First time Imperial IPA

to each their own...i found cluster to be all the worst of chinook without any of the good. Accidentally added too much back in the day to a brown ale, 2oz instead of 1/2oz at KO, of course brewed for my wedding in '04. It wasn't quite a drain pour, but definitely struggled to get through the 2 cases. Last time i used cluster. Guess i should revisit though since i could be placing too much blame on the cluster and not enough on the brown malt:

http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/16094/69817

 

I am sorry that you did not have a good experience. I have not used more then an ounce in the last 5 minutes and generaly only a half ounce with a half ounce of somthing else.

 

funny how you get into habits of choosing certain hops for certain recipes...i've never even thought of using cluster since then. That said I will be brewing a cream ale soon so may give a go in that recipe instead of willamette which i've used the last few times on the recommendation.

 

Unless you want to actually extract any flavor from it. You can grind it with the coffee grinder then put it in right before the lauter, or runoff. Or if you don't want any characteristics from it, do as above, or leave it out. Same thing.

 

To the OP: Most peope would disagree about using a coffee grinder. Shredding grains is not generally recommended.

 

I would consider using about 10% sugar in place of some ME. 1.019 is on the high side for final gravity. I struggle with my 7gal batch of extract plus c40 with 12% sugar to get it down below 1.015. The ones I have made that didn't finish out below 1.018 or 1.019 seemed syrupy to me. Delicious but hard to forget the excess sweetness. I would also try to make as big a batch as possible to make up for the excessive wort absorption from all the hops.

 

c40 = Crystal / Caramel Malt 40L
As for sugars, if you don't want any character from it use table sugar. Corn sugar is a LHBS rip-off from years gone by when people fermented badly and got bad beer. If you want character from the sugar consider honey. I personally would add the sugar directly to the primary once it has fully krausened and is at peak fermentation, you can add it to the boil (but would lose honey's wonderful aromatics if boiled too long)

 

If you mean sugar would increase your FG and make it syrupy, it would not. Simply adding sugar will increase OG and ABV, but FG will not increase. If you substitute sugar for some malt in the right proportions to hit the same OG, then FG will actually decrease, and make a dryer beer.

 

Depends on what you're trying to accomplish, but a pound of table sugar is equal to about 1.27 lbs of LME from an OG perspective.

 

I would aim for 10-20% of your total fermentables coming from sugar (that's less than 10-20% of the mass due to the PPG and efficiency of the steep).

With 4# of LME initially, I'd replace about 8-12 oz of it, or consider eliminating the C60 and replacing it with the same amount of sugar. I would assume that "Gold LME" has a fair amount of crystal in it already.

 

What Vikeman said. I'm cooking for good Friday so I am not on top of my BA account. Regular table sugar is fine. A touch of crystal helps support the bitterness but too much sweetness makes it hard to enjoy for me.

90% lme (morebeer light ME) + 10% sugar to 1.085ish plus 1/2 ounce C40 woulld be my 2gal equivalent. It works well for me. I use WL001 at 62-64 degrees. I find I get a little more attenuation than WL1056. Sometimes I hit 1.013-1.014, sometimes I have to spike with champagne yeast to finish or just blend with a dryer pale beer if I have another keg of some.

Don't take my opinions as more than opinions. I am always a little leary of making predictions/corrections to another persons work. Everyone's results vary with a given recipe.

As far as hop schedule goes, I don't tread in those waters. It's difficult to mess up a hop schedule if you use enough bittering additions and you use late hop additions of hops you like.

 

I wonder whether adding amylase powder to a mash will give you "super enzymes" which convert more/better compared to the enzymes naturally occurring in malt, lending a drier beer?

I added amylase to a stuck fermentation (a wit stuck at 1.018 that I had expected to go down to about 1.010). After a week it was at 1.005 and didn't seem to be dropping further, so I bottled. The amylase continued to convert, so the yeasties continued to ferment. Had some exploding bottles, but I enjoyed the light body. Amylase needs to be denatured by boiling or it keeps chugging along forever. Never again had a stuck fermentation; if I do, I'll re-pitch with more yeast rather than adding amylase.

 

Your OG was lower than expected, that means you got a lower efficiency than hopville had planned for. You have little that efficiency affects though (it doesn't affect extracts). If your volume is off by a bit too it can affect your OG (in your case it was more dilute than expected)

That would be why. They are best guesses. Programs are bad at dealing with attenuation if you have varying mash temperatures, simple sugars, etc.. (none of which you have)

Nope. All the Rager / Tinseth / etc... calculations are best guess averages and the AA of hops is at the time of testing, and age / oxygen penetration / etc... degrades them.