First AG brew - Hoppy pale

[Bradders]

The Sunday before last I did my first all grain brew, I've done a few kits before but was never that happy with the result so decided to get into AG and bought a robobrew as that seemed to fit my needs perfectly!
The brew day went okish, few mistakes like leaving the top grain bed filter in the bottom of the malt pipe and whole hops jamming up the pump aswel as the ball valve causing me to have to awkwardly strain the remaining 15 litres through a strainer! But all in all I think it went ok and will hopefully have a decent beer in a few weeks time.

So as it was my first AG brew I bought a kit from themaltmiller but me being me I had to adjust it (more hops). I was originally going to stick to the recipe for my first brew but I've got a bit of a hop obsession at the minute so decided I would add more hops, unfortunately I had this bright idea while chilling the wort so couldn't adjust the boil additions and went with dry hopping instead.

Recipe (not mine)
4.6kg Crisp pale ale malt
.3kg Vienna malt
.1kg Aromatic malt
15g Galaxy 90 mins
35g Galaxy 15 mins
50g Galaxy dry hop 5 days
50g Azacca dry hop 5 days
100g Mosaic dry hop 5 days

Mashed in 17.5l at 71° aiming for 66°, mashed for 90 mins, sparged with 15l @80° and ended up with roughly 28l pre boil. 90 minute boil, ended with roughly 23.5l.
OG was 1.052 and is now sitting at 1.010

I have just added the dry hop additions and will be kegging on Sunday.
I realise this was probably a crafted recipe by someone with a lot more knowledge than me and I may have ruined the balance but who knows, could be great.


Anyone got any thoughts on the dry hop additions? Too much (even possible)? Wrong combo?

 

[Dutto]

200g just seems a lot of hops to me (especially when Dry Hopping for 5 days); but I am known for being tight!

 

[Bigcol49]

200g just seems a lot of hops to me

Hi!
My first thought.

 

[Bradders]

200g just seems a lot of hops to me (especially when Dry Hopping for 5 days); but I am known for being tight!

Hi!
My first thought.

Thanks for your thoughts. I do like very hoppy ales and saw recipes with more than I added so went with 200g but it was a guess.
Hopefully it turns out ok.

 

[dan125]

200g dry hop in 23.5L isn't excessive (only 8.5g/L)
The standard Dennis King Galaxy Delight recipe you've used is nice, but not overly hoppy. I think you've done the right thing by adding the extra hops at the dry hop stage, as in the kettle they would have made the beer more bitter and thrown the balance out.
Let us know how it turns out.

 

[Bradders]

200g dry hop in 23.5L isn't excessive (only 8.5g/L)
The standard Dennis King Galaxy Delight recipe you've used is nice, but not overly hoppy. I think you've done the right thing by adding the extra hops at the dry hop stage, as in the kettle they would have made the beer more bitter and thrown the balance out.
Let us know how it turns out.

That's reassuring, thanks. From the reviews it seemed like a good base but wanted more of a hop hit so did a bit of research on flavour profiles on hops I know I like and what might work. Haven't seen this combo anywhere but experimenting is part of the fun!
Just need to get stuck into some homebrew books now.

I've popped into the utility this morning and it honestly smells like heaven. Roll on Sunday!

 

[Duxuk]

Looks good, to me. It should be seriously hoppy and not overly bitter.

 

[foxbat]

15g/35g at 90/15 mins of the Galaxy I'm using at the moment (15.6% AA) would give 52 IBUs in a 23 litre brew. That's IPA-level bitterness (quite high) but should be balanced out by the alcohol.

 

[KiaOraBrew]

How are you finding the Robobrew?

 

[Bradders]

Looks good, to me. It should be seriously hoppy and not overly bitter.

Thanks, that's what I am hoping for

15g/35g at 90/15 mins of the Galaxy I'm using at the moment (15.6% AA) would give 52 IBUs in a 23 litre brew. That's IPA-level bitterness (quite high) but should be balanced out by the alcohol.

That looks to be about the IBU value I got from beersmith, pretty sure the galaxy I have is 15.6% AA.
The gravity sample from before the dry hop tasted pretty good, not too bitter so I assume it is balanced by the alcohol like you say.

 

[Bradders]

How are you finding the Robobrew?

For the money I think its brilliant!
Only done one brew on it but apart from the small issue listed below I couldn't fault it.
Its perfect for me as I needed a way of brewing 20+l batches without having too much equipment, I looked at the grainfather but SWMBO wasn't happy about the price so after a fair bit of research ended up getting the Robobrew V3 and I am glad I did.
Only issue I had is with whole hops clogging the pump and the ball valve on the front, the false bottom doesn't quite touch the sides so it looks like some of the hops made their way underneath.
I will be looking at a way of preventing that with maybe filters on the ball valve and pump inlets or silicone edging around the false bottom. If I have no joy I could always just hang a muslin bag into the wort for the hops.