Can anyone shed some light on this recipe?

Ale's What Cures Ya · Sat Nov 19, 2011 12:17 am

Well the batch is in the fermenter, and unless I read my hydrometer incorrectly (which there is a good chance of) I somehow got an SG of 1.800. I only used 3.5lbs of the liquid malt extract and 2.5 pounds of granulated cane sugar. Unfortunately we could not get dry extract in time and ended up using the sugar.

codfishh · Post by **codfishh** » Tue Nov 22, 2011 9:57 am

Beersmith tells me this should be around 1.048 og, with all the cane sugar it'll probably finish up pretty low though.

The beersmith est FG is saying 1.001 that's going to be pretty dry and strong, do those numbers sound right to anyone else?

Ale's What Cures Ya · Post by **Ale's What Cures Ya** » Tue Nov 22, 2011 2:15 pm

codfishh wrote:Beersmith tells me this should be around 1.048 og, with all the cane sugar it'll probably finish up pretty low though.

The beersmith est FG is saying 1.001 that's going to be pretty dry and strong, do those numbers sound right to anyone else?

Using ProMash I got the same thing estimate of 1.048 OG. I think I must have read the hyrdometer wrong.

cannondale · Post by **cannondale** » Tue Nov 22, 2011 4:49 pm

Ale's What Cures Ya wrote:Well the batch is in the fermenter, and unless I read my hydrometer incorrectly (which there is a good chance of) I somehow got an SG of 1.800. I only used 3.5lbs of the liquid malt extract and 2.5 pounds of granulated cane sugar. Unfortunately we could not get dry extract in time and ended up using the sugar.

I'd have put brewing off until the DME arrived.

You're going to end up with nearly 50% of fermentables from cane sugar.

matt7215 · Post by **matt7215** » Tue Nov 22, 2011 5:22 pm

cannondale wrote:
Ale's What Cures Ya wrote:Well the batch is in the fermenter, and unless I read my hydrometer incorrectly (which there is a good chance of) I somehow got an SG of 1.800. I only used 3.5lbs of the liquid malt extract and 2.5 pounds of granulated cane sugar. Unfortunately we could not get dry extract in time and ended up using the sugar.
I'd have put brewing off until the DME arrived.

You're going to end up with nearly 50% of fermentables from cane sugar.

i agree, dont let this batch turn you away from homebrewing if it doesnt "turn out"

based on your first 2 batches i would strongly recommend grabbing a magnotta pale ale kit next time and just pitch the yeast it comes with then dry hop it with about 3 oz of "C" hops

i think that'll get you a highly drinkable hoppy pale ale

Ale's What Cures Ya · Wed Nov 23, 2011 12:28 am

cannondale wrote:
Ale's What Cures Ya wrote:Well the batch is in the fermenter, and unless I read my hydrometer incorrectly (which there is a good chance of) I somehow got an SG of 1.800. I only used 3.5lbs of the liquid malt extract and 2.5 pounds of granulated cane sugar. Unfortunately we could not get dry extract in time and ended up using the sugar.
I'd have put brewing off until the DME arrived.

You're going to end up with nearly 50% of fermentables from cane sugar.

Unfortunately due to the scheduling of everyone involved that would have been impossible. Next time I most certainly will buy enough extract from the get-go.

matt7215 wrote:
i agree, dont let this batch turn you away from homebrewing if it doesnt "turn out"

based on your first 2 batches i would strongly recommend grabbing a magnotta pale ale kit next time and just pitch the yeast it comes with then dry hop it with about 3 oz of "C" hops

i think that'll get you a highly drinkable hoppy pale ale

This batch was mostly to appease beer neophytes interested in the brewing process, so as long as they're happy I'll be happy. I definitely will be more careful of buying proper amounts for my future batches.

I appreciate the suggestion about the Magnotta kit, but I have little interest in kit brewing. I'd rather do my own thing until I get it right.

Ale's What Cures Ya · Post by **Ale's What Cures Ya** » Tue Dec 13, 2011 5:22 pm

So this bad boy's been bottled. Bottling day went smoother than the first time. I made sure to be diligent on sanitation on cleaning. The hydrometer sample we took Sunday said we ended up with about 5% alcohol. When we taste tested the sample it was a little more bitter than I expected, but it wasn't overtly unpleasant like the first batch. I'll have to give it another taste when it's done bottle conditioning, but based on the hydrometer sample I still didn't get a lot of hop flavour, just bitterness.

The only other issue of the day was the small amount of beer we ended up with. We put about 4.5 gallons in the fermenter and only ended up with about 3.5 gallons in the bottlinh bucket. Can this be attributed to trub absorption? We didn't run the beer through any kind of filter or colander when pouring from the boil pot to the fermenter, and we didn't use bags for the hops, just tossed them in the boil.

But based on the hydrometer sample tasting better than the last batch's sample, at least I've made some progress. I've got the ingredients for my next batch ready to go. 8lbs of dry malt, 1oz of chinook, 1oz of centennial, 2 oz of Amarillo and Safale US-05.

matt7215 · Post by **matt7215** » Tue Dec 13, 2011 5:27 pm

Ale's What Cures Ya wrote:I've got the ingredients for my next batch ready to go. 8lbs of dry malt, 1oz of chinook, 1oz of centennial, 2 oz of Amarillo and Safale US-05.

thats still not a lot of hops, but without adding anything your hop additions should be:

60min 1 oz chinook
0min 1 oz of centennial
dry hop with the 2 oz of amarillo

Ale's What Cures Ya · Post by **Ale's What Cures Ya** » Tue Dec 13, 2011 5:35 pm

matt7215 wrote:
Ale's What Cures Ya wrote:I've got the ingredients for my next batch ready to go. 8lbs of dry malt, 1oz of chinook, 1oz of centennial, 2 oz of Amarillo and Safale US-05.
thats still not a lot of hops, but without adding anything your hop additions should be:

60min 1 oz chinook
0min 1 oz of centennial
dry hop with the 2 oz of amarillo

That's roughly how I was going to do it. How many ounces of hops do you think I should add?