base grains

I am always trying to make new recipes so that I can try new things and like info prehand. Any reason why usuing different levels of base grains would make sense? I should state that I like high gravity style beers that arent sweet in nature. thinking about

Briess 2-Row Brewer's Malt 7 lbs, 0 oz
Briess 2 Row Carapils 5 lbs, 0 oz
Briess Pilsen (Extra) Light Dry Extract 2 lbs, 0 oz

Never used different base malts but wasnt sure if it would add anything or not?

Dude that's a crapload of cara. Are you mashing these or steeping?

Carapils isn't a base malt- it's a crystal malt.

I use several different base malts, depending on what I'm making. I use US 2-row for most US IPAs and APAs, maris otter for English ales, Munich malt or pilsner malt for German style beers, etc.

I never use carapils, but some people do. Use no more than .5 pound in a batch, no matter what, and even less if there are other crystal malts in the beer.

Good to know about the max on carapils. Got a list of other maxes that should be used? I love working with the theory before the brew. BTW I was going to do this as a single infusion mash starting at 30 min 148 degree.

ChickenBeer said:

Good to know about the max on carapils. Got a list of other maxes that should be used? I love working with the theory before the brew. BTW I was going to do this as a single infusion mash starting at 30 min 148 degree.

Click to expand...

30 minutes at 148 degrees is a bad idea- that's a very low mash temp and it might take 90 minutes to convert at such a low temp.

A good list of base malts would include: Munich malt, pilsner malt, maris otter, US 2-row, and a few other malts.

I'm concerned about your mashing technique- using carapils is one thing (some people use it as a crutch for head retention) but using more than a few ounces is more than unusual, and then mashing for under 60 minutes is even more unusual. Mashing at 148 is even more unusual than the other two, so I'm not sure what advice to give at this point, as I don't know your technique or actual recipe, but I can't see anything good coming out of this.

What are you trying to make? Maybe knowing your beer style, the recipe, and your plans along with the water chemistry will make it clearer for me.

I mash some of my big beers at 148ish. It does sound like you might need to do a little more research. If you are going to mash that low you have to give it more time to convert. After your 60-90(I usually do about 45 min at that temp or so) low temp mash be sure to bring the mash upto the 155-159 area for at least 15 minutes to finish off conversion or test for conversion during your mashing experiments so you know what is going on with it. Don't use too much crystal type malts in your beer. It will make it undrinkable. Crystal = sweet if not done properly.
Good luck.

Mashing at 148 is something you can do, using Carapils is something you can do. However, they are working at cross purposes. Mashing at 148 will give you a drier beer (sounds like what you want), while Carapils will add unfermentable sugars (i.e. body and sweetness). You could probably drop the carapils to 1/2 lb, and mash at 152 and have a drier beer whose mash would be done in 60 min. I usually mix base malts to add complexity. But usually I use 10-20% of vienna or munich along with 2-row. But don't substitute roasted or crystal malts for base malts. 75-95% of your grain bill should be base malts; at least to start.

If you want to brew a big beer, with a dry finish, then go ahead and mash at 148. Mash for 90 min., it is your beer. What is 30 min anyway for 5 gal. of beer you want?

ChickenBeer said:

Good to know about the max on carapils. Got a list of other maxes that should be used? I love working with the theory before the brew. BTW I was going to do this as a single infusion mash starting at 30 min 148 degree.

Click to expand...

This is a pretty good chart, shows if grains need to mashed, extract potential, color, and max in recipe.
http://www.beersmith.com/Grains/Grains/GrainList.htm

Thanks for all the input. I apparently had a couple of beers when i quickly posted 30 mins. finger slipped on the key pad definitely meant 60 mins. Though one of the things i was wondering is there a guideline out there or in a book that I dont own yet on how much is generally to much of something? like the carapils not more than .5lbs? I would love it for just grains and adjuncts but if there is some supper list of everything that would be cool too!

ChickenBeer said:

Though one of the things i was wondering is there a guideline out there or in a book that I dont own yet on how much is generally to much of something? like the carapils not more than .5lbs? I would love it for just grains and adjuncts but if there is some supper list of everything that would be cool too!

Click to expand...

dzlater shared a great link.

dzlater said:

...max in recipe.
http://www.beersmith.com/Grains/Grains/GrainList.htm

Click to expand...

thanks had to read that one twice. I missed alll of the stuff on it the first time. mY only question remains now is the original info here, i concede that must be way to much cara but the max for cara is 20%, I suppose that if i had a recipe that was 25lbs AG 5# of cara would be acceptable then?

Right. When we usually formulate recipes we talk in percentages. What Yooper was doing was simplifying it for you as a 5 gallon recipe. If you are putting in 25# of grain in a 5 gallon batch of beer your talking an OG of 1.136 ish. Which is crazy talk.

So technically yes...But you really want to work in percentages.

And one more thing to remember...Yooper has brewed many many batches of beer, and in her experience, she may have found the technical threshold way too high.

But, brew the beer you want to brew.

Yep, and there once again. I should have put the whole recipe up and stated that I was trying to make a much larger volume. In the future I wont skimp on the details! Thank you for all the clarification and help

Yup...That's why when people are discussing a recipe they usually post the report straight from their brewing software, then no details are left out.

Theres a couple of good books i go back to all the time when putting together recipes they are. The brewers companion by Randy Mosher. This has a lot of good info and and explains things very well. a lot of charts and diagrams, which i really like. and another favorite would be Designing Great Beers by. Ray Daniels this is chock full of info, it can get very in depth but has a lot of info. Those 2 are just to name a few of my favorites. hope these help