Need feedback on my recipe

Do you know how to do a mash? I ask because athough a mash is a steep with fairly narrow conditions, it's unusual to refer to it as a steep.

BTW, with almost all the fermentables coming from extract, there wouldn't be much point in a pound of maris otter, as opposed to more extract.

 

You can't do a simple steep with Maris Otter (a base malt) like you can with roasted specialty malts that were probably supplied with your kits. You might want to read the All Grain section at www.howtobrew.com.

 

Two things;
1) The one and only time I bittered with Cascade didn't turn out so well.
Might have been due to other factors but I've heard the same thing from others.
2) Steeping Maris Otter gets you nothing but nothing b/c MO is malted barley and malted barley needs to be mashed.
3) What kind of beer are you trying to make?

 

How big is your batch? Your ingredients look to be well short for 5-gallons.

 

8 lbs of lme should yield on OG of about 1.058 in 5 gallons.

 

Ah, you're right. I only read the first 4 pounds in the list.

 

It’s kind of a waste to use Citra for bittering. You’re boiling off all the wonderful flavor and aroma from the Citra. Best to use them for late additions or dry hop. I like to use something cheaper and less flavorful for bittering like Magnum or Warrior.

 

While you can indeed use Citra for bittering it is a pricey hop and that hop is best used for flavor/aroma additions. For bittering I would suggest a hop like Warrior or Magnum. They are reasonably priced and with their higher AA% are well suited for the task of bittering.

You have a very generous amount of hops for the end of boil: "2oz Citra 2oz Lemondrop and Amarillo 2oz." This is the sort of hopping level that folks would use to produce a 'NEIPA' type beer.

Did you have any thoughts about dry hopping is this beer? Maybe you could split those hops across end of boil and dry hopping:

• 1 ounce of each for end of boil
• 1 ounce of each for dry hopping

Cheers!

 

I use cascade (your original thought for bittering) as a bittering hop fairly often. I haven't had any issues with it.

 

Impossible to say without knowing what you want your beer to taste/feel like. That's probably a frustrating answer right now, but if you stick with the hobby, you'll understand why it's important.

 

Use the light DME for your first original recipe.
As far as bittering, go with Supergenious’ recommendation of Warrior or Nugget. They are clean bittering hops you should get familiar with for 60 minute additions.
I like your hop choices. Even more reason I’d use Magnum though as VikeMan said, you can bitter with Cascade too but you’ll probably need more of that than Magnum since it has a lower AA. If you want to steep to add color/flavor/body use a Crystal. 20/40.
Eventually you’ll move to a partial mash with DME and drop the LME. After that you’ll really start creating originals when you do all grain mashes. Good luck!

 

For the mash, just hold the pound of Maris Otter in a quart and a half of water at around 150°F for like 45 minutes (temperature does not need to be very precise, but don't let it get over 160°F at any point). Then pour through a strainer (or otherwise separate the grain from the water), and add the liquid to your boil kettle along with the other water.

 

If mashing is hard to figure out. Good luck bottling without oxidate the batch.