For my most recent brew, I found three different Peeper Ale clone recipes and mixed and matched them to come up with what I judged to be a good first stab at it. Here’s the recipe I made:
Malt:
7 lb. light malt extract
Steeping Grains:
0.5 lb. Caramel malt
0.25 lb. Red Wheat malt
0.25 lb. American Vienna
Hops:
0.75 oz. Amarillo (60 min.)
2 oz. Centennial (1 min.)
2 oz. Cascade (1 min.)
2 oz. Amarillo (1 min.)
Dry hops (in secondary, 14 days)
2 oz. Centennial
4 oz. Cascade
Yeast:
Safale US-05
The overall result is better than I would have ever expected for a first go. Everything about it is perfect, EXCEPT, it’s just a little too bitter on the finish. It’s very slight; my neighbor, who is also a big fan of Peeper, does not taste it (and he is not just being polite; we know each other too well for that).
My thinking is that perhaps I left it in the secondary too long with the dry hops. It was not my intention to leave it for two weeks, but life got in the way. But before I try it again next time, I thought I’d post here and see if anyone has any other thoughts/suggestions/ideas that might help me mellow the finish.
The bitter finish might be from the 6 oz of hops at 1 min. and not the dry hops. You could try adding some hops at 20-15 min and less at 1 min. If the bitterness is more of a grassy/vegetal taste then it could be the dry hops. I personally would use about half that amount for dry hopping for 5-7 days. I know others use 4-6 oz of hops when dry hopping, but I think it’s a waste.
Sounds like a winner. Regarding the bitterness, it’s not going to come through if added to secondary. You’re going to extract oils without bitterness. You didn’t post the AA bittering Units or the IBU, so I’m not sure what you have. However, I know that you can back off the bitterness slightly. I would suggest backing off on the amount of bittering hop slightly. Or, better yet, add bittering hops only 45 to 50 minutes and see what happens.
The best word I can come up with to describe the taste is “metallic,” but I’m hesitant to use that term because that makes it seem (in my mind, at least) more harsh than it actually is. Thanks for the tip on the amount of dry hops. I don’t have many recipes that call for dry hops, so I was sort of flying by the seat of my pants.
I’m liking the idea of shorter bittering minutes, thanks.
I just chill in an ice water bath for about 30-45 minutes, which I suppose is relatively slow. I couldn’t say about the sulfate; never had our water tested. But on the other hand, I’ve been brewing with this same water for almost 11 years without any noticeable off flavors.
Well an ice water bath will probably get it below the temperature where more bitterness is extracted pretty quickly. If you stir the wort (and keep the ice water moving too) in the first few minutes you’ll avoid temperature gradients cool it very quickly.
Sulfate isn’t an off flavor really, it accentuates hop bitterness. But if this is new, then I’d agree it’s probably not your water.
Did you mash the wheat and Vienna? Those really need a mini-mash to convert the starches, otherwise you’ll have starch haze and possibility of contamination. Although with that much hops in there… maybe the odds of contamination are nil.
What’s your water source? Soft? Hard? Moderate? You should probably be using 100% distilled water in an extract beer, otherwise you could have excessive salt ions in your water, which will contribute to a minerally or metallic flavor in your finished beer. This could be the real issue, if you didn’t use really soft water.
Also, extract itself can sometimes give a slightly minerally or metallic taste. Ensure you use the freshest stuff possible, and you could try changing brands in future to see if that helps.
I would add to try to separate bitterness from hop flavor. Dry hop temps don’t extract hop bitterness, but will extract hop flavor and aroma. +1 to the slow chilling extracting bitterness from the 1 minute addition. And Vinnie C and Mitch Steele would probably argue that 4 -6 oz of dry hops are aren’t a waste. I know that that quantity of dry hops aren’t for everybody, though.
Did not mash any of the grains. Just a normal steep (“normal” in my case meaning put them in and let them steep as I bring the water up to boil). I guess I can’t completely rule out some sort of minor contamination, but I very definitely don’t have any haze of any kind. This is easily among the clearest beers I’ve ever brewed.
Our water is a little on the harder side, but as I said previously, it has never given me any problems before. Of course, every recipe is different. I suppose it’s possible that this particular recipe is the first one I’ve tried that happens to showcase the deficiencies in my water, but I’m more inclined to entertain these ideas of altering the timing of my hops additions.
It was liquid. My long-time (18 years +/-) homebrew shop sold LME in bulk. They recently closed their doors and this was the last bulk extract I bought from them during their final week in business. I used it fairly quickly, but I suppose I don’t really know exactly how old it was in the store, given that they were closing. And obviously other factors besides age could have caused it to oxidize, as well.