Your thoughts ? My first recipe

[SuperBroo]

Howdy All,

I would appreciate your opinions / predictions of what you think this beer will come out like.
Dont be scared to be constructively critical if you think I've stuffed it somewhere

I put down this brew last night (BIAB) and its my first go at designing a recipe from scratch.
Its a light beer, I was aiming for something around 3%, and have tried to mash / use grains that will provide some flavour for the low alc% beer.

Actual OG worked out exact, so all good there, at least its started off as per the recipe (Done on iphone using ibrewmaster).

I decided to do the brew before I asked for opinions, otherwise I'll never learn, and it will be intersting to see if anyone can pick any obvious tastes etc for this beer.

I used home grown Cascade hops, so added a bit extra over what i initially thought.

Please see recipe below...


Superbroo Cascade Light
Type: All Grain Calories: 108
Rating: 0.0 Efficiency: 75 %
IBU's: 27.73 Boil Size: 29.00 L
Color: 8.3 SRM Batch Size: 22.00 L
Boil Time: 75 minutes


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Brew Date: - 01/03/2011
Estimated Actual
OG: 1.033 1.033
FG: 1.010
ABV: 3.01 %
Serve Date: 26/03/2011

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Fermentation Steps
Primary 16 days @ 20.0°C
Add Finings / start chill 2 days @ 1.0°C 17/03/2011 -
Bottle/Keg 7 days @ 3.0°C 19/03/2011 -

Grains & Adjuncts
2.00 kg 64.94 % Pale Malt, Maris Otter 1.038 3.0
0.70 kg 22.73 % Wheat Malt, Bel 1.037 2.0
0.20 kg 6.49 % Munich Malt - 10L 1.035 10.0
0.15 kg 4.87 % Special B Malt 1.030 150.0
0.03 kg 0.97 % Wheat, Flaked 1.035 1.6

Hops
8.50 g 14.99 Chinook 60 mins 13.40 Pellets
25.00 g 12.74 Cascade HG 15 mins 7.80 Home Grown Flowers
10.00 g 0.00 Cascade HG 00 mins 7.80 Home Grown Flowers

Yeasts
1.0 pkg English Ale Safale S-04 Fermentis S-04

Additions
0.50 each Whirlfloc Tablet 15 mins Boil
4.00 g Yeast Nutrient 05 mins Boil

Mash Profile
Biab mash in 60 min @ 67.0°C
Add 31.00 L water @ 69.5°C

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Notes
Preboil 29L at 1.024.

[bullfrog]

Looks good. 67 degrees is a little high for my mash temp preferences, though. I would have been going for maybe around 65, looking at your grist, but that's just me.

[drsmurto]

For a low OG beer you want to mash higher if you want to leave more body in your beer.

I mash low OG beers at 69-70C.

I would also use a lower attenuating yeast such as Windsor (dry) or Ringwood (WY1187 - liquid).

I also like to use munich as the base malt in my low OG quaffing ales. The more malt you can get into a light beer the more it doesn't taste like a light beer.

[SuperBroo]

Well, I sped the process up on this one to free up my fermenting freezer, and its been in the keg for 4 days now.

This is an absolutely lovely fresh light beer (for me anyway).

My home grown Cascade hops have a more subtle taste than with pellets from the LHBS, am impressed with those.

I tried one fresh Saturday, after having a LCBA, and couldnt really taste my beer, so was a bit disapointed, thinking I would have to play with it or blend it with something with a bit more grunt, but last night, I tried one as my first for the day, and its bloody delicious.

I think I have now learnt that carbonation plays a big part in a light beer

I'll increase the munich percentage on my next one to see what happens.

Now wishing my Cascade harvest was a bit larger, will be putting plenty of TLC into them later this year.

Cheers,
Chris

Dont know if I should let it a ge a bit in the fridge or just stay on it...

[big dave]

Nice SB. Stay on it. You can always knock up another one....

How did you find the BIAB process? My first was a bit of a rush, but two and three were each smoother, and I reckon within a couple more I will be pretty comfortable.

And the result is good eh?!

[SuperBroo]

Hi Dave,
I wish I had looked at Biab before I made / bought all my 3v gear.

I've done about 6 Biabs now, and I love the process for its simplicity, flexibility and easy cleanup.
You dont have to be spot on with anything really except strike temp.

Its even better now I have a 40L Birko Electric urn, especially to do a quick reheat each 20 mins during the mash.

