Brewing the same beer all year: Iteration 1

Discussion in 'Homebrewing' started by poopsmitherson, Feb 14, 2017.

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  1. poopsmitherson

    poopsmitherson Initiate (0) Jun 10, 2010 Georgia

    As I start my year-long journey of honing in this recipe, I've already come to a couple realizations, but I continue to have far more questions than answers. In this post, I cover my brew day, results and tasting notes, and considerations for next time.

    https://brewublog.wordpress.com/2017/02/14/iteration-1/
     
    #1 poopsmitherson, Feb 14, 2017
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  2. Supergenious

    Supergenious Maven (1,273) May 9, 2011 Michigan

    Just a couple suggestions:
    1) If you want more red color- throw in about 2 oz of blackprinz or any black malt.
    2) For more hop aroma- do a lot more dry hopping, at least 3 oz. Also, considering doing a hopstand/ whirlpool.

    Good luck!
     
    #2 Supergenious, Feb 14, 2017
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  3. dmtaylor

    dmtaylor Savant (1,149) Dec 30, 2003 Wisconsin

    I enjoy reading about this journey and appreciate the amount of detail you've put in.

    Were your hop amounts typos and you meant to say 0.5 oz instead of 5 oz?! Otherwise, Holy Mother of Mothers, 5 oz per addition is a lot of friggin hops!! I calculate more than 400 IBUs, which is physically impossible, as IBUs max out in wort at around 100 IBUs. You could totally ditch the 60- and 30-minute additions and still have more than 60 IBUs, and save a ton of money and wort loss due to soakage in the hops. I'll just hope those were typos. If you really meant 0.5 oz and not 5 oz then I believe your calculations of like 55 IBUs, that would appear to be right.

    Your water seems soft (pH of 6.8), so with the pound of crystal malt in there (which tends to lower pH a bit) I would bet your mash pH was just fine at about 5.5. Get a meter/gauge and then there will be less doubt. I have some paper strips that work fine but they can be difficult to interpret. Yours apparently are trash -- bummer.

    If you want more hop aroma, you should add 3-4 oz dry hops instead of just 1 oz. Whirlpool could also help with this -- add a similar amount, 3-4 oz, after flameout and before chilling, allowing them to steep in the hot wort for like 20 minutes, then chill.

    If you want dark fruit flavors, try Crystal 120 or Special B, in low amounts though -- maybe just 0.25 lb of one or the other, with Crystal 60 or 80 making up the other 0.75 lb. This will also add the extra darkness that you were looking for.

    Wish you all the best on your next few batches.
     
    #3 dmtaylor, Feb 14, 2017
  4. poopsmitherson

    poopsmitherson Initiate (0) Jun 10, 2010 Georgia

    The hops should have read (and now do) 0.5 oz. Something in the formatting of the recipe got screwed up when I pasted into the site, because my grain bill read 25 lbs instead of 10.25 lbs at first, too. Thanks for pointing that out.

    I've been looking at both C120 and Special B, and they both seem promising. I haven't decided yet which I'll use first, though.

    I did recently (after brew day and after writing the brew day portion of this post) get a lab analysis of my water. Using that info and Bru'nwater, it seems I've got nothing to worry about on the pH side of things.

    I'll definitely be playing around with the timing of my hops, doing a hop stand, and maybe even FWH later down the line. I'm going to focus on nailing the malt profile first though, so I'm going to keep the hops the same for sake of really getting a feel for the impact of the malt changes alone.

    Thanks for your suggestions! I'm posting on a two-week schedule if you want to keep up with how things progress.
     
    #4 poopsmitherson, Feb 14, 2017
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