Noob recipe modification

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cfresh

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Melbourne, OZ
Hi,

After much reading I am going to post my first post and I hope its not too silly.
I have been kit brewing for 2 or 3 years and have been happy with the result but have always wanted to go that little step further. Whilst in the UK I have found an ale that is magnificent (well to me anyway). It sort of reminds me of a Coopers Real Ale kit but a bit darker and definately more bitter. The bottle says it uses first gold hops but they are not readily available in Oz so (here comes the madness) I was thinking if I used a Coopers Real Ale kit with Goldings Finishing hops and for color use some Black Roasted steeping grains. I have never used grains before so I will be experimenting. So 2 questions. 1. Is Goldings the closest I will get to first Gold in Oz? 2. Is using Black Roasted steeping grain silly?

Also im having trouble working out what difference to final ABV steeping say 500g of Black Roasted will do to a 21L batch

Thanks for all your help in advance and I hope my first post isnt too silly
 
I'm a beginner myself, but to answer your second question, steeping the black roasted grains is not a silly idea. Surely it will darken your beer, but are you after a darker color, or the flavor you associate with the darker color? In addition to darkening the color of your beer, steeping the black roasted grains will impart the flavor of the grains as well (and is actually normally the main purpose), and the amount of flavor will of course depend on the amount of grain you steep.

Regarding ABV, I would say that as a general rule that steeping grains is more about imparting flavor than providing fermentables to raise the alcohol content (although it does that to some extent). If you use some beer recipe software, you can let the software do the computations for you. I've tried the BeerSmith software, at beersmith.com, and with it you can play with the ingredients (and amounts of ingredients) and see the different effects of ingredients on ABV, color, and bitterness, for example.

Good luck.
 
bitteral said:
I'm a beginner myself, but to answer your second question, steeping the black roasted grains is not a silly idea. Surely it will darken your beer, but are you after a darker color, or the flavor you associate with the darker color? In addition to darkening the color of your beer, steeping the black roasted grains will impart the flavor of the grains as well (and is actually normally the main purpose), and the amount of flavor will of course depend on the amount of grain you steep.

Regarding ABV, I would say that as a general rule that steeping grains is more about imparting flavor than providing fermentables to raise the alcohol content (although it does that to some extent). If you use some beer recipe software, you can let the software do the computations for you. I've tried the BeerSmith software, at beersmith.com, and with it you can play with the ingredients (and amounts of ingredients) and see the different effects of ingredients on ABV, color, and bitterness, for example.

Good luck.

Thanks for the response Bitteral,

I think I want to achieve a slightly darker ale color but not influence the flavour too much, I believe the hops will do that for me. It might be best if I try the kit with the finishing hops first and then maybe try a little steeping if its not what I expected. Doing the both at once is probably not a good step for a noob.
 
The hops won't affect the color of the beer. If you just use a couple of ounces of something like chocolate malt and don't steep very long it should darken the beer without affecting the flavor too much.

I would take two or three ounces of Chocolate Malt, put it in as soon as you turn on the heat, and then remove when the temp gets to 150. It won't really have much time to steep so the flavor impact should be minimal but it will definately darken the beer... But then again I like to experiment a lot.

Good luck and let us know how it turns out.:mug:
 
EmptyH said:
The hops won't affect the color of the beer. If you just use a couple of ounces of something like chocolate malt and don't steep very long it should darken the beer without affecting the flavor too much.

I would take two or three ounces of Chocolate Malt, put it in as soon as you turn on the heat, and then remove when the temp gets to 150. It won't really have much time to steep so the flavor impact should be minimal but it will definately darken the beer... But then again I like to experiment a lot.

Good luck and let us know how it turns out.:mug:

Thanks for the tip! It was starting to dawn upon me that Black Roasted is really for stouts :drunk: The Chocolate malt sounds like a much better idea. My brewing buddy often tells me off for messing around with my brews so im glad someone else does :D
 
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