Vienna Bitter Smash

[scottsaxman]

I'm looking for some feedback on this recipe. My club is having a smash contest in October...

BeerSmith 2 Recipe Printout - http://www.beersmith.com
Recipe: Vienna English Ordinary Smash
Brewer: Scott
Asst Brewer:
Style: Standard/Ordinary Bitter
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (30.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 6.48 gal
Post Boil Volume: 5.98 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.50 gal
Bottling Volume: 5.50 gal
Estimated OG: 1.039 SG
Estimated Color: 4.4 SRM
Estimated IBU: 34.2 IBUs
Estimated ABV: 3.8 %
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 75.3 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
8 lbs Vienna Malt (Great Western) (3.5 SRM) Grain 1 100.0 %
1.50 oz Willamette [4.20 %] - First Wort 60.0 mi Hop 2 26.3 IBUs
2.50 oz Willamette [4.20 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 3 7.9 IBUs
1.0 pkg SafAle English Ale (DCL/Fermentis #S-04) Yeast 4

I expect people to say it isn't quite right for grain or hops choice for a BJCP ordinary bitter, and that is OK. I'm mostly looking for something that tastes good, is an easy drinking beer, and helps me learn about Vienna and S04.

I have Belma, Calypso, Centennial, CTZ, 7Cs, Galaxy, Hersbrucker, and Liberty in sufficient quantity to substitute, so let me know if one of those would be better. I do have a lot of Willamette, though.

 

[Wyrmwood]

Vienna is just a bit darker/sweeter than English Pale, so I think it would be great! Williamette is definitely in the same vein as the fuggles/goldings/target hops, so should work well!

 

[KeystoneHomebrew]

I think that is going to be a tasty beverage. Possibly splitting up the Willamette among the last 10 minutes (10, 5 1) would lend some hoppy complexity.

 

[scottsaxman]

I mashed at 152F for a little more than an hour (things got busy) and I split the hops up as suggested. I did 1.5 oz FWH, 1 oz @ 10 min, .75 oz @ 5 min, .75 oz @ 1 minute. I added about a teaspoon of gypsum and irish moss. It is summer, so I couldn't chill it as well as I wanted. I got it down just below 80F, put it in the fermenter and moved it to my basement, then pitched the S04 a few hours later.

There are regular (albeit slow) bubbles in the airlock after almost 36 hours, but this is not an aggressive fermentation. We'll see how it progresses. I typically rack to secondary after 2 weeks, then bottle, but I may just leave it a month, then bottle.

My OG was 1.045, which was unexpected. It seems the less grain I use, the better my efficiency. A few weeks ago, I brewed twice in one day. One was a saison that should have been around 1.075 and a wit that should have been 1.057. The farmhouse was 1.052 and the wit was 1.050. There has got to be a reason, but it escapes me so far.

 

[KeystoneHomebrew]

Effeciency can be a temptress. The trick to getting consistency is always keeping the same ratio of grain to water. If you find yourself cutting back on your strike water on higher gravity beers, a lower OG is going to happen.

S-04 is a trucker. I'm sure by now it is plugging away on that beer.

 

[Wyrmwood]

It seems the less grain I use, the better my efficiency.

Yeah, I definitely see higher mash efficiency with lower gravity beers.

The trick to getting consistency is always keeping the same ratio of grain to water. If you find yourself cutting back on your strike water on higher gravity beers, a lower OG is going to happen.

+1 Only, in my case, it's kind of the opposite - I increase my ratio for low gravity beers, since my equipment is almost too big to properly do a low gravity recipe (which translates to low volume in the tun), and yeah, my efficiency shoots up to >>80.

 

[scottsaxman]

If you maintain a consistent grain to water ratio with a larger grain bill, you have to lower the sparge volume, right? I thought sparge was a pretty big player in efficiency.

 

[KeystoneHomebrew]

Your sparge is indeed very important, but not as important as your strike and first rest (mash).

If you're mash is too thin, your sparge water is only watering down your wort.

If your mash is too thick, you won't be able to get an efficient rinse of the grain. You just end up leaving mucho sugar in the tun.

When you decide what ratio of water works for you and your system (anywhere from .75qt to 1.75qt per pound of grain) your strike and sparge won't change despite the difference in grain. You may notice however, that you leave some sparge water behind on occasion when you reach your pre-boil volume. But this can happen on any given recipe. Also, your sparge water should raise the temp of the mash to or past 170 F. So adding 170 F water isn't going to do it. Try getting that sparge water up to 185 F. That helps thinn the mash a bit, and let the sugars flow a bit freer.

Whew. Got all that?

 

[NothingRhymesWithCurtiss]

I'm getting ready to brew something similar this week with a bit of C40 and Munich tossed in, and wanted to see how this turned out? (Fully aware that this is an old thread.)

 

[Cavpilot2000]

This sounds delicious.
I love Vienna. It goes in almost every beer I make these days, in varying amounts. I've got my eye on a Vienna SMASH soon myself.