Will this work?

[nlk22]

My friends and I recently bought brewing equipment. We aren't really sure what we are doing, so we went to the store and just bought some random ingredients that looked good.

We're wondering if this combination of ingredients will produce something remotely palatable

Grains:

6 lbs dark DME
1lbs roasted barley - 300° lovibond, cracked

Hops:
2 oz cascade 9.1% alpha
2 oz crystal 6.2% alpha
2 oz magnum 20.5% alpha
2 oz nugget 14.1% alpha

Yeast:
Lalvin - K1-V1116 (2 packets)

We figure we all like dark beer, and we all also like really hoppy IPAs, and the barely just smelled good. I think the yeast might technically be wine yeast. Is that a problem?

 

[two_one_seven]

Yes it is a problem. You need an ale yeast. The wine yeast will produce a ton of off flavors in a beer, good for wine isn't good for beer.

You would be better off with a kit to start. That way you are assured to get a good recipe and if it doesn't taste good them something was wrong with the process. But with that said making your own recipe is fun.

What equipment do you have?

 

[RM-MN]

From the little I know I would try the dark DME and about 4 ounces of the roasted barley. Steep the roasted barley in a bag dunked into 3 gallons of 160 degree water for 30 minutes. Remove and let it drain, then discard the barley. Bring it to a boil and add the DME, stirring like mad the whole time you are adding it so it doesn't stick to the bottom of the kettle and scorch. Now add one ounce of Nugget hops and maintain the boil for 60 minutes. Add an ounce of Crystal with 10 minutes left in the boil. At the end of the hour, take it off the burner and put it into a cold water bath. You may want to add ice chunks to the water outside the kettle to chill it faster. When it gets below 80 degrees F. you can dump it in the fermenter and add cold water to make 5 1/4 to 5 1/2 gallons. Add the ale yeast and put the lid on with an airlock in the lid. Wait 3 to 4 weeks, keeping it cool if you can (62 to 64 degrees preferred, but at least less than 70). You may need to use a tub of cooler water to keep the fermenter cool as the yeast action will heat it up some. Check your final gravity with your hydrometer and if it is steady (multiple readings on different days, at least 2 with a day between) you can bottle. Rack it into your bottling bucket and while it is being siphoned in pour in your sugar solution (about 5 ounces of corn sugar) to mix and then bottle. Keep it in a warm location for 3 weeks and then chill what you want to drink for at least 24 hours.

 

[nlk22]

Thanks guys!

two-one-seven: we have a 33 quart kettle, a 5 gallon glass carboy, and a brewing kit we bought (2 x 5 gallon buckets w/ lids, airlock, hydrometer, fermometer, thermometer siphon w/ 'siphon holder', capping thingy-magig, a tap/spigot, a bottle filler, some brushes, a spoon, and some sanitizer)

RM-MN: That doesn't seem like much hops to me. I saw that the american pale ale brewing kit used 4 oz. If i understand correctly, most hoppy beers like IPA's don't use dark malts? So would using a lot of hops somehow clash with the dark malt.

 

[scoundrel]

My friends and I recently bought brewing equipment. We aren't really sure what we are doing, so we went to the store and just bought some random ingredients that looked good.

We're wondering if this combination of ingredients will produce something remotely palatable

Grains:

6 lbs dark DME
1lbs roasted barley - 300° lovibond, cracked

Hops:
2 oz cascade 9.1% alpha
2 oz crystal 6.2% alpha
2 oz magnum 20.5% alpha
2 oz nugget 14.1% alpha

Yeast:
Lalvin - K1-V1116 (2 packets)

We figure we all like dark beer, and we all also like really hoppy IPAs, and the barely just smelled good. I think the yeast might technically be wine yeast. Is that a problem?

I agree, wine yeast is a problem. Hang on to the wine yeast and make some skeeterpee. Go back and buy Saf 05 brewers yeast.

It will definitely be a dark beer but will probably taste nice. The hops on the other hand are off the chart. 9.1% Cascade and 20.5% Magnum are quite high. This will be one ridiculously hoppy beer.

Since they are 2oz are you doubling the alpha acids? I threw it in Beersmith and just took a standard American Stout and the high end of IBU's is 75. If you add the hops based on these timings it comes to 148.7.

2 oz cascade 9.1% alpha @ 5min
2 oz crystal 6.2% alpha @ 15min
2 oz magnum 20.5% alpha @60 min
2 oz nugget 14.1% alpha @45 min

I'd do 1oz of each and let it sit for 6 months first. Just my opinion though.

 

[nlk22]

Letting it sit would let some of the bitterness mellow out right?

Also, I'm a bit confused by this

I agree, wine yeast is a problem. Hang on to the wine yeast and make some skeeterpee. Go back and buy Saf 05 brewers yeast.

