Critique my extract recipes!

So a year ago yesterday I brewed my first beer. Pretty exciting! But since then, the hobby has taken hold of me. I've brewed 11 extract batches, and learned so much about the process.

Now I'm a teacher and summer break is coming up, so I'm planning a pretty big brew week for my first week off of summer. I'm planning on brewing three beers. One fruit beer recipe off this forum so I can experience making a fruit beer. The other two are my first two recipes. I think after this I will slowly start moving into all grain brewing once equipment and space allows. But anyways, I wanted to post my recipes here and see what you guys think. This was my first time working with BeerSmith 2. It was very easy to put a recipe together, and I'll definitely be checking out the other features soon.

Brown Ale
This one was a request from a friend, but I do enjoy a good brown ale as well! I stayed with in the style guidelines for both these brews. With this one let me know what you think about the specialty grains and hops (and hop timings). Also I didn't know if I should use amber extracts or just stick with light extracts.

Style: Northern English Brown Ale
TYPE: Extract
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.048 SG
Estimated Color: 20.8 SRM
Estimated IBU: 22.6 IBUs
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
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Amt Name Type %/IBU
3.3 lbs Amber Liquid Extract (1 Extract 41.0 %
2.5 lbs Amber Dry Extract (12.5 Dry Extract 31.1 %
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 12.4 %
8.0 oz Biscuit Malt (23.0 SRM) Grain 6.2 %
8.0 oz Special Roast (50.0 SRM) Grain 6.2 %
4.0 oz Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 3.1 %

1.00 oz Fuggles [4.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 11.3 IBUs
0.50 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Boil 30.0 Hop 4.8 IBUs
0.25 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Boil 5.0 Hop 0.6 IBUs

1.0 pkg Whitbread Ale (Wyeast Labs #1099) [124.2 Yeast

ESB
Again, I stayed within the style guidelines (I'm not sure if that's what most people do when they make a recipe). Kinda the same thing, any comments on the specialty grains, hops used, and hop timing is welcome!

Style: Extra Special/Strong Bitter (English Pale Ale)
TYPE: Extract
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.054 SG
Estimated Color: 13.0 SRM
Estimated IBU: 39.3 IBUs

Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
6 lbs Light Dry Extract (8.0 SRM) Dry Extract 4 75.0 %
1 lbs Victory Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 1 12.5 %
8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 2 6.3 %
8.0 oz Special Roast (50.0 SRM) Grain 3 6.3 %


3.00 oz Fuggles [4.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 5 27.7 IBUs
1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Boil 30.0 Hop 6 7.9 IBUs
0.75 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Boil 15.0 Hop 7 3.8 IBUs
0.50 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Aroma Ste Hop 8 0.0 IBUs

1.0 pkg London ESB Ale (Wyeast Labs #1968) [124. Yeast 9 -


I'm still very new and learning a lot. I tried to keep the hops the same for ease of purchase as well as a chance to learn more about them. But i wasn't too sure about the timing or the amount. Same goes with the specialty grains. It's my first time using some of them, but I read up on them before I threw them in my recipe. Any who, have at it and let me know what you think!

The one thing that immediately jumps out on the ESB is that Victory is a base malt and needs to be mashed. If you're doing an extract beer with specialty grains, Victory won't work.

Also, a color of 13 SRM is within guidelines, but definitely on the dark side for an ESB.

I would recommend removing the Victory completely, replace it by adding more extract, and shifting to more crystal over the special roast.

My 2 cents, good luck. Enjoy the Summer of George! (sorry, had to include a Seinfeld reference).

I'm an English brown fan myself and yours looks spot on! I have a batch in bottles right now that will be ready in 2 weeks. As for as the Amber or light Extract I would go with the light or a pale. Thats what I used in mine and while bottling I had one bottle 24oz that would not cap and the wife ended up drinking the whole thing room temp and flat. So its dang good beer. Also your hop times look good and the yeast also. I used the same yeast aswell. So good luck on your first receipe Let me know how they turn out.

JR_Brewer said:

The one thing that immediately jumps out on the ESB is that Victory is a base malt and needs to be mashed. If you're doing an extract beer with specialty grains, Victory won't work.

Also, a color of 13 SRM is within guidelines, but definitely on the dark side for an ESB.

I would recommend removing the Victory completely, replace it by adding more extract, and shifting to more crystal over the special roast.

My 2 cents, good luck. Enjoy the Summer of George! (sorry, had to include a Seinfeld reference).

Click to expand...

Hahaha love the reference. I did not know that about the victory and will switch it! Thank you!

Wingnutt73 said:

I'm an English brown fan myself and yours looks spot on! I have a batch in bottles right now that will be ready in 2 weeks. As for as the Amber or light Extract I would go with the light or a pale. Thats what I used in mine and while bottling I had one bottle 24oz that would not cap and the wife ended up drinking the whole thing room temp and flat. So its dang good beer. Also your hop times look good and the yeast also. I used the same yeast aswell. So good luck on your first receipe Let me know how they turn out.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the input! I changed it to light DME and pale LME. That took away some of the IBUs so I did have to adjust the hops a bit. I just increased the amounts for each part. 1.5 oz fuggles at 60 min, 1 oz goldings at 30 min, and .5 oz goldings at 5 min. Hopefully that still works out well! Thanks again!