How will this simple recipe turn out?

I've only been brewing for about a month now. So far, this incredible site has been able to answer all of my newb questions, but now I finally have a unique type of question. My first two batches were 1 gallon and had pre-mixed ingredients (Brooklyn Brew Shop's Chestnut Brown Ale and their Honey Sage Seasonal). Because the ingredients are pre-mixed and because they don't tell you what's in it, I now have little knowledge about specific ingredients. I checked out DeathBrewer's "Recipe Formulation" thread, which was awesome.

I just bought myself a 3 gallon carboy to make my first batch that doesn't come from a pre-mix of ingredients. Looking at the recipes here intimidated me so I went to my LHBS and just asked the dude to whip up a very simple 3 gallon recipe for me for a "mild type of beer". I wanted to make a mild beer so that my friends/family could enjoy it (they aren't beer enthusiasts and wouldn't like IPAs or stouts, etc.) This is what I ended up with. How do you guys think this will turn out?

6lbs of 2 row
1/2 lb of Light Crystal

1oz of Cascade Hops - put half in at beginning and other half w/ 2 minutes left.

Dry Nottingham yeast

Pretty simple, right? I still haven't figured out how much water I need to start with and how much I'll need to sparge with, but I'll figure that out later.

How do you think this will turn out?

Many thanks!

From my experience, simple recipes are better than complex ones. So, it'll probably turn out well.

Nateo said:

From my experience, simple recipes are better than complex ones. So, it'll probably turn out well.

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+1 to simple recipes, I like a stout with pale malts and carafa only. If everything is done right your light should be fine.

Nothing wrong with that recipe, I too prefer simple when I can get away with it. Might want to run it through beercalculus to ensure the ibus are to your liking.

Good luck & Schlante,
Phillip

I agree that simple is much better. Still, you might want to add some Special B and maybe Munich. Plus a vanilla bean and spices (nutmeg, clove and grains of paradise) at the end of the boil. Then rack on raspberries and oak chips, and add pint of Maker's Mark at bottling. Then when you serve it, drop a shot of Chambord into the glass. Serve with salt 'n' vinegar potato chips.

It will be teh awesome!

Looks to me like a great recipe. As mentioned above, I find some of my best recipes were my most simple. In fact, one of my favs was a SMaSH with Maris Otter and Fuggles hops.

McGarnigle said:

I agree that simple is much better. Still, you might want to add some Special B and maybe Munich. Plus a vanilla bean and spices (nutmeg, clove and grains of paradise) at the end of the boil. Then rack on raspberries and oak chips, and add pint of Maker's Mark at bottling. Then when you serve it, drop a shot of Chambord into the glass. Serve with salt 'n' vinegar potato chips. . . . . .

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. . . . . . . . And dip the rim of your serving glass in melted chocolate before you pour.

6 lbs 2 row and 1/2 lb light crystal, as going to make a pale ale. Adding cascades would make it an American pale ale. I think you may need a bit more hops, or change the schedule. 1/2 oz at 60 minutes and 1/2 oz at 2 minutes would give very low IBU's (about 20). Changing it to 3/4 oz at 60 minutes, and 1/4 oz at 2 minutes should give you about 30 IBU's. The BJCP guidelines say 30 - 45 IBU's for an APA.

Good luck,

-a.

So you are going from 1 gallon kits to All-Grain.....You the man! Looks like a foolproof recipe to me and keep making it with slight adjustments to your recipe and find a nice "House Beer" that is simple to make and easy to keep in the pipe.

Thanks for the input everybody! I have more confidence in the simplicity now.

McCarnigle: Sounds great, but not simple! haha

AJF: I'll consider your suggestion, but I'm not really going for a pale ale. I don't want it to end up too hoppy. You bring up a good point with the IBUs. I need to look them up and figure out where I want mine to end up.

Whiskey: My 1 gallon kit was all-grain, so I'm not that much the man


THANKS AGAIN EVERYBODY!

Put some of the bittering hops in flavoring at 20 min and use 3/4 # crystal malt.It will bring down the ibu's and add more unfermentables. Or just cut down your bittering hops al little.

I think this will turn out really fine, and is an excellent place to hang your first all grain hat upon. I predict you will come back to a recipe just like this time and time again. I know when I started AG I wanted to get fancy, but simple grains and simple hops makes outstanding beers, only took me 10 years to understand that less was more !

Actually, I'm gonna go with McGarnigle's suggestion.

But I'm going to add celery stalks, pepper, and some dirt to top it off haha.

i have a SMaSH american wheat kinda thing goin on right now. smells awsome. 10lbs white wheat malt 3 oz cascade. (2 for bittering one for finishing). kegging next week. if this ends up tasting as good as it smells i might never do any complex recipes.

Hops contribute three things to a brew:
1. Bitterness
2. Flavor
3. Aroma

Boil the hops for more than 30 minutes, and you will add bitterness with very little flavor or aroma.
Shorter boils will add hop flavor, and a little aroma.
Very short boils (or no boil) will add aroma, with virtually no bitterness, and very little flavor.

All good beers have a good balance between the sweetness of the malts and the bitterness of the hops. If you overdo the bittering additions you will end up with a bitter tasting beer. If you don't add enough bittering hops, you will end up with a beer that has a cloying taste. This has nothing to do with a beer being perceived as hoppy or not. The hoppiness is determined by the amount of flavor and aroma hops you add.
IMO your original suggestion would result in a sweet beer with a very noticeable hop aroma. My suggestion would give a less sweet beer with less hop presence.

-a.

If you go with Mcgarnigal's suggestion. I hope you like octoberfests. along with insimplicity.

AJF: Thanks for the explanation. I think I understand what you are getting at and I may end up doing it the way you suggest.

Try the Brewmate software and choose the Brew in a Bag option for small batches ,this will also help with recipe formulation ,

http://www.brewmate.net/

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Brew_in_a_Bag

ajf said:

6 lbs 2 row and 1/2 lb light crystal, as going to make a pale ale. Adding cascades would make it an American pale ale. I think you may need a bit more hops, or change the schedule. 1/2 oz at 60 minutes and 1/2 oz at 2 minutes would give very low IBU's (about 20). Changing it to 3/4 oz at 60 minutes, and 1/4 oz at 2 minutes should give you about 30 IBU's. The BJCP guidelines say 30 - 45 IBU's for an APA.

Good luck,

-a.

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Hey ajf - how did you figure out how many IBUs the beer would end up with?

I did this almost same exact recipe to test out my new fermenter. It came out very good and all my non beer enthuthiest friends liked it better than most my other beers. (Because they're *****ebags and drink Miller Lite 24/7)

HoppyGus said:

I did this almost same exact recipe to test out my new fermenter. It came out very good and all my non beer enthuthiest friends liked it better than most my other beers. (Because they're *****ebags and drink Miller Lite 24/7)

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Haha - that's what I'm goin for! What hops did you use and what did the schedule look like for those?

Update - the recipe turned out well. I let ferm temps get a little high though, so I got some yeasty off-flavors. The beer tasted better after about 8 weeks in the bottle, though.