Experiment / Recipe / Method help

[Gggsss]

Hello all,
Need to bend your ears for a bit with the hope of some helpful feedback.

Basically I'm 3 brews in (all kits with instructions but have started to steep, dry hop etc as additions) and am going to start my fourth brew using individual ingredients. The purpose of this next brew day is to brew two 10l batches, one with LME and the other with DME. So what I need to know is if the following recipe(s) & method(s) is/are correct.

Here we go :
Batch 1
10 L - Aiming at about 4%ish
1.5kg Light LME
200g Light Crystal malt steeped
25g Chinook pellets
100g Cascade pellets
US-05 Yeast (1 pk)

Using a 15 litre stock pot

Method,
- Steep the 200g of Crystal malt in 2 litres of water (around 70c for 30 mins).
- Once sparged/rinsed add the liquid to my 15L stock pot.
- Add water to a total of around 12 litres of liquid pre-boil (I have run a pre-brew-day boil with 10 litres of water with 1kg of table sugar dissolved and I lost around 1.5-2 litres of liquid in an hour).
- Bring the liquid to a boil.
- Take off of the hob and add 750g (half the tin) of the LME & stir until well mixed (the reason I'm not adding the full 1.5kg of the LME is because I'm sure I have read that using all the malt affects the hop utilization??).
- Put back on hob and add the 25g of chinook for the 60 mins boil (all hop pellets loose).
- 25g Cascade at 30 mins.
- 25g Cascade at 15 mins.
- 25g Cascade at flameout.
- Take off of the heat and add the last 750g of the LME and mix.
- Put the stockpot containing the wort in an ice bath the bring down to pitching temp.
- Once at pitching temp strain wort in to FV & pitch yeast.

- Dry hop 25g of cascade around day 2 or 3 in to the fermentation.

I will do the same for the DME just adding 600g of DME in place of the 750g of LME as above.

Basically is the recipe OK? And secondly is the method correct (in general, irrespective of the specific ingredients)?

I'm sure my wort volume wont be exactly 10 litres when adding to the FV (due to evaporation rate, hop expansion/absorbtion, density of LME - all the science) but I'm only interested in rough figures. Also same for the ABV, I'm not bothered about exact figures at this stage just ball park so I can get used to basic recipes & methods.

Basically best result for less agg...

Sorry if I have rattled on for too long.

Any feedback would be extremely welcomed as this is my first brew day without the dreaded kit instructions......

A million thanks in advance....

 

[Clint]

I'm no expert but I'd say you've too much crystal...
What is the AAU % of your pellets?

 

[Gggsss]

Thanks for the swift response Clint....

Chinook is 9%. Don't know what the Cascade are as not been delivered yet, but they are US Cascade if that helps.

In your opinion is the method there or thereabouts?

Cheers fella..

 

[Clint]

The % of the hops can have a huge impact in terms of bitterness... obviously the higher % the less you need and the earlier you put them in the more you get..
I usually do a 60 minute addition,then 10,flame out/hop stand and a dry hop.
Look on the "calculator" section on the forum and have a play with your ingredients against the beer style you want to make..you'll soon get the hang of it.

 

[Gggsss]

Thanks for the suggestion Clint. Had a quick look and seems a little busy for me ATM (percentages, temperatures etc), I wouldn't know where to start. Although with experience I'm hoping to use them so looks a decent tool moving forward. Once again cheers Clint, you're a diamond..

For now the main purpose of the post is to find out if the malts/hops amounts are too much/too little (possible suggestions of amounts/recipe?) and if the method is relatively workable or whether I'm well out and am on course to nause it right up. So anyone with any additional feedback I would really appreciate it..

 

[Clint]

Thanks for the suggestion Clint. Had a quick look and seems a little busy for me ATM (percentages, temperatures etc), I wouldn't know where to start. Although with experience I'm hoping to use them so looks a decent tool moving forward. Once again cheers Clint, you're a diamond..

For now the main purpose of the post is to find out if the malts/hops amounts are too much/too little (possible suggestions of amounts/recipe?) and if the method is relatively workable or whether I'm well out and am on course to nause it right up. So anyone with any additional feedback I would really appreciate it..

I'm just about to leave for work so can't help ATM with your recipe..but the calculator is easy to use. As for malt % if you look on a supplier web site like malt miller they give good description as to what malts can be used for and in what %. Beer styles in the drop down menus on the calculator will give an idea on how bitter the beer should be..you can adjust the AAU % of the default settings for whatever you have.

 

[jof]

Out of interest, your not far off a partial mash there.
Your stockpot size would allow you to combine your crystal malt (which is sort of flavouring only) with say 1KG of actual malt, then you would need less malt extract - or you could keep the 1.5KG malt extract & just do a 15 L final volume.
Its not far off what I do with similar size stock pot with DME to make up the Malt quantity.

Basically I was doing:
5 Gallon batches with
1KG - 1.5Kg crushed malt & crystal/choclate malt depending on type
1 hour mash
Drain & sparge using mesh bag & collander over stock pot.
Bring to boil
~30g hops @60
~30g hops @30
irish moss @15
~15 hops @flameout
Cool stockpot in the sink
Add ~ 5l cold water to fermenting vessel & stir in 2KG DME
Add contents stockpot (via sieve to strain out hops)
Top up FV to 5 Gallons & wait a few hours for correct temperature before pitching

 

[Gggsss]

Cheers chaps.

Jof - Was planning on a partial mash after a few self constructed extract brews. Will prob give your one a spin as a tester....

Clint - Will def give them a whirl when a little more confident/experienced. Just noticed your Fast Show reference.. One of my fav shows...