Extract Hoppy Red Ale and All Grain Brown Porter

Martyn1989

Tomorrow Im going to throw together an extract hoppy red ale

Extract
2kg Light DME

Grain
German Carared 350g
Crystal 150 150g
Black Malt 100g

Hops
30g Chinook Pellets @60mins
30g Chinook Pellets @15mins
30g Cascade Pellets @0mins

Yeast
Safale US-05

This is really just what I have put together to make some beer, the German Carared has been around a while and I don't know much about it, Beertools is telling me I should have a 4.1% beer with 51 IBUs.
I have 2kg of Maris Otter hanging around so I might do a partial mash if the mood strikes me. (A kg extra mashed would give me a 5.4% ABV)

In the next few days I'll be attempting my first all-grain recipe, I picked out this Brown Porter recipe from Brew Your Own magazine (Dec 2011 issue) for a 19l batch

Grain
4kg Maris Otter
400g Crystal Malt 40
400g Brown Malt
250g Pale Chocolate Malt

Hops
30g Fuggles @60
12g East Kent Goldings @10

Yeast
Danstar Nottingham

Should turn out 5.8% with 22 IBUs
I would be inclined to put in some more hops and change the schedule around a bit, any advice on what would suit this style?

As usual any comments/advice are greatly appreciated.

mayto

The brown porter looks similar to one Jamil Zianasheff's has in his book,Brewing Classic Styles. I brewed a lighter version of this a while back and it turned out pretty good. You might want to increase the IBU's to maybe the 30+ region. It could be worth scaling that recipe to 23L batch size as it will take basicaly the same time as brewing the 19L recipe. If you are batch sparging there is an excellent batch sparge calculator on thehomebrewforum http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/calculators.php?sid=2cb7d3fdc0a3a3c631fbadf3351e3d57 . Really good brewing forum. Recipe below for brown porter recipe at 80% efficiency.

Category: Porter
Subcategory: Brown Porter
Recipe Type: All Grain
Batch Size: 23 L
Volume Boiled: 26.34 L
Mash Efficiency: 80 %
Total Grain/Extract: 4.37 kg
Total Hops: 55.1 g
Calories (12 fl. oz.): 145.7
Cost to Brew: $36.02 (USD)
Cost per Bottle (12 fl. oz.): $0.56 (USD)

Ingredients

---

3.35 kg Maris Otter Pale
0.43 kg English Brown Malt
0.3 kg Crystal Malt 40°L
0.29 kg English Chocolate Malt
40.73 g Fuggle (Whole, 5 %AA) boiled 60 minutes.
14.38 g Fuggle (Whole, 5 %AA) boiled 10 minutes.
Yeast: Nottingham Danstar™

Original Gravity: 1.044
Terminal Gravity: 1.010
Color: 23.59 SRM
Bitterness: 28.7 IBU
Alcohol (%volume): 4.4 %

Martyn1989

Yeh good idea, I'll do the 23l batch but keep the 4kg of marris otter and and scale the rest as appropriate.

Im not to sure about my mashing temperatures and time? I was thinking a 90 minute mash to be sure I get full conversion.

mayto

If you mash at about 67C then 60min will be fine for full conversion. If you are closer to 65C you might want to increaser mash time to 90min to be sure of full conversion. Preheat your mash tun with some boiling water and have strike water about maybe 76C. I think you are better off having too high an initial mash temp especially for a first attempt,maybe 70C and just add some cool sparge water to bring it down to 67C. You really will not know correct strike temp for your system until you get a brew done. If your strike water temp is too low and mash temp is 62 or 63C it takes alot of boiling water to get to usual mash temp of 67C.

Martyn1989

mayto wrote: »

If you mash at about 67C then 60min will be fine for full conversion. If you are closer to 65C you might want to increaser mash time to 90min to be sure of full conversion. Preheat your mash tun with some boiling water and have strike water about maybe 76C. I think you are better off having too high an initial mash temp especially for a first attempt,maybe 70C and just add some cool sparge water to bring it down to 67C. You really will not know correct strike temp for your system until you get a brew done. If your strike water temp is too low and mash temp is 62 or 63C it takes alot of boiling water to get to usual mash temp of 67C.

Ok Thanks
I'll be sure to take plenty of notes,photos and videos to see how its working. I'm not going to worry about it too much though, if I take it slow and have everything organised before I start I should be ok.

mayto

Oh yeah, have a kettle of boiling water ready in case the mash temp is too low. Its not hard making an all-grain, just takes a lot longer , but the results are really worth it.