I serviced my work ute while doing a BIAB DSGA on Saturday morning.
SWMBO is very impressed with my multitasking too

Dont think I'll ever do a 3v again.
My Biabs have all been very clear, so I dont see any issues at all.
Have just done some no chill brews, will see how the clarity goes there.

Cheers,
Chris

[big dave]

Chris

Let me know how the clarity goes with the no-chill. Being a neophyte, everything is still new and exciting, and my only qualm so far is clarity. Haven't used finings in #1 or 2, but started with the last one. But that is a bit OT, and a query for another time....

Dave

[SuperBroo]

Dave,
Just put my first no chill into secondary, and looking fairly clear ATM, but i guess the test is when poured cold into a glass.

Will let you know when I get to that point.

Also, the beer that started this thread, is bloody lovely, the 8.5g of Chinook for 60 Mins is not overly bitter at all.
A few other people have had a taste and liked it.

[SuperBroo]

Hey Big Dave...

I have done a couple of No Chills now, and I must say that clarity has not been an issue at all, and flavour has been nice.
I am sort of trying to learn something with the later hop additions.

I've been transferring everything except the hop flowers into the cube, then the fermenter, which means break material and all is going into the cube, and fermenter.

I have been skimming at the start of the boil, so this may help with having less break material, the beer still has a nice head -

So I say no chill is a great idea, being able to brew 3 hrs instead of 6 in one go is much better for haps of reasons.

cheers,
Chris

[drsmurto]

If it takes you 3 hours to chill your wort you are doing something wrong!

I know i have an anti-no chill reputation but the reality is that it takes 20-30 mins to run wort through a plate chiller.

At this time of the year i can run the wort out the kettle at full speed meaning there is no difference in chill and no chill.

I get the attraction to no chill in that you can brew now and pitch yeast later but the time factor is a myth.

[bullfrog]

Even my immersion chiller takes no time at all. In winter, all I need is the same amount of time it takes me to have a cigarette to chill an entire batch down.

[big dave]

OK, so my clarity issues are coming from somewhere else. I am actually not too stressed about it, the beers are turning out to be lovely. If the clarity remains the only issue, I will be more than happy.

And given I have no means of chilling, I will keep cubing for a bit....

[SuperBroo]

Agree to a point on the cooling time, but here in summer i just could not get it below about 28, so no chill suits me then.
But now its cooler i can chill no worries.

So i'll be doing a bit of both.

Cheers,

[Tipsy]

Keeping it OT as a chiller turned no-chiller, I have found the biggest benefit with NC is being able to make a starter with the same wort as your end beer on the day you brew and then pitch it while active a couple of days later.

[SuperBroo]

agree Tipsy, my last brew was done that way, my first to use a starter, coz i used lager yeast.

[squirt in the turns]

Keeping it OT as a chiller turned no-chiller, I have found the biggest benefit with NC is being able to make a starter with the same wort as your end beer on the day you brew and then pitch it while active a couple of days later.

I NC and haven't yet used this starter method (been doing the standard LDME wort, crash chill, pour off, split then pitch routine). I'm trying to work out if you could split a smack pack when doing this. As I see it, the only opportunity to split would be before pitching into the starter. Does anyone have a process for this, or any ideas?

[warra48]

Keeping it OT as a chiller turned no-chiller, I have found the biggest benefit with NC is being able to make a starter with the same wort as your end beer on the day you brew and then pitch it while active a couple of days later.

I NC and haven't yet used this starter method (been doing the standard LDME wort, crash chill, pour off, split then pitch routine). I'm trying to work out if you could split a smack pack when doing this. As I see it, the only opportunity to split would be before pitching into the starter. Does anyone have a process for this, or any ideas?

There's more than one of way of building up your yeast from a fresh smakpak or tube (depending on whether you use Wyeast or White Labs). Here are two methods, amongst others.

1. You can break up the original pak or tube into smaller test tubes, say into 4, 5 or 6 equal parts, and keep the smaller ones as is.
Then use one of the smaller ones to build up a starter, beginning with say a ½ litre starter, then 3 litres, then up from there if you use it to brew a lager. Do that for each of the small splits.

2. Build a 4 or 5 litre starter with the whole pak or tube. Chill to drop the yeast. Pour off the starter beer, add a little boiled cooled water to suspend the yeast cake, and split that into 4, 5 or 6 test tubes. Then build up each test tube as in point 1. This is the method I tend to use, and it works well for me.

I aim for about 1.040 SG in my starter wort, or a little lower. I use 2/3rd LDME and 1/3rd Dextrose.

Of course, sanitation, sanitation, sanitation is vitally important at every step of the process.