Galaxy apa recipe advice

[Hogan]

Hey all,
Thinking of getting my third AG brew on tomorrow while its sunny. I have my ingredients all together, it's a bit of a user upper as I don't have all that much space for storage, looking for any advice?

Can't export the recipe from the mobile version of my homebrew software so; (hope I've posted enough to post pictures correctly, sorry if not)



The lager malt is in there because its mixed with the crystal lol, so can't do much about that. What do you think about the amount if Vienna? Can head down to lhbs if there's anything else wanting (brewers droop in Bristol)

I want quite a lot of galaxy aroma, so actually should be dry hopping with some but I have half an eye on the next brew as its a hop I like a lot. Do you think I can get away wi it or should I just suck it up and throw it in? If so how much? Not looking for a blow your head off hoppyness but quite prominent and an otherwise balanced drink.

EDIT also how appropriate is the northern brewer? i just have it lieing around taking up space thought I'd get some ibus out of it although galaxy has quite enough for the brew if I go single hop - thoughts on that?

Any comments welcome.

[CestrIan]

Looks good Hogan!

I love galaxy. I've got 100g burning a hole in my freezer at the minute. Gonna get my Bonza Pale Ale on at some point in the next few weeks.

It's a matter of taste but I wouldn't use .5Kg of vienna and .5Kg crystal in a 1059 beer. It'd be one or the other. If I did i would be trying to get the IBU's up at 55 - 60 rather than down at 42. Like I say if it's how you like it. i just think it might be too malty and cloying and you might struggle to get down to 1012 with us05.

I would up the base malt, cut back on the crystal to say 250g or if it's mixed in with pilsner, then cut the vienna back to 200g and move some or all of the 30 min hop addition to 1 hour and get the IBUs up closer to the OG.

That'll give you a more balanced beer IMO, but that's just how I like it! Northern brewer will be fine for bittering btw. dry hop would be good but it'll be a great beer anyway without it.

Good luck and let us know how it turns out!

[Hogan]

Right, thanks for the advice! Will move some hops back and cut down the Vienna, might try a low ish (65c?) mash to help out the yeast or will that be overkill?

[killer]

Good advice from Cestrian.

I've never used Galaxy but have read on here that it's not a good bittering hop. Lots of people rave about it as a late hop but suggest avoiding it for bittering.
I had a question about your efficiency. Brewmate tells me for that recipe (6.5 kg grain) that to get 1059 you are down at 67% efficiency. Is that correct on your system ?
At 75% - which is more usual, you would be around 1067.

[Hogan]

I hadn't realised that no, the equipment controls for that software are a bit annoying as I'm BIABing. Need to get something better, any advice?

My last two brews I did estimate that I got pretty low efficiency to fermenter, so a conservative estimate like 67 probably isn't going to do much harm. (If I move my ibus about?).
At the moment I am not being very scientific about brewing, more getting to know what I am doing and when than working on exact measurements. Thanks for the heads up!

[zgoda]

Vienna malt is almost identical to pale malt re. flavour, so as an user upper it looks fine. Definitely not like crystal.

[Hogan]

Right'o well I may keep some back anyway, add some interest in later brews (maybe a jaipur clone)

[CestrIan]

I use beer engine v1.09 software Hogan. It's pretty straight forward and free download. Developed by Graham Wheeler of BYOBRA.

http://www.practicalbrewing.co.uk/main/ ... eerengine/

One of the technical things you need to get right is the ibu/OG ratio to give you a balanced beer. Just use the last two digits of the OG. So for an IPA you might want to be close to 1.0 (or higher) on the ratio so an IBU of 65 for a 1065 beer. For pale ales you might want to be about 0.8 on the ratio so 36IBU for a 1045 beer. Lagers and wheat beers are lower at about 0.5 so 25IBUs for a 1050 beer.

zgoda is right vienna is not like crystal but I find it's like a milder form of munich. It does add more body than normal pale malt and adds a toasty flavour/aroma.

[weiht]

Try a lighter crystal like say a 10 or 15L.

I wont bother with galaxy at 60 mins, and prefer to add them all at flame out with at least 2 oz for a 20 mins steep.

Northern brewer is an excellent bittering hop!!

[Cpt.Frederickson]

If you BIAB, the only real answer is heading over to BIABrewer.info and getting the BIABacus. When I first looked at it, I wasn't a fan but now I've started to use it I'm really pleased with it. The other option is their older version, the Calculator. Both are excellent for recipe making. All the other features of the various programmes around (I'm talking about you, Beersmith) are just fluff.