Since they are 2oz are you doubling the alpha acids? I threw it in Beersmith and just took a standard American Stout and the high end of IBU's is 75. If you add the hops based on these timings it comes to 148.7.

Sorry, I'm still new to this. So 148.7 is with all the hops at the times you listed? Where did 75 come from? What IBU do you think we should aim for based on the grains we're using?

Also, we are specifically trying to double the alpha acids by using 2 oz of each. They just came in to oz packets, so that's what we have. If we did 1 of each as you suggested would the remaining 1oz of each stay good until are ready to brew our next batch?

 

[RM-MN]

Thanks guys!

two-one-seven: we have a 33 quart kettle, a 5 gallon glass carboy, and a brewing kit we bought (2 x 5 gallon buckets w/ lids, airlock, hydrometer, fermometer, thermometer siphon w/ 'siphon holder', capping thingy-magig, a tap/spigot, a bottle filler, some brushes, a spoon, and some sanitizer)

RM-MN: That doesn't seem like much hops to me. I saw that the american pale ale brewing kit used 4 oz. If i understand correctly, most hoppy beers like IPA's don't use dark malts? So would using a lot of hops somehow clash with the dark malt.

Your ingredients look like the makings of a stout, not an APA. You want the bitterness to complement the flavors, not wipe them out. The recipe I posted will be quite drinkable. If you want more bitterness you could substitute the Magnum for the Nugget but I wouldn't increase the amounts.

 

[two_one_seven]

I agree with RM-MN that you have the malt base for a stout. Stouts are not hop forward beers. The last stout I did used 2 oz of cluster hops at the beginning of the boil and that was it.

Best bet would be to get some more ingredients and split the hops up and make a stout and an APA. You have to remember that while the kit for the APA had 4 oz. of hops but all hops are not created equal. The magnum and nugget have a crap ton of AA......

 

[jescholler]

I agree with RM-MN that you have the malt base for a stout. Stouts are not hop forward beers. The last stout I did used 2 oz of cluster hops at the beginning of the boil and that was it.

Most stouts aren't hop forward beers, but an American Stout would be. A while back I did an American Stout with about 5.5 oz. of hops and it was a finalist in a local stout competition. It may have been a little on the hop-forward side, but still very good. Might I recommend this hop bill:

11g Magnum @ 60 min
28g Crystal @ 15 min
28g Crystal @ 0 min
28g Cascade @ 0 min
28g Cascade - dry hop for 7-10 days

Based on a 5 gallon batch, that will give you 40 IBUs. Adjust the Magnum if you want less or more.

Also, what brand is the DME (or just the color in degrees L if you have that)? Based on that, I can recommend an amount of roasted barley.

I agree with RM-MN that his recipe will be very drinkable, but I think you're looking for more hops. 8 oz is quite a bit and not all of your hops are suitable for flavor and aroma in American styles. I picked the ones that I felt fit the best.

 

[Calder]

You want a stout or an APA? An APA is a hoppy beer, while a stout is a roasty beer. Both very different.

For future reference, use the lightest extract you can get and use grains to get color and flavor. You will make better beer.

With what you have, I think 1 lb of roast grains + dark LME may be too much, even for a Stout. I would suggest saving the roast grains and getting a half pound of Crystal C60, and make a dark IPA.

Steep crushed grains in 169 F water. Remove grains and add extract. Boil for 60 minutes. Add 1 ozs of Nugget at the start of the boil, boil for 45 minutes, then add half ounce of Cascade at 15, 10, 5 and 0 minutes to go. This will give you something in the region of 50 IBUs.

Once cooled and in the fermenter, shake the heck out of it. It is really important to get as much oxygen into the wort as possible to help- yeast health.

With your ingredients you will have an OG of about 1.055, and give you 5 gallons of 5.5% beer.

Yes, use an ale yeast. Recommend S-05, but S-04 or Notty will do. Do not use Windsor, Muntons or Coopers; they have their place, but you might end up with a beer that is sweeter than you like.

 

[scoundrel]

You want a stout or an APA? An APA is a hoppy beer, while a stout is a roasty beer. Both very different.

I have to disagree with this statement. Stouts can be hop forward. Russian Imperial Stouts can be very hop forward. The high end of the IBU range is 90 IBU. That's quite hoppy.

 

[kh54s10]

I would suggest starting with ingredient kits while reading up on beer recipes, base malts, specialty malts, hops,yeasts; how to use them and how they interact.

Use recipe making software to get an idea of what the outcome will be.

Beer Calculus at hopville.com is a good recipe maker that is free to use.

