Hello all, Been homwbrewing for 12 years now, but I've never joined a forum until today- this is my first post. Not really a computer/internet kind of guy. I created this recipe for a Red Ale (Already Brewed and Bottled) and wanted some feedback from the members here. Please let me know what you think. 6 Gallon Recipe 90 minute Boil 1.75 quarts per pound of grain; with 2 extra quarts of water added for long boil. -Target Original Gravity: 1.068 (Actual OG: 1.070) -Final Gravity: 1.016 (Apparent Attneuation 76%) -Brewhouse Efficiency Range: 70%-75% -Anticipated SRM: 17-20 -Anticipated IBU: 22-24 -Anticipated ABV Range: 7.09% -7.46% Grain Bill: -14 # British 2-row -1 # Crystal (20L) -1 # Muncih (8L) -.5 # Victory (30L) -.5 # Crystal 120 (L) -.25 # Pale Chocolate Rye (190-300 L) Mash: Single Infusion, mashed at 155 F for 1 hour, mash out @ 170 F and Sparged with 2 gallons @ 1 Hop Schedule: -0.5 oz. (14 g) Centennial pellet hops, 10% alpha acid (20 min.) -0.5 oz. (14 g) Amarillo pellet hops, 7% alpha acid (20 min.) -1 oz. (28 g) Centennial pellet hops, 10% alpha acid (10 min.) -1 oz. (28 g) Amarillo pellet hops, 7% alpha acid (10 min.) -1 oz. (28 g) Centennial pellet hops, 10% alpha acid (0 min.) -1 oz. (28 g) Amarillo pellet hops, 7% alpha acid (0 min.) Hop-Back Schedule: -1 oz Simcoe Whole Leaf Hops 13% alpha acid -1 Oz. Centennial Whole Leaf Hops 10% alpha acid Hop-backed in hop-rocket prior to cooling wort/in-line with plate chiller. Oxygenated with pure Oxygen for 15 minutes Yeast: WLP-001 Cali Ale Yeast (1 Vial). 1.5 Litre Yeast Starter (Started 2 days prior to brew day, yeast slury pitched only/poured liquid off yeast cake prior to pitching) Primary Fermentation: 7 Days @ 66-68 F Secondary Fermentation: 21 days @ 66-68 F Dry-Hop Schedule -1 oz Simcoe Whole Leaf Hops 13% alpha acid -1 Oz. Centennial Whole Leaf Hops 10% alpha acid 2 Volumes C02 Already brewed and bottled, just waiting for conditioning. I am aging 1 Gallon of this on Bourbon Soaked Oak chips as well. I used approximately (2) cups of Evan Williams Single Barrel Bourbon, .5 Oz Virgin white Oak chips and .5 Oz Medium Charred Virgin White Oak chips. I plan to age for 6 months and then bottle. So what do you think? Critique my recipe please...
Welcome to the site, I hope it serves you well. As a caveat, I'm a firm believer in simplicity wen it comes to beer recipe so I think your recipe would be way too complex for me. For instance I would drop the Munich, Crystal 20 and the Victory. As for the hops I would stick with the Centennial and Amarillo and not use the Simcoe in the hopback and as dryhops. And 15 minutes of pure oxygen is overkill for that low an OG-1.5 minutes would be plenty. But overall it does look very tasty
Editing my OP to reflect the real time of oxygenation- 1.5 minutes, not 15 minutes as mistakenly written; this was a typo.... I like hops, so the simcoe as Dry & Hop back are perfect for my palette. YMMV. Thanks, I think it will be a tasty beer and based off of older recipes that got me here it should be very good.
The actual time was "1.5 minutes", not 15, typo... I use a .5 micron oxygen stone and 26" long down tube with in line air filter; typical set-up. With 5# refillable oxy cylinder tank.
