First Self Made Recipe - Advice?

at flame out if leave the bag in and let it stew and sometimes dunk the bag up and down a few times until the temp reaches 170ish you'll get more hop flavor
 
And that's whirlpooling right? Or is that a hop stand? Or ar they the same thing?
 
neither thats called hop steeping, its been used for many years in extract brewing
 
Ozarks Mountain Brew said:
neither thats called hop steeping, its been used for many years in extract brewing
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Sorry to hijack the thread, but then what is whirl pooling and doing a hop stand? And what do they contribute? I haven't strayed much outside of using hops in the boil (a little FWH and dry hopping here and there), but I've done a fair bit of reading on other techniques. I must have gotten my terms confused somewhere along the way
 
a real whirlpool is just what it sounds like, you use a pump to to create a continuously moving whirlpool with almost a vortex, you add your flame out hops and keep it at what ever temperature you want or just let it cool while its moving, with a hop stand you just put in your hops at flame out and let it stand like dry hopping somewhere around 170 ish for as long as you want, you can also just run your wart through a hop rocket filled with hops right before colling, Ive experimented with all of these and found for me a true constantly moving whirlpool seems to give the best hop flavor and no need for dry hopping after
 
ok, so the big functional difference between whirlpool, stand, and steep is really what the wort is doing and how it's moving relative to the hops?

swirling around, just sitting there still, or being dunked by a hop bag?
 
yes and the temperature plays a big roll in flavor over bitterness, 170 is the lowest I would go before other possible contaminates can grow and will not introduce any bitterness
 
Cool, thanks for the clarification. I'll let go of the thread now :)
 
jmcnamara said:
Cool, thanks for the clarification. I'll let go of the thread now :)
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haha, no worries I like learning extra things. Maybe giving flameout/whirlpool a try on the next batch.

Moved some of the bottles inside where it's warmer. Seem to be carbing up better (I used plastic bottles, so I can do a squeeze test). Giving them until Friday to try another, that would be three weeks in the bottle.

If still under-carbed I'll take it as it is and drink up. Won't leave so much headspace next time and maybe add an extra 1/4 of a carb drop.
 
I tried one last night and something must have happened when I moved it inside where it is warmer, tasted disgusting, I had to dump the glass. :shock:

Still have some that I left in my temp control area, going to see if those were affected tonight.
 
how would you describe that taste? like puke or band-aids?
just guessing, but maybe the warmer environment let something besides the yeast get going, which led to the bad taste.
 
jmcnamara said:
how would you describe that taste? like puke or band-aids?
just guessing, but maybe the warmer environment let something besides the yeast get going, which led to the bad taste.
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It for sure seemed a bit sour, not like the other couple bottles I drank. Wasn't rotten though, just didn't taste like a beer I could drink. I was thinking too that I flipped the bottles, may have introduced oxygen from the empty headspace I left into the beer? Not sure there was enough in there though to make much of a difference.
 
sour definitely sounds like you got a wild bug in there, but not sure where it would have been introduced. if the other bottles aren't like that, maybe you just had a dirty bottle or two.
i agree, i don't think that little bit of oxygen would account for that quick of a downturn in the taste. plus, i think it would add more of a cardboard taste rather than sour.
i think you'll just have to try the other bottles (in the name of science) to get a sense if it was just a one-off thing or if it's systemic to your process for this batch.
 
jmcnamara said:
sour definitely sounds like you got a wild bug in there, but not sure where it would have been introduced. if the other bottles aren't like that, maybe you just had a dirty bottle or two.
i agree, i don't think that little bit of oxygen would account for that quick of a downturn in the taste. plus, i think it would add more of a cardboard taste rather than sour.
i think you'll just have to try the other bottles (in the name of science) to get a sense if it was just a one-off thing or if it's systemic to your process for this batch.
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Yeah, I'm going to drink up tonight (in the name of science of course) since it's Friday. I'm trying one from room temp and one from temp control to see if there is a difference.

I'm going to brew 2 gallons of this recipe again this weekend with a couple tweaks to the grain profile (removed the 20L and 40L in favor of all 60L), added a hopstand of Citra at flameout and changing to California Ale V Yeast WLP051.

Also not using hop socks this time, see if it makes a difference.

STATS:
Original Gravity: 1.055
Final Gravity: 1.014
ABV (standard): 5.31%
IBU (rager): 46.69
SRM (morey): 8.74

FERMENTABLES:
4.2 lb - American - Pale 2-Row (93.1%)
5 oz - American - Caramel / Crystal 60L (6.9%)

HOPS:
0.2 oz - Simcoe, Type: Leaf/Whole, AA: 14, Use: Boil for 40 min, IBU: 25.42
0.4 oz - Citra, Type: Leaf/Whole, AA: 13.9, Use: Boil for 10 min, IBU: 13.95
0.4 oz - Cascade, Type: Pellet, AA: 7, Use: Boil for 5 min, IBU: 5.24
0.4 oz - Citra, Type: Leaf/Whole, AA: 13.9, Use: Boil for 1 min, IBU: 2.08
0.5 oz - Citra, Type: Leaf/Whole, AA: 13.9, Use: Aroma for 0 min

MASH GUIDELINES:
1) Temperature, Temp: 152 F, Time: 60 min, Amount: 5.64 qt, 164 degree strike
2) Sparge, Temp: 170 F, Amount: 6.36 qt

YEAST:
White Labs - California Ale V Yeast WLP051
 
temp controlled beer tasted fine, was even kinda good. Carbonation was better and not too bad on flavor, might have been an off bottle earlier.
 
Bottled the 2nd batch this weekend and tasted the sample. Not using hop socks and adding the Citra flameout addition really bumped up the hop flavor and aroma. The change to crystal 60L also improved the overall malt character.

This batch tastes like a winner, but won't know for sure until its carbed and cold.
 
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