[alcaponejunior]

Well there haven't been any new threads here in a bit, so I thought I'd ask a multi-part question about some recipes I'm thinking of getting.  Basically they are all stock recipes from brewmasters warehouse, although some edits by me have been made.  I want to order four recipes at once so I'll be set to brew every couple or three weeks during the late spring / early summer.  I'm thinking of doing an ESB, a black IPA, an oatmeal stout, and an all cascade APA.  I'm looking for major flaws or handy tips for the recipes.  Now if you'd substitute a quarter ounce of columbus for cascade at five minutes, well... that's not quite as important.  .  All hops are pellets. 

Hopefully this isn't too much at once!

All recipes will be done using an approximate 3 gallon boil, topped off to 5 or 5.5 gallons.  I have a wort chiller.  I can make yeast starters in 1/2 gallon growlers and wanted to start doing so on these batches. 

Estimated numbers are per the website's software.  Here are the recipes:

Black IPA

OG 1.072    FG 1.018    IBU 65.3    SRM 41.44    ABV 7.07

Briess Golden Light Liquid Extract    6 lbs, 10 oz
Briess Pale Ale Malt    1 lbs, 8 oz
Weyermann De-Husked Carafa II ®    1 lbs, 0 oz
Aromatic    0 lbs, 12 oz
Crisp Crystal Malt 60L    0 lbs, 10 oz
De-Bittered Black    0 lbs, 4 oz
Magnum Pellets, GR    1 oz @ 75 mins
Columbus Pellets    .5 oz @ 30 mins
Columbus Pellets    .25 oz @ 20 mins
Columbus Pellets    .25 oz @ 10 mins
Columbus Pellets    .5 oz @ 0 mins
Nugget Pellets    1 oz @ Dry
Glacier Pellets    1 oz @ Dry
Wyeast Labs American Ale    

All-Cascade APA

OG 1.058    FG 1.015    IBU 38.9    SRM 8.85    ABV 5.63

Briess Golden Light Liquid Extract    
3 lbs, 4 oz
Briess Golden Light Dry Extract    
3 lbs, 0 oz
Briess 2-Row Brewer's Malt    
1 lbs, 0 oz
Briess 2 Row Caramel 40
1 lbs, 0 oz
Cascade Pellets    
1.5 oz @ 60 mins
Cascade Pellets       
1 oz @ 15 mins
Cascade Pellets    
1 oz @ 5 mins
Cascade Pellets    
1 oz @ 0 mins
Cascade Pellets    
1 oz @ Dry
SAFALE US-05 American Ale

Oatmeal Stout (possibly with coffee added at some point, manner and type of coffee TBD)

OG 1.055     FG 1.015    IBU 32.2    SRM  33.71    ABV  5.24
Briess Traditional Dark Liquid Extract    
3 lbs, 3 oz
Crisp Maris Otter    
2 lbs, 8 oz
Briess Traditional Dark Dry Extract    
1 lbs, 0 oz
Crisp Crystal Malt 120L    
0 lbs, 8 oz
Crisp Black Malt    
0 lbs, 8 oz
Briess Flaked Oats    
0 lbs, 8 oz
Fuggles Pellets, UK
2 oz @ 60 mins
Tettnang, German Pellets       
.5 oz @ 60 mins
White Labs Burton Ale

ESB

OG 1.060    FG 1.016    IBU  30.6    SRM 10.75    ABV 5.76
Briess Golden Light Liquid Extract
7 lbs, 0 oz
Briess 2 Row Caramel 60       
1 lbs, 0 oz
Briess 2 Row Carapils       
0 lbs, 8 oz
Fuggles Pellets, UK    
1 oz @ 60 mins
Fuggles Pellets, UK    
1 oz @ 30 mins
Kent Goldings, UK Pellets    
1 oz @ 25 mins
SAFALE S-04       

******************

corn sugar for bottling
extra light DME for making starters

Thanks for any insights people!!

[jmcamerlengo]

IMO, I'd never use Dark extract. Always Light extract and get your color from your steeping grains.  Maybe use Light extract in the oatmeal stout and add a half pound or so of roasted barley or some chocolate malt. I also prefer quite a bit more oats. up to 1.5 lbs...thats just me though!

I like the American Ale II yeast in Black IPA, but 1056 or 001 would do great Im sure.

The ESB Id try to find english crystal malt, and I also like special roast or biscuit in the neighborhood of 1/4 lb. Id also use a liquid yeast option in there. WY1469, WY1968 or WLP002 are my preferences.

[a10t2]

I'll second all of Jason's advice. I'd also suggest standardizing on one or two yeast strains instead of four. As it stands you have two American and two British strains, so cutting it down to two should be easy.

I'd replace the bittering addition in the IPA with something more assertive, like any of the C-hops. Magnum is a great all-around bittering hop but it won't give the "punch" I look for in an IPA.

For the IPA and the APA, you're doing mini-mashes, right?

[denny]

Magnum is a great all-around bittering hop but it won't give the "punch" I look for in an IPA.

Same here, Sean.  I find Magnum too understated for what I'm looking for in an IPA.

[Joe Sr.]

You might think about toasting your oats in an oven before you use them.  Supposed to bring out the oat flavor.

I always plan to do it, and always forget.

