Looking for "Beer Base" to experiment with ingredients

Hi All,

First, forgive me if this has been asked before. I searched, but couldn't come up with anything.

I'm wondering if there is some kind of very generic ale recipe (extract) that could serve as a good "base" / generic beer to allow me to experiment with different ingredients?

I've read a lot about what ingredients impart what flavors, but I'd like to check some of them out first hand. I recognize that it all blends together and that there are lots of variables that affect the flavor. I'm just looking for a ballpark generic recipe so I can get an idea what to expect from different steeping grains, hops, etc. before I start trying to create my own recipes.

Thanks~

First off, do a search for something called SMaSH (Single Malt and Single Hops), that will certainly head you off in the right direction.

That said, it sounds like you're brewing extract with steeped grains. You'll get a few naysayers here regarding extract and SMaSH recipes but for what you want to do it's fine. I would start with just a basic recipe with a solid base pale malt and maybe one steeping grain. Some bittering hops and some aroma hops and stick to one yeast. Then change those variables as you go.

Truth be told, this is almost exactly what I'm doing with my house pale ale recipe. I'm trying to produce something that is simple to brew and very tasty and easily repeatable. Right now my recipe looks something like this:

7lb pale LME
3/4 lb crystal (steeped 25 minutes)
1 1/2 oz Amarillo (60 minutes)
3/4 oz Amarillo (5 minutes)
3/4 oz Amarillo (dry)
Yeast: S-04

So then I can swap out any of those and see how the difference is.

I never really noticed a ton of difference between grains when doing extract with steeping grains. The only grains I noticed anything with were the darker grains that give you the roasted flavor. If I were you I'd try doing a partial mash at least and follow a similar recipe to what pcollins gave. Sub 3 pounds or so of the extract for some 2-row and something else.

This is just my take on it. I wasn't pleased with my extract/steeping batches and I've noticed much fuller flavor and difference in grains after mashing the grains.

I made some liquid light malt extract with magnum for bittering this weekend, had just a little bit of crystal 20L to make it a little more interesting (but I accidentally put in only 4oz). Its fermenting now and I plan to add different hops to portions of it later to see what they are like in flavor and aroma. The airlock doesn't smell like much as you could imagine.

TheMan said:

I never really noticed a ton of difference between grains when doing extract with steeping grains. The only grains I noticed anything with were the darker grains that give you the roasted flavor. If I were you I'd try doing a partial mash at least and follow a similar recipe to what pcollins gave. Sub 3 pounds or so of the extract for some 2-row and something else.

This is just my take on it. I wasn't pleased with my extract/steeping batches and I've noticed much fuller flavor and difference in grains after mashing the grains.

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By no means have I done what I would consider a lot of "extract with grains" batches. However, I've had a similar experience - I've only noticed a difference with a smokey / roasted flavor with the darker grains. A bit disappointed in not noticing a big difference with the grains. However, it makes sense because all your really doing with some of these kits is making "grain tea"

I would love to go AG, but just feel like I can't afford the time and equipment right now. I've been toying with the idea of going partial mash...I might have to try it for my little experiments!

Thanks for the thoughts!

IMO, if you are looking for a neutral base, start with 5-6lbs of light or x-light DME. If you are using LME, then use about 15% more to compensate for the extra water in the extract. Then you can either steep or mash some specialty grains to to test out different hops and grain combinations.

If you are all grain, then use 8-10 lbs of 2-row pale malt as the base. That's probably about as neutral as it is going to get.

This is the way a lot of the clone recipes are built. They start a neutral base (unless the beer type specifically calls for a specific base malt) and then add in specialty grains and hops to build the color and flavor profiles.

Here is a recipe that I've used for making fruit beers. Minus the fruit, it came out OK and very mild.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f66/extra-pale-ale-93981/

JJL said:

IMO, if you are looking for a neutral base, start with 5-6lbs of light or x-light DME. If you are using LME, then use about 15% more to compensate for the extra water in the extract. Then you can either steep or mash some specialty grains to to test out different hops and grain combinations.

If you are all grain, then use 8-10 lbs of 2-row pale malt as the base. That's probably about as neutral as it is going to get.

Click to expand...

This is very good advice. Go simple. You want as little as possible getting in the way of whatever it is you want to taste. Then change one variable at a time.

I've made tasty beer using just Maris Otter and Cascade hops.

I just did something similar and have it in the bottles conditioning right now. For a base, I used a Kolsch extract kit and kept 1/2 gallon of the base separate for a "control" set.

This is great info! Thanks! I've got a Cream Ale (extract) with about another week to go before bottling, and just started my first batch of Apfelwein tonite. I think I'll take JJL's advice on the next batch. I'm also thinking that the next batch will be my first attempt at partial mash. I just need to figure out the relationship between DME when adding what you get from a partial mash - off to read more! I thought anything more than extract kits was a bit too complicated for me, but now I'm getting sucked in.

I'm so glad I found this site - what an awesome amount of information and great people who have patience for the newbs!

Thanks again!