Bud drinkers ale

So I want to get my friend into home brewing. However he strictly drinks Budweiser. So he's want to try and make a BMC clone that has a higher abv% somewhere around 7-8% and a bit more hoppy. Here is my recipe so far( I need a good way to boost the abv as well as a good suggestion for a flavoring


Mikey's Ale

OG: 1.061
FG: 1.015
ABV: 6.03 %
IBU's: 23.59


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Extracts
6.6 lbs 52.38 % Briess Pilsen Light LME
2.00 lbs 31.75 % Briess Golden Light DME
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Hops
0.50 oz Chinook 30 mins
0.50 oz Chinook 10 mins
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Yeasts
1.00 pkg Safale US-05
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Umm, add more extract to boost ABV. It won't taste like bud much without some corn and rice present, though. Perhaps you can steep a pound or two of each in a bag at 150something for 20 minutes to get some flavor out of them. Flaked maize and minute-rice would work.

that's not going to taste like bud with chinook hops added late in the boil

are you looking for something close to bud or just an easy drinking ale?

closest thing to bud in ale form would be a Cream Ale - you could try the Cream of 3 crops recipe and go from there if you really want to boost it that high

If you have another 2-3 gallon pot you could do a mini/partial mash if you're going to steep. Like tre9er said, some minute rice and flaked maize would be good, but if you're going to partial mash you'll also need some 2-row in there. 1 lb. flaked maize, 1 lb. minute rice and 1 lb. American 2 row @ 1.25 qts./lb. of grain will take up a little more than a gallon of space. Of course you would need a grain bag like you would use for steeping and a thermometer to get your "strike water" and mash temperature right. This would also give you some more fermentable sugars to up your gravity. This site has helped me a lot: http://www.rackers.org/calcs.shtml

Or if you don't want to do that and stick with pure extract, listen to the above posters. Good luck either way!

I'm curious why the extract percents add up to only 84%. What's missing?

If you want it to be close to Bud you'll want to get about 2.5 lb white rice, and a pound of 6-row malt, and a 3.3 lb can of pils LME. boil the rice for 15 min, let it cool until its 152 degrees and add the 6 row and let it rest for an hour, stirring occasionally. Use noble hops, and not much of them. you want extreme balace from this brew, no malt brofile, no hop profile, this is why most brewers don't clone macros, too much time for too little flavor.

If he's a Bud drinker, the LAST thing I would use is chinook hops! I love chinook, but they are harsh and heavy tasting compared to noble hops. If you want to convert him, I'd try something more like this:

6 lbs Extra Light Dry Extract
1 lbs Rice Extract Syrup
1 lbs Corn Sugar (Dextrose)
2.00 oz Hallertauer Boil 60.0 min
0.50 oz Hallertauer [boil 10.0 min Hop

OG: 1.068
IBUs: 25

Ferment at 50 degrees with American lager yeast. If you can't ferment at 50 degrees, ferment at 64 degrees with kolsch yeast. Make sure you use a HUGE starter for a "clean" ferment.

My preference would be to do this at 6%, and not 7.75% or so, because I think it'll taste better with a lower ABV. But if you use the recipe I posted just as written, and can ferment it cold, it will be really good.

Hah, Yooper just schooled us! That actually doesn't sound too bad...