Very first recipe - Tasmanian APA - please check

[MikeInMKE]

I've been brewing extract kits since late last year, and having a blast doing it. I have been lucky enough to have loved and drank an imprudent amount of every recipe I've tried. But, I have yet to brew an American IPA.

I've been keeping an eye on the tweaks and variations being done with some of the more popular APA recipes on this board, and when I noticed my LHBS stocking Australian Galaxy, I grabbed four ounces. With a new copy of BeerSmith, I constructed the following recipe. I know it will make beer, but will it make good beer? Would it benefit from a few process changes, tweaks, additions or even some subtractions?

I currently have a 5G stainless brew pot, and intend on doing this on my kitchen stove. I will be doing a BIAB partial mash with a partial boil. I actually intend on adding the LME post boil, and the yeast nutrient pre-flameout, but I got tired of fighting with BeerSmith's ingredient order.

Thank you in advance for any advice.

Recipe: Tasmanian APA
Brewer: Me
Asst Brewer:
Style: American IPA
TYPE: Partial Mash
Taste: (30.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 3.50 gal
Post Boil Volume: 2.75 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.25 gal
Bottling Volume: 5.03 gal
Estimated OG: 1.066 SG
Estimated Color: 9.5 SRM
Estimated IBU: 56.4 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 65.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 81.8 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
8.00 gal Distilled Water Water 1 -
9.50 g Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash 60.0 mins Water Agent 2 -
3.60 g Epsom Salt (MgSO4) (Mash 60.0 mins) Water Agent 3 -
1.10 g Baking Soda (Mash 60.0 mins) Water Agent 4 -
1.00 g Salt (Mash 60.0 mins) Water Agent 5 -
4 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 6 34.8 %
1 lbs Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 7 8.7 %
8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 8 4.3 %
0.50 oz Warrior [15.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 9 15.9 IBUs
1.00 oz Galaxy [14.00 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 10 10.8 IBUs
1.00 oz Galaxy [14.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 11 5.9 IBUs
6 lbs Pale Liquid Extract [Boil for 1 min](8.0 Extract 12 52.2 %
1.00 oz Galaxy [14.00 %] - Aroma Steep 45.0 min Hop 13 0.0 IBUs
1.0 pkg SafAle English Ale (DCL/Fermentis #S-04) Yeast 14 -
0.50 tsp Yeast Nutrient (Primary 3.0 days) Other 15 -
1.00 oz Galaxy [14.00 %] - Dry Hop 3.0 Days Hop 16 0.0 IBUs


Mash Schedule: BIAB, Full Body
Total Grain Weight: 11 lbs 8.0 oz
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
Saccharification Add 15.61 qt of water at 16.8 F 152.1 F 75 min
Mash Out Heat to 168.0 F over 7 min 168.0 F 10 min

Sparge: Remove grains, and prepare to boil wort
Notes:
------
Add LME after flameout.

Cool wort to 140 before adding hops to whirlpool.

Created with BeerSmith 2 - http://www.beersmith.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[MikeInMKE]

No suggestions?

With the dry hop, the whirlpool addition and the 5 minute addition all contributing to aroma, will I get enough flavor from the 10 minute addition?

 

[chri5]

I like to start my late hop additions at 15 minutes, if not 20 minutes. Most of my recipes have additions every five minutes beginning at 20, and skip the dry hops. I'm a bigger fan of the hop flavor more so than the aroma in most IPAs, so you probably want the aroma more than I would. Most people do.

It is tough to start adding hops that early (20 minutes) in the boil when your flavoring hop is 14% AA. I'd leave your recipe as is, identify what you like about it, and what you would change. Then design a new version of it and try again. You will definitely get a wallop of Galaxy aroma.

The other thing is since you are going for an American IPA, I would use us-05 and not -04. 05 will give you a beer more in style. I always felt that 04 left extract beers with a higher FG than I wanted, and with an AIPA you want a dry beer.

 

[MikeInMKE]

I have both US-05 and S-04 in the fridge. I've used US-05 several times, and have no complaints with it. I've never used S-04, yet chose it for this recipe because it's used in the popular Zombie Dust recipe.

Splitting up the 1oz @ 10 and 5 minute additions into 0.5oz @ 20, 15, 10 and 5 minutes would change the IBUs from 56.4 to 70.2, and the IBU/SG ratio from 0.859 to 1.070.

 

[chri5]

Splitting up the 1oz @ 10 and 5 minute additions into 0.5oz @ 20, 15, 10 and 5 minutes would change the IBUs from 56.4 to 70.2, and the IBU/SG ratio from 0.859 to 1.070.

