Fergy1987 Posted December 15, 2018 Share Posted December 15, 2018 So I've started using 1.5kg of DME malt in my brews and I'm not sure if its making my beers too malt driven or if I'm not using enough hops. If I brew a Pale Ale kit with some speciality malts like Crystal or Caraaroma and 1.5kg of DME Ive been chucking in like 20g of hops and then maybe another 20 dry hop. The beer has a big malty head and the hops seem to get lost. Does anyone here always use only 1.5kg or 1kg of DME or do you have a rule where you change quantity depending on styles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Captain!! Posted December 15, 2018 Share Posted December 15, 2018 When I was extract brewing I’d use 1.5 kg of dme and a kit. Hop steep in wort about 40-80g hops then dry hop around the 50 plus mark. im now dry hopping at between 100g and 180g Its not because Im am a big hop head or anything, I just wanted more flavour and aroma. My pacific ale I generally don’t dry hop anymore. To add, generally I dry hop my pale ales and IPA’s, stouts I don’t but I add whirlpool hops, Saison I don’t dry hop (yet) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greenyinthewestofsydney Posted December 15, 2018 Share Posted December 15, 2018 I still do a pale ale tin with a can of light malt extract and CCA yeast when I need to get stocks up. 50gm dry hop or keg hop. Quickest easiest drinker you can find. Hops are not blowing your head off but they are noticeable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lab Cat Posted December 15, 2018 Share Posted December 15, 2018 20g of hops isn't a lot. I've been doing kit and 1kg of malt for a while. Last 2 brews have been with 1.7kg of liquid malt and it definitely provides body and flavour, but If I don't add at least 65g of hop my beers would be too malty. I did 100g with my American pale and got a good balance of hop and malt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otto Von Blotto Posted December 15, 2018 Share Posted December 15, 2018 It's all about balance. If you increase the malt then you'll need to increase the hops to keep it balanced, usually by way of more bitterness. If it was me I'd probably do a 20 minute boil with 10g of something mid range AA% for a bit of added bitterness, then load up the flameout and dry hop additions to really drive the flavor and aroma. I find about 35-37 IBU is a nice area for those pales of about 1.050 OG give or take, but you won't get that much from the pale ale kit by itself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silmaril Posted December 16, 2018 Share Posted December 16, 2018 7 hours ago, Otto Von Blotto said: It's all about balance. If you increase the malt then you'll need to increase the hops to keep it balanced, usually by way of more bitterness. If it was me I'd probably do a 20 minute boil with 10g of something mid range AA% for a bit of added bitterness, then load up the flameout and dry hop additions to really drive the flavor and aroma. This is pretty much where I'm up to with my brewing. Have done some recipes from this site that include a small boil component. One with steeped specialty grains, others with just some dissolved LDM for boiling the hops. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fergy1987 Posted December 16, 2018 Author Share Posted December 16, 2018 13 hours ago, Otto Von Blotto said: It's all about balance. If you increase the malt then you'll need to increase the hops to keep it balanced, usually by way of more bitterness. If it was me I'd probably do a 20 minute boil with 10g of something mid range AA% for a bit of added bitterness, then load up the flameout and dry hop additions to really drive the flavor and aroma. I find about 35-37 IBU is a nice area for those pales of about 1.050 OG give or take, but you won't get that much from the pale ale kit by itself. Yeah this might be my issue, not adding that extra hops in the boil. I think I want that big hop aroma and flavour but I'm a tightass so never use a sh1tload of hops lol. So my next brew with the APA kit I'm chucking in some centennial and cascade. Maybe like 25g at flameout and 30 in a dry hop. I've got those two hops, northern brewer and EKG on hand, should I just use either the cascade or centennial as the bittering hop? The cascade is like 7% I think so might go well. I just need to ditch these kits and go all grain lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lab Cat Posted December 16, 2018 Share Posted December 16, 2018 9 minutes ago, Fergy1987 said: I just need to ditch these kits and go all grain lol. Not really necessary - unless you want to. I've made good beers from kits and I've only done 8 brews so far, they get better each time. It depends on the kit and what you do with them. Coopers TC range and Black Rock Crafted put a lot in the can, and with just 1kgmalt and some hops you can get decent, interesting beer. I'd still be dry hopping at least 50g or more though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otto Von Blotto Posted December 16, 2018 Share Posted December 16, 2018 I found all grain a step up in quality but you can still make decent beers with kits. I'd just use the Cascade for a bit of extra bitterness as you will get some flavor from it as well. Chuck in 40g flameout and 50-60g dry hop and you should get a decent amount of flavor and aroma. