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I brewed a Dog Fish Head 90 min a month ago and it turned out pretty good for my first all grain. The only thing I noticed was a slight/mild grain flavor, especially when it gets warmer, and it takes away some of the bitterness from the hops.

Any idea why this may be?

Here is the recipe I used:

Malts:
16.5 lbs Pilsner Malt
1.66 lbs amber malt

Hops:
2.00oz  Amarillo  8%  AA 90 - 0 minutes (every 10 min.)  pellets
0.62oz  Simcoe    10% AA 90 - 0 minutes (every 10 min.)  pellets
0.53oz  Warrior   15% AA 90 - 0 minutes (every 10 min.)  pellets
1.00oz  Amarillo  Dry Hop -  whole leaf
0.50oz  Simcoe    Dry Hop -  whole leaf
0.50oz  Warrior   Dry Hop -  whole leaf

Yeast: WLP007

Mash @152F from 60 min.
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2

Pilsner malt is known for having a grainy flavor. Try switching to American 2-Row.

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    English pale malt works well too. Maris Otter, Golden Promise, etc. – jalynn2 May 20 '14 at 16:57
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Most likely the culprit is incorrect base malt, as well as no dry hopping. IPAs of this gravity need a massive dose of hops to keep their hop-forward character.

This does not appear to be a DFH 90 minute clone. The real beer is continually hopped, and most clone recipes call for a large amount of dry hops as well. Also, you should be using American Pale 2-row for this recipe, not pilsner malt.

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  • As you can see in the recipe above it was continually hopped (every 10 min for 90 min) and dry hopped. As you and the other user posted I get the malts wrong. I'm brewing another batch (and another recipe) next Saturday with 2-Row as base malt so we'll see how it ends. – Jorge Gautier May 20 '14 at 19:14
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    Changing to pale malt won't make a world of difference. MANY award winning AIPAs are made with pils malt. Unless you had the 2 beers side by side, you'd be hard pressed to tell a difference. The brand of malt would likely make more difference. Did you by any chance use Briess or Gambrinus malt? I've always gotten a disagreeable graininess from those. – Denny Conn May 20 '14 at 19:50
  • I buy my grains from my LHBS so I have no idea wish brand he uses... – Jorge Gautier May 20 '14 at 19:56
  • You might want to edit the recipe you posted so its more clear that you are continually hopping and that the whole leaf hops are indeed dry hops. It's not clear as is. – Conman27 May 20 '14 at 20:16
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You can bring in a grainy taste during mashing and sparging. Take a look at your procedure and make sure that you are not over-sparging.

Edit: Another thing: What was your original and final gravity? It may be that your fermentation did not complete.

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  • What you mean by over-sparging? – Jorge Gautier May 23 '14 at 12:48
  • When you add too much water to your sparge, you will start extracting tannin from your grain as well as you may end up with a grainy taste. See howtobrew.com/section4/chapter21-2.html. Particularly Astringent and Grainy/Husky. – Atron Seige May 26 '14 at 5:39

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