What to Brew?

I'm trying to use up some spare grains from a couple past batches but can't seem to find a recipe that'll help me use them up. I'm hoping to find a recipe that uses at least 2 or 3 of the ingredients I already have on hand, so I figured I'd poll the community to see if anyone with a bit more experience could help me out.

I currently have:
6lb and 3lb Pale LME
2lb Flaked oats (1lb bags)
2lb Crystal (80L) (1lb bags)
1lb and 4.5oz Roasted barley
1lb Chocolate
.5lb Flaked white wheat
5.5oz Black patent
9.5oz Flaked rye
6oz Warrior hops (~15%)

I'm comfortable (and have the means of) doing a partial mash, which I trust I'll need in order to get rid of some of these components, and I'm happy to head to the LHBS to grab some additional materials. So, any suggestions? I'm thinking there are the makings of a stout or two in there, but I haven't created enough recipes myself to be comfortable trying to concoct one.

smagee said:

I'm trying to use up some spare grains from a couple past batches but can't seem to find a recipe that'll help me use them up. I'm hoping to find a recipe that uses at least 2 or 3 of the ingredients I already have on hand, so I figured I'd poll the community to see if anyone with a bit more experience could help me out.

I currently have:
6lb and 3lb Pale LME
2lb Flaked oats (1lb bags)
2lb Crystal (80L) (1lb bags)
1lb and 4.5oz Roasted barley
1lb Chocolate
.5lb Flaked white wheat
5.5oz Black patent
9.5oz Flaked rye
6oz Warrior hops (~15%)

I'm comfortable (and have the means of) doing a partial mash, which I trust I'll need in order to get rid of some of these components, and I'm happy to head to the LHBS to grab some additional materials. So, any suggestions? I'm thinking there are the makings of a stout or two in there, but I haven't created enough recipes myself to be comfortable trying to concoct one.

Click to expand...

To me, it looks like you have the makings of a mild, brown ale, stout, or porter. If you want to utilize the flaked oats, wheat, or rye, you would need to do a partial mash. The remaining grains can be steeped. It really depends what style you want to shoot for. I would have to run the numbers through some software, but I bet you could make about 10 gallons of English mild, or a 5 gallon batch of a higher gravity stout or porter.

For a mild or brown ale, you could use the LME, crystal 80, and some chocolate malt. For a stout, you could use the LME, crystal, chocolate, and roasted barley. For a porter, replace the roasted barley with some black patent. Warrior hops are good for bittering, and you certainly have more than enough for any of the beer styles I mentioned.

Really, you could do a lot with the ingredients you have. It's really up to you what style you want to make.

I'd brew up a porter and stout. I'm not sure on how much LME to use, but you could use a brew program to get your #s exact

I'd say for the porter 1lb of Chocolate, .5-1lb of C-80, and 2.75oz of Black Patent.

For the stout I'd just use .5-1lb Roasted Barley, .5-1lb C-80, maybe 1lb of flaked oats, and 2.75oz Black Patent. (Trying to equally distribute and utilize all of your Black Patent)

I'm sure you could throw a few oz of the flaked wheat in either of them for more head retention if you wanted also.

You could probably use a little magnum as bittering, but I know you typically want an english style hop for any flavor/aroma(which you don't want much of anyway-like East Kent Goldings, Willamette, Fuggle etc.

I have been more engulfed in hoppy brews lately, but have been doing some research on the porters/stouts, and plan to make a more traditional porter soon. Check out some tried and true recipes and work in what ya got. Good luck!

steep/mash all specialty grains and oats for 50 minutes with 2 row barely in a large cheesecloth keep at around 158 degrees F.


3.3 lb amber Extract (10 min)
36 oz two row (mashed)
12 oz simpsons chocolate (mashed)
1 lb flaked oats (mashed)
1 lb crystal 60l (mashed)
8 oz de-husked carafan (mashed)
3 oz fuggle hops (50 min, 30 min)
8 oz malto dextrin (10 min)

you could try this recipe for an irish stout, just substitute the 60l for 80l, use whatever hops you want to get it around 50 ibu's, if you dont have maltodextrin you might want to try using 1.5 or 2 lbs of oats, and put black patent/roasted barley in instead of the dehusked carafa
do a partial mash with the oats and other specialty grains, make sure you have at least a pound of 2-row or pale malt to supply the enzymes for the malt

this recipe was one of the best stouts i have made

Thanks to all for the rather rapid feedback! It would seem a stout is at least one type that is well-suited to slimming down my supply. Given some quick tinkering in BeerSmith, how does this partial mash seem?

3lb Pale LME
2lb US 2 Row
1lb Flaked Oats
1lb Roasted Barley
.5lb Chocolate
.25lb Flaked Wheat
.5lb Malto Dextrin (5 min)

1oz Fuggles and .5oz Warrior @ 60min

WLP004 Irish Ale Yeast

I've never used Malto before, but I admit I'm curious. I'm worried that there won't be enough sweetness with the low extract level; is this unfounded? I'm limited by a 6 gallon brew kettle (with a 3 gallon for the initial mash), so I'm also somewhat concerned that there are too many grains to properly mash in the smaller container.

Also, assuming that recipe is viable, what affect does altering the boil time on the malto have? I think I went 5 minutes based on BeerSmith's default, but I see 10 minutes recommended above as well.

smagee said:

Also, assuming that recipe is viable, what affect does altering the boil time on the malto have? I think I went 5 minutes based on BeerSmith's default, but I see 10 minutes recommended above as well.

Click to expand...

the boil time on the malto doesnt matter, as long as you get it in at a high enough temp to sanitize it you are in the clear.

also, that looks like a great recipe to me, dont worry about the malto, it doesnt change the beer at all besides the body. if you want to make it a bit sweeter you could add some lactose, which would also up the body a bit

Thanks, I was considering adding a bit of lactose just for fun. I'll tinker in BeerSmith a bit and see if I can still keep it in the appropriate gravity range.

yeah i wouldnt hesitate on the lactose here is a slightly tweaked recipe of that stout with added lactose. it turned out to be dark, chocolatey, and very very thick

6 lb amber Extract (10 min)
1.5 lb two row (mashed)
1 lb chocolate wheat (mashed)
1 lb flaked oats (mashed)
1 lb crystal 60l (mashed)
8 oz de-husked carafan (mashed)
2 oz fuggle hops (50 min, 2 min)
1 oz perle hops (30 min)
8 oz malto dextrin (10 min)
8 oz lactose (10 min)