malts to bump a helles (limited selection) target gravity

I think I miscalculated when I ordered my Helles ingredients. I'm coming up a few points shy in BeerSmith.

I have Wheat DME, but I'm afraid that might be out of style. What about Honey Malt? American Pale 2row? 2 points would put me into style, 4 would be where I was shooting for.

on the shelf I've got:

caramel 10
caramel 60
melanoiden (28-30L)
black malt
american pale 2row (1.8L)
dark munic malt (8-10L)
Honey Malt

Extract-wise, I've got the wheat DME and I have a light liquid extract. Althought I must say, it's not that light in the end result, I use it to make my starters and they look like ambers.

Any suggestions? the 2 points might not seem like a lot, but if I undershoot again by 2 points of that, like I did earlier today, that would be 4 points below style target.

What is your current grain bill? Without knowing, I would go with some munich and maybe a touch of melanoidin (unless you're doing a decoction). But a little munich and melanoidin could take you into a darker SRM that's out of style (if you're trying to stick with style), depending on what's already in your recipe.

EDIT: Otherwise, you could try to think fast about improving your efficiency.

Amount Item Type
8.50 lb Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain
0.50 lb Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain
0.13 lb Melanoiden Malt (20.0 SRM) Grain

mash 150F, 50min
decoct to 158, 20 min
decoct to mash-out (170) 10min

batch sparge (2 batches after initial drain).

I've got a little melanoiden in there already, and with the decoction...

edit to add: color in BeerSmith is 4.2 of a 3-5 SRM right now.

menschmaschine said:

EDIT: Otherwise, you could try to think fast about improving your efficiency.

Click to expand...

This came up today as I was updating my beersmith stuff. I missed efficiency on my batch today, and so I switched to today's efficiency to be sure I could make it if I screwed up or had the same low performance on the helles, and it dropped me below. I will certainly be working it as hard as I can (stirring well, making temps, etc.). If I come in at my previous efficiency, I should be just barely okay.

I figured if I had something in the cabinet that I could add to get that 2 points, I would not have to worry if I had a repeat of lousy efficiency (by lousy I mean 70% vs. 76%)

I'd make up for it with as much Munich malt as you can while staying below 5 SRM. If you start to get over the SRM with the Munich malt, make up for it with Am. Pale 2-Row. If you're doing a decoction, you can lose the melanoidin all together, which would allow you to use more Munich malt as far as SRM goes. That is to say, if you're doing a thick decoction from a protein/saccharification rest. If you're just doing a thin one at mash-out, keep the melanoidin because I don't think a mash-out decoction does much for maltiness.

first time ever, I ordered the grains in the "recipe bag option" from AHS, so I can't pull anything out.

I should have known not to mess with a good thing!

Maybe I'll play in beersmith and see how much color I get out of the malts I've got on a per-point basis. I'll make the goal to add as little of anything as possible to avoid it being noticeable in the flavor.

half pound of pale malt adds the 2 points, also only .1 srm. Think the flavor of that half pound will be noticeable in the rest of this bill?

Nah, I don't think it will be noticable. Go for it!