Breaking My AG Duck (Now with pictures - see page 2)

[J_P]

Hi all

I wondered if you could cast your eyes over this to make sure I haven't made any glaring mistakes please.

The recipe is loosely based on SteveD's BSB grain bill with 40 EBU's provided by EKG's and Fuggles. So here goes

6kg Maris Otter
120g Crystal Malt (120 EBC)

46g Fuggles (5% AA) 90 mins - 20 EBU's
56g EKG's (4.1 % AA) 90 mins 20 EBu's

20g Styrian Goldings 15 mins (EBU's unknown)

Is there anything massively wrong with this? I am planning on mashing for 90 minutes at approx 66-67 deg C with 15l water (2.5l per Kg)

Cheers for your time

[Chiltern Brewer]

That's quite a high gravity brew for a first attempt at 23L batch size? Go steady on the sparging, and is your mash tun going to be big enough?

Personally I like to incorporate upto 5% sugar in my beers of 1055+ as otherwise I've found the FG ends up to high and the finished beer is too sweet and cloying for my taste. Sugar is 100% fermentable so all the degrees it adds are all used up - hence a drier finish. Say 5.75Kg Pale, 120g Crystal, and 250g Sugar.

[J_P]

Right so if I knock the EBU's down to say 15 of each does that sound about right or should I knock it down to 10 form each hop?

[Chiltern Brewer]

If you must, shoot for the middle ground, you don't want to go the other way and be under-hopped with a 5-6% brew IMO. It really depends on whether you like hoppy beers. What boiler do you have? I've always found Wheeler's 20% utilization figure pretty reliable, and 40 EBU/IBU is what I'd go for at this sort of strength.

[J_P]

Perhaps I should have said that I have:-

nearly 7KG of Maris Otter,
500g of crystal malt,
125G Styrian Godings
80g fuggles
50g EKG's

Could someone recommend a recipe for 23l that will turn out about 1050 OG that tastes good!

[J_P]

Chiltern Brewer I bought a H&G 10G boiler f that's any help. I like hoppy beer but don't want to have to wait 6 months for the bitterness to mellow if you know what I mean

[Chiltern Brewer]

Is it twin or single element - I was thinking it might make a difference to your hop utilization? If you want 1050 then around 5Kg of total malt is what to aim for - that's assuming 75% efficiency. Then say 35-40 EBU/IBU. 2% - 5% of the grain bill as crystal will be nice. Even if your efficiency is as low as 60% you'll still get ~1040.

[J_P]

It's a single element boiler

[Chiltern Brewer]

I think DaaB has a twin element boiler which might explain his 30% figure? I'm sure a single element will be fine for a 23L batch size - it's what I used for years.

I'd keep it as simple as possible for your first brew, to be honest my simplest recipes have often resulted in my best beers.

[J_P]

Do you reckon Vossy1's Styrian Stunner is a good one to start with? Al la here

[Chiltern Brewer]

Funny you should say that, but I was thinking of doing something similar myself for my next brew... prehaps with a dash of crystal and definately with a good dose of wheat malt. The styrians turned up this morning with some other bits 'n' bobs I'd ordered from H&G.

I was thinking of aiming for around 1050, so a bit stronger than Vossy's recipe. My last brew was 85% pale, 10% crystal, 5% wheat malt, OG 1040 so I thought I'd make something paler.

[J_P]

Middle of the road it is then - Right I'm off to the recipes section

(After I've put the camera batteries on charge)

[Wez]

Morning J_P I was really pleased with my version of TTL :

TLC-Twist
Mash 90 mins at 66 degrees
Batch Size: 25.00 L
Boil Time: 90 min
5.1 kg Pale Malt (MO) (5.9 EBC) Grain 99 %
50g Crystal Malt Grain 1 %
90.00 gm Styrian Goldings [2.00%] (90 min) Hops 19.5 IBU
30.00 gm Fuggles [4.90%] (90 min) Hops 15.1 IBU
25.00 gm Styrian Goldings [2.00%] (15 min) Hops 2.6 IBU
25.00 gm Styrian Goldings [2.00%] (put in when boiler turned off)
1.00 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 15.0 min) Misc

Looks like you have everything in to do this one. Would need to be scaled down to 23L.

EBU = 35

The styrians I have are a very low AA (2.0%) so I've got to use loads of them.

Wez

PS, knew you'd get a boiler!

[J_P]

Morning

I was really pleased with my version of TTL

That's a bit freaky I've been looking at monks TTL recipe this morning.

I appear to be suffering from a bad case of Options Paralysis though, I feel like a kid in a giant beer flavoured sweet-shop!

[Wez]

One thing is for sure, whatever you brew you'll be pleased with the outcome just take your time and enjoy the day (are you doing it today?)