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Grains, malts, hops, yeast, water and other ingredients used to brew. Recipe reviews and suggestions.

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Humulus4lupulus
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Post by Humulus4lupulus »

I am at an entirely inappropriate experimental stage in partial mash brewing and I just made a 5 gallon batch of brew modeled between Dogfish heads 90min IPA and after one of Bobs from Reno Homebrewer double IPA 's.
1 lbs 40 Crystal Malt in 1 Gall @ 150 deg for 30 min and sparged with 2.5 gallons @ 180 deg
6 lbs Light LME Boil 90 Min
3 lbs Amber LME Boil 90 Min
2 oz Amarillo 10.9% AA
2 oz Simcoe 12.2% AA
2 oz Warrior 17.2% AA
1 package Wyeast American Ale
The hops were all mixed together 2 oz were kept aside for dry hopping the rest (4 oz) was continually added evenly through out the entire 90 min boil about every 7.5 min.
It has been fermenting for a few days and calm enough for the 2 oz dry hop addition.
I was wondering anyone has some experience with recipes like this and what the flavor profile might turn out to be?
One of the recipes talked about using 3 yeast packages is what are the pros and cons for doing that. 'Any ideas Thanks.
lupulus
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slothrob
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Post by slothrob »

The easiest way to know how much yeast is recommended for a particular beer is to use the MrMalty Yeast Calculator. It looks like your OG was around 1.070, so that would call for a 3 liters starter or 2 fresh packs of yeast. The starter would probably be preferred to 2 yeast packs of unknown health, and would be cheaper than $15 worth of yeast.

If you don't want to make starters, in place of Wyeast American Ale yeast you could use two packs of Fermentis US-05 dry yeast, which is the same yeast strain. That would be more than enough yeast for this beer, and should only cost about $3.50 per pack.

There's no cons I can think of to pitching the proper amount of yeast. The pros include: a cleaner tasting beer with fewer off flavors, more rapid fermentation (reducing the risk of contamination by wild yeast or bacteria), and a better chance that fermentation will proceed to completion (so that the beer doesn't end up tasting too sweet).

Usually, that type of hop schedule gives a good hop flavor. With those hops, you should get a citrus-like flavor.

Did you do a full 5 gallon boil volume? The one problem with making very hoppy beers from extract is when you try to only boil 2-3 gallons. The solubility limit of iso-alpha acids is about 110 IBU, which means that a 2.5 gallon boil diluted to 5 gallons can only have 55 IBU, maximum. A 1.070 IPA, however, would usually be hopped to at least 70-80 IBUs. This means that the partial boil beer might not have the hop bite you expect, and may seem balanced toward the sweet side.
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Humulus4lupulus
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Post by Humulus4lupulus »

Hey thanks for the link I have been wondering what amount of yeast is appropriate for the given amount of fermentables. I have never pitched more than one at a time....
I am thinking that I used too much high Alpha hops not for the sake of extreme IBU's but the packages came in 2 oz portions. When I ran the recipe through Q Brew It was very high, but I thought that the even additions would mellow the AA time. Do you have a general rule of thumb for hop amount for styles of beers. It smells very citrisy and I was going for that profile I just did not want to make it too bitter. Do you recommend any recipe sites. Thanks again. lupulus
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Recipe formulation

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BeerToolsPro software has style guidelines built in, so that you can see, graphically, the recommended bitterness for a style and where your recipe falls within those guidelines. In addition, you'll see the relationship between OG and IBUs which will tell you, as you move up and down within the gravity range typical for a given style, that you are maintaining a balance typical for that style.

The only general guidelines that I keep in my head are for Pale Ales and IPAs. Pale Ales typically have a ratio of about 0.7 or 0.8 IBUs:GU (GUs, or Gravity Units, are basically the OG without the 1.0, so a 1.050 beer would have a GU of 50) so a 1.050 beer with 35 IBUs would have a ratio of 35:50, or 0.7. Similarly, an IPA typically has a BU:GU ratio of around 1.0 or 1.1.

The Recipe Calculator on the BeerTools.com site is a little less convenient than having BeerToolsPro always available on your computer, but is also very powerful. There are also great recipes posted on BeerTools, but like all recipes, it's best to learn about the styles and talk to people with experience making those beers to evaluate the quality of a specific recipe.
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