Anything I can do to make this recipe better?

[Alastairhaydock]

Hi
Just brewed a clone pan head super charger ( beer here in nz).
Brewed full grain on a grain father brew system.
Process was sound except a couple of minor mistakes. Forgot to do the whirlpool. Didn’t aerate the yeast when it went into the fermenter enough. Temperature of fermenter dropped to about 15 degrees Celsius during generation period, due to snap cold period ( middle of winter here). Still bubbled away but was very slow. Hit the right specific gravity though.
Beers were bottled and used carbonation drops ( two per 750ml bottle).
Beers came out sweet, ie lacking enough bitterness. Was quite yeastie tasting and smelling ( almost like I had used a can instead of full grain). Tasted fine apart from above and Hop flavour and aroma was low. There but not really noticeable, where as a bought super charger is quite orange citrus and has a strong hop flavour that is punchy.

Recipe had 300g of hops all pellets and fresh used with 45 IBU. Attached pictures of recipe.
I am thinking I need to double the hops at each stage.
More at 60 mins to increase bitterness and reduce sweetness. Increase at hop stand and dry hopping stages. Does this sound right?
Does the current amount of hops sound fine? Or am I on the right path by increasing amounts? Is there anything obvious I might have done that could have caused the yeast tastes and lack of hop flavour coming though?
Note: when trying a few of the bottles the carbonation levels were good. But then found a good 1/3 where bottles were essentially flat. Fridge could have been too cold on storage after bottling period finished?

 

[FloppyKnockers]

K.I.S.S.

 

[Alastairhaydock]

Ok don’t understand that but thanks for your help.

 

[Sauls]

Basically Keep it simple relax and have a home brew is what he’s saying

 

[govner1]

I’d think about moving the 30 minute hop addition to 15 minutes. Also consider dry hopping while fermentation is still somewhat active.
Perhaps the first at mid krausen and the next at low krausen then move off hops to secondary for your last DH. Keep it in the 3-5 day range then package.

 

[Dland]

Just make the beer, taste it when it is done, and if you want more hops than you taste, add more next batch. Try not to get too tied up in calculations before you know and can taste what they mean. {;

Geesh, i hope the interwebs and puters don't crash, no one will be able to make beer!

Nothing personal Allister, just a non digitally produced home brew fueled rant. I with you nothing but brewing success.

 

[jrgtr42]

If you want to cut down on sweetness, I'd consider dropping the mash temp a couple degrees. You did it at 67c, which by my math is 152 - 153F. try dropping it down to 65c or so (about 149-`150f), that will make the mash a bit more fermentable, thereby dropping the perceived sweetness.
Like others said, maybe streamline the hop additions a bit - and maybe increase the 60 minute addition. The sheet says 10g, like a third of an ounce (sorry for the conversions, I'm one of them USers, I'm used to thinking in ounces and pounds, not grams) I usually use about an ounce (30 grams) as the bittering, depending on the AA of the hops involved.

 

[doug293cz]

If you are going for a beer with lots of hop flavor and aroma, then religiously avoiding oxygen exposure after the start of fermentation is key. Oxygen is the enemy of hop flavor/aroma. People have not had a lot of success bottling this type of beer, as it is very difficult to avoid O2 exposure during the bottling process. Even kegging has issues, unless you keg into CO2 purged kegs, and use a closed transfer process.

Lack of bitterness is more easily cured - just add more AA's early in the boil.

Brew on

 

[Sauls]

Think of all the brews you paid money for a a local pub, Most probably terrible but with cute labels and marketing they sell. It’s all about personal preference and not everyone will love or hate your creations

 

[day_trippr]

I believe a beer finishing at 1.009 that has a too-sweet character had to be missing IBUs.
Perhaps the hot-side hopping technique was deficient (like packing too much hops in a small mesh bag) or the hops themselves were well under the expected AA.

Moving early additions later would be pretty much the opposite of a "fix". I'd simply bump up the 60 minute addition next time...

Cheers!

 

[IslandLizard]

With 10 oz of those hops the beer should be very hoppy. As long as the lupulin goodness can be extracted efficiently. Don't restrict them during dry hopping, let them swim freely with a little agitation (if possible) every day. I don't think I saw whirlpool/hopstand hops at reduced temps after the boil. 10-30' of such at 140-180F can add a lot of hop flavor.

If you are going for a beer with lots of hop flavor and aroma, then religiously avoiding oxygen exposure after the start of fermentation is key. Oxygen is the enemy of hop flavor/aroma. People have not had a lot of success bottling this type of beer, as it is very difficult to avoid O2 exposure during the bottling process. Even kegging has issues, unless you keg into CO2 purged kegs, and use a closed transfer process.

That! ^

 

[Alastairhaydock]

Thanks, heaps here to think about and try out. As you can tell I’m new to it but learning slowly. One thing I just noted was the hops in dry hopping stage, I had in a small spider. Was pretty tightly packed when I took them out in most instances. Along with all the above advice in the feed I’ll give a crack at changing. As you say beers beer as long as it’s drinkable, just fun working out what to do better next time. Thanks again

 

[day_trippr]

A packed spider is never a good thing

 

[CascadesBrewer]

I am on board with the idea that the amount of hops and the additions are decent (this is a 19/20L batch, right?). Some people like more, but I am happy with 1.065 IPAs using less and this looks to be more of a Pale Ale. The hop spider issue would be my first place to look. I found that water chemistry and limiting oxidation made a noticeable improvement in my hoppy beers.