I accidentally created a great beer!

My first attempt at beer occured several months ago. I was going for something drinkable but not necessarily great because I wanted to pop one out quickly and then think about how to make good beer. It was an 8 L batch. I used 2.36 lbs of food-grade (not brewing grade) malt extract, 1.6 lbs honey, about 45 IBUs of cascade hops, and Safale S-04 yeast. Very simple. It fermented slowing for a looooong time, but I'm now drinking a great beer! I thought the cheap extract would render it mediocre, but I think the honey covered up the flaws. I ended up with 20 beers at a cost of about 30 cents per beer. I'm pleasantly surprised.

Next time I'll use 3 lbs of extract. Otherwise, I'll keep the recipe the same.

4lb. of fermentables (OG of maybe 1.030-035ish?) and 45 IBU is why the malt's 'flaws' are probably hidden. A nice hop bitterness/flavor/aroma can cover up a lot...

Anyway, I never knew there was a difference between food and brewing grade malt extract? WTH is the difference? I'm assuming LHBS sells brewing grade, so where do you buy foodgrade?

i say mix a bunch of @#@% together and see what you get, heck it could be fun....

thenatibrewer said:

i say mix a bunch of @#@% together and see what you get, heck it could be fun....

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O Man... I bet there are a number of college dudes who are sleeping off a 5-week Dorm Hooch hangover who would BEG to disagree with that one...

...In fact, many of them are posting on our boards in their moments of awful, awful sobriety...

SilkkyBrew said:

4lb. of fermentables (OG of maybe 1.030-035ish?) and 45 IBU is why the malt's 'flaws' are probably hidden. A nice hop bitterness/flavor/aroma can cover up a lot...

Anyway, I never knew there was a difference between food and brewing grade malt extract? WTH is the difference? I'm assuming LHBS sells brewing grade, so where do you buy foodgrade?

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It was four lbs of fermentables for 8 L (approximately 2 gal). So it had a pretty high OG. The difference between brewing/food-grade malt extract is the way they dry it from what I've heard. The brewing-grade is usually spray-dried so it dries quickly without carmelizing. Food-grade malt extract, on the other hand, is usually just boiled until it's tick, which darkens it considerably and some say that process removes flavors as well. Food-grade malt extract is used in cereals for the most part. I got mine at a health-food store for $ 1.50 per lb I think.

Food grade malt is the stuff you use in milk etc to get a malt flavoured drink, or add to your cereal/coffee. Its got a very malty flavour but its generally pretty dark its the consistency of honey. Its like LME but just not as high quality and not as many fermentables in it!

But hey, a mediocre malt is the least of your concerns, especially with honey and 45 IBUS to cover it up! I say great work!!!

Do you think it's the IBU's doing most of the cover up? It doesn't taste very bitter after a month and a half of aging. I think it's mostly the hop flavor rather than the bitterness.

hmmm, are you talking about "45 IBUS" of cascade hops (calculated with somthing like Promash) or are you meaning IBUS as an amount of hops, like oz. because .5oz cascade boiled for 5 mins, will not produce the same IBU as .5oz boiled for 60... But yes, I would presume that the hops do alot of mellowing, aswell as the honey... But, to be honest, I dont think that food grade malt was that bad to start out with.. In the end, its just malt!

Kadmium said:

But, to be honest, I dont think that food grade malt was that bad to start out with.. In the end, its just malt!

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You may be right about that; it's still malted barley after all.
I was talking about IBU's calculated with the recipator. I added the extract late and boiled .6 oz for 60 min, .2 oz for 15 min, and .2 oz for 5 min. The hops were 7.3 % alpha acid. I recalled the number 45 slightly incorrectly; I just ran recipator again and it came out to 48.4 IBU's. Seems high, but the brew isn't very bitter at all. Cheers!