rye, wheat, peat, flaked barley???

So I've been experimenting with grains (hey this is what makes ag so great). I'm thinking up my next batch for this weekend and am considering some or all of the above grains. Can anyone give me a better idea exactly what these grains will add? Can I mash them with two row malt?

Rye is supposed to be spicy - spicy how exactly? 1 lb per 5 gal? What type other malts and hops would complement the rye taste?

Flacked barley adds creaminess, correct? Would I be safe in assuming that it'd go well in most any brew?

peated malt.. I haven't had a smokey beer but it sounds like something worth trying. How much? Anyone have any recipes? Something like a porter or stout would go well with a smokey I taste I think...

Is there any benefit to using wheat over carapils for head retention?

I'm all for experimenting with new grains and flavors - nothing too radical though like holiday beer. Anyone have any good receipes they'd like to share?

Actually, I'm now thinking about whipping up something that the gf might try.. that and my buddy who still struggles with the macro crap. Maybe a cream ale of sorts.. how about this:

Grain bill
American two row: 8.5 lbs
Carapils (mouthfeel and head): 1.5 lbs
Caraviene (color and flavor): 1 lb
Victory Malt (color and flavor): .5 lb
Total Grains: 11.75 lbs
SRM: 8
Projected ABV: 6.5%

Hops
Chinook: .25 oz @ 60
Cascade: .25 oz @ 20
Cascade: .25 oz @ 15
Cascade: .25 oz @ 10
Cascade: .25 oz @ 5
Total IBU's: 18


After talking with management, I've concluded that a strawberry blonde might be a good thing to try. I've never had a fruit beer before and haven't been a very big fan of real light beers but if the gf will try it I'll give it a go. If I do it I'll just use some strawberry flavoring from my HBS at bottling. Should I forego the aroma hop additions? Will the citrusy taste of the cascade hops clash with the strawberry flavor? How about some flacked barley? 1 lb? Creaminess?

Lost said:

Actually, I'm now thinking about whipping up something that the gf might try.. that and my buddy who still struggles with the macro crap. Maybe a cream ale of sorts.. how about this:

Grain bill
American two row: 8.5 lbs
Carapils (mouthfeel and head): 1.5 lbs
Caraviene (color and flavor): 1 lb
Victory Malt (color and flavor): .5 lb
Total Grains: 11.75 lbs
SRM: 8
Projected ABV: 6.5%

Hops
Chinook: .25 oz @ 60
Cascade: .25 oz @ 20
Cascade: .25 oz @ 15
Cascade: .25 oz @ 10
Cascade: .25 oz @ 5
Total IBU's: 18


After talking with management, I've concluded that a strawberry blonde might be a good thing to try. I've never had a fruit beer before and haven't been a very big fan of real light beers but if the gf will try it I'll give it a go. If I do it I'll just use some strawberry flavoring from my HBS at bottling. Should I forego the aroma hop additions? Will the citrusy taste of the cascade hops clash with the strawberry flavor? How about some flacked barley? 1 lb? Creaminess?

Click to expand...

First glance, bump up the Victory by 1# and bump down the carapils by 1#.
Bump up those IBUs!!!!! 30 in a recipe like that will balance it nicely.

I think the most peated malt I've ever seen in a recipe was about 3oz. OUNCES.

You don't think 30 will be a bit high in a beer for the gf and the bud drinking neighbor? .5 lb carapils? I'd heard 10% of grainbill for heavy beers and 10 - 20% for light colored beers. Of course I've never used carapils in any of my brews. What about the flacked barley.. would 1 lb be appropriate?

And the aroma hops.. if I use strawberry flavoring should I cut out the aroma hops? Somehow I don't think hoppy, floral, citrusy tastes would go well with strawberry.

Anyone have experience with a strawberry or cherry blonde? How about the SRM.. I was shooting for under 10 to keep the beer blonde in appearance.. though originally I did have a full 1 lb of victory and 1 lb of caravienne (instead of the crystal 10L).

For a true 'cream ale', you need some corn. Here's a recipe I brewed last April when I was still doing extract brews. It turned out very nice; a friend said it reminded him of "a really good MGD". Coming from him, that was high praise! I would think you could substitute the extract with 2-row and/or 6-row:

Corn Country Cream Ale
Recipe 2005 by Mark Pannell

OG: 1.043
FG: 1.011
ABV = 4.3%

Extracts:
3.3 lbs. Northwest Gold extract
1 lb. plain light DME

Grains:
1 lb. flaked maize
1/2 lb. Simpson’s light crystal malt (10-L )
1/2 lb. German Pilsner malt (1.5-L)
1/2 lb. Belgian CaraPils malt, 2-row (5.9-L)

Bittering hops:
.5 oz. Perle [6.5% AAU] (60 mins.)