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fergy1987 Posted December 17, 2018 Author Share Posted December 17, 2018 Ok so I've got the following recipe 1 x 1.7kg Aus Pale Ale Kit 1 x 1.5kg Light Dry Malt 300g Caraaroma (steeped) 200g CaraPils (steeped) 15g Cascade @ 20min 20g Cascade @ 0min 20g Centennial @0min 25g Cascade - Dry Hop 25g Centennial - Dry Hop According to IanH spreadsheet: brewed at 21 Litres OG of 1.056 and FG 1.014 IBU of 36 and EBC of 29.9 ABV of 5.9% - but I always seem to be a bit below the OG - so I assume this will probably be more like 5.5% or something. Looking alright? Since I am not doing a full 1 hour boil or anything, I was going to get say 3L of water at like 67 degrees, steep the grain in it for around 20-25 mins - Bring to the boil, throw the first Cascade in as soon as it hits the boil and boil it all for 20mins. Turn off the heat and throw in the 0min hops in - Would that be an alright process? Should I add say 500g of DME to the steeped grain before the boil? or just put the whole 1.5kg in the fermenter? Thanks again everyone for your advice! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otto Von Blotto Posted December 17, 2018 Share Posted December 17, 2018 Are you aiming for a pale ale or a red ale? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fergy1987 Posted December 17, 2018 Author Share Posted December 17, 2018 5 minutes ago, Otto Von Blotto said: Are you aiming for a pale ale or a red ale? More towards say an American Red Ale, I did one recently but used Carared and Crystal instead of the Caraaroma and that was the one that was pretty malty with not much hop aroma or flavour. Still tastes nice, I just want to up the hoppyness of it. Not sure if this one is really going to be "to style", but I just find Red beers get a bit more reaction when you pour it for people haha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beerlust Posted December 17, 2018 Share Posted December 17, 2018 Hi Fergy. I agree with a number of points already made about increasing your hopping if you plan to increase your malt to maintain a balance in your beers. Also you can promote the hopping notes of the beer by selecting yeast strains that favour hop character over malt character. The cleaner US ale strains are good for this. Cheers & good brewing, Lusty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fergy1987 Posted December 17, 2018 Author Share Posted December 17, 2018 6 minutes ago, Beerlust said: The cleaner US ale strains are good for this. Aww don't tell me that haha - I've just harvested Nottingham from my last brew to use in it - But will definitely keep this in mind for the future. Thanks Lusty! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fergy1987 Posted December 17, 2018 Author Share Posted December 17, 2018 Although looking at my recipe again, I probably don't even need the 1.5kg of Malt. 1kg still gives me 5.0% in the bottle and an OG of 1.047 for 21Litres. Might be the better option. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norris! Posted December 17, 2018 Share Posted December 17, 2018 Nice looking recipe! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ekymetal13 Posted December 17, 2018 Share Posted December 17, 2018 5 hours ago, Beerlust said: Hi Fergy. I agree with a number of points already made about increasing your hopping if you plan to increase your malt to maintain a balance in your beers. Also you can promote the hopping notes of the beer by selecting yeast strains that favour hop character over malt character. The cleaner US ale strains are good for this. Cheers & good brewing, Lusty. Think I’ll do google search on that. Cheers Lusty Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beer Baron Posted December 17, 2018 Share Posted December 17, 2018 21 hours ago, Fergy1987 said: I just need to ditch these kits and go all grain lol. It didn’t take me long to jump in the deep end but it was a great decision for me!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fergy1987 Posted December 17, 2018 Author Share Posted December 17, 2018 21 minutes ago, Beer Baron said: It didn’t take me long to jump in the deep end but it was a great decision for me!! I've got a stout kit and a real ale kit in the cupboard and once they are done I think im going to treat myself to a Guten and get into it. I've never tried an all grain beer (well not home brew) so I'm expecting big things in terms of freshness etc! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otto Von Blotto Posted December 17, 2018 Share Posted December 17, 2018 It looks similar to my red ale, I'd probably drop the malt back to 1kg. Making it with more might end up too sweet especially with the caraaroma in there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fergy1987 Posted December 17, 2018 Author Share Posted December 17, 2018 7 hours ago, Otto Von Blotto said: It looks similar to my red ale, I'd probably drop the malt back to 1kg. Making it with more might end up too sweet especially with the caraaroma in there. Yeah I pretty much stole your recipe - I've basically been winging it lately and just throwing in whatever, but thought I should start paying more attention to the numbers and your red ale is the holy grail around here. Please dont sue for copyright infringement haha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otto Von Blotto Posted December 17, 2018 Share Posted December 17, 2018 In that case you might find the Nottingham works well. I used to use US-05 in it but a couple of years ago I switched to 1469 west Yorkshire ale yeast. I don't mind others brewing the recipe. Everyone who has so far has enjoyed it a lot which is a good feeling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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