I've done a couple of extract brews so far and they've been tasty and very satisfying to drink but, I'm not really happy with how dark they've turned out. When I started down this homebrew path I knew that I'd move on to all-grain sooner than later so this is the first step down that rabbit hole. I'm looking to clone Bell's Two Hearted IPA and would really appreciate some input on the grain/fermentable bill I came up with and the accuracy of the numbers. I did the math on paper before I entered it into the recipe builder here on BF and the numbers came out identical so I think I'm on the right track.
First of all, here's the link to the recipe from Bells beer store https://store.bellsbeer.com/products/two-hearted-ale-clone-all-grain-ingredient-kit
Here's what I've got:
4lbs - Briess 2-row Brewer's Malt
1.5lbs - Briess Pale Malt
1lb - Crystal 20
.5lb - Crystal 40
5lbs - Pale LME
OG - 1.066
Here's where I start to get a little iffy on exactly what I'm doing so please chime in. I'm operating under the assumption that I'll get about 75% efficiency on the base malts, 70% on the crystal malts, and 100% on the LME. This is based on what I was reading in Palmer's "How to Brew" book, among other online sources. There are 7 lbs of grain in the bill so I'm thinking of using between 1 and 1.5 qt/pound of grain so that puts me between 2-2.5 gallons for the mash. I will then sparge with roughly the same amount. This will put me at capacity for my 5 gallon pot. I'll do a single step mash at 152F for an hour. Around this point I've read some information that's not all in agreement, or at least I don't fully understand it. After sparging and ending up with about 4+ gallons of wort I'll add the bittering hops and get on with the boil. I'm planning on adding the LME late. Anywhere between 15 minutes out right up to flameout. Any suggestions on this timing? My last question has to do with the wort concentration after the mash. What do I need to be looking for? Should the specific gravity be within a particular range for any reason? I've read differing ideas on SG and hop utilization but I'm not sure what the answer is.
First of all, here's the link to the recipe from Bells beer store https://store.bellsbeer.com/products/two-hearted-ale-clone-all-grain-ingredient-kit
Here's what I've got:
4lbs - Briess 2-row Brewer's Malt
1.5lbs - Briess Pale Malt
1lb - Crystal 20
.5lb - Crystal 40
5lbs - Pale LME
OG - 1.066
Here's where I start to get a little iffy on exactly what I'm doing so please chime in. I'm operating under the assumption that I'll get about 75% efficiency on the base malts, 70% on the crystal malts, and 100% on the LME. This is based on what I was reading in Palmer's "How to Brew" book, among other online sources. There are 7 lbs of grain in the bill so I'm thinking of using between 1 and 1.5 qt/pound of grain so that puts me between 2-2.5 gallons for the mash. I will then sparge with roughly the same amount. This will put me at capacity for my 5 gallon pot. I'll do a single step mash at 152F for an hour. Around this point I've read some information that's not all in agreement, or at least I don't fully understand it. After sparging and ending up with about 4+ gallons of wort I'll add the bittering hops and get on with the boil. I'm planning on adding the LME late. Anywhere between 15 minutes out right up to flameout. Any suggestions on this timing? My last question has to do with the wort concentration after the mash. What do I need to be looking for? Should the specific gravity be within a particular range for any reason? I've read differing ideas on SG and hop utilization but I'm not sure what the answer is.