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...

[Kyle Cameron]

Gidday people. Looking at doing an all grain brew in the next week. Have followed a few recipes over the past few months, this will be my first attempt at my own recipe. Its going to be a fairly straightforward IPA and once I have the beer I'll start tweaking. Just before I spend the money on all the ingredients, I would like a bit of input on the recipe to get a good starting point. I'm going for a straight forward style with only 2 hop varieties and a primarily pale malt base. Any input you clever buggers have will be gladly taken. As you can see I was thinking a bit of Munich and a dash of Carahell and Chocolate just to bring out some sort of malt complexity and to darken her up a bit. I set the Mash Efficiency at 55% so I should beat these figures hopefully.

Original Gravity: 1.060 Final Gravity: 1.013 ABV: 6.12% IBU: 65.03 SRM: 14.17

				Bill %
5 kg	NZ - Pale 2-Row			61%
2 kg	United Kingdom - Munich			24.4%
1 kg	German - CaraHell			12.2%
0.2 kg	United Kingdom - Pale Chocolate			2.4%
8.2 kg	Total

Hops

Amount	Variety	Type	AA	Use	Time	IBU
14 g	Nelson Sauvin	Leaf/Whole	12.5	Boil	60 min	17.96
14 g	NZ Cascade	Pellet	7.2	Boil	60 min	11.38
8 g	Nelson Sauvin	Leaf/Whole	12.5	Boil	30 min	7.89
8 g	NZ Cascade	Pellet	7.2	Boil	30 min	5
10 g	Nelson Sauvin	Leaf/Whole	12.5	Boil	10 min	4.65
10 g	NZ Cascade	Pellet	7.2	Boil	10 min	2.95
20 g	Nelson Sauvin	Leaf/Whole	12.5	Aroma	10 min	9.3
20 g	NZ Cascade	Pellet	7.2	Aroma	10 min	5.9
28 g	Nelson Sauvin	Leaf/Whole	12.5	Dry Hop	5 days
28 g	NZ Cascade	Pellet	7.2	Dry Hop	5 days
20 g	Nelson Sauvin	Leaf/Whole	12.5	Dry Hop	3 days
20 g	NZ Cascade	Pellet	7.2	Dry Hop	3 days

Hops Summary

100 g	Nelson Sauvin
100 g	NZ Cascade

Mash Guidelines

Amount	Description	Type	Temp	Time
12 L	Mash In	Infusion	68 C	60 min
16 L	Mash Out	Infusion	75 C	20 min

Amount	Name	Type	Use	Time
2 g	Coppafloc	Fining	Boil	10 min

Yeast

Mangrove Jack - US West Coast Yeast

So yeah, cheers for your thoughts.
  

[Miles]

Looks like a nice drop... I will be interested to see what the Pale Chocolate adds to the flavour & that Mangrove Jack yeast. Are the Dry Hop additions in the primary or secondary?

[Kyle Cameron]

Yeah, dry hopping at the start of secondary, I'll rack it off in the pursuit of a bit more clarity. And just add the hops in two stages. Second lot when I crash chill or a day before. 

[Josh C]

Is that mash or brewhouse efficiency? Pretty low for mash efficiency, even a low efficiency system like batch sparging should hit 75%. If it's brewhouse then no worries, my brewhouse is ~60-65% with batch sparging and 75-80% mash efficiency to put things into perspective. 

[David R]

Pardon my ignorance but what is the difference between mash and brewhouse efficiency?

Kyle are there two lots of each variety at 10-minutes, or is one lot supposed to be 1 minute?

[Richard Jack]

Mash accounts for extraction and volume into the kettle. Brewhouse accounts for extraction and volume losses to deadspace in the kettle, fermenter, etc. I think.

[Josh C]

Yes as Richard said, mash efficiency is the efficiency of extracting sugars from the grains and is generally well defined and easier to estimate. Brewhouse efficiency is the efficiency into the fermenter and so is based on the individual setup depending on your losses such as the wort left in the pot that doesn't make it into the fermenter.

[Kyle Cameron]

Sorry, yeah brewhouse efficiency Josh C. Typo on my part. I'm sure I'll beat the numbers but I don't think by a whole heap. My gear at the moment is pretty basic (chilli bin with loose grain but no draining setup at the bottom so I pour through a muslin cloth and sparge with hot water into the boiling kettle. Not the greatest but I'm getting there. Didn't have a chilli bin until last week. BIAB is a shitty messy way to awkwardly make beer. 

@David R Mash is the efficiency of sugar extraction during the steep and sparge part, but to keep it simple I just run a whole brew efficiency rating. That includes everything and basically outlines how much sugar gets from the grain to the fermenter. 

Oh and yes, David R good spotting. That was meant to be the 1 min addition at the bottom there. Yet another typo...

[Ralph]

Ha... "BIAB is a shitty messy way to awkwardly make beer"

I recently went back to BIAB after using a mash tun with a manifold for about a year.  I think BIAB is quicker, easier, less faff and less mess. Mash efficiency up around 75% or better (no sparge) and I think the beer is better quality as well. I easily do up to 50L batches at a time. My BIAB beers won me champion homebrewer in the 2011 NHC.

[Scarrfie]

Interesting Ralph. I thing there is plenty of room to experiment in what constitutes a bag. I have seen one on the net that was canvass sides with a SS mesh bottom.

[Kyle Cameron]

Yeah I'm sure the ability is there to make a decent brew out of a bag. And you probably have talent and tricks that I am yet to have. If I had a cage system instead of a muslin bag like you say Scarrfie, I'm sure the whole process would be a bit smoother. Coz I have a nightmare with the bags haha. 

[Peter Smith]

my pot in a pot (inner pot laser holes in bottom) even allows recirc...    but the bed does release a lot of muck as you lift pot out...   I still have a mash bag in the inner pot.. could drain into another pot remove grains and dump back into main pot I guess....        Deadspace and a thin mash is my biggest issue but I dont honestly know how much that is effecting beers vs inexperience and recipe design.  How much dead space do you have Ralph?  I originally tried less water and a sparge at the end, but now my technique is to put water into main pot to pre boil volume,   mash in, at end of mash add 85C water on top of the inner mash pot volume equal to what grains absorb normally about 7-9L,  start heating till I get 75 and lift out for drain,   I am getting much better numbers this way and also normally a 75min mash unless wheat then a 90 and lower temp.

I have been learning this "system" over last 12 months,   I have also moved to using Beersmith and my own mill, water additions and watching mash ph.   I am going to upgrade to a 10g cooler mash tun and a grant to see if colour changes BUT I find if I rapidly chill and leave for at least 60-90 mins I get crystal clear wort, even after forgetting to koppafloc  (unless you use gladfields pale ale , it just seems more hazy..)