Victory Malt in a Pale Ale

I'm going to add some Victory malt to my standard pale ale as a grain school batch. I've never used Victory before. Is a pound too much here? I want to really taste it, but I don't want to ruin a good beer.

I'll also probably change hops to Amarillo or Cascades this time.


Type: All Grain
Date: 10/18/2008
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Brewer: Quicksilver Home Brewery
Boil Size: 7.00 gal Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 60 min Equipment: Brew Pot (7.5 gal) and Cooler (50 qt)
Taste Rating(out of 50): 35.0 Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00
Taste Notes:

Ingredients

Amount Item Type % or IBU
8 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 68.09 %
1 lbs 8.0 oz Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM) Grain 12.77 %
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 8.51 %
1 lbs Victory Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 8.51 %
4.0 oz Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 2.13 %
1.00 oz Ahtanum [5.60 %] (75 min) (First Wort Hop) Hops 22.7 IBU
1.00 oz Cascade [5.90 %] Hops - Keg hop
0.50 oz Ahtanum [5.60 %] (45 min) Hops 9.1 IBU
0.50 oz Ahtanum [5.60 %] (5 min) Hops 2.0 IBU
1.00 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 min) Misc
2.00 tsp Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash 60.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs Safale (Fermentis #US-56) Yeast-Ale

Victory's not that overpowering a character malt; I think a pound will be fine. It's usually something you see in darker beers (nut browns are classic candidates for including Victory). Kind of a nutty flavor, it's not something I would immediately think of with an American-hopped pale ale but hell, it's only beer! I might think about changing up to more of an English-style pale ale to showcase the Victory, but that's just me.

the_bird said:

Victory's not that overpowering a character malt; I think a pound will be fine. It's usually something you see in darker beers (nut browns are classic candidates for including Victory). Kind of a nutty flavor, it's not something I would immediately think of with an American-hopped pale ale but hell, it's only beer! I might think about changing up to more of an English-style pale ale to showcase the Victory, but that's just me.

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That's a good point. I have some other hops I can use I think.

Besides learning the grains, I'm really trying to pinpoint the flavors in my favorite beer - Calico Amber from Ballast Point. It has a toffee, sort of nutty and very malty flavor that has sort of an English taste to it in my opinion, but they do use American hops. The descriptions I've read about Victory make me think they may put some in the recipe.

I wouldn't change anything but the malt. It will be easier to pick out the flavor change that way.....

Aubie Stout said:

I wouldn't change anything but the malt. It will be easier to pick out the flavor change that way.....

Click to expand...

Yeah, I'd rather not change hops at all, but I have to if I want to brew today. I couldn't get Centennials. I know what the other options taste like, so it should be fine.

This is a good way to test for tastes. I just did a pilsner with 1lb of Victory to see what it would be like. It's good, but different, so I think a Pale Ale should taste very good

The sample out of the kettle tasted good. My efficiency was absolutely horrible - I siphoned out of the kettle when I've always just dumped everything in before. I had to top up quite a bit of water and hadn't adjusted the grain bill. 60% should still be good enough to taste the new grain.

That said, I used 5.6% Ahtanum hops instead of my usual 9.0% Centennial. The lower efficiency will help the ol' IBU situation out a bit as I only had 2 ounces to play with and could only get just over 30 IBU's including a late addition.