Electric Hop Candy Jr. (New England Pale Ale)

**kal** · Posted: Tue Oct 31, 2017 2:06 pm Post subject:

I brewed this again on Sunday - here are some videos...

A few days before I made a yeast starter (basically taking a single pack of yeast and increasing the amount so that you don't have to buy 4-5 packs as yeast is expensive):
Video 1: https://www.instagram.com/p/BavDNhdAS1g/?taken-by=theelectricbrewery
Video 2: https://www.instagram.com/p/BawnA7SA5Cx/?taken-by=theelectricbrewery

The night before I measured out the mineral additions to modify the water to suit this beer based on my starting water: https://www.instagram.com/p/Bazlt_UA_HO/?taken-by=theelectricbrewery

Milling the grain the night before: https://www.instagram.com/p/Baz2A7FAubK/?taken-by=theelectricbrewery

Brew day! Mashing (soaking the grain): https://www.instagram.com/p/Ba1i5LNgvSS/?taken-by=theelectricbrewery

Boiling: https://www.instagram.com/p/Ba1-dnQAKCz/?taken-by=theelectricbrewery

Steeping hops after the boil at 180F: https://www.instagram.com/p/Ba2FyESAb4W/?taken-by=theelectricbrewery

Adding first round of dry hops at high krausen: https://www.instagram.com/p/Ba5L7UrgkR2/?taken-by=theelectricbrewery

All done. Yeast added to the wort (the sugary liquid that becomes beer) and tucked away in fermenting fridges: https://www.instagram.com/p/Ba2w8Sgg1yk/?taken-by=theelectricbrewery

Cheers!

Kal

HopSteady · Joined: 09 Jan 2016 Posts: 36

**kal** · Posted: Mon Nov 06, 2017 9:24 pm Post subject:

Tennessee · Joined: 04 Apr 2015 Posts: 116 Location: Tennessee

Filtering the junk from this tutti frutti ale. Might have to do a quick carb in my shinny new black chrome ukeg...

hbohnet · Joined: 22 Sep 2013 Posts: 33 Location: Canmore, AB

Just finished the first keg of this and must say it turned out quite good. Was a little concerned as the ABV was low at 4%. The FG finished at 1.019, Kal's is 1.014 according to the recipe. I would like to brew this again and get closer to 5% ABV. Looking for some adviice on herhaps why the FG was off. The only thing I noticed was the yeast starter did not seem to have much yeast cake after it settled out, not sure if that means anything. Another note when I plug the recipe into Beersmith it calculates a FG of 1.018. Does this sound right? Any help is appreciated. Thanks, Harry

**kal** · Posted: Mon Nov 13, 2017 1:26 pm Post subject:

Hi Harry,

What did you use to measure the FG?

A 5 point difference results in around 0.6% ABV change so I’m assuming your SG was also a bit low? What’s your mash efficiency? If it’s lower than that listed in the recipe, simply increase the grain amount to compensate for the SG difference. Your brewing software will do this for you.

Lastly, ignore brewing software FG estimates. I don’t know of any that takes into consideration the various complicated variables that affect FG like mash temp, mash thickness, grist composition, yeast strain, and so forth.

All that said, I’m not sure why your FG ended high. If you took detailed brew notes as you went from grain to glass, post the details here and we can see if anything obvious stands out. Otherwise we’re just going to be guessing. Cheers!

Kal

hbohnet · Joined: 22 Sep 2013 Posts: 33 Location: Canmore, AB

Thanks for the reply Kal, sorry should have given more details. Followed your recipe exalcly (12 gaL batch) scaled for my system

FG measured with a hydrometer and is calibrated.

Mash efficency I use 83%, this is adjusted after about 15 batches on my system, a clone of your design. Yes my SG was a little low 1.049, When I brewed the Hop Candy IPA it was also a couple of points low so will adjust the mash effeciency next time. Normally I am quite close using 83%, not sure if the high flaked oat/wheat/carapils has an effect on the calculation in the beersmith software?

Good to know the FG in the software is not accurate so will ignore that. I have never had an issue with too high of a FG, if anything it is sometimes a point or two low.

Went back through my notes and the brew went really well. No issue with mash temps, maintained 160 deg, sparge was 80 min, all in all a good brew day. Two things were noted. As mention the yeast starter seemed a little off. The colour of the starter wort was darker and after it settled seemed to have less yeast cake than normal. The other note was this was the first batch I uesd my new oxygen setup, refillable O2 bottle with flow regulator and 0.5 micron stone. I set the flow for 1 l/m and oxygenated the wort for 1 min for 12 gal batch. My old oxygen setup was disposable bottle with pressure regulator and would aretate wort for 2 min because was not really sure how much O2 was delivered.

