Simple Higher Alcohol Extract Brew On A Budget

Anyone have a recipe or suggestions for the following?:

- 6 gallon recipe
- alcohol content 5.5% to 7%
- no grains
- limited hops

I'm thinking of just going to a brew shop and getting a bunch of malt extract and a small amount of hops to make just a strong ale that involves dry yeast.


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If you like something Belgian-ish, try this:

Ten pounds of golden light LME OR Eight Pounds of Golden Light DME
One pound of Sugar
1 ounce of Northern Brewer hops for 60 minutes
.5 ounce of Styrian Goldings for 20 minutes
.5 ounce of Styrian Goldings at flameout
2 packs of Danstar Bell Saison yeast.

Ought to be decent and in the 6.5% abv range.

You could replace 25% of the LME or DME with wheat extract or a darker extract if you feel so inclined.

Also, if you are feeling cheap and/or adventurous, you could go with one pack of yeast- but its going to kick up a bunch more esters (due to stressed yeast) which may or may not be what you are looking for. Some argue that underpitching is one of the secrets to achieving "Belgian character."

That looks sweet! I might try it, thanks!


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Just curious, why are you insisting it be high ABV? You could make some amazing session beer for cheap, and it'll be delicious, just not exactly high alcohol, more in the 3.5-5% range which is still nothing to sneeze at compared to MBC.

http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/108392/cheap-old-ale

I just whipped that together using Brewers Friend. Uses nothing but Amber LME, 1oz Nugget, 1oz Goldings. True to style for Old Ale. Runs $33.01 + shipping from Northern Brewer, might be cheaper elsewhere.

Thanks for the input CP3 but that bull**** website requires an account which requires a fee then says "error"...please just be rationale and post the actual recipe...meanwhile I would like to thank all the legit members of home brew talk forums, your input has been absolutely awesome! Thank you!


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Pick a style with limited hops, and
Wheats, Belgians or Browns come to mind
and add a pound of sugar during boil. My brewing group has tinkered with this very thing, seeing how high ABV they can get by dumping in sugar, and we've found that getting too greedy (more than 2 lbs) sometimes leads to the yeast getting pooped out and the beer not bottle carbing.



One advantage of Belgains is you can use Trappist High Gravity yeast which has a higher alc tolerance. If you brew a belgian recipe with 6ish lbs of extract, just add the sugar to boil and use the high grav yeast and see what happens.

A late addition of nutrient/energizer(minimal cost) would help as well (after gravity drops .20 from OG) to keep the yeasties going for that extra ABV kick

Just realize that this will take longer to ferment than a 3.5-5% batch.

Good luck.

Another advantage of the Belle Saison yeast, is it will have a final gravity of 1.005-ish, with just about with any starting gravity. I have made 10-12% Saisons with that Danstar Belle Saison. It is a beast. My problem is trying to make 5% beer with it.

Monty

SO if I only used 6 lbs. of LME and say 1 LB of sugar for a batch around 6 gallons, and Trappist High Gravity yeast, it would have a high ABV?

That sounds like the cheapest route, if I'm going for a beglian-style, what single set of hops would be best and when should I use them?


Thanks

As I look back at the recipe we made, it actually had a few more ingredients than i remembered, but the total cost of additional stuff should be $4 or so at LHBS
Most recipes call for steeping .5 lbs carapils, but its your call if u want to do this
6lbs of Pilsen or Gold LME.
1+ lbs of Sugar during boil
Use 1oz German bittering hops at 60min: Tradition or Perle
Use 1 oz Saaz at 15min

I assume you have a hydrometer. If you don't, get one. Especially important for this so you won't get impatient while its still eating the sugar sweetness away. I've heard of these taking up to 6 weeks (1-2 primary, up to 4 secondary) to finish, so just keep an eye on it.

My belgian saison comes in at 1.078 and drops to about 1.005 with 3711. No steeping grains, 25-30 Ibus. I use a combo of white and brown sugar to boost the gravity. I have made it a number of times with big new world hops--usually a combo of Galaxy+Nelson Sauvin and most recently with only Amarillo. But really, use what you can find up in AK. This time I tried the Belle Saison Danstar yeast--very similar (but doesn't seem to drop on its own like 3711). 3787 would make a different beer. Oh, and I only do a 30 minute min boil. It is incredibly quick to brew, takes about 3-4 weeks, bottle, adrinkable and usually goes very quickly to friends and neighbors.

If you are trying to do it on a budget, you may want to consider hops in bulk, propagating yeast, etc.

table sugar or dextrose??

White granulated sugar from the grocery store. Cheap and effective.