeast
1.25 cup Dried Malt Extract (bottling)
1-2 tsp. Food-Grade Gypsum (depending on water hardness)

Toast malt barley for no longer than 10 minutes in 350 F degree oven. Crack crystal malt and malt barley. Get 1.5 gallons of water heated to 150-160 F degrees, and add fresh mint, sweet basil, and matcha for 10 minutes, then strain out mint and basil (matcha will be powder, and should not be removed). Add malt barely and crystal malt, boil for 30 minutes, then strain out grains.

After grains are removed, add malt extract, boiling hops, and gypsum (if necessary), and boil for 60 minutes. Add finishing hops for the last 5 minutes of boiling. Strain and sparge into 2 gallons of cold water in the fermentor, then top off with additional water to make 5 full gallons. Pitch yeast when cool.

Ferment for 4 weeks, transfer to bottles and add dried malt extract. Wait for beer to clarify and carbonate.


“The Engineer” Black Lager

5 lbs. Black Malt Extract Syrup
1 oz. Liberty Hops
American-type Lager yeast
1.25 cup dried malt extract (for bottling)

Boil malt extract syrup and hops 1.5 gallons of water for 60 minutes. Strain and sparge into 2 gallons of cold water in the fermentor, topping off with 2 gallons of cold water to make 5 gallons. Pitch yeast when cool.

Transfer into secondary fermentor after the first week and chill to 45-50 F for 2-3 weeks. Bottle and wait for beer to clarify and carbonate.


“Stargazer” Fruit Stout

7 lbs. John Bull Plain Dark Malt Extract Syrup
1.5 lbs Chocolate Malt
1 lb Dark (90) Crystal Malt
1 lb Oatmeal
1.5 oz. Galena Hops (boiling)
.25 oz. Vanguard Hops (Finishing)
4 tsp. Gypsum
3 tsp. Vanilla Extract
3 lbs. Frozen Raspberries
3 lbs. Frozen Cranberries
1 cup Maple Syrup for bottling
Irish-type Ale Yeast

Add the chocolate malts, crystal malts, and oatmeal into 1.5 gallons of 150-160 F water, steep for 30 minutes, then strain and sparge. Add malt extract syrup, gypsum, and Galena hops, and steep for 60 minutes, then strain and sparge the hops with hot water. Add 6 lbs. of frozen raspberries and cranberries (if not frozen, they must be crushed or cracked prior to boiling). Increase heat to 160-180 F, let berries steep for 15 minutes, then add Vanguard hops and vanilla extract. Immediately remove from heat and let cool.

WITHOUT STRAINING OR SPARGING, pour into primary fermentor, with cold water to make 5 gallons. Pitch yeast when cool.

After 5 days of primary fermentation, remove as much of the solid ingredients (hops and berries) as possible with sanitized strainer. Siphon remaining beer into secondary fermentor, taking care to avoid siphoning berry sediment to avoid hazing. Attach airlock to secondary fermentor, and continue fermentation until beer begins to clarify. Bottle when clarification is complete.

Thanks for taking a look! I really want these beers to be the best they can be, so fire away, tell me how not to screw 'em up!

 

[motleybrews]

Curious as to why would would pull the mint and basil. Never experimented with either, so I'm not sure if leaving it would contribute to off flavors, but I'm leaning towards no. A more experienced brewer can answer that, but I would add them either same time as your bittering hops, OR with 5 min left or at flameout if you are just using for a mint essence, though with 2 cups, I'd imagine you're more after flavor. If you are set on stringing it out, I'd do it when you're going into the bucket.

You could also make a tea out of the mint leaves. Boil a couple cups of water, remove from heat, add mint and steep for 30 min, then bring tea up to a boil and either add it to the bucket and the wort on top, or you could add it later in fermentation. You could also do it at bottling (add the tea on to the priming solution, then rack the beer onto that). That would probably make it taste fresher, but like I said, I'm new.

 

[motleybrews]

*straining it out. Stupid phone

 

[Captain Damage]

A few nitpicks: I don't think you can properly call your Green Goblin an IPA. With your hop schedule and the spices, I think it's just a bitter spice beer.

You don't need gypsum for extract beers. It will not do anything for you.

