bbq beer

[delboy]

Thinking of making this for some real easy drinking

lager malt 3kg
Marris Otter 1.75kg
wheat malt 0.25g

66C mash for 90 mins
Boil for 90 mins

cascade full boil 60g
cascade 15 mins 20g
cascade flame out 20g
cascade dry hop 20g

US-56 ale yeast

What do people think of this.

[mysterio]

Looks fine to me. What kind of OG are you anticipating and whats the AA% of your hops? If I was making a BBQ beer with those ingredients I would be thinking around 1.040 - 1.050 and the IBUs around 15-25. Probably lower the bitterness if you're carbing it up so it doesnt seem too dry.

[delboy]

Im expecting something in the range you've said 1040-1050 i'd be happy with anything in there.
Yeah might have overdone it on the bittering hops, also i forgot i am going to be doing this with slurp the apprentice's cascades which are labelled up as 6.8 % .

Might change that hopping schedule to

30g for 60 mins
15g for 10 mins
15g at flameout
15g dryhop

[mysterio]

Just an idea, but you could try adding all your hops at 15 minutes. Most of the bitterness is extracted in the first 20 minutes of the boil and you've got a lot of hops to play with that you don't really need to economise. Something like 80 grams at 15 minutes would give you 20 IBUs and a nice Cascade flavour and aroma. You could always steep more at the end or dry hop. Certainly the first hop schedule you posted wouldn't make for an easy drinking hot weather beer (although it certainly wouldn't be bad).

[delboy]

Thats a good suggestion mysterio, i do have an inordinate amount of cascades knocking about. Have you tried something similar yourself?

[mysterio]

Yeah, usually I aim for getting half of the bitterness from 15minute or steeping hop additions and half from 60 minutes. I usually use the likes of Goldings, Styrians, Williamette where the flavour isn't too intense anyway, but you still get a good hoppy flavour without the bitterness.

I've still got a full kilo of slurp's cascades so I'll probably be trying some batches where I just throw them all in at 15mins. I bet it would make a good beer and it's a good experiment too.

[Scooby]

Most of the bitterness is extracted in the first 20 minutes of the boil

I was under the impression that a 11/2 hr boil was required to extract the full bittering qualities of a hop, but this drove off much of the flavour and aroma oils which are replaced in the late hop additions, hops added 15 min from the end contribute little to bitterness!

If most of the bitterness is extracted in 20 mins why boil for longer?

[mysterio]

hops added 15 min from the end contribute little to bitterness!

Not so, you extract a surprisingly high amount of bitterness in 15 minutes, around 50% of what you'd get from a full 90 minute boil - it's not a linear relationship. You're right that you retain a lot of the flavour and aroma qualities when only boiling for 15 minutes though.

If most of the bitterness is extracted in 20 mins why boil for longer?

Just as a matter of economy, you want to extract as much bittering from a small as possible amount of hops. The relationship of boiling time to bittering extraction starts to level out around 90 minutes. This is more true on a commercial scale, but not so much of a concern on a homebrew scale where small amounts of hops are being used. Also, putting all of your hops in around 15 is going to retain a LOT of flavour and aroma, not always desirable in a beer such as a Scottish ale or Munich lager.

[delboy]

well im convinced im going to be doing this tomorrow evening with the 15 min hop addition, i'll report back on the bitterness, flavour and aroma as soon as.

[delboy]

cooked the above recipe up with a single hop addition of 80g at 15 mins as suggested by mysterio.

Was a borderline disaster from start to finish.
Never got the grain bed to filter correctly (no matter how long i volarufed for), might be the lager malt which i picked up from a local micro which milled it finer than H&G.
Tried fly sparging again (it was ok, but i just couldn't balance the system and it was a case of let the water build up, run off (cloudy wort ), let the water build up etc (back to batch sparging for me i think).

Got it boiling nice and quick and there was more protein break than i have ever seen (cause of the cloudy runnings). Forgot to add the protofloc the one bleeding time i probably need it .

The immersion chiller which is to small for the 10 gallon bucket took an eternity to chill the boiled wort and i was constantly having to go and swish it around etc.

The hop strainer blocked with a measly 80g of loose hops

After much areseing about and lots of loss to the hops/stuck strainer i got just over 4 gallons at 1056 , stronger than i had been expecting.

Had to chuck the yeast into the wort while it was about 28C, hope it's cooled sufficently before the yeast hydrate and take off, the last think i need is a bunch of funky off flavours in a light coloured/swamp beer.

Checked my gravity trial jar this morning, normally it would have seperated into clear wort and big chunks of gunk plastered to the bottom, not this time its like pond water .

This is my worst AG session by a mile, felt as much fun as

[Andy]

Sounds like a brewday from hell!

Couldn't you have topped up the 4 gallons with water to reach your target brewlength ?

[delboy]

It was bedtime (1am) by this stage and i'd thrown in the towel, might pick up a few bottles of spring water or treat some tap water and add it when i get home to bring it back into easy drinking range.
More concerned about the cloudyness of the brew .
Will it clear??

[Matt]

Delboy, I forgot the whirlfloc on a recent batch and had really good results with Beer Clear - very easy to use.

[steve_flack]

few bottles of spring water

Spring water isn't sterile - nowhere near it.

[delboy]

Delboy, I forgot the whirlfloc on a recent batch and had really good results with Beer Clear - very easy to use.

cheers Matt, I'll have to invest in some i think.