[deepsouth]

i'd make the APA using the american ale yeast and they day you rack/bottle/keg the APA, i'd brew the IPA and put it right on the yeast from the APA.  i'd also bump up the malt by a pound in the IPA and i'd add some nugget and columbus hops at 60 and reduce the amount of magnum.  personal preference of course, but i also like my ibu to equal or exceed the last two numbers in my OG. 

i love your esb recipe and the choice of yeast. 

i like your porter recipe as well.  i just brewed a higher abv (imperial?) porter and added coffee when i racked to secondary.  i tasted it before and ran some ratio appropriate with the uncarbonated beer and the cold brewed coffee and came up with something i'm very pleased with.  my final recipe for that is the second to last post in this thread.

http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=11198.msg144246#msg144246


good luck! 

[alcaponejunior]

Thanks everybody, these are exactly the responses I needed.  I'm going to post some responses and altered recipes separately.  I'm on work for six weeks right now and I'm in a rather cheesy hotel with crappy internet, so I need to break things up into small batches. 

On the black IPA: I agree on the increased bitterness.  Added nugget and columbus and ditched the magnum, plus added some more of the malt.  Here's the adjusted recipe:

Briess Golden Light Liquid Extract    
6 lbs, 10 oz
Briess Pale Ale Malt
2 lbs, 8 oz
Weyermann De-Husked Carafa II ®       
1 lbs, 0 oz
Aromatic    
0 lbs, 12 oz
Crisp Crystal Malt 60L    
0 lbs, 10 oz
De-Bittered Black    
0 lbs, 4 oz
Nugget Pellets    
1 oz @ 60 mins
Columbus Pellets       
1 oz @ 30 mins
Columbus Pellets       
0.5 oz @ 20 mins
Columbus Pellets    
0.5 oz @ 10 mins
Columbus Pellets    
.5 oz @ 0 mins
Nugget Pellets    
1 oz @ Dry
Glacier Pellets    
1 oz @ Dry
Wyeast Labs American Ale

OG 1.078 FG 1.020 IBU  78.5 SRM 41.62    ABV 7.60

And yes, I'm doing mini-mashes.

I kind of intentionally did not simplify the yeasts because the first brew is likely to be the ESB (and I might just pitch it dry, I've had good luck with that yeast pitching dry), but the following ones I intend to begin making starters.  I still need to order the stir plate and magnet and flasks tho.  And perfect the techniques, obviously.

[deepsouth]

i should add that i have never had a problem pitching dry yeast dry.


edit:  have you thought about using all dry malt extract instead of liquid?

[alcaponejunior]

Next the oatmeal / coffee stout. 

Deepsouth, I think I will try your coffee addition technique from the link.  Thanks! 

I will also up the oatmeal and consider roasting it, although I might skip the roasting just because I don't want to overwhelm myself with trying too many new techniques at once.  We shall see.

OK how about this, I'm just going to exchange the dark extracts for light in equal amounts, add a half pound extra of oatmeal, and add a half pound of roasted barley:

Briess Golden Light Liquid Extract       
3 lbs, 3 oz
Crisp Maris Otter
2 lbs, 8 oz
Briess Golden Light Dry Extract       
1 lbs, 0 oz
Briess Flaked Oats       
1 lbs, 0 oz
Crisp Roasted Barley    
0 lbs, 8 oz
Crisp Black Malt    
0 lbs, 8 oz
Crisp Crystal Malt 120L    
0 lbs, 8 oz
Fuggles Pellets, UK
2 oz @ 60 mins
Tettnang, German Pellets
.5 oz @ 60 mins
White Labs Burton Ale

OG 1.061 FG  1.017 IBU 30.5 SRM 41.49 ABV 5.76

Coffee added according to deepsouth's link:

cold brewed (36 hours) about 5.5 cups of water with about 7 ounces of coarsely crushed ... coffee

Type of coffee to be determined.  I'm thinking of perhaps a breakfast blend or other mild but flavorful coffee addition that would compliment the roasted barley without adding too much extra bitterness or roasty flavors.  Any suggestions?

And I have not considered trying all dry instead of some liquid, some dry, but I would consider it if there were a good reason to do so.

[deepsouth]

oh, the yield on that was 32 oz of cold brewed coffee, all of which went into secondary.

[alcaponejunior]

yeah I think I will go ahead and secondary the oatmeal stout after the coffee addition, same as you did.

************

As for the ESB, I was thinking of changing the recipe slightly per the suggestion of adding some crystal malt, and adding a pound of 15L crystal malt, and subtracting a pound of extract. 

Briess Golden Light Liquid Extract
6 lbs, 0 oz
Crisp Crystal Malt 15L    
1 lbs, 0 oz
Briess 2 Row Caramel 60    
1 lbs, 0 oz
Briess 2 Row Carapils    
0 lbs, 8 oz
Fuggles Pellets, UK
1 oz @ 60 mins
Fuggles Pellets, UK    
1 oz @ 30 mins
Kent Goldings, UK Pellets
1 oz @ 25 mins
SAFALE S-04

OG 1.058 FG 1.015 IBU 31.2 SRM 11.64 ABV 5.63

[a10t2]

2.5 lb of crystal malt is WAY too much.

[alcaponejunior]

maybe I'll just go with the original recipe then. 

too many people on crappy internet connection... gonna stick with original recipe and reconsider tomorrow.  I'm not ordering this stuff for at least three weeks (perhaps four) so I can ponder at my leisure.

[madscientist]

I did an all-cascade amber ale with a high portion of munich malt (was a mini mash with some munich LME).  Came out fantastic (so far, it's still carbing up and conditioning).  So I think you'll like the all cascade APA.