Will This Recipe Work?

[cmturner]

First and foremost thank you for reading this. I always wanted to try home brew now that I get a discount for it at work I thought I would give it a try. Please let me know how much I messed this recipe up since its the first I tried to build. Its suppose to be a simple American IPA. I'm using the BIAB method I don't know if that matters.

Est. Original Gravity: 1.070
IBU: 61.5
Color: 12.2
Est ABV: 6.7
Est Final Gravity: 1.020

Malts

-8lbs Pale Malt (2 Row)
-9.9oz Victory Malt
-1.9 oz Chocolate Malt

Hops

-1oz Centennial @ 60 minutes
-1oz Cascade @ 30 minutes
-1oz Citra @ 10 minutes

 

[Yooper]

What size batch is this? I can't quite figure how to get 1.071 out of 8.5 pounds of grain with my traditional sized batches.

The hopping needs to be changed a bit. A good IPA will have firm bitterness, but also lots of flavor from late hops. The 30 minute hops won't give hops aroma or flavor, and so you need some hops late in the boil plus dryhopping.

 

[cmturner]

Its 5 gallons overall. Using 2.96 gallons then adding the rest before fermentation. I used beersmith to get all my numbers.

 

[theseeker4]

Its 5 gallons overall. Using 2.96 gallons then adding the rest before fermentation. I used beersmith to get all my numbers.

What numbers did you put in brew smith? Are you looking at the specific gravity before adding top off water? You are not going to get that high an OG with that amount of grain.

 

[gotbags-10]

Yooper knows best! I'd move that 30 min to flame out and you deff want to add some sort of dry hop

 

[Yooper]

Its 5 gallons overall. Using 2.96 gallons then adding the rest before fermentation. I used beersmith to get all my numbers.

When you use all grain, and no extract, you'll mash the grain in all of the volume of water if you're not sparging. You don't want to only use 3 gallons of water and then add the rest at fermentation. First, 10 pounds of grain will absorb about a gallon of water in the mash, but you can squeeze some out, and you will boil off about 1 gallon of liquid per hour or more in the boil. That would leave you with only a gallon of wort- and then you'd need to add 4 gallons of water!

That just won't work.

If you only have room to boil 3 gallons of wort, just decrease your batch size to 2 gallons or something like that.

How big of a pot or mashtun do you have to do your mash?

 

[kh54s10]

If you are calculating 1.070 for 2.96 gallons then adding another 2+ gallons it will be nowhere near 1.070 for your OG.

You need to do some more researching, then rework your recipe.

I suggest you use a tried and true recipe as a base. You might make some minor changes to make it more to your tastes.

 

[cmturner]

What numbers did you put in brew smith? Are you looking at the specific gravity before adding top off water? You are not going to get that high an OG with that amount of grain.

I used the default Pot 5 Gal/19 L-mini-BIAB. I didn't modify anything on the equipment list. Any suggestions on what I should do to get a more accurate numbers?

 

[cmturner]

When you use all grain, and no extract, you'll mash the grain in all of the volume of water if you're not sparging. You don't want to only use 3 gallons of water and then add the rest at fermentation. First, 10 pounds of grain will absorb about a gallon of water in the mash, but you can squeeze some out, and you will boil off about 1 gallon of liquid per hour or more in the boil. That would leave you with only a gallon of wort- and then you'd need to add 4 gallons of water!

That just won't work.

If you only have room to boil 3 gallons of wort, just decrease your batch size to 2 gallons or something like that.

How big of a pot or mashtun do you have to do your mash?

I have a 5 gal stainless steel pot that I use to steep my grains.

 

[kh54s10]

You can use that pot but the final volume is probably the 2.96 that you quoted giving you an OG of 1.070. You would not top this up to 5 gallons. If you do your OG will be a lot lower.

I have looked into the settings in Beersmith for doing a 3 gallon BIAB and getting a high gravity so that I can top up to 5 gallons. I haven't figured it out yet.

 

[Yooper]

I used the default Pot 5 Gal/19 L-mini-BIAB. I didn't modify anything on the equipment list. Any suggestions on what I should do to get a more accurate numbers?

Change the efficiency number, and then check your settings. Beersmith doesn't have you adding water, it has you mashing the grain in far more water, I think.

You can add extract at flameout to increase the OG if you want a bigger beer, but it's hard to use that much grain in a little 5 gallon pot.

You could try decreasing your batch size to 3 gallons if you're stuck with a 5 gallon pot.

 

[cmturner]

I tried using a recipe I found online but when I put it in beersmith everything was in the red. I think I am going to uninstall beersmith and reinstall it and see if that helps.

 

[kh54s10]

I tried using a recipe I found online but when I put it in beersmith everything was in the red. I think I am going to uninstall beersmith and reinstall it and see if that helps.

I doubt there is anything wrong with the program. You need to have the proper equipment setup, the right ingredients for a particular volume, proper timing etc.

Beersmith is not a "plug and play" program. It is a tool. You have to learn how to use it for it to work well.

There are video tutorials, watch them all a couple of times, mess around with all the parameters and learn how it works. After that it will be indispensable.

 

[chickypad]

As mentioned, it has nothing to do with the program being improperly installed. That equipment profile is for a 2.5-3 gallon finished batch. I don't have the original default settings because I accidentally overwrote them when modifying it for my system, but I assume that 2.96 gal number you're looking as is your finished volume or the post boil volume, and there is no intention to top off.

Though it's not a common technique you can top off all grain batches, I sometimes do that to get 5 gal from 3, but unless I turn it into a partial mash and add some extract I can only get into the low 1.050's (due to the 5 gal limit pot).

 

[cmturner]

Thanks Everyone for the help. Solved my problem. Going to get a bigger pot so I can do 5 gallon recipes. Took a day to do tutorials non stop and have a better grasp of beersmith.