Most of us prefer to stick to light - or pilsener - malt extract (usually [/i]dry[/i]) and get color and flavor from the specialty/steeping grains. You have more control that way.

Recheck how much priming sugar you're adding. Go by weight, not volume. Usually it's 5 oz for 5 gallons. In your stout, you're using syrup as priming sugar. Use the info on the label - how many grams of sugar per serving, how many grams syrup per serving - to figure out how much syrup to add.

I'm not sure why you're toasting the malt yourself, in your IPA recipe, rather than just buying a properly kilned malt. I understand that you may be trying to get a toasted flavor, but that's available commercially. Try some brown malt, biscuit or special roast instead.

Oatmeal needs to be mashed add 2 lbs of 2-row malt and reduce your extract by 1 lb. Steeping it the way you are will mostly just put starch in your beer, which will sink to the bottom of your fermenter. Also, you'll get more flavor if you toast the oatmeal lightly (I don't mean to contradict my 2nd paragraph here - I've never seen commercially available toasted oatmeal.

 

[Alan_Tyson]

@Motleybrews:

I would add them either same time as your bittering hops, OR with 5 min left or at flameout if you are just using for a mint essence, though with 2 cups, I'd imagine you're more after flavor.

Something I've read and heard is that if you're more after flavor, add ingredients towards the beginning of the boil, and if you're after aroma, add it toward the end. Since I want the mint to really share the flavor spotlight with the hops in this one, I feel like adding it at the beginning would be my best bet. Of course, if you guys know one way or another if that flavor-start/aroma-end rule is true, I'd love to know ahead of time so I don't go into this with faulty information!

You could also make a tea out of the mint leaves.

I considered this in the first draft of the recipe, and you're right, it does seem a lot simpler, and it'll save a step in the actual beer-making process. I might add the matcha tea powder to the "first" tea, as well. Hmm. I'm not sure I want to add during the bottling process just because that seems like a pretty delicate time for the beer, but what about adding it during a secondary fermentation stage?

@Captain Damage:

Recheck how much priming sugar you're adding. Go by weight, not volume. Usually it's 5 oz for 5 gallons. In your stout, you're using syrup as priming sugar. Use the info on the label - how many grams of sugar per serving, how many grams syrup per serving - to figure out how much syrup to add.

That makes a whole lot more sense than the whacky math system I was initially going to use. Thanks Cap, you probably just saved me a few broken bottles!

I'm not sure why you're toasting the malt yourself, in your IPA recipe, rather than just buying a properly kilned malt.

Mostly just because the process sounds fun. I like playing around in the kitchen, and I figure this way I can directly control how much toasting I get off the malts.

you'll get more flavor if you toast the oatmeal lightly

How long should I oatmeal for in a 350 oven? 5 minutes or so, for a light toast?

 

[Lemon]

A general comment - when I first started I picked one recipe and brewed it a few times. This allowed me to focus on technique, and compare the results for differant techniques.

On the lager - be sure you can control your fermentation temp. Many choose to start with an ale that ferments at cellar temp.

The recipes all look balanced and fun!

 

[motleybrews]

@Motleybrews:

I would add them either same time as your bittering hops, OR with 5 min left or at flameout if you are just using for a mint essence, though with 2 cups, I'd imagine you're more after flavor.

Something I've read and heard is that if you're more after flavor, add ingredients towards the beginning of the boil, and if you're after aroma, add it toward the end. Since I want the mint to really share the flavor spotlight with the hops in this one, I feel like adding it at the beginning would be my best bet. Of course, if you guys know one way or another if that flavor-start/aroma-end rule is true, I'd love to know ahead of time so I don't go into this with faulty information!

You could also make a tea out of the mint leaves.

I considered this in the first draft of the recipe, and you're right, it does seem a lot simpler, and it'll save a step in the actual beer-making process. I might add the matcha tea powder to the "first" tea, as well. Hmm. I'm not sure I want to add during the bottling process just because that seems like a pretty delicate time for the beer, but what about adding it during a secondary fermentation stage?

Doing it the same time as your priming sugar isn't harmful as long as you follow normal racking

 

[Alan_Tyson]

@lemon: Yeah, if all goes according to plan, I'll be trying the lager during the winter months, so we won't have to worry as much about keeping it cool.

