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**motobrewer** · 01-11-2011, 08:20 PM

28? holy man.

smallest beer i've made was a 1.033 bitter. it was solid.

also, recession mild turned into barleywine made me laugh.

jfr1111 · 01-11-2011, 10:22 PM

I tend to either like sessionable offerings (4% and less) or big, ridiculous beers like barleywines and RIS as a treat. No in between

1.028 was probably the lowest gravity I saw for a 4d while looking through the Shut up about Barclay Perkins! blog. I went all malt, instead of choosing to reproduce the adjunct laden beers of that period, so it probably will have a lot more mouthfeel and flavour than that 4d ale for the same gravity though.

The only thing I'm worried is tannin extraction due to the very, very low starting gravity and the high volume of sparge water. I might just mash very thin to alleviate that. Not sure.

**Shooter** · 01-11-2011, 10:29 PM

I converted the all-grain tafelbier recipe into an extract version and made it on my stove top a while back. I think it clocked in at 1.026 OG and ended up around 3% on the ABV. It was maybe a touch thin, I would add maltodextrin to it if I did it again or try it as a partial or full grain recipe. However, despite being a little thin, it was still pretty drinkable, the belgian yeast and black pepper in the recipe both came through and I found it quite nice during the summer to be able to fill up a one liter mug and go out to the garage and tinker on stuff without coming back to the house half lit.

jfr1111 · 01-11-2011, 10:39 PM

Do you have a recipe for the tafelbier ? Is it in the database ?

**Shooter** · 01-11-2011, 10:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jfr1111

Do you have a recipe for the tafelbier ? Is it in the database ?

This is it, I just converted the pilsner to pilsner extract and did it on my stove top as a partial boil. If I remember correctly I boiled half the extract in about 2.5-3 gallons of water and did all my hopping there and I boiled the other half of the extract at the same time in about a gallon of water in a second pot to see if I could get it to caramelize a little bit, not really sure if it did anything.

http://www.jackofallbrews.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=886

jfr1111 · 01-11-2011, 11:02 PM

Cool recipe. Makes me confident. I'm in a phase where I'm not digging anything Belgian, but if I weren't, I'd give the tafelbier a shot too.

I will be brewing this probably Friday. I really hope it will turn out since my father-in-law is on a big NA beer kick for some reason and I'm getting a bit tired of packing bottles every time I go there to play cards (because I'm not drinking President's Choice NA beer). I could just gift him a case, plus, it would help me decrease my waistline without cutting too much on beer consumption.

**Shooter** · 01-11-2011, 11:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jfr1111

Cool recipe. Makes me confident. I'm in a phase where I'm not digging anything Belgian, but if I weren't, I'd give the tafelbier a shot too.

I will be brewing this probably Friday. I really hope it will turn out since my father-in-law is on a big NA beer kick for some reason and I'm getting a bit tired of packing bottles every time I go there to play cards (because I'm not drinking President's Choice NA beer). I could just gift him a case, plus, it would help me decrease my waistline without cutting too much on beer consumption.

Good luck!

I'd also like to tinker with the tafelbier recipe and find a good mild to keep on hand when I want a beer that doesn't kick my butt after a couple of rounds.

zuesy · 01-11-2011, 11:25 PM

I made this: http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2010/11/lets-brew-wednesday-1804-barclay.html (coincidentally from the Shut up about Barclay Perkins). It came out at 1.024.

I don't see your boil time in the recipe; I would suggest a longer boil. It tends to give me better carmalization and a thicker wort without sacrificing efficiency. One thing I've noticed on the old beers on that blog, they boiled them for a looonnngg time.

I did this one at 90 the first time and 120 the second. The second brew seemed to be 'thicker' to me. HTH

jfr1111 · 01-12-2011, 12:10 AM

The problem I can see with a longer boil is that you need a bigger starting volume and my setup's boil rate hovers around 13-15%. A bigger starting volume can mean a lesser gravity starting wort or bigger final efficiency. In normal/big beers, that's not a problem, since you're not likely to be extracting tannins by sparging a gallon or two more. But with something that FINISHES at 1.028 after the boil, I'd be worried that the final runnings might dip very, very low.

I might just brew this as a no sparge and shoot for 7.00 in the kettle and boil part of it way down on the stove. Probably not an accurate technique for a mild, but what the hell.

**motobrewer** · 01-12-2011, 01:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jfr1111

Here's the recipe, aptly called "Recession Mild":

OG: 1.028 (yes!)
SRM: 20
IBU: 17
Est. Alc. 2,64

4,00 lb Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3,0 SRM) Grain 72,73 %
0,75 lb Extra Dark Crystal 135 (135,0 SRM) Grain 13,64 %
0,50 lb Pale Chocolate Malt (250,0 SRM) Grain 9,09 %
0,25 lb Oats, Flaked (1,0 SRM) Grain 4,55 %
0,75 oz Willamette [5,50 %] (60 min) Hops 16,3 IBU
1 Pkgs SafAle English Ale (DCL Yeast #S-04) Yeast-Ale

Mash @ 160
Ferment at the med to high range of yeast to produce some esters

I went by Jamil's suggestion to use a high proportion of spciality malt in very low gravity beers to keep the mouthfeel from becoming too watery/thin (he basically advocates keeping the amounts the same when dropping gravity). I might sub the small amount of oats for cooked pearl barley (I don't have flaked on hand).

Not so sure about the yeast yet. I might just use London Ale III since I'm mianly looking to produce a cake for my Barleywine and its the use I've finally chosen for it.

I'm really happy for you, and Imma let you finish...

but Orfy has one of the best mild recipes of all time!! of all time!!!!