Yeah that seems like it would be too much on the bitter side.

I'd keep it like you have it.

 

[dabeers]

Looks pretty good as is, i like that malt bill and hop schedule. Let us know how it turns out!

 

[MikeInMKE]

My new refractometer showed up in the mail today, so I took it as a sign from the beer gods to brew this up. I am partway through the mash.

 

[MikeInMKE]

I was within 2 degrees of my mash and sparge temps. Single crush (NB chick thought a double-crush was silly), BIAB, with dunk sparge: 69% efficiency.

 

[chri5]

Any chance you took an OG reading pre-boil? I know when I first got a refractometer to play with I was using it constantly.

 

[MikeInMKE]

My OG reading pre-boil was 10 Brix, or 1.039. This is way off from the estimate 1.108 pre-boil given by BeerSmith, and had me worried. And I nailed my pre-boil volume. I almost added DME to make up the difference, but decided not to, to see where things ended up. I'm glad I did.

Even though I calibrated the refractometer, I don't think that number is correct. After thoroughly shaking the fermenter, pre yeast pitch, I pulled a sample for my hydrometer, which nailed BeerSmith's OG estimate of 1.066. Using that same sample, my refractometer gave much lower, and inconsistent readings.

I am not going to blame it on the refractometer, yet.; I've only just gotten it, so chances are, it's user error.

 

[MikeInMKE]

The carboy was left upstairs until there was good evidence of active fermentation. There were bubbles in the blow-off jar at 9AM, and now there is a bubble a second, so it was moved downstairs into a water bath where it will spend a week keeping the temperature cool and stable.

 

[chri5]

My OG reading pre-boil was 10 Brix, or 1.039. This is way off from the estimate 1.108 pre-boil given by BeerSmith, and had me worried.

I'd assume the 1.108 from Beersmith is assuming the LME would be in the partial boil.

1.039 doesn't sound too off actually.

 

[MikeInMKE]

Chris,

I believe you might be correct. I wanted to add the LME after flame-out (why boil it only to have to cool it back down?*), but when I told BeerSmith that, it insisted on putting the LME AFTER the yeast addition, which was silly. So, I changed the LME addition in BeerSmith to add at 1 minute left in the boil.

And right there is probably the discrepancy. I measured post-boil, but before adding the LME, but BS had included the LME into the post-boil gravity equation. D'oh!

Add the top-off water, and voilà, I hit the recipe's 1.066.

* High temperature short time Pasteurization = 161 degrees for 15 seconds, so adding already-Pasteurized LME to 200 degree wort helps to cool the wort, while still being well above 161 degrees for far more than 15 seconds.

 

[chri5]

Yeah adding it to boiling wort is definitely enough to ensure nothing will hurt you.

That is the nice part of doing a partial boil, you can add just the right amount of water at the end to hit your exact gravity target.

 

[MikeInMKE]

Today, dry hopped with one ounce of Galaxy.

 

[MikeInMKE]

Bottling day!

The Galaxy aroma is there, yet not overpowering. The aroma was strong enough to notice while bottling, which I hadn't expected.

Now that I have the hydrometer sample in a glass, I am enjoying the complex fruity aromas. Initial flavor is slightly malty with a bit of bitterness, with the malty taste giving way to the bitter in a pleasant way; a pretty mild IPA as IPAs go. It'll be interesting to see what carbonation adds to the flavor profile.

It finished at 1.014 according to the hydrometer, and 8.8 Brix (sample taken from the hydrometer pull) on the refractometer. I don't think I got an accurate pre-pitch refractometer reading, or if I did I didn't write it down.

 

[MikeInMKE]

One of the bottles I filled was a plastic soda bottle, just so I could monitor carbonation progress. Last night the bottle was rock hard, so I put the bottle into the refrigerator.

Today, that bottle has gotten softer as the CO2 has been absorbed into the cold beer. I will taste it later tonight and report back, though I suspect it will be undercarbed and green.

 

[MikeInMKE]

If anyone is curious, I liked it so much I brewed it again, and am looking forward to brewing it again, but this time all-grain.

It does not finish dry, which I prefer. Every one who likes IPAs who has tried it - including a professional craft brewer - has asked for another glass.

 

[Sherpa FE]

I am curious, were you trying to clone the SA Tasman Red? If so, I am wondering how close you have gotten to the original. I have been trying to get this recipe down, I know a lot of people did not like the original, but I am not one of them. I have the color, alcohol and the mouth feel right on, but I am still trying to get the right hops aroma.

 

[MikeInMKE]

The recipe was formulated from some other popular APA recipes I've run across here. I called it Tasmanian only because galaxy hops are grown in Tasmania