What I may do is go and get a second carboy, so I'll have a "test pail" and a "production pail," so to speak. That way I can keep my experimental side happy, while also making sure I'm actually able to reproduce good recipes. I think I'll end up making the IPA and stout multiple times - the lager's more of a gift for my dad, since I'm not really much of a lager drinker, so unless he goes through it REAL fast, I'll be focusing on perfecting "my" beers.

@Captain Damage: What would suggest to change the timing around to make Goblin Queen a true IPA? I'm not a purist at heart, but if it's the same amount of work and ingredients, I figure I might as well make it the "right way."

 

[Captain Damage]

@Captain Damage: What would suggest to change the timing around to make Goblin Queen a true IPA? I'm not a purist at heart, but if it's the same amount of work and ingredients, I figure I might as well make it the "right way."

American IPAs are simple in the sense that you generally want an uncomplicated, clean malt backbone; a firm hop bitterness and abundant hop flavor and aroma. And that's it. While some brewers seem to want to compete for how incredibly bitter they can make their IPAs, you generally want 40-70 IBUs for an IBU:OG ratio between 0.8 and 1.1. Hop flavor and aroma are really where American IPAs shine.

The BJCP style guidelines for IPAs are here.

So to make your Green Goblin into an IPA I'd first, ditch the spices - hops are a spice afer all, up the LME to 8 lbs (or use 6.5 lbs DME), you can keep the toasted malt if you want. Put 1 oz of chinook for bittering at 60 minutes. I'll probably get flamed for this but I'm personally not a fan of chinook for flavor or aroma, and I've never used horizon, so I'll tell you to use 2 oz of cascade for 10 minutes, 2 oz cascade at flameout and dry hop with 1 or 2 oz of cascade for 7 days.

Two things I recommend to help with designing your own recipes: 1) Brewing software. I like Beer Smith, but there are a lot of others including some free ones and iPhone/iPad/Android apps. There's a forum here on HomebrewTalk all about brewing software. 2) Designing Great Beers by Ray Daniels. A very well written book all about designing beer recipes. He really helps you understand the ingredients and how they work together. One thing he gets into is the idea of the IBU:OG ratio, which I mentioned above, and how each style has a sort of "ideal" range for that.

 

[BeerChef17]

Personally I wouldn't boil your specialty grain but instead steep them at 155 - I did this for my first 3 beers and they all turned out great!

For the mint the flavor isn't really going to matter much as to when you add...if you want to boil before then strain it out it should work fine. However, I imagine it being easier to just add for the last 30m of the boil. After fermentation has completed you can take a taste and decide if you want more mint or not. If so id just add it to the secondary - much like dry hopping

 

[iron_city_ap]

I just ran the 'goblin queen' through BeerSmith just to see how it matched up for an American IPA and here is what I have for you where it is off...

Est. OG 1.042 Style OG range 1.056-1.075
Est. color 18.4 Style color range 6 - 15 SRM
Est. IBU 96.3 Style IBU range 40 - 65 IBU

Just playing around trying to get you into the ranges where you are off, you could get into range and kind of make it your own by 'tweaking' it a bit. Here is what I'd advise, but by all means, do what makes you happy...

Ditch the Toasted Barley. I used 'roasted barley' (the closest to toasted barley I saw) which has a HIGH SRM and makes the beer too dark. You could use Biscuit instead which will darken it up a little more but still stay in the range.

Up your extract to 8lbs. It will bring your OG up to where it should be.

I upped the crystal (20L) to 2lbs to help boost your OG too.

Use 1oz of Chinook rather than 2 at 60 minutes. If you want, dry hop with the 2nd ounce. It'll give you more hop aeroma.

Just those little adjustments gave me an Est OG of 1.062, a color of 11.2 SRM, and 43.3 IBUs.

As for the mint and other spices, do whatever floats your boat. Also, as mentioned before DO NOT boil your grains. Add them to the 155F water when you soak your spices.

