Questions On Stuff I don't Understand???

[Darren Andrews (Daza)]

Hey guys just going over a recipe for my First IPA!! and if I am to do a 23L batch of Beer then my calculations are for a 6Gallon batch? and if so is it ok just to add the 5Gallon + 1Gallon ingredients together to work out a 6Gallon batch?

Second question...If dry hopping is optional and says "you can add a handful" what measurement is that? and always with about 4-5 days left in fermentation left you do it?

Third question.....How do you work out the IBU (bitterness?) level if not stated in recipe?

Last question......How many packets of dry yeast US.05 would you use? basing it on adding the 5G + 1G together, it would be 1 and a half??

Cheers Guys appreciate it. 

[Peter Church]

7.5 is the cutoff based on bjcp style guidelines, so still american ipa everything else beingnwithin the style, range

[Grant R Baker]

Its close, kinda the starting range of the DIPA beers.

[Darren Andrews (Daza)]

What is meant by efficiency? And recipe says boil 60 mins. Knowing what the OG should be and the FG how would I know by the reading if it was out what should it be during boil or before boil? Cheers.

[Cain Harland]

The recipe is will have an assumed efficency 75% seems pretty common. Efficiency is a measure of how much of the goodness (mostly sugars) you extract from your grain 100% is calculated in a lab by grinding the grain to dust and extracting with lab techniques. You wouldn't want to drink beer made like this because it also extracts all the tannin's from the grain that brewers leave behind.

As an example the brew I did yesterday the recipe was calculated at 75% efficiency (a reasonable target) but I got you got 67% which bought my OG down from 1.062 to 1.057. With home brew a little extra grain is cheap enough that consistent efficiency is more important than high efficiency. As you get to know your equipment and processes you figure out what kind of efficiency they produce. I'm still getting used to a new grain mill and mash tun so not very consistent at the moment but hope to settle in the 75% to 80% range.

[Darren Andrews (Daza)]

Do you take your OG after the wort is chilled down before transferring to fermenter? If I was to use a refractometer and say used it after my mash pre boil or during boil what kind of reading should I be looking for if my OG TARGET IS 1.072?

[Peter Church]

pre boil would be something like 1060 the longer the boil the more concentrated the wort, just cool the sample down to be more accurate with the estimate though,

Example from my brew on the weekend

Preboil 1033,

post boil with sample to hot 1037,

once it cooled 1040,

planned on 68% efficiency, got 73 so upped the volume from 40 to 45 litres due to better than planned efficency

[Darren Andrews (Daza)]

those are refractometer readings eh?  How did you work out your efficiency? not clued up on that yet or how to work software that is suppose to help you work out stuff etc...

[Peter Church]

Software, beersmith gives you the target for your recipe, after the brew day is done I normally tweak the design numbers to match actual volumes, gravities etc that way I can recreate a brew based on what really happened.

[Darren Andrews (Daza)]

my recipe gives me the target gravity too. I have Beersmith2 (trial version) but don't know my way around it to use it, pretty scary stuff!

[Peter Church]

when dry hopping an IPA the term "a handful"  means a minimum of 2 grams per litre, anything up to 5 would be considered to comply with the term a handful, more than that would be in the recipe as "add a shitload of hops" or some other equivalent unit of measure

brewers friend is one of the options for calculating the IBU's, I use beersmith. Each years hop harvest will have varying Alpha Acid levels, the 9.2 in the software you used is the average but if the hops you have are 8.2 then yes you are correct in upping the amount to achieve the same bitterness contribution

for high abv you should consider using a second yeast sachet, yeast under the strain of a high sugar wort can produce off flavours... got to aerate the wort and make sure temp control is good or you will get fusile alcohol flavours from stressed yeast. don't under pitch, there is an online yeast calculator, try googling Mr malty yeast

Re IPA IBU's 40 to 70 is the range for an american IPA, the hoppiness and the bitterness shouldn't be confused, there will be no bitterness contribution from dry hopping and very little from late additions. Again good recipe software will help with this

Be careful to have the wort at the right temp when taking readings of density, cool to 20 degrees before taking the reading refractometer or hydrometer, you will underestimate it the temp is higher, (refractometer is less suspectible to temp) take the pre boil reading before your first hop addition, if you are under you can boil longer to increase the density but if you have already added hops then you will get more bitterness the longer you boil. dont be too caught up on hitting a recipe target number early on though. Each system has a different boil off rate, different crusher settings and mash techniques lead to different efficiencies, only use the recipe as a guide, and get to know how your setup performs, keep good notes and you will make good beer. For BIAB plan on an efficiency of high 60's 

[Darren Andrews (Daza)]

Mr Malty says 1.4 packets of dry yeast for a 6gallon that's 23L I think?) so 1 and a half packets or just drop in 2?

[Peter Church]

I would throw in 2