Help with my first brew day!

Northern Brewer General
1

I’ve finally finished my house, and have moved in. Now it’s time to brew after 6 or 7 months of chomping at the bit but I need some help!
Saturday afternoon is my time frame. Here’s the clone recipe I got online:

Manny’s Pale Ale clone
American Pale Ale

Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Est Original Gravity: 1.058 SG
Measured Original Gravity: 1.010 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.014 SG Measured Final Gravity: 1.005 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.6 % Actual Alcohol by Vol: 0.6 %
Bitterness: 37.2 IBU Calories: 43 cal/pint
Est Color: 7.2 SRM

Amount Item Type % or IBU
7.75 lb Pilsner Liquid Extract (3.5 SRM) Extract 79.5 %
1.00 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 10.3 %
1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM) Grain 10.3 %
0.65 oz Magnum [14.00%] (60 min) Hops 31.2 IBU
0.50 oz Cascade [5.50%] (15 min) Hops 4.7 IBU
0.25 oz Cascade [5.50%] (5 min) Hops 0.9 IBU
0.25 oz Cascade [5.50%] (2 min) Hops 0.4 IBU
1.00 oz Cascade [5.50%] (Dry Hop 4 days) Hops -
1 Pkgs Thames Valley Ale (Wyeast Labs #1275) Yeast-Ale

I have all the ingredients for this beer. The Breweries website, however, says they brew this beer with Summit Hops. After smelling the pellets while splitting them into smaller bags a couple months ago I’d have to agree as they smell really grassy which is what I remember most about Mannys.

Problem 1: I don’t have an immersion chiller so I’ll be using a 15 gallon laundry tub filled with icewater for the pot to bath in after I’m done. To speed up chilling should I do a partial boil or a full boil? I have a 30 qrt turkey fryer that I’m using. At 6.5 gallons that sucker is going to be pretty full not to mention take a long time to chill.

Problem 2: The Brewery website says that Manny’s Pale Ale is sitting at 38 ibu’s. When I calculate everything up in TastyBrew it tells me that, with Magnum hops as the recipe calls for, it comes out at 45 ibu’s. Substituting the Summit hops at .65 oz takes the ibu’s up to 56. Should I just drop the 60min addition of Summit down to like .40 oz or something to get the ibu’s down close to 38 or what?

Problem 3: I tried calculating a partial boil with TastyBrew to figure out if the ibu’s/everything would turn out the same as a full boil but come up with some weird figures. It asks for batch size, which would be 5 gallons. Then it asks for boil size and when I enter 3.5 gallons it tells me my finished ibu’s would be in the 70’s. What am I doing wrong.

Any help would be appreciated. I ordered enough ingredients to do two batches. One this weekend using the Thames Valley yeast and then one in a couple more weekends using 05, just to see what the difference would be.

I’m all psyched up to do this S*#t but am worried about how I’m going to do it ha…

2

do a partial boil. your pot in’t big enough to allow for foam up. then dump your boil into the cold water already in the fermentor. let it splash quite a bit .it needs the aeration. should be cold enough to pitch then. or quite near.
It depends where you want the IBU’s. try your calc. at different hops levels and times until u get it where you want. tell it your boil size is 5 gallons and see how that turns out.

3

[quote=“SolomonsCommune”]After smelling the pellets while splitting them into smaller bags a couple months ago I’d have to agree as they smell really grassy which is what I remember most about Mannys.
[/quote]

i may be out of line here, but where did you order the hops from? were they hop union nitrogen purged packs? i know a certain plant that is loosely related to hops, that will, if not sealed in an airtight bag, lose much of it’s potency over the period of a couple months…you could possibly see a lower ibu than expected if stored in say a plain baggie especially if it wasnt in a dark and cold place, like the fridge or freezer…not certain on this though. im sure some master brewers will chime in shortly.