 

[cullen]

If you use all those ingredients, here's what BeerSmith says you'll get:

OG 1.053
IBUs 270.4
Color 28.4
ABV 5.2%

That bitterness is off the chart.

 

[rodwha]

Freeze any leftover hops. If you have access to a vacuum sealer use it.

 

[chickypad]

Most stouts aren't hop forward beers, but an American Stout would be. A while back I did an American Stout with about 5.5 oz. of hops and it was a finalist in a local stout competition. It may have been a little on the hop-forward side, but still very good. Might I recommend this hop bill:

11g Magnum @ 60 min
28g Crystal @ 15 min
28g Crystal @ 0 min
28g Cascade @ 0 min
28g Cascade - dry hop for 7-10 days

I like hoppy American stouts too so I like the look of this (as jes said could even go up a little bit on the Magnum). Sounds like a recipe you would like by your original post. You might also consider looking up recipes for black IPA (i.e.Cascadian dark ale). Don't think it will work with that dark extract but might be something to try in the future. Problem is, as others have pointed out, you don't know exactly what is in the dark DME but it should already contain some roasted malts. I agree with Calder for next time, if you get light extract then you can control the amount of specialty malts to get exactly what you want.

I think you might be confusing with AA's with AAU's - the AA is a % listed on the label for that particular batch of hops, you multiply by the weight in ounces to get the total AAU's that you want (most recipes in my experience list the ounces and the AA's, but you might see something like: cascade to achieve "x" AAU's)

Good Luck!

 

[brewingbro12]

I made an oatmeal stout for my first brew ever and it came out amazing. real easy and you already have half of what you need.

6lb dark DME
1oz Black patent (roasted barley would work as well)
.25lb Chocolate
1lb rolled oats.

1.5oz cascade

this was a long time ago and unfortunately i never wrote down this recipe. So this may not be exactly what it was. I'm a little unsure of how much oats i used and the hops. but it was amazing. steep all grains AND oats for 30 min. at 155F. bring to a boil and add the DME. After the hot break add your hops for the 60 min. boil.

This isn't a hoppy beer but if you like dark beers i suggest it. goes well with pancakes in the morning!

and if i remember correctly it only took a couple of these to give you a good buzz.

Cheers!
Tom

 

[nlk22]

Thanks for the advice everyone!

This is what we ended up doing:
-Steeped 8 oz roasted barely @165 for 30 min
-strained out barely and brought the wort to a boil
-immediately added 6lbs DME and 1/2 oz each nugget and mangum hops
-added 1 oz crystal hops @ 45 minutes
-added 1 oz each of crystal and cascade hops @ 60 minutes
-stopped the boil, tried to cool it as quickly as possible
-pitched the yeast @ ~85° F
- OG was 1.050 (this is are first time reading a hydrometer, it was hard to tell because of the foam)

some things we learned for the future:
-get a steeping bag to make removing the grains easier without exposing the wort to oxygen (as i understand it you ONLY want to do this while pitching the yeast). We had to use a strainer because it was all we had
-we should probably wait until after the hot break to add the first bittering hops (we added it all at once, i'm not entirely sure if we got a hot break, although it did almost boil over then then suddenly stop foaming after we turned down the heat a bit)
-we need some more efficient cooling method, not sure we got a good cold break and the wort was still a little warm when we pitched the yeast.
-we also might need to find a way to oxygenate it more, we tried to pour it "roughly" into the fermentor as we strained out the hops, but im not if it did the trick.

Regardless of our mistakes, the yeast seem to be doing their thing. We probably put the airlock on around 8 pm and were seing consistant bubbling by midnight. The airlock had actually overflowed a bit from the foam by morning, so i tried to wipe off the mess with a paper towel wet w/ StarSan solution and then re-sanitized and refilled the airlock. I don't know if this was necessary, i've been browsing some old threads about airlock overflows and some people seem a bit lax about it, but i figured better safe than sorry.

After primary fermentation settles down we think we will transfer it to a 5 gallon carboy and add the last oz of cascade for dry hopping. Hopefully this will also help with some sediment (worried about small particles of rye and hops, because we didn't have that great of a strainer).

Finally, as i mentioned, we aren't sure if we got a good cold break. From what i read this can cause cloudiness, butt mostly at chilled serving temperatures. If we were to chill the carboy immediately before bottling to allow some of the proteins to precipitate and settle out, would the yeast still be viable for carbonation?

 

[nlk22]

Would it be bad to try to introduce additional oxgen with a whisk now that it has started fermenting?

 

[chickypad]

I would just let it ride and not try to oxygenate at this point. Might want to put a blow off tube on though.
Sounds like a success to me so far!

 

[jescholler]

The recipe looks good. Sounds like you've learned a lot. Let the obsession begin!