Flavoring hops:
.5 oz. Willamette [4.5% AAU] (45 mins.)
Finishing hops:
5 oz. Cascades [6.0% AAU] (10 mins.)


Fining agent: 1 tsp. Irish moss (30 mins.)


Yeast: White Labs WLP029 German Ale/Kolsch Yeast (cake from previous batch)

Primary: 6 days at 68o- 70o F

Secondary: 10 days at 68o- 70o F

Total boil: 60 minutes


Crack the grains and place in muslin grain bag along with flaked maize and hold at 155o F for 30 minutes. Remove the grains and bring to a boil. Add extracts, DME and corn sugar off heat, bring to a boil and follow schedule above. Cool wort and top off to 5 gallons. Pitch yeast when cooled to 70o F. Prime with 3/4 cups corn sugar (the only time I did not use DME to prime since my first two batches!)

Rhoobarb said:

1/2 lb. Simpson’s light crystal malt (10-L )

Click to expand...

Is this what Duff is made from?

-walker

Walker said:

Is this what Duff is made from?

-walker

Click to expand...

Doh!

No, that's what they call it! I believe it is an English brand name, like Dewolf-Cosyns or Weyermann.

Ok, so I'll throw in a lb of corn and a lb of barley.. I've made some other adjustments as well:
American 2 row: 9 lbs
Carapils: .75 lbs
Crystal 10 L: 1.5 lbs
Flaked Corn: 1 lb
Flaked Barley: 1 lb
Victory Malt: .75 lb

I'll add .25 oz of cascade for aroma every five minutes starting at 20 with the last addition at 5.. and .25 oz of chinook for bittering at 60.

Anyone have experience with the cherry or strawberry fruit flavoring? Is it good, bad, or ugly? The gf *might* drink it if it's not too bitter and tastes kinda fruity. If, however, doing this is risky then I won't bother since there's certainly no guarantee she'll like it.

Well, after thinking about it a bit more and talking with the HBS guy here's what I brewed:
American 2 row: 9lbs
Carapils: .5 lbs
Caraviene: 1.25 lbs
Flaked Corn: 1 lb
Cooked "quick" oats: .25 lbs

I wanted to try the oats for head retention and creaminess.. hopefully it's not out of place in this style. I went light on the oatmeal though to avoid starch haze.. we'll see how it turns out

Hops:
9 grams (approx. .32 oz) Chinook for 60
1/2 oz Cascade for 15
1/2 oz Cascade for 5

IBUs: 18
SRM: 8
OG: 1.062
Projected ABV: 5.8 - 6.1% (depending on actual volume).

Boil size was approx 5.75 - 6 gal. I don't know if it's standard practice but I added water during the boil to keep the volume up.. heck the stuff was already very high gravity (1.063 preboil and 1.062 OG).. I didn't want an overpowering alcohol taste but I do like my beers strong - 50 bottles go farther that way

On another note ALMOST everything went perfectly. I hit 30.2 to 31.5 efficiency (depending on actual amount of wort collected - 5.75 - 6 gal). I need to start accounting for this increased effiency. There were only two problems, first I started the chill with the immersion and the outlet hose blew off and sprayed water everywhere. Since the wort was still very hot I elected to quickly bring it back to a boil in hope of killing anything that made it in via the water. As I'm starting the chill the second time around a damn moth lands in the wort %$#@! I say screw it, I can't heat it up again now and fish the #@!$ out and continue chilling. Well the water here in FL even at night is barely under 80 F so I just couldn't get the wort under 81 F even with gentle stirring around the chiller. I did have a great cold break though. I pitched nottingham dry yeast at that temp and shook well. We'll see how it turns out.

Now, this is the first time I've used glass as a primary (wrapped in a damp towel). There's some interesting stuff going on in there! Is it supposed to be a bit clumpy with what looks like brown clumpy snowflakes sinking to the bottom? Has nice krausen on top and yeast is working hard. When I rack to secondary I love to try a bit but I'll tell you it doesn't look very appetizing right now...

Walker said:

Is this what Duff is made from?

-walker

Click to expand...

No, Duff is, DOH! I forgot....

The German's have a rye beer it's called Roggenbier. The rye glass is really cool in that it is a tall straight glass. A bit different for Germans.

Hear about the new beer by A-B? Called Spudweiser, it will be marketed mainly in Idaho and for export to Russia.

About peat smoked malt. There are two variations: peat smoked and rauch. Peat smoked is a much more concentrated flavor, you use it by the ounce, whereas, rauch can be 20% of a bill without being over-powering. Peat smoked is a nice accent for porters, stouts and barley wines at 2-4 oz. per batch. I may try a little in my next batch of Old Ale.