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...

[Ally Mcg]

If it was my beer i"d drop the wheat back to say 1/200g and omit the munich altogether. But, at the end of the day it your beer, so get feel for the ingredients and brew it. I like yr hopping, but I'd be tempted to dial back the late sauvin and make it single hop cascade. I;d also check my early IBU and make them less than 50% of my late IBU.

At the end of day tho its your beer, not mine or anyone elses. I'd brew what you feel looks good and then take it from there.

[Stu McKinlay]

My advice...

Hops:
I would err on the side of over hopping. First time homebrew IPAs are almost always too sweet and not hoppy enough. Our water and sweet hops doesn't help... and I'd guess that people tend to get lower hop utilisation than they think.

50/50 Cascade/Sauvin will be bloody good in my opinion but I love beers that showcase Sauvin. I think Cascade is a nice kettle brother.

Malt:
Drop the munich. MO is rich enough without it. Americans tend to use it a lot in their recipes but i believe that is probably because they're using less intense base malts like Pearl or US grown malts.

What is Crystal 60 - Lovibond, EBC, SRM? Where'd you get it from? I'll assume it is 60 lov. Depending on what you are after it may be a bit full on at .5kg... If you are looking for an American style IPA
Torrified wheat - I assume you are looking for it to help your head stability, rather than make a Wheat IPA. If so, it looks way too high... 2% of total grist should be enough.

For a new world IPA, with these malts, I'd look at something more like
MO 96%
Crystal 120ebc 2%
Torrified Wheat 2%

For more of a deeper English-style one
MO 93%
Crystal 120ebc 5%
Torrified Wheat 2%

If you are going to treat your water with sulphates you could probably push those crystal a little higher.


Then, as Ally says, it is your beer.... tell us more and we can help more. Do you have commercial beers in mind, or a flavour that you are really looking for?

[Patrick]

Wow thanks for all the info. I am looking for a "new world" style so will change the malts accordingly.

3 Questions:
Is a 60 minute boil OK?
Are 3 hop additions enough or should I add a 5 minute one as well?
Should I reduce the 60min addition to 15 NS 15 NZ cascade and compensate with bigger late hop additions?

You guys are very helpful, I am learning all the time off this site!
I think I will keep the hops 50:50, I can rebrew and adjust later on!

[Stu McKinlay]

60min boil is fine, as long as it is vigorous
3 is enough... if i was going to add one here it'd probably be more likely to be at 30min... but I like my beers bitter. Others would add some at 5min... and others still might do both.
I always work out the IBUs that I get from flavour/aroma hopping I want and then adjust the 60min to suit. For example, sometimes I have so much hopping from 30min in the the end of the boil that I only end up with 10g or something at 60min.

[Patrick]

That is an interesting way of looking at hopping, makes a lot of sense though. I will have a play with beersmith tonight and see what I end up with.

[Reviled]

Thats the way I do it as well Stu, throw in as much flavour and aroma hops as my heart desires then adjust the bittering additions...

Ive gone as low as 4gms at 90 mins before, but still used about 100gms all up :o) lol

[Tony]

Interesting, I've always gone the other way around. I add the bittering hops to give me the bitterness I want. I then add my aroma\flavouring hops at the end to suite. I very rarely have a mid-boil addition. I now see, why so many of you do. For me it is bittering at the beginning and flavouring at the end (within the last 15 minutes).

[Stu McKinlay]

His Majesty was all 30-10min... I love a natural arc of bitterness flavour and aroma

hmmmm... Eastie Boy's Natural Arc Theory.

[Stu McKinlay]

that's "all" as in all about 30-10min... there were certainly hops outside that timeframe

[Soren]

I'd probably double those hop additions, at least the late addition. and adding some gypsum will help with the perceived bitterness/crispness. Sauvin will definitely dominate the cascade but the cascade will still be there, adding character and flavour.

[Reviled]

My 2 cents

Keep the Munich, that stuff is the bizness, drop the crystal to say 200-250gms max, 500gms will give you an amber ale, and drop the wheat to 200gms

Up the IBU to at least 60 - 70 in the 15 min addition, and consider adding a dry hop, say 50gms total..

[Tony]

As you can see Patrick. All this advice is good advice, but we all have our own styles. Therefore a lot of advice can become confusing. There was a discussion thread here about adding salts (Burtonising your water). That is also something that will pump up your hop characteristics. IMHO, brew the beer, keep a good brew log, then next time you can develop it further, depending on how it turns out. I have attached mine if you need one.