to speed up chilling definitely do a partial…and cool your extra water to the temperature you plan to cool your wort to. or slightly cooler if its going to be hard to chill down to the 60s…ie chill your clear water that you fill the carboy with prior to adding wort to 50 in your fridge, or outside, and cool your wort to say 70…equal amounts equal 60 degrees…i wouldnt take the temps much farther out of the 10 degree range either way though…also a tip for ice baths; use a lot of ice; its going to melt fast. sprinkle salt all in that bath of ice and water. salt will help the ice melt slower, cooling your wort faster. dont be shy with the salt, its cheap. stir the bath around frequently or it will develop hot pockets,lol, not those hot pockets, melting ice even quickeri just bought an immersion chiller last week and havent tried it out yet, but i think its hard to get a decent cold break from just water bath cooling. and that will play a big part in the clarity of your final beer. also i only have a 16 qt kettle (4 gal) and i do 5 gallon batches with 3 gallons in the kettle (1 gal airspace) and 2 in the carboy with no problems…but i dont leave the stove for a second while boiling…just asking for disaster…a watched pot may never boil, but an unwatched pot will always boil over! i think you would have a hard time moving a full batch on and off the burner safely if needed any way, i would do a partial if it was me, but then again im only 5’5 and 125 lbs. one last thing; your luquid in the carboy should measure 5 gallons, not 6.5. your ingredients are for 5 gallons and your fermentor is 6.5…even with the malt extract, that wont even add 3/4 of a gallon. you might be able to get away with doing a full boil… that would leave you with 2.5 gallons of froth space(30 qt = 7.5 gal), more ice, and longer cooling time …i duno in the end its up to you. whatever you do have fun! i just got into homebrewing too and it is a great obsession!

Anyway congrats and wish you good luck!

4

I like the looks of the recipe. I would do a partial boil of around 4 gallons and up the 60 minute hops to an ounce. Keep plenty of ice for cooling.

5

Thanks for the advice people! I will probably follow Glugs advice and start my boil at 4 gallons to give me some headspace in the pot. I am going to up the Summit 60 min charge to .75oz and then go by the book from there.

I realized last night after posting that although I ordered the steeping grains the recipe calls for I neglected to order a grain bag. Picked up a 5gal nylon paint strainer today so hopefully I can use that. Maybe I’ll boil it tonight to make sure nothing weird comes out of it.

I’ll get my 4 gallons of water to boil from the tap, then have 3 gallons of spring water in the refrigerator in the morning ready to make up the difference and help cool the wort.

Wish me luck.

6

To help cool quicker don’t use ice in the beginning. Just plug up the laundry tub and fill with cold water. Empty this water and refill it 2-3x every 5-10min or so. Once you get down to 100F (should only take 20min) then fill with cold water and add ice. Getting the temps down to 100-120 range is quick and easy and if you add ice it really just melts away extremely fast. But getting it from 100 to 70 is the tough part. So save some money on ice and just get 2 bags for the last 30degrees or so. I’ve done it several different ways over the last year and this really is the quickest and cheapest way.

7

Also stirring your wort while cooling helps it cool quicker. I usually do this for the first 10min or so to help the temps drop. But then I usually get tired, lazy and just want to drink a beer so I stop. But stirring hot liquid helps drop the temperature faster than just leaving it sit there.

8

And stir the kettle while it’s chilling in the water bath and keep the water in the bath moving, too. And if you can, put a folded washcloth under one edge of the kettle to allow the water to circulate under as well.

9

Roger all of that Red Leaders!

10

I got nothing to add to all this good advice, so I’ll just say “Good Luck, Dude!”

11

Just wanted to say thanks for all advice. I pushed my brewing off from Saturday afternoon to this morning. It was cold out but a lot less windy than Saturday. I don’t have a garage to brew in but did enjoy the great outdoors this morning. It pretty much went off without a hitch.

I do have to say that I need to get a bit better at setting up my brewing area for ease of use. Other than that, everything worked like a charm. Hope to see some airlock activity by tonight or tomorrow morning! Thames Valley Wyeast seemed viable enough. The bag was tight as a tick in two hours.

Again, thanks to all that offered advice and thanks to the forum in general. Takes quite a bit of the edge off of brewing for the first time.

I’m already friggen psyched to make the same recipe next weekend but substitute Citra instead of Cascade for the late addition/dry hops.

12

:slight_smile: good to hear.