Advice and Feedback for next 3 brews

Doing three brews sequentially over consecutive weekends for the upcoming spring/summer season. I like to keep the beers light and drinkable for refreshing enjoyment in the hot weather. I am still doing extract and do not have the capability to do very large boils.

Looking for feedback on the recipe designs.

Citrale
Concept: A light citrussy/fruity ale that is accessible to most beer drinkers and that can be enjoyed in multiples.

Boil Size: 1.70 gal
Post Boil Volume: 1.56 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.00 gal
Bottling Volume: 4.60 gal
Estimated OG: 1.052 SG
Estimated Color: 3.5 SRM
Estimated IBU: 15.0 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 0.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
6 lbs Extra Light Dry Extract (3.0 SRM) Dry Extract 1 100.0 %
0.25 oz Summit [17.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 2 5.6 IBUs
0.50 oz Citra [12.00 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop 3 6.1 IBUs
0.75 oz Summit [17.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 4 3.4 IBUs
1.0 pkg American Ale (Wyeast Labs #1056) [124.21 Yeast 5 -
0.50 oz Citra [12.00 %] - Dry Hop 5.0 Days Hop 6 0.0 IBUs


Nice'n'Easy Brown Mild
Concept: A mild brown that is simple to brew and simple to drink. Very low alcohol content

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 1.70 gal
Post Boil Volume: 1.56 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.00 gal
Bottling Volume: 4.60 gal
Estimated OG: 1.035 SG
Estimated Color: 7.9 SRM
Estimated IBU: 15.3 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 0.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
2 lbs Amber Dry Extract (12.5 SRM) Dry Extract 1 50.0 %
2 lbs Dark Dry Extract (17.5 SRM) Dry Extract 2 50.0 %
1.00 oz Cascade [6.20 %] - Boil 55.0 min Hop 3 13.0 IBUs
1.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 4 2.3 IBUs
1.0 pkg American Ale II (Wyeast Labs #1272) [124 Yeast 5 -

House Pilsener
Concept: First stab at a pilsener. Bought a used fridge with a temperature controller. No real expectations except for trying to do some lager fermentation. No idea what will happen or if the recipe will be gross or delicious.


Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 1.70 gal
Post Boil Volume: 1.56 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.00 gal
Bottling Volume: 4.60 gal
Estimated OG: 1.050 SG
Estimated Color: 3.9 SRM
Estimated IBU: 37.9 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 0.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
1 lbs Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 14.3 %
4 lbs Extra Light Dry Extract (3.0 SRM) Dry Extract 2 57.1 %
2 lbs Pilsner Liquid Extract (3.5 SRM) Extract 3 28.6 %
3.00 oz Northern Brewer [8.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 4 35.7 IBUs
1.00 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins) Fining 5 -
2.00 oz Saaz [4.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 6 2.2 IBUs
1.0 pkg Budvar Lager (Wyeast Labs #2000) [124.21 Yeast 7 -
0.50 tsp Amylase Enzyme (Primary 3.0 days) Other 8 -
1.00 oz Saaz [4.00 %] - Dry Hop 4.0 Days Hop 9 0.0 IBUs

Any advice or projections or warnings or feedback?

My concern is with scortching the malt on the bottom of your pot, assuming you were planning to boil the 1.7gal water + malt for the whole 60min.
Intestead, just add the malt extracts to last 10min of boil and keep heat under control. You will need to reduced the hops to get same IBU's since extraction will be higher.

For the Brown Mild, if it were me I would use a light or extra light extract and then use steeping grains to get the color and body that you are looking for. A little bit of chocolate malt and/or a dark crystal can really help. I just did a 2 gallon batch with 5oz Crystal 80L and 4 oz Chocolate, and Briess Golden Light DME.

For the pilsner, the 2 oz of Saaz seems a bit much. I would dial that back considerably.

Late additions are a very good idea for a small boil, as nilo points out. For a small boil, I still add in a small portion of the extract in the beginning, 25%-30% of the total amount, and save the rest to add at flameout.

How much fewer hops do i add when doing a late malt addition?

rklinck said:

For the pilsner, the 2 oz of Saaz seems a bit much. I would dial that back considerably.

Click to expand...

OK -- will knock it down to 1oz, are you OK with the drop hop on the pilsner or is that too much nose for a bohemian pilsener style?

Norselord said:

How much fewer hops do i add when doing a late malt addition?

