Gonna be doing a test brew this weekend

So I have 3 lbs of light DME I bought and never used. So I think im gonna get crazy and try some experimenting. Im going to be making a 2 gallon test batch just to see how this turns out.

1.5 lbs DME
1 lb specialty grains {not sure what yet suggestions?}
1 gallon dr pepper soda
1 gallon water
1oz fuggles hops {not sure on this either}

So Dr Pepper has a pretty complex flavoring I wanna see if any of that will translate over to a beer. I need suggestions on what specialty grain I should steep and what hops will mesh well with the spice/cherry/chocolate flavors in dr pepper.

Interested in any comments overall.

For the yeast Im probably just gonna go with a regular cheap dry ale yeast.

I would think it wouldn't matter.

As for the Dr P, I would heat or boil it to remove any oxygen.

Dr. P huh, sounds fun. Sorry I have no input but, let us kow how it turns out.

I haven't looked at a soda label in a long time, but double check and make sure Dr Pepper has no preservatives.

Ok so I figured I would update this thread with what I decided and purchased today. Didnt have time to brew it today so this will be coming soon.

I am going to be using
1.5 lb light DME
1 lb choclate (steeped)
1 gallon Dr Pepper Soda (if Im lucky ill find the sugar kind not the corn syrup kind)
1 gallon water
1 oz simcoe hops (I may break this up 1/2 60 min and 1/2 1 min)

I will be using Safale-05 yeast.

When I brew this up ill make sure to take note of OG and FG and any other notes you guys may want.

Brewing with soda has worked for others before there was a BYO article on mountain dew in a brew here. Good luck with your DP recipe.

I can't wait to hear what this tastes like.

avaserfi said:

Brewing with soda has worked for others before there was a BYO article on mountain dew in a brew here. Good luck with your DP recipe.

Click to expand...

Thats actually the article that prompted me to try this. I remember in reading that article they said alot of the mountain dew flavor was lost after fermenting. Im hoping the Dr Pepper will keep more of its flavors especially its complex chocolate/fruit/almond/spice mix. Supposedly theres 23 different flavors in Dr Pepper and Im hoping those will give the finished beer a depth of flavoring.

So seeing as how I had to work on this holiday, I am probably going to push my brewing of this test batch to tonight. Will post up more when im done.

So a little update here, I brewed this one up last night. I ended up making a 3 gallon batch. The recipe breakdown was as follows. I have a feeling that this is going to turn out pretty terrible from what I could taste last night. I used 1 oz of simcoe hops and I think this may be what ruined the beer.

I tasted it before I put it into the carboy and it has a very bitter taste to it. I took a look on here and saw that simcoe can sometimes lead to some pretty bad flavors described as catty and urea-like. I am going to let this one sit it out for about a month or so in the primary and see what happens.

Don't worry too much. Wort pretty much tastes like bitter sugar water. There is no getting around that.

Do you think 1oz simcoe is too much for a 3 gallon batch? I have read people on here saying that simcoe is great stuff so I went with that instead of one of the other hops I have used in the past.

Probably should have stuck with what I knew on a test batch but Ill know for sure in a month.

Came in from work today and checked my fermenters the experiment appears to be going well. The airlock was bubbling and there was about an inch of krausen on top of the wort. I dont think the preservative in the Dr. Pepper is affecting the yeast.