adding grains to extract brew

I have found a clone recipe (all extract) that I am thinking of adding a few pounds of 2 row grains to...in hopes that it gives it a bit sweeter taste, and a bit more body. What would be the downs of doing this and ups possibly? Its a vienna lager and I am thinking a vienna and a Briess malt. Any comments or suggestions would be great

jbaddison33 said:

I have found a clone recipe (all extract) that I am thinking of adding a few pounds of 2 row grains to...in hopes that it gives it a bit sweeter taste, and a bit more body. What would be the downs of doing this and ups possibly? Its a vienna lager and I am thinking a vienna and a Briess malt. Any comments or suggestions would be great

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How do you plan to add them? By steeping? If that's the case then your looking to do a partial mash and if that's the case maybe considering moving to all grain is the way to go. If its because of money then IMO, I think you should stick to straight extract batches. If money is not a concern or you don't want a ton of extra equipment, look into upgrading your kettle to the biggest size you can afford, and search for the Brew In A Bag (BIAB) technique. If I would have been clued into this early on, I would have quickly moved to all-grain. I always thought brewing extract would save me tons of time, but I found that not to be the case and my beers were soooo much better. Anyway, that's my 2 cents.

If you're going to mash 2-row, you're upping the fermentable sugars in the recipe, which means more alcohol. You'll likely just thin out the beer and up the alcohol. Use some steeping grains like crystal malts to add body and sweetness.

jbaddison33 said:

I have found a clone recipe (all extract) that I am thinking of adding a few pounds of 2 row grains to...in hopes that it gives it a bit sweeter taste, and a bit more body. What would be the downs of doing this and ups possibly? Its a vienna lager and I am thinking a vienna and a Briess malt. Any comments or suggestions would be great

Click to expand...

If you are steeping base grains you are actually mashing, and you are doing a partial mash. I just did my first partial mash 2 weeks ago and found that the process is very similar to extract with steeped grains, just more grain, a bit more steeping time and attention to temperature and water volume is more important. I've documented my process here: My Partial Mash Brewing Process » Beer And Garden

You can plug in your recipe quantities to a recipe calculator to see how it affects your recipe - you may want to reduce your quantity of extract or increase the volume slightly if you want to follow the recipe as closely as possible and end up with similar OG & FG numbers.

There is Munich LME you might consider, or a carapils/carmel combination, or maybe even dextrin...these contribute to flavor/texture.

Without knowing your grain bill it's hard to suggest but in all likelihood the majority of your extract base is from a base 2-row grain already.

thanks everyone for your replys! good brewing