msmith92

Recipes 

Do they contribute toward the OG?

unionrdr

Recipes 

__________________
Everything works if ya let it-Roady(meatloaf)

msmith92

Recipes 

Interesting. So, I have some extra grains laying around and I had purchased everything else for the following recipe. Any thoughts on what kind of beer this would be?

Type: Extract w/grain Size: 5.00 gallons
Color:
45 HCU (~20 SRM)
Bitterness: 14 IBU
OG: 1.052 FG: 1.012
Alcohol: 5.2% v/v (4.1% w/w)
Grain:
2 lb. Belgian biscuit
2 lb. American crystal 20L
2 lb. British crystal 50-60L
Boil: 60minutes SG 1.105 2.5 gallons
3 lb. Light malt extract
1.5 lb. Light dry malt extract
Hops: 1 oz. Kent Goldings (5% AA, 60 min.)
1 oz. Kent Goldings (5% AA, 15 min.)

Yooper

Recipes 

It looks undrinkable to me- way too sweet (4 pounds of crystal!), with way too much biscuit malt, sorry to say.

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Broken Leg Brewery
Giving beer a leg to stand on since 2006

TyTanium

Recipes 

Thick and syrupy with 4 pounds of crystal. Go easy with specialty grains...a little goes a long way. Half a pound to a pound works well.

1lb biscuit and 1lb C60 could make a nice amber....or 0.5 lb C20 and 0.5lb C60

RM-MN

Recipes 

As an example of how much to add, I'm doing a recipe that calls for 4 ounces of bisquit malt for 5 gallons and it will be enough to give the batch the proper flavor.

msmith92

Recipes 

No feelings hurt here.

So, I'm just trying to get a grasp of what they do.

I'm confused because 6lbs of extract syrup tends to be alright in a recipe with 1lb of grains. but if I cut it down to 3lbs of syrup and 3lbs of grains it gets to sweet or syrupy?

Yooper

Recipes 

Well, this is more complicated than that. Because, I make beer with 10 pounds of grains and no syrup- but it depends on the kind of grains.

I'll use a cooking analogy here. Specialty grains are like spices in spaghetti sauce. They bring color, flavor, aroma, and great things to the beer just as onions and garlic and oregano help make the spaghetti sauce great.

But you wouldn't make a spaghetti sauce with 4 pounds of onions and 1 jar of tomato sauce. You'd want the tomato sauce to be the major component.

The same is true with beer. You want base malt (LME, DME or base grains) for the "base" of the beer. You will add some biscuit malt (garlic in my analogy), and some crystal malt (onions), with some hops (oregano).

The key is balance.

Some grains ARE base grains, but "specialty" grains are the grains that don't require mashing and instead can be thought of as the "spices" in your wort.

I hope that makes sense!

In your recipe, you can cut the biscuit malt to .5 pound, and the total crystal to 1 pound, and have a nice beer. If you need the OG to be higher, increase the base malt extract, NOT the specialty grains.

__________________
Broken Leg Brewery
Giving beer a leg to stand on since 2006

msmith92

Recipes 

Nice analogy! That works good for me.

Thank you.

msmith92

Recipes 

How about this?

Beer: PARTIAL MASH BITTER Style: English Ordinary Bitter
Type: Partial mash Size: 5.00 gallons
Color:
7 HCU (~6 SRM)
Bitterness: 26 IBU
OG: 1.045 FG: 1.012
Alcohol: 4.3% v/v (3.4% w/w)
Grain: 3.5 lb. American 2-row
.25 lb. Belgian biscuit
.5 lb. American crystal 10L
Mash: 70% efficiency
Boil: minutes SG 1.090 2.5 gallons
3.15 lb. Light malt extract
Hops: 1 oz. Kent Goldings (5% AA, 60 min.)
.5 oz. Kent Goldings (5% AA, 30 min.)
.5 oz. Kent Goldings (5% AA, 15 min.)
1 oz. Willamette (5% AA, 15 min.)