Straight 2 row barley beer?

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frontiercdk

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I am doing my first all grain batch this weekend (10 gallons). I want to get close to the Brewers Best American Light that I have been making.I have to local brew stores. One gave me a recipe that would cost just under 50 bucks. The other told me to just use two row barley. No other grains at all. It would cost me around 36 smackers, Good idea or not? Anyone got any better ideas?
 
To get something approaching an American Light, you'll want some adjuncts in there (corn or rice) and maybe some simple sugar to really dry it out.

However: a beer with one type of malt and one type of hop is referred to as a Single Malt and Single Hop (SMaSH) beer, and is a great way to get into all grain. It's a simple beer and you really get to learn the ingredients. Check this thread out:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/best-smash-recipe-youve-made-336665/
 
If you want an American Light, you'll want some US two-row and maybe some flaked corn and/or flaked rice. (Minute Rice is great for this!). I can not see it costing anywhere near $50!
 
I can make 11 gallons of my light cream ale for $12. This is where buying grain in bulk and reusing yeast come into play!

I agree on the corn and/or rice to make it truly low body and dry. Also mashing on the low side will help dry out your beer...shoot for a mash of 148-150F for 80 minutes.
 
Man, thanks for the input. The brew is an extract kit ( http://www.brewersbestkits.com/pdf/1018 2013 American Light Recipe.pdf ). Any help IS apriciated!

Wouldn't mind if it was a little higher in achohol content.

I would probably do something like this for a 5 gal batch:

5 lbs 2-row malt
2 lbs Pilsen (Pilsner) malt
1 lb Flaked Corn
0.5 lb minute rice

Mash at 150F for 80 minutes

Same hop schedule but 25% less bittering hop if you do a full boil down to 5 gallons. I aim for 16 ibu's.

Fermentis US-05 dry yeast

Would be around 4.5% abv. You could add another 8-12oz of table sugar or corn sugar if you want to dry it out further and boost alcohol to 5%+

This is almost exactly the recipe I use for my light cream ale and it's highly drinkable and cheap! You can use generic unsweetened corn flakes for the corn and generic "minute rice" instead of flaked rice. I get my minute rice from the dollar store along with the corn flakes!
 
Yall talking about " Toney the Tiger" type corn flake cerial? Except not sweetened.
 
I don't think you should use breakfast cereal for this - looking at the ingredients for Kellog's Corn Flakes, for instance, it includes Sugar, Malt Flavoring, and Salt. Flaked Corn, which you can get at your LHBS, is just corn processed in a specific way so that you can add it directly to your mash without having to first do a cereal mash on it. I've read you can also use some form of grits or quick grits as a substitute, but I don't know the details off hand.
 
Yes, corn flakes don't contain the germ so any sugar content would be from the sugar they add to it. If you've had success with it in the past then great. I think it really is only in there for the recipe to add corn flavor and further dry it out which the cereal would more than likely do. I think flaked corn might be more authentic though.
 
Yall talking about " Toney the Tiger" type corn flake cerial? Except not sweetened.

Like Kellogs Corn flakes.

Real flaked corn is better but when I've made my cream ale with corn flakes it still tastes pretty much the same.
 
Like Kellogs Corn flakes.

Real flaked corn is better but when I've made my cream ale with corn flakes it still tastes pretty much the same.

Check out a couple of the posts above - if you're using that, you're not really getting any sugars from corn. You might as well be adding a tablespoon or two of table sugar to your kettle and skipping the corn flakes (and maybe a pinch of salt I guess). Not that I'm saying that'd be wrong - just that it'd be easier.
 
Check out a couple of the posts above - if you're using that, you're not really getting any sugars from corn. You might as well be adding a tablespoon or two of table sugar to your kettle and skipping the corn flakes (and maybe a pinch of salt I guess). Not that I'm saying that'd be wrong - just that it'd be easier.

I did read those.

My guess is that the corn flakes still impart flavor to the wort even if the sugar they add is not from the corn itself but from other ingredients in the corn flakes.

Corn is intended to lighten the body and boost the alcohol slightly which is pretty much the idea behind adding table sugar to your recipe.
 
I didn't mean to say in my above post that corn flakes wouldn't work to give off the corn flavor, merely that I would probably use flaked corn instead. You should indeed get some corn flavor and it will lighten the body which is what you want from the corn.

I prefer to use as little processed foods for fermenting as possible. Without research you never know if that preservative in your store brand corn cereal will affect your yeast and with light beers that can really stand out.
 
Jayhem said:
I can make 11 gallons of my light cream ale for $12. This is where buying grain in bulk and reusing yeast come into play!

I agree on the corn and/or rice to make it truly low body and dry. Also mashing on the low side will help dry out your beer...shoot for a mash of 148-150F for 80 minutes.

I am impressed. Where do you buy your bulk grain?
 
I was in a hurry to go by and pick up my ingredients today. Went to my local brew store (left my !@#$%^ recipe at home!) and picked up 12lbs pilson, 1 lb flaked rice, 8oz corn sugar, 1 oz east kent golding (1/2 for bitter, 1/2 for aroma). I plugged the recipe into beersmith and OG is low. The brew stores are closed on Sunday. I have an extra 5 oz of priming sugar (is that corn sugar?). I was thinking of using a pound of regular sugar along with the extra priming sugar to raise th OG. Would minute rice do the same thing? If so what would I use in beer smith to represent?
 
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