Help Me Create a Recipe

I've gotta run to my brew site tomorrow to bottle up a batch of mild and figured I might as well brew a batch while I had a free afternoon. As funds are kind of tight, that ole' economy is killing the landscape business, I was wondering what I could pick up to put together a brew with the grains that I have.

I was thinking I could do something by just adding DME, hops and yeast.

The grains I have for steeping are:

1/4 lb chocolate malt
3/4 lb biscuit belgian 2 row
1/2 lb caramel malt crystal 80 6 row

I wanted to create something fairly light for the woman, she won't drink my stouts and porters. I'm currently limited to extract. Thank you much for any help.

Jason

Do you mean light in color, light in body/flavor, just a bit lighter than your black beers or a mix of all three?

Steep a half-pound of Biscuit and add enough Pale extract to get an OG of ~1050. Bitter to no more than 25 IBUs and add just a touch - no more than a half-ounce in five gallons - of hops at flameout. Ferment cool with a clean ale yeast like S-05 or Nottingham.

You can brew a very nice Amber Ale by steeping all the Crystal, 6 oz of the Biscuit, 1 oz of the Chocolate for color, and adding enough Pale extract to get to get to ~1.050. Bitter to about 30 IBU and finish with some American hops. Ferment with S-05 if you like dry yeast, or White Labs Cal V if you like liquid. This will make a very fine Amber, methinks.

Cheers!

Bob

Will 6 lbs of Pilsen work for the extract to achieve 1.050, and is Pilsen right? Also would an ounce of cascade at 60 minutes and a half ounce at flameout work? Oh and I tasted your session mild I brewed a couple of weeks ago, bottling tomorrow, already tastes great. Thanks for all your help.

Yeah, Briess Pilsen extract is fine. It's the palest out there, and it's already got some CaraPils in it.

As for 'an ounce' for bittering, it depends on the AA%. For example, an ounce of pellets at 5% in a 3-gallon concentrated wort, yields around 22 IBU. If you do full boil - or practice late extract addition - you can get 25 IBU out of that amount. Frankly, I don't think I'd notice the difference between 22 and 25 IBU, so I wouldn't worry about it. And yeah, Cascades will be fine in this, I think. Just keep the flameout hops restrained.

I'm extremely gratified the Mild recipe is giving satisfaction!

Bob

Thanks for all your help Bob, good to have experience on your side. Picked up lots of little bits of information through your posts.

Cheers

Just went to the LHBS and had to make some alterations, but heres what I came up with.

Grain bill as listed above
8 oz crystal 80
6 oz biscuit
1 oz chocolate

5.5 lbs American Ultra Light DME

1 oz Cascade

Wyest 1272 American Ale II Yeast

Do you think it would be beneficial to add 3/4 of the hops at 60 minutes and the last 1/4 at 2 minutes? I think this should work for a fine Amber Ale. Also does anyone else find that their LHBS hop prices are ridiculous, everything else seems on par with the online retailers but the hops, WOW!

Yes to the hops question. That ought to provide a nice profile.

Also, while my LHBS prices are higher than the big online retailers, there's something about keeping it local and supporting another small business - and knowing by name and face the people that work with me - that keeps me going back.

Bob

jmp138 said:

Also does anyone else find that their LHBS hop prices are ridiculous, everything else seems on par with the online retailers but the hops, WOW!

Click to expand...

HELL YES!
$4.50/once is the cheapest.
i buy from freshops @ $2.00-$2.25/oz and buy enough that the shipping does not add more than a tiny bit per once cost.

almost time for another order, and here i thought i was good for a LONG time

There is a great deal to be said for supporting the LHBS, my guys are great and never hesitate to spend the time with me to fully explain questions I have. I think thats something that is being lost in America, your local retailer who is truly interested in the customer. $4.00 hops here I come!