Martyn1989

Yeh Id say its just getting used to the method of it, the first time I did extract and partial mash recipes the kitchen looked like a bomb had hit it, spilled wort and bits of anything and everything all over the place, but then once I had gotten used to the way things worked I was much better at keeping everything inorder and tidy (not to mention scrubing sticky dried in wort off every surface.

Martyn1989

Im brewing this as I type. It went ok, my 2nd batch sparge was dribbling out and eventually I just stopped it and went on with my boil (only 40mins left). I think I was draining my mash tun too fast for the first and secound runnings which didnt allow a good grain bed to settle. Ill be slowing it down next time. I should end up with about 19l which is ok.

@mayto completely forgot to follow your advice and kicking myself now. I did add a little bit extra hops but not much.

I cooled a sample at the end of my mash and my gravity was 1.051 (target was 1.052) so once my boil is done and some liquid has evaporated I should be around that or a bit over.

Now hopefully Ill get a nice clean fermentation and Ill be downing celebratory bottles of brown ale in 6 weeks
Until then I have a Rogue Hazelnut Brown for this evening.

mayto

Well done on your first all=grain brew , will be worth the hastle when you taste it. I find it better to drain the mash tun slowly for a while and then maybe open to about half way. If you open it full it usually has a greater chance of getting stuck. Bottled my latest pale ale today myself, nice to have 55 bottles and a corn keg left to carbonate

Martyn1989

Thanks. Yeh I didn't think anything of just opening the tap, even though it makes sense to take it slow. Its a lesson learned anyway. I did have to top up my wort volume a little with water just before my boil. I estimated what I would lose during the boil and topped it up with that. I didn't want to end up with a 1.060 gravity and only 15l of beer. I finished with 20l at 1.050 which Im happy enough with.

I know the feeling, Ive the extract red almost ready to bottle which is tasting great, this brown porter which seems to be getting a good strong fermentation and Ill have an empty primary fermenter in a week or so. I think its going to have to be a pale ale. I was thinking

3kg Maris Otter
2kg Wheat Malt

25g Cascade additions @60, 30, 15 and 0.
Maybe dry hop with 25g aswell?
Just through that into beertools and it would be 34IBUs and just under 5%ABV.

mayto

Hops look fine alright but it seems like a lot of wheat for a pale ale, nearly like ratio of wheat for an american wheat beer. Its a style I never tried but should be nice if anything along lines of goose island 312. The 312 uses torrified wheat but using wheat should be great too. It might come out hazy with the amount of wheat but not sure if you use safale 05 instead of an american wheat strain.

Martyn1989

I got the idea when I tried Black Diamonds Wheat Wacker, an India style Wheat Beer. They used pilsner malt and wheat malt, a belgian strain of yeast and hopped it like an american IPA. That one is 7% (and in a 650ml bottle!). Ive only made one pale ale before (extract) and it turned out great.

I tried 312 in the Black Sheep, it was the last of many but I enjoyed it.

I would like the beer to be a nice golden colour, and while haze dosnt bother me its great when a homebrew pours clear. Maybe 4kg Maris and 1kg wheat. I have some safale US-05 thats well in date in the fridge and Ive always had good results with it.

Ive a few days to mull it over.

Im also considering changing my sparging method from batch sparge to something along the lines of this (not sure what you would call it) (skip to 1.43) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVrntDQYzpU
I think allowing it to continuously run through, while slowly adding water maintaining the level just above the grain could run smoother. Of course I won't know until I try it.

scrapsmac

Good luck Martyn. Sounds tasty!!

On a side note, I'm currently drinking my first extract (Irish Red Ale) which i made using your recipe. Its 2 weeks in the bottle, perhaps slightly undercarbed, but already its VERY good. Just wanted to say cheers!

Martyn1989

scrapsmac wrote: »

Good luck Martyn. Sounds tasty!!

On a side note, I'm currently drinking my first extract (Irish Red Ale) which i made using your recipe. Its 2 weeks in the bottle, perhaps slightly undercarbed, but already its VERY good. Just wanted to say cheers!

Brewing the pale ale tomorrow, and Ive a HBC mash kit for a dry Irish stout aswell to do soon.

The brown porter is tasting delicious, its just gone into secoundary and the red is just a week in bottle and tasting very promising.

Im glad the recipe turned out well for you, that recipe went down well with mates when I brewed it. Cheers.