Click to expand...

The easiest way to figure this out is to use brewing software (Brewtarget and QBrew are free, BeerSmith is another one, or a website like Beer Calculus.

It will be different for each of your beers. For the Citrale, for example, maybe just change your hops schedule to 45, 10, and flameout but keep the amounts the same - that should be close.

boydsbitchinbrews said:

The easiest way to figure this out is to use brewing software (Brewtarget and QBrew are free, BeerSmith is another one, or a website like Beer Calculus.

It will be different for each of your beers. For the Citrale, for example, maybe just change your hops schedule to 45, 10, and flameout but keep the amounts the same - that should be close.

Click to expand...

I have beersmith, but i am a noob with it.

Thanks for the tips -- better beer = more happiness

The quantities you seem to be using in your hop additions don't make sense to me.
They look like the sort of quantities you'd be using for 5-6gal batches.

Also, I question whether they IBU's calculated are accurate.
Eg, In your Pilsner, 3oz Northern Brewer at 60 mins will give you a crap load more than 34 IBU's.
Are you using brewing software to calculate this?

Good luck, and don't sweat it if you don't get everything exactly right. You'll still make beer, and it will be great.

Just noticed your question about dry hopping the pilsner... I would leave it out and save those hops for something else, but there are others that seem to really like dry hopping pilsners. Example: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/dry-hopping-pilsener-237510/#post2808066

It is totally a matter of preference, and I'm sure if you look you can find strong arguments for and against it. If you go with dry hopping it, just pick one that you really like the aroma of.

fishersfirst said:

The quantities you seem to be using in your hop additions don't make sense to me.
They look like the sort of quantities you'd be using for 5-6gal batches.

Also, I question whether they IBU's calculated are accurate.
Eg, In your Pilsner, 3oz Northern Brewer at 60 mins will give you a crap load more than 34 IBU's.
Are you using brewing software to calculate this?

Click to expand...

What i have been doing is boiling at 2gallons with LME or DME at start and then adding water to make up to 5 gallons.

All of the calcs are per Beersmith.

Hmm ok, I get the 5 gal upscale.
But my calculation of your IBU's are still around 3 times higher.

Eg. 0.25oz Summit (17%) at 60 mins = 19 IBU (approx)
3.0 oz NB (8.5%) at 60 mins = 100 IBU (approx)

Are you looking at doing a FWH as opposed to 60mins?
Flowers or pellets?

fishersfirst said:

Hmm ok, I get the 5 gal upscale.
But my calculation of your IBU's are still around 3 times higher.

Eg. 0.25oz Summit (17%) at 60 mins = 19 IBU (approx)
3.0 oz NB (8.5%) at 60 mins = 100 IBU (approx)

Are you looking at doing a FWH as opposed to 60mins?
Flowers or pellets?

Click to expand...

When you do boils in 2 gallon kettles and then add water afterwards it takes MUCH more hops to reach the same level of IBU than doing a full 5 gallon boil. Play around with the pots in Beersmith to verify this.

I didn't know what FWH was so i read up on it. Will likely do a 1oz FWH and then 2oz @ 60minutes just for farts and funniesl.

I will use pellets.

Can't say where he is getting his IBU calculations, but it may be that the difference is based on utilization. Although I have seen some people say it is hokem, the utilization notion is that you get a lower IBU for hops that are boiled in denser wort. Because you are boiling less than 1/3 of the typical full boil, you are getting far lower utilization. This may explain the differences.

FWH means first wort hopping. This is the practice of having the hops in the pot as you add the wort from your mash tun. This obviously results in the hops being in contact with the wort for a longer period of time than if you wait until after the hot break to add the hops. FWH also results in added flavor from the hops (this part still confuses me).

rklinck said:

Can't say where he is getting his IBU calculations, but it may be that the difference is based on utilization. Although I have seen some people say it is hokem, the utilization notion is that you get a lower IBU for hops that are boiled in denser wort. Because you are boiling less than 1/3 of the typical full boil, you are getting far lower utilization. This may explain the differences.

FWH means first wort hopping. This is the practice of having the hops in the pot as you add the wort from your mash tun. This obviously results in the hops being in contact with the wort for a longer period of time than if you wait until after the hot break to add the hops. FWH also results in added flavor from the hops (this part still confuses me).

Click to expand...

I don't see how i would do a FWH when doing extract brewing, since i don't add extract until the water is boiling