Thunder_Chicken
Well-Known Member
I'm just sampled my first batch of the extract Centennial Blonde recipe. Not bad, but it tasted rather malty. The extract version had a similar OG as the all grain recipe, but the FG was significantly higher (1.012 vs 1.008 for the AG version). In a bigger beer these points would probably not be noticed but they are definitely adding more malt to the flavor for this small beer.
I've used the Brewer's Friend Beer Recipe Calculator to investigate recipes in the past. I entered the original extract recipe for Centennial Blonde, then changed out a portion of the extract for table sugar with the idea to match the OG but make the wort more fermentable so as to also match the FG of the all grain recipe. However, this calculator appears to simply run all fermentables through an average attenuation, so if the OG doesn't change then the FG won't either.
From my experience ale yeasts like Nottingham have an average attenuation of 77% quoted for average beer worts, but they'll take cider musts (nearly all simple sugars) down to 1.000 for 100% attenuation.
Is is wrong or too simplistic to apply an attenuation of ~77% for most extracts, yet assuming 100% for simpler sugars? I have a spreadsheet where I do this for the Centennial recipe and I can match both the OG and FG of the all grain recipe by doing this, but I haven't brewed it yet. The original recipe used 5 lbs of DME. I've removed 1 lb of DME from that recipe and substituted 0.75 lbs of table sugar.
I've used the Brewer's Friend Beer Recipe Calculator to investigate recipes in the past. I entered the original extract recipe for Centennial Blonde, then changed out a portion of the extract for table sugar with the idea to match the OG but make the wort more fermentable so as to also match the FG of the all grain recipe. However, this calculator appears to simply run all fermentables through an average attenuation, so if the OG doesn't change then the FG won't either.
From my experience ale yeasts like Nottingham have an average attenuation of 77% quoted for average beer worts, but they'll take cider musts (nearly all simple sugars) down to 1.000 for 100% attenuation.
Is is wrong or too simplistic to apply an attenuation of ~77% for most extracts, yet assuming 100% for simpler sugars? I have a spreadsheet where I do this for the Centennial recipe and I can match both the OG and FG of the all grain recipe by doing this, but I haven't brewed it yet. The original recipe used 5 lbs of DME. I've removed 1 lb of DME from that recipe and substituted 0.75 lbs of table sugar.