First, welcome. Several years ago, this site helped rejuvenate my interest in homebrewing after a lengthy absence. I hope you find it as helpful as I have. Your recipe is intriguing to me. In the first 12 months or so that I returned to homebrewing, I tried to brew something red and hoppy, with maris otter, munich, rye and, chocolate malt; your recipe reminds me of it. I have to say it tasted muddy - it wasn't my best effort. That could be because I was somewhat of an inexperienced re-newbie, or maybe because the ingredients were not quite right. Probably a bit of both. Like rocdoc1, I now tend to make simpler grists. I probably would replace the Munich with the pale ale malt and lose some of the crystal to reduce sweetness and lower the FG. On the other hand, I have't tried your beer and it could be tasty. The oak/bourbon angle generally does not appeal to me, but if you think you have nailed the toasty red rye PA - type beer, let me know; I might revist it.
Sorry for the newbie question, but what is the point of a 90 minute boil if you don't add any hops for the first 70?
Longer boil = (potentially) darker color + higher OG + lower initial wort volume. There are some other effects, too, but that's more advanced reading that I haven't done yet.
The longer boil will create a deep blood red color from the choco malt. Also a longer boil will increase caramel & melanoidin notes to the finished falvor. The late addition of hops in this recipe will make it very flavorful and aromatic as apposed to bitter. Especially with the hop backing and dry hopping. I was unable to edit my OP for some reason. Cannot change the 15 minute oxygenation time to 1.5 minutes for some reason...?
Thanks for the welcome- just decided to get on the internet seeing as there are so many resources, opinions and angles I could be missing out on. I used to brew with a bunch of different brewers but most have lost their drive or moved away, so I am trying to find a pool of knowledge to build from and hopefully add to as well. Too much rye in your recipe might have been the issue you were having. I've experimented with similar recipes to this for a while and whne I used too much rye in conjunction with choco, it didn't yeild the greatest results. When I switched to a chocolate-rye and only use such a small amount I've had great results. I like the crystal additions to increase sweetness/balance out the hop flavor in this one, I've tweaked the smaller recipe this one was born from back and forth and found a good medium. This recipe is essentially a bigger step up with more grain and hops, more alcohol, etc from my original/smaller beer. I almost always age a gallon of any of my new beer recipess on bourbon/oak as an experiment to see what I get from marrying the oak/bourbon to each different beer. I've had great beers and some akward beers as well doing this, but the good outweighs the bad for sure IMO. I love bourbon barrel beers and I have not really done any of my reds this way before- so I figured why not try it out and see... I'll let everyone know what it turns out like when I try some.
I think it looks good, my only real critique is that the BU:GU ratio is a bit low for my tastes. Obviously all personal preference.
It is a bit low for my typical/personal preference as well at .35-.36 Range. But I am going for a softer bitterness from the late hop additions/bursting and hop bakcing/dry hopping- it is full of hop flavor and aroma which kind of off sets the low BU:GU ratio; for me persoanllly it is still a bit low, but I have engineered this recipe to be shared with a wide variety of drinkers, mostly family who aren't hop-heads such as myself. I used to do this recipe smaller, but with a BU:GU ratio of .5, sometimes even .75 (Which was a bit much for this recipes little brother to be honest); over the years my desire for in your face harsh long boil bitterness has dropped a bit and I am digging late addition hops, hop bursting and a softer bitterness that rbings out the flavor of individual hops and nuances of hop combinations. Funny how we change over the years...
Thanks. I'm excited to try it. Been working on this recipes little brother for around 7 years and it's right where I want it- so the motivation with this recipe (Bigger is always better) was to make a big brother to my house red for colder seasons drinking around the fire with Family. I've tinkered with the C02 volume on this recipes little brother and found that 2.0-2.2 was best, I always start off on the low side with new brew recipes (Especially when stepping up a recipe) and adjust from there to suit the specific finished product the next go around if needed. Slainte!
Welcome to this sight. I like the recipe. In my head it looks like it will be a very dark red. As you have brewed this before you must be happy with the results. Take care.
