I'm looking for a good recipe kit for my first partial mash brew. I'd like to get rid of that extract twang I've been getting, so maybe partial mash will get me closer to what I want. Does anybody have a suggestion for a good recipe kit? I'm considering a lager if I can figure out how to get my wine fridge fermentation chamber cold enough.
Any suggestions for a good partial mash recipe kit?
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well, i've been using the austin homebrew PM kits. so far i've done, Double chocolate stout, ordinary bitter, Cream ale, and i have the American Red Ale in the fermenter now.
all turned out very well, with no twang. i think that its the quality of the extract that you are using that might cause it. i used to do MR. Beer kits. they all that that twang. after that i did a christmas ale recipe which was a PM with Northern brewer extract, and that came out excellent.
i say you cant go wrong with any of the Austin Homebrew PM kits. Go For It!
all turned out very well, with no twang. i think that its the quality of the extract that you are using that might cause it. i used to do MR. Beer kits. they all that that twang. after that i did a christmas ale recipe which was a PM with Northern brewer extract, and that came out excellent.
i say you cant go wrong with any of the Austin Homebrew PM kits. Go For It!
Here's a number of kits from Seven Bridges Cooperative http://www.breworganic.com/mash-extractkits.aspx
I don't know that I've ever experienced extract twang (I've only done maybe two all-extract batches, and always added the extract late, anyway), but BierMuncher's Centennial Blonde makes an awesome PM brew. I do it like this:
2.5lbs 2-row
0.5lbs Crystal 10L
0.5lbs Vienna
0.5lbs Carapils
Mash at 150F for 60 minutes.
Top up to boil volume if necessary (I usually boil 3-3.5 gallons), then start the boil:
0.25oz Centennial (10% AA) @ 60min
0.25oz Centennial (10% AA) @ 30min
0.25oz Cascade (7% AA) @ 10min
0.25oz Cascade (7% AA) @ 5min
3lbs extra-light DME @ flameout.
Chill, then top up to 5.25 gallons with spring water. Should get you an OG of 1.044 or so with 65% efficiency (I do stovetop PMs).
Ferment @ 64F until it's done. Carbonate it pretty spritzy.
2.5lbs 2-row
0.5lbs Crystal 10L
0.5lbs Vienna
0.5lbs Carapils
Mash at 150F for 60 minutes.
Top up to boil volume if necessary (I usually boil 3-3.5 gallons), then start the boil:
0.25oz Centennial (10% AA) @ 60min
0.25oz Centennial (10% AA) @ 30min
0.25oz Cascade (7% AA) @ 10min
0.25oz Cascade (7% AA) @ 5min
3lbs extra-light DME @ flameout.
Chill, then top up to 5.25 gallons with spring water. Should get you an OG of 1.044 or so with 65% efficiency (I do stovetop PMs).
Ferment @ 64F until it's done. Carbonate it pretty spritzy.
+1 on. Austin Homebrew kits. I've been brewing about 7 months now and made over a dozen of their PM kits with no duds. Some favorites so far are: ahs oatmeal stout, Yukon red, ahs Texas red, ahs London Porter. Just bottled my first lager kit last night which was their Noche Buena clone. It tasted very good flat so I'm looking forward to how it will develop in the bottle. I used a BIG starter and lagered for 3 weeks, just as instructions said to do. Just pick something that looks good to you...I haven't been disappointed yet.
Austinhomebrew
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There is no such thing as extract twang. That implies that there is something wrong with extract.
What people refer to as twang, is the flavor from extract from a can (more pronounced if the can is old).
We sell fresh bulk extract only from North America. We sell over 75 tons (150,000 pounds) of liquid extract a year. With this turn over, you know it is fresh.
Have you had fresh pineapple? How about pineapple from a can? The difference is pineapple twang. Although the can is what causes the twang in extract and pineapple.
Forrest
What people refer to as twang, is the flavor from extract from a can (more pronounced if the can is old).
We sell fresh bulk extract only from North America. We sell over 75 tons (150,000 pounds) of liquid extract a year. With this turn over, you know it is fresh.
Have you had fresh pineapple? How about pineapple from a can? The difference is pineapple twang. Although the can is what causes the twang in extract and pineapple.
Forrest
Wellshooter
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I like the AHS American Premium lager mini-mash kit. A lot like Michelob but with more mouthfeel. I'm not into flavored beer or hop bombs. I like American beer.
Oh yeah, the LME I've gotten from Austin Homebrew has always been super-fresh and surprisingly light in color. I do usually buy DME, though, just because it stores better.
The Long Trail clone kit (which I should be bottling tomorrow) has been awesome, if you're looking for a real basic, sessionable ale with nice noble hops aroma.
The Long Trail clone kit (which I should be bottling tomorrow) has been awesome, if you're looking for a real basic, sessionable ale with nice noble hops aroma.
Austin Homebrew London Porter was very good. It introduced me to porters and now they are my favorite style. My wife likes the Northern Brewer kits because the she reuses the boxes they come packaged in
Any recommendations for yeast for this recipe?
