Novice AG brew

[stevered]

12.75 kg Pale Malt
3 kg Crystal Malt
90 g Target Hops start of boil
Safeale #S-04 yeast

I’m planning to dry hop with 10g of target in a large tea strainer after primary fermentation has finished
This was only my second attempt at AG and I’m still working out how to use my kit properly. Took around 8 hours start to finish a little over two hours of that was sparging. I am hoping I can speed that up considerably with practice. I’ve got 100 litre vessels and I had assumed a working capacity of around 50 litres the first time I used them but I’m trying to make the maximum possible and I got around 75 litres of wort out this time which was quite a high gravity at 1.056 so I diluted that and I think I’ve got around 85 litres.
I’ve no idea what it’s going to turn out like other than the colour and IBU indication Beer Smith gave me. It looked and smelt quite promising but looking at some of the recipes on here I think I might have used too much crystal malt.

 

[clibit]

Yes that's a pretty high proportion of crystal, but not completely OTT. It's at the very upper limit. That's a lot of beer to make to a recipe you have made up without much guidance. Why not run your recipes past people on the forum before you brew, get some ideas and feedback?

 

[stevered]

Yes that's a pretty high proportion of crystal, but not completely OTT. It's at the very upper limit. That's a lot of beer to make to a recipe you have made up without much guidance. Why not run your recipes past people on the forum before you brew, get some ideas and feedback?

Thanks I hadn't thought of doing that, I'll certainly do it in the future.

When looking at the recipes in books I've been a bit put off by the number of different ingredients in them, I wanted something simple so I wouldn't have hops in particular going unused and past their best. The crystal came in a 3kg bag so I just thought in it goes!

 

[clibit]

Most of the best recipes are very simple. 1kg crystal would have been better. Just pale malt would be good. Some hops late in the boil to boost hop flavour. And more yeast. Those packs are designed to do 5 gallons, 23 litres of an average strength brew.

 

[stevered]

I pitched 3 packs of the yeast. Not cheap. I am hoping that I will be able to harvest it.

 

[HebridesRob]

I'm a believer in less is more.

10g dry hopping is pretty minimal though.

 

[stevered]

I'm a believer in less is more.

10g dry hopping is pretty minimal though.

The 10g is the balance of my 100g packet. I have to say I am surprised it might not be enough to infuence the beer much, many of the recipes I've seen dry hop a 25l batch with just 3g. So even though my quantity was guided by the packet size I did think I was in the right ball park for a 75 - 80l batch.

I dry hopped it today actually as the primary fermentation has finished. I used this large tea strainer:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00GSLXEH6/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20 which I reckon I could probably get up to around 25g in without them being squashed. Next time there will be more planning!

 

[HebridesRob]

The 10g is the balance of my 100g packet. I have to say I am surprised it might not be enough to infuence the beer much, many of the recipes I've seen dry hop a 25l batch with just 3g. So even though my quantity was guided by the packet size I did think I was in the right ball park for a 75 - 80l batch.

I dry hopped it today actually as the primary fermentation has finished. I used this large tea strainer:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00GSLXEH6/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20 which I reckon I could probably get up to around 25g in without them being squashed. Next time there will be more planning!

Planning is overrated, seat of the pants is good. I just dry-hopped 15 litres of IPA with 20g of Target hops and I'm wondering whether it was enough.

Edit: I might get one of those gadgets. Not sure what an accessory peeler is, though I suppose it'll be handy.

 

[clibit]

Planning is overrated, seat of the pants is good. I just dry-hopped 15 litres of IPA with 20g of Target hops and I'm wondering whether it was enough.

Not really Rob. ;-)

 

[jeg3]

Planning is overrated, seat of the pants is good. I just dry-hopped 15 litres of IPA with 20g of Target hops and I'm wondering whether it was enough.

I recently dry hopped a 21l batch with 20g of Columbus for three weeks, gave it a lovely green aroma. My first real experiment in dry hopping

 

[clibit]

I like Columbus for dry hopping. :thumb:

 

[stevered]

I hope everyone has been enjoying their Christmas brews!

Just thought I’d update how this recipe turned out. A couple of things didn’t go quite as I hoped:

I wanted minimal yeast sediment by using the Safeale S-04. This worked to an extent but it did not cake at the bottom of bottles as well as I’d hoped - careless pouring did result in a cloudy beer.

There was no aroma from the beer which I’d been hoping to achieve by the dry hopping. I’m guessing I just wasn’t generous enough as some people suggested. I might try hopping late in the boil next time as an alternative to dry hopping.

The final thing was the head of the beer, completely none existent once the bubbles from pouring subside; it looks like a glass of nearly flat coke. I am puzzled by this being new to AG as it never been an issue with kits.

So summary is not bad but flavour wise just a bit boring - quite like a mainstream commercial beer in that respect. I wouldn’t make this recipe again. On the other hand we had a few people over yesterday and guests did not need encouragement to get stuck in so maybe I’m overly critical (or they were being polite..)
Merry Christmas!

 

[clibit]

You need a good recipe. Why not name some beers you really like, and people will be able to suggest recipes based on your tastes.

 

[stevej]

I dont think i would consider making a ale now using less then 100g in a 23ltr batch, and a 10g dry hop on that batch size :-(

 

[stevered]

You need a good recipe. Why not name some beers you really like, and people will be able to suggest recipes based on your tastes.

That one I had a vague hope of turning out like 6x. And actually apart from the head and the colour did actually taste a lot like 6x.

What I'd really like to make is a golden bitter that has that strong aroma which I'm pretty sure is cascade hops. I've often seen it called american pale ale but apart from the distinctive cascade hop the style seems very like a golden ale.

 

[stevered]

I dont think i would consider making a ale now using less then 100g in a 23ltr batch, and a 10g dry hop on that batch size :-(

100g seems a lot for a 23l batch - The book of receipes I have got "Camra's brew your own British Ale" rarely seem to call for more than around 25g at that size.

 

[stevej]

Most of my ales now use around 100>200g of hops, the highest hop bill i have had to date was 320g in a 23 ltr batch

 

[clibit]

100g seems a lot for a 23l batch - The book of receipes I have got "Camra's brew your own British Ale" rarely seem to call for more than around 25g at that size.

Yeah but that's a book with traditional British ale recipes in it. American brewers tend to use a lot more hops and that is influencing modern British brewers.

 

[Hops_and_Dreams]

100g seems a lot for a 23l batch - The book of receipes I have got "Camra's brew your own British Ale" rarely seem to call for more than around 25g at that size.

I'm with Steve on the hopping quantities, but then I enjoy really hoppy beers. Depends what sort of style you like? I'd definitely not make 75-85 litres of beer that I didn't know what it would turn out like. I've made a couple of 20ltr batches that I'm not so keen on and they've taken a long time to get through!

For an English style golden ale, 95% pale malt and 5% light crystal would be ok I think. Or instead use 5% carapils in place of the crystal to make it a bit lighter. Hop wise, I like Challenger and East Kent Golding as a combo or First Gold on it's own, or all Cascade would be nice with the slight floral taste/aroma you mentioned. If you were to use 100g of hops and split 75g for the boil and 25g for dry hop, it would give you a good hop flavour/aroma without being OTT.

 

[stevered]

I'm with Steve on the hopping quantities, but then I enjoy really hoppy beers. Depends what sort of style you like? I'd definitely not make 75-85 litres of beer that I didn't know what it would turn out like. I've made a couple of 20ltr batches that I'm not so keen on and they've taken a long time to get through!

I wouldn't usually have been as bold as that but with it was a crimbo brew I knew it would go.