Recipe Advice Thread

[denimglen]

Thought it might be handy to have a thread for some of the more advanced brewers to give some advice on recipes.

Let's see how it goes eh...

[Jono Galuszka]

Kelly - do you mean my hopping regime or Chris'?

I was thinking of dry hopping, but with only one malt I'm a bit worried about going overboard.

[Kelly Milligan]

Sorry mate I meant Chris' :)

[Colin Slater]

I just did a Mashup at the weekend which has come out nicely so far. 2 questions (this is my 17th brew on my new kit with some good repeats)

1) How long is long enough for dry hopping ? I put it in a couple of days ago when the G was at about 1.019 - i thought i would leave it in till Sunday then keg ?

2) My efficiency is appalling - i boil in a converted 50l keg and I am losing about 5-7 litres over an hour boil. I started to put a half lid on but any advice on this - is it normal ?

[Tilt]

1) Go by taste I reckon but 4-6 days at ferment temps is a rough guide.

2)  You might be confusing efficiency with boil off / evaporation rate.  Brew house efficiency relates to the total amount of sugar you convert and bring into your kettle wort - this stays constant once its in the kettle regardless of evap rate - they just get more concentrated.  Assuming your starting volume is around 30 litres then your boil off rate is around 20% per hour.  Thats a bit high.  Can you turn your kettle down so you only lose around 4 litres (12-14%) which'd be closer to usual.  Watch out with putting the lid on in case you're retaining DMS precursors - especially with lager malts.  Less efficient,  but if you're electric and can't turn the boil down easily, can you remove any  kettle insulation?

[Kelly Milligan]

^perfect answer ;)

[Colin Slater]

Indeed, i am a noob and your answer is perfect. Thanks. Yeah i think i need to boil less hard.

The thing is all the beers are fine and hit their OG almost pefectly every time

[Druid]

If you are still hitting your OG despite a high boil off rate, it sounds like you probably also have a low mash efficiency.  If that's the case, the high boil off will concentrate a weak wort and cancel out the low mash efficiency, but at the expense of volume into the fermenter. 

If you are using BeerSmith or similar, it will tell you what SG to expect for your boil gravity.  You can use this to compare against the actual brew day gravity and volume figures, allowing you to detect issues and to fine tune the efficiency of the mash using sparge times (longer is better to allow for more sugars to be extracted from the grist via osmosis) and pH amongst others. 

I find that measurement and having a qualified idea of what you *should* be getting are the 2 basic tools I use to detect and fix shortfalls in my brew process.  I'd read 'How To Brew' by Palmer for more info.

[Tilt]

Spot on Druid - yep, what he said!  Maybe look at your grain crush too if your efficiency is in the end out of whack too. 

[Ralph]

A good hard boil will get rid of any dms precursors... Which is a good thing! I would personally be adjusting your water volumes up to compensate for the boil off and making sure you are keeping a good rolling boil going. Everybody has a different brew setup and part of the art is learning to make good beer on what you have, and learning what water volumes etc you need.

The low efficiency will be nothing to do with the boil and will be something to do with the crush, mash or sparge. that is as long as you are meaning efficiency regarding brewing which relates to the SG of the wort and how many liters. It is basically a measure of how many sugars you could get out of the grain and into your fermenter.

[Scott]

Hi all, am new to brewing and these forums. Using BIAB.
Planning on making this pale ale today or tomorrow:

28.3g Cascade 6.6% at 60 min.
14.2g Cascade 6.6% at 30 min.
7.1g Cascade 6.6% at 15 min.
7.1g Cascade 6.6% at 5 min.

3.6kg 2-Row Pale Malt
0.9kg Vienna Malt
0.2kg Crystal 10L Malt

US05

But I'm don't have quite enough cascade in the fridge (missing about 10g for the recipe above). I have plenty of east kent goldings, sauvin and galaxy though. Looking for your thoughts on what would be the better substitute, and when in the boil.

My thought was to use some of the galaxy instead of the 5 min cascade. I'm looking for an easy drinking summer ale - not too bitter or hoppy. Something refreshing.

[Tilt]

Welcome Scott - that looks a straigthforward tasty PA.

These sort of things always come down to personal taste but I reckon cascade by itself (esp if its NZ cascade) can be a bit one dimensional.  I'd use the Sauvin as your 60min bittering addition which will free up 28g of cascade. 

Then I'd add 10g of it to your current 5 min additions along with 10g of Galaxy.  I'd throw the rest of the Cascade in at flame out - along with another 10g of galaxy. 

Let us know what you decide.

[Scott]

Thanks for the help Tilt. I did as you suggested but scaled back in a few places as I though it might be getting too hoppy for what is intended to be a lawnmower beer.
60min 20g Sauvin
30min 14g Cascade
15min 10g Cascade
5min 5g Cascade 10g Galaxy
0min 10g Cascade 10g Galaxy

Some lessons I've learnt
- getting 36 litres of water boiling in a Wellington 30knot northerly is slow and tricky to maintain
- that 36 litres led to 23 litres in the fermenter, which was what I wanted
- don't forget the irish moss and yeast nutient at 10mins next time
- to get the fermentation happening faster, hydrate it next time - the brew has only just started bubbling, 18hrs after it went into the fermenter