Sorry this is long. I just noticed, you are boiling 1.5 gallons of water for 90 minutes in your recipe, then 'sparging' it with 2 gallons. Sparging is something you do in all grain brewing but not in extract. If you have a big enough pot, start off by soaking your grains in 1.5 gallon, but then add the 'sparge' water before you boil. You tend to boil off 1 gallon/hour so boil as much water as you can up to about 3.5 gallons. After your boil is finished you should have around 2.5 gallons ideally but its perfectly fine if you are off. Cool it as quickly as possible, add it to the fermenter and then top off so you have 5 gallons. If you have a big enough kettle to boil 6 gallons, do that and the beer will be a little better and you don't top off, but many many many people do partial boils and almost all of us started off with them.

Best of luck to you.

 

[iron_city_ap]

Taking yet another quick look instead of going to bed like I should, your processes are definately wrong, but EASILY fixable.

I've never done a Lager, but I thought you fermented the entire time at low temperatures, not after the 1st week. Someone with more experience here than me can set the record straight on that one.

In your fruit stout recipe, you don't even boil. I guess it can be done but outside of ciders and apfelwein, I don't think I've ever seen a beer that isn't boiled, but I completely reserve the right to be wrong here. You can definately steep the fruit in hot wort, but if you boil it would be extremely hard to do right. Many people just add the fruit to the fermenter. Its a pain in the butt to me just because the berries break down and you get alot of sediment. Be prepared to filter well if you use actual fruit or be prepared to have a higher level of sediment. Personally, when I do berry flavors, I just use liquid flavoring but there are many purists who will flame me for that.

Okay, now I think I'll be able to go to sleep.

 

[boostsr20]

Am I reading that right? Your planning to boil the grains for 30min?

 

[Captain Damage]

Yeah, woah, I missed that. Do NOT boil your steeping grains! Steep them for 30 minutes at 155F and remove. Add 1/4 of your extract and bring wort to boil. Add the remaining 3/4 of your extract at 10 mins.

 

[Captain Damage]

Ditch the Toasted Barley. I used 'roasted barley' (the closest to toasted barley I saw) which has a HIGH SRM and makes the beer too dark. You could use Biscuit instead which will darken it up a little more but still stay in the range.

He's planning on toasting the malt himself in his oven at home. I figured he'd get a color somewhere near brown malt, about 65L, which didn't darken the beer that much when I put it in Beer Smith. Attempts to make roasted barley at home will result in fire.

I upped the crystal (20L) to 2lbs to help boost your OG too.

I don't mean to start a big argument, but I just can't get behind 2 lbs of crystal in an IPA with 8 lbs of extract. The extract already has a significant portion of crystal in it. IPAs should be crisp, not necessarily light, but definitely not heavy.

 

[Alan_Tyson]

Alright, I've been jotting all these suggestions down into my brewing bible. Thanks everyone for taking a look and offering advice!

I think I meant to write steep instead of boil, since water doesn't boil at 155 F - should have proofread first, though. I think in my head I know the process I need to run through, but the recipes definitely could do with some re-writing, to get the proper terminology and timing down. I'll pop them back up here when I have.

 

[iron_city_ap]

I don't mean to start a big argument, but I just can't get behind 2 lbs of crystal in an IPA with 8 lbs of extract. The extract already has a significant portion of crystal in it. IPAs should be crisp, not necessarily light, but definitely not heavy.

No worries. Like I said before, I just suggested adding it to help bring up the OG as opposed to adding more extract or another grain.

 

[boostsr20]

No worries. Like I said before, I just suggested adding it to help bring up the OG as opposed to adding more extract or another grain.

I agree with captain here. Anytime I want to bang out a quick beer to put on tap (2weeks) I simply use 6lbs amber extract, a little hops, and a fast yeast. Plenty of caramel flavor for me but I usually like to use fruity hops that stand out.

 

[Captain Damage]

My objection is more to do with the increased body from the extra crystal than the flavor it adds. A beer made with 8 lbs of extract in 5 gallons will be well within the medium body range. Adding a lot of unfermentable sugars by putting in a bunch of extra crystal will push it up into the heavy body range which is just not characteristic of IPAs. While adding crystal would indeed increase the OG, it would also increase the FG, since most of the sugars present in crystal are unfermentable. If you want to increase the OG to boost the alcohol, add sugar.