Appreciate your help. If notheing else will bump up the grain amount and try again. As mentioned the beer still turned out really good, think it would even be better with a little more alochol.

**kal** · Posted: Mon Nov 13, 2017 4:50 pm Post subject:

Colour of the starter wort being darker and less yeast cake makes it sound like the starter wasn’t done fermenting, so you may have underpitched. That said, that doesn’t mean the FG will be high. Often underpitching just means the yeast works harder at first to reproduce first which results in possibly off tastes. Not sure why your batch ended high. Sorry!

Kal

rivetcatcher · Posted: Tue Nov 21, 2017 1:05 pm Post subject:

Going to try this next but can’t get the exact ingredients. I will be using saf 04 yeast. I cannot get the honey malt so was wondering what you would recommend replacing it with as I have read that it is quite unique.

Cheers.

Rivet

**kal** · Posted: Tue Nov 21, 2017 1:22 pm Post subject:

rivetcatcher · Posted: Tue Nov 21, 2017 4:36 pm Post subject:

Will do. Thanks

DIBS · Joined: 18 Mar 2013 Posts: 24 Location: Slave Lake

Hey there. I brewed this yesterday. Held great temperature throughout mash, and roughly 90 minute sparge, then the typical boil. My OG ended up 1.044. Any insight on to what I missed? I scaled up to our 50 gallon set-up, pretty sure all my grains were good. Might just have to put more in next time.

**kal** · Posted: Fri Dec 08, 2017 4:05 pm Post subject: Re: Low OG

DIBS · Joined: 18 Mar 2013 Posts: 24 Location: Slave Lake

**kal** · Posted: Fri Dec 08, 2017 4:31 pm Post subject:

79lbs sounds right for a mash efficiency of 90% for a batch size of 50 gallons (I just plugged it into my software to check). So not sure why you're lower as there are literally dozens of variables from pH to grain type and power, etc. Sometimes it's from mis-measuring (being a scoop or two short). There's no one specific thing. Sorry! I'd go back to your brew day logs and look at what you did very carefully to see if anything sticks out.

Kal

DIBS · Joined: 18 Mar 2013 Posts: 24 Location: Slave Lake

hbohnet · Joined: 22 Sep 2013 Posts: 33 Location: Canmore, AB

Dibs,
The first time I brewed this had the same problem, OG was 1.048, not as low as yours. To compound the problem the batched finished at 1.019 instead of 1.014. Double checked everything, could not find any errors that might have caused this. I brewed again but lowered my normal mash efficiency by 5%, added more grain and hit the OG at 1.052, perfect. I just kegged this and the the batch finshed again at 1.019, exaclty the same as the first batch. So I am stumped as to the problem. The beer was very tasty even with the low ABV. I would be interested in what your FG is.

Kal, if I brew again was thinking of loweriong mash temp down to 158 or 156 to try and get the FG lower, any comment?

Thanks, Harry

**kal** · Posted: Sat Dec 09, 2017 2:08 am Post subject:

Sounds fair! It’s very normal to have to tweak recipes if the setup/process is different.

The much higher finishing gravity is a bit odd however. Are you pitching the same yeast at the recommend amount? Post more info about your brewing setup and process if you like (and what you do with your water, if anything) and we'll see if something sticks out.

Kal

hbohnet · Joined: 22 Sep 2013 Posts: 33 Location: Canmore, AB

Kal,
I have one of your 20 gal clones, blichmann kettles, etc. I followed your recipe exaclty, just adjusted for my mash efficency. I checked temp calibration. The first time I brewed this I think the yeast starter was not finished, you helped me with this. This time I followed brewers friend yeast pitch rate calculator and made sure the starter was finished. (watched your video, is great!!). Water is 100% RO, minerals added to give Ca-120, Mg-13, Na-18, Sulfate-97, Cloride-198. I thought the second brew would be much better because of the yeast starter but FG both times was identicle at 1.019. Any thoughts? Thanks

**kal** · Posted: Sat Dec 09, 2017 2:52 pm Post subject:

A bunch of questions:

How are you fermenting?
What temperature?
Is the the temperature stable during fermentation?
How long did it take to get to 1.019?
How long after it got to 1.019 before you kegged?
How did you measure that it's at 1.019?
How's the FG of your other beers? Are they always higher than expected or is this one the only one?

Kal