Pliny The Elder Recipe in Zymurgy

[BigNastyBrew]

anyone know what the efficiency on that recipe is? When I put it into promash I am at almost 80% to get the og right

It says 80% in there somewhere. I remember reading it.

I just re-read the article and I still dont see that.

Sorry. It was in one of their other recipes in the same issue. Maybe all Zymurgy recipes are 80%

[Brandon]

I sent Vinnie an email just to confirm the 80%

[Brandon]

Got 2 responses:

From the AHA
There are corrections to the Pliny The Elder recipe as it is printed in Zymurgy. The corrections are for the fermentables needed to achieve the 1.070 gravity.

You’ll need to change the recipe as follows. The recipe that was provided to us listed all the fermentable ingredients in percentages. The recipe is for a net of 5 gallons after the hops loss, but fermentables should be calculated for 6 gallons before hops loss.
This works out for 6 gallons at 1.070 with 75% efficiency and the proper % of each ingredient:

13.25 lb Pale Malt
0.6 lb Crystal
0.6 lb cara-Pils
0.75 lb corn sugar

From Vinnie:

I actually don’t have those numbers, I probably did at some point but it has been some time since I brewed the PTE as a homebrew recipe. Really that recipe is supposed to be a starting point for brewers to plug into their recipe formula and go from there.



Vinnie

[herbaljoe]

I personally really like and have had great success with the PTE clone from Brewing Classic Styles, which btw, does not have Carapils.

The hops are different too, and I friggin LOVE the way it turns out.

[BigNastyBrew]

thanks for doing the research! I may brew this one in the fall. I'm starting some lagers late summer.

[Charlie]

Brewsource says this about carapils:

Carapils (Dextrine) Malt
Carapils (Dextrine) Malt Balances body and flavor without adding color or sweetness. A lighter crystal type malt, the Dextrines add body, mouth-feel as well as head retention. They are best when mashed with your pale malt due to the lack of enzymes. Use 5-20% for these characteristics and without adding color.
Type: Specialty Grain
In Stock Color L: 1.5 L
Typical Color L: 1.5
Produced by: Briess (American)

Major faux pas on the grain. I had this one queued up for Sunday, so thanks for pointing that out.

Just ran the recipe through Beersmith and get 272 IBU. I think it's not accounting for utilization for some reason.

Charlie

[Charlie]

I made this recipe Tuesday, and it's burping away in the FC at 68 F. The only issue is that I forgot to add the dextrose, but I hit 1.072 anyway, so I'm gonna let it ride. Next time I'll put the dextrose in and see if it makes a difference.

Charlie

[Charlie]

Got my first taste of the Pliny. It's interesting.

FG is 1.016, and yet the body seems light. The carbonation (24H) is still a bit light too. I'm not sure how the missing 3/4 lb of dextrose would have affected the outcome.

The hop aroma and flavor seems to have a lot of dogshit character to it. I will re-visit this subject tomorrow or the next day when the brew has had time to carbonate adequately.

One thing I definitely take away from this: I hate pellet hops! The freaking things made a puffy cap on the beer, then plugged up the racking cane. Some of them even racked into the keg. I got a 1/2 sink full of mud trying to clean out the fermenter. I am never going to buy pellet hops if leaf is available. OK, I didn't last time (leaf wasn't available), but just so you know.

I feel like I've got my dry hop technique down, so gonna try the Green Flash again in the near future.

Charlie (will add simcoe, columbus, crystal and centennial leaf to his next hop order)