Nottingham, fermented nice and cool. Take a look at the recipe thread I linked, though... this is a killer recipe, and everything that can be said about it has, by somebody who's got a lot more experience with it than I do.
Why do you wait until flameout to add the DME? Doesn't that have to be part of the boil?
I usually do late extract additions for slightly better hop utilization (since I'm boiling something like 1.030 wort) and lighter color. Some people will boil the extract for the last 15 minutes, but I tend to take my chances with temperature and just dissolve it all at the end of the boil. I figure there's enough latent heat to pasteurize it. If you're concerned about sanitation, add it with 15 minutes left in the boil instead. You can get very light-colored beer this way. (There are a ton of threads on here about late extract additions, check them out.)
Thanks a lot! Just one more question, and then I'm going to order ingredients. I need to order a nylon grain bag since this will be my first PM. Should I get fine or coarse? Just can't decide if I should order from AHS or Brewmasters Warehouse. Any input? Also, I noticed that the cascade hops at AHS and Brewmasters were 5.4% AA. Are you using pellet hops or leaf hops?
Austinhomebrew
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I would go with Austin Homebrew. Just sayin'.
Go with the coarse bag.
Forrest
Go with the coarse bag.
Forrest
ArcaneXor
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Go to Lowes or Home Depot and pick up 5-gallon paint strainer bags - much cheaper than grain bags from the homebrew stores.
Both AHS and Brewmasters Warehouse are excellent choices. I'd go with whichever one is closer to you or, if there is a significant price difference, with whoever is cheaper.
As far as the alpha acid percentage goes, you'll have to adjust the bittering addition upward to hit your IBU target. Any brewing software will be able to calculate that for you - I recommend BeerSmith. BrewPal for the iPhone is also pretty good and very cheap ($1 or so).
Austinhomebrew
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I would go with whomever has the best recipes.
ArcaneXor
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Do I sense a rivalry brewing, Forrest?
I would agree that Austin Homebrew has the better recipes overall, since anyone can upload any recipe to BMW (even crappy ones). If you can find one of the popular Homebrewtalk recipes on BMW, it's usually a safe bet though. I don't recall ever having brewed a bad beer using an AHS kit.
For ingredients, it's a toss-up, hence I would go with whoever is closer and/or cheaper if you are putting together your own recipe instead of buying a kit.
Why the coarse bag? Just curious. Will the coarse bag let a lot of grain out into my wort that I'll have to strain out later?
So I got Brew Pal for iPhone. The overall IBU didn't change at all when I changed the AA % from 7 to 5.6. Does that mean I don't really need to change the hop additions at all?
I haven't had any trouble with the coarse bag that I use. Maybe a little bit of grain dust in the wort, but nothing that's impacted flavor, so far as I can tell. I don't know if a fine mesh bag would get clogged with grain... maybe, maybe not. In any case, coarse mesh works fine.
(And yeah, if you're looking for PM kits, definitely try some of the Austin Homebrew kits. I brewed the Karankawa Pale Ale yesterday, which was pretty cheap, for a hoppy APA, and it looks like a winner so far.)
I'm def doing the Centennial Blonde PM recipe you suggested. Already have the ingredients in my shopping cart at AHS. Just adding the odds and ends I need to pick up too. Just curious about the yeast. Do you find 1 11g packet of Nottingham is enough? Beer Alchemy tells me I should use 18g. Also, at what point during your brew do you rehydrate the yeast?
Yup, I've never had a problem with a single packet of dry yeast (well, except when I did have a problem... but it wasn't because 11g isn't enough). I usually start rehydrating right as the boil ends so it's ready to pitch when the wort is chilled.
Thanks for all your help! I'm ordering the ingredients for this...will be my first partial mash (stovetop), so I hope it goes well.
Austinhomebrew
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The fine is too fine. The coarse is just right.
Brewmasters Warehouse
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Do I sense a rivalry brewing, Forrest?
I would agree that Austin Homebrew has the better recipes overall, since anyone can upload any recipe to BMW (even crappy ones). If you can find one of the popular Homebrewtalk recipes on BMW, it's usually a safe bet though. I don't recall ever having brewed a bad beer using an AHS kit.
For ingredients, it's a toss-up, hence I would go with whoever is closer and/or cheaper if you are putting together your own recipe instead of buying a kit.
No rivalry between us. Forrest and his crew do a great job, and my crew does as well.
Although anyone can upload a recipe, even a crappy one there are many proven HBT recipes on the site. I have 198 recipes that I have loaded on the site all of which will give you a great beer. Most of the recipes on our site came from folks on HBT.
Ed
Just ordered the Centennial Blonde ingredients from AHS!!! Sorry Ed...I'll try BrewMasters Warehouse next time. I like that both of you guys are on HBT and are willing to offer your advice. It will keep me shopping with both of you!
-Matt
-Matt
Just completed the Centennial Blonde recipe last night that Uncleozzy posted. Was my first PM brew and went absolutely perfectly! OG came in at 1.047 which I think is pretty darn close to what I should have gotten. Hopefully I'll know in a few weeks how well it turned out!
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