Blonde Ale Miller Lite (Really Triple Hopped)

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Yeah it was glass, but I put it in an old fermenting bucket I no longer use and carried it by that rather than risking the glass slipping. I rarely use the carboy so I never invested in straps or a handle for it.

Buy yourself a milk crate or find an old one in the garage and repurpose it for this activity.
 
OK. I had some people sample and walk away. There's lots of dark beer drinkers in the club, so keep that in mind. I think the "Miller Ice" that I called it turned some people off right from the start. Whatever, that's what it is.

However, for the first time, I had more than one person ask me for the recipe, which I have never received from the club before.

It was a resounding success. It's not for everyone, but if you're aiming to make a drinkable ale that is dangerous, I can't see it being better than this.

My own personal opinion is this is a very fine recipe. It came out perfect. It being 5.9%" didn't change it in any meaningful way.

Serve it ice cold. And just watch yourself.

I can't see this beer doing well for a competition however, because competition beers are usually judged to certain styles and typically they are "full of flavor" to their respective styles.

This beer just aims to be drinkable, and that's exactly why everyone should probably have some around.

This is an ale beer without mistake, but it's such a VERY light ale that you just want to keep chugging it. I actually decided to stay at my serving table and continue drinking it instead of sampling other beers.

This beer, as an ale, should be in a brut style or a malt liquor maybe. Maybe a brut cream ale. Maybe it best as a hybrid style. I'm of the mindset of making what I like and something for family and friends. In 14 years of brewing, I have never thought to enter a judging competition. That's just me. Take that with a grain of salt. Maybe others have a better category suggestions.

FWIW - I've become that Seinfeld Soup Nazi when it comes to beer and sharing mine with others.
 
I've gone all the way through this thread but don't seem to remember if anyone asked this question. Has anyone made this without the corn in the recipe and just upped the 2 row to get the same OG?

I've made a bunch of this beer with the exact recipe but am curious on how much different it would be without the corn addition.
 
I've gone all the way through this thread but don't seem to remember if anyone asked this question. Has anyone made this without the corn in the recipe and just upped the 2 row to get the same OG?

I've made a bunch of this beer with the exact recipe but am curious on how much different it would be without the corn addition.

The closest thing I made to this was without enzyme. It was a Grätzer. 3 lbs of pilsner and 3 lbs of wheat malt. Then hopped to 40 IBU with saaz. Pitching S-05. The grist was 100% oak smoked. Tasted like light beer and smoked ham. Actually was really good.
 
I just started my 2nd batch a week ago. Instead of corn I used instant rice (I was out of corn meal) Also used pale ale malt instead of standard two row.
Instead of waiting for a week to add the amylase I added it when I pitched the yeast(trying to reduce oxygen by not opening fermenter to add enzyme).
Compared to original recipe and procedure, fermentation was more vigorous and slower to settle down. I will check back in a month or so when ready to drink.
 
FWIW - I've become that Seinfeld Soup Nazi when it comes to beer and sharing mine with others.
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Boiled 14 gallons with 3oz of Cascade for 60 min, roughly another 3oz of Cascade at flame-out, and topped up with water to achieve 15.5 into my fermenters. Gravity into fermenters was 1.038. It was a spur of the moment kind of brew day, hopefully the 21-22 IBUs doesn't ruin it. Just didn't have the time to really think this brew through and was running back to my BrewSmith software multiple times throughout the day.

15lb 2-row (no 6-row in my store), 6lb flaked maize.

Bubbling away at upper 60's temps within 12 hrs.

I need a larger boiling pot!

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I want to start by saying a big thanks to everyone (especially OP) for providing their input on different variants of this recipe. I was very much looking forward to a light crisp summer ale and this is exactly what I was looking for. I actually went for Cluster as bittering and Saaz as aroma because that's what I had.

Long story short, i've had some efficiency issues recently so I added a couple lbs of base malts hoping to hit close to OG numbers...well I went way over - hit OG of 1.050.

Primary ferm went beautifully at 68F with US-05, im at a point now where I can move to secondary as normal, or add the enzyme.

  • I am at a crossroads of a sweeter beer or potentially a Miller Extra Ice (borrowing terminology from fendersrule) at 6.56% if the enzyme fully ferments out to 1.000. I have a feeling this might have some harsh jet fuel characteristics to it.
  • I've also had mixed experiences with corn in the past so I was a bit worried about skipping the enzyme and waiting for the corn flavor to dissipate naturally over time...
  • My last thought was to rack into secondary on top of the enzyme and extra water to try to dillute down to desired FG...i've read little about adding water after primary but I would imagine it can't be good for yeast and probably has other undesirable effects i'm not aware of.
Just thought I would reach out to see what wisdom you all have. Either way I will be remaking the recipe as written next time, and I know I won't be ending up with what I intended, just trying to make the best of things.
 
Boiled 14 gallons with 3oz of Cascade for 60 min, roughly another 3oz of Cascade at flame-out, and topped up with water to achieve 15.5 into my fermenters. Gravity into fermenters was 1.038. ......
It’s still fermenting 13 days later. Very slowly, I might add! I drew a sample and as best I can tell it’s right close to 1.0. I’ve brewed plenty of big beers that were done quicker than this one😎
 
I want to start by saying a big thanks to everyone (especially OP) for providing their input on different variants of this recipe. I was very much looking forward to a light crisp summer ale and this is exactly what I was looking for. I actually went for Cluster as bittering and Saaz as aroma because that's what I had.

Long story short, i've had some efficiency issues recently so I added a couple lbs of base malts hoping to hit close to OG numbers...well I went way over - hit OG of 1.050.

Primary ferm went beautifully at 68F with US-05, im at a point now where I can move to secondary as normal, or add the enzyme.

  • I am at a crossroads of a sweeter beer or potentially a Miller Extra Ice (borrowing terminology from fendersrule) at 6.56% if the enzyme fully ferments out to 1.000. I have a feeling this might have some harsh jet fuel characteristics to it.
  • I've also had mixed experiences with corn in the past so I was a bit worried about skipping the enzyme and waiting for the corn flavor to dissipate naturally over time...
  • My last thought was to rack into secondary on top of the enzyme and extra water to try to dillute down to desired FG...i've read little about adding water after primary but I would imagine it can't be good for yeast and probably has other undesirable effects i'm not aware of.
Just thought I would reach out to see what wisdom you all have. Either way I will be remaking the recipe as written next time, and I know I won't be ending up with what I intended, just trying to make the best of things.
If you want a lighter beer, I’d dilute it and add the amalayse, but I’m no expert 🍻
 
This is a drinkin’ beer for sure. Been kegged and dry-hopped (2oz cascade, 1oz mt. Hood) for only 4 days, but the “corn sweetness” that many have described and say goes away with time, along with my heavy handed hops gives it the flavor of oranges. Hard to explain, but delightful. Trying to keep my hand off the tap 😆. I believe the haze will go away too, if it lasts that long.

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Ok I brewed this mostly according to the original recipe yesterday, just making slight tweaks to try to hit the numbers exactly with my system. I have gone through parts of this thread but not all.
First, this is my lightest grain bill ever in a 5 gal batch. Efficiency went a bit higher than normal and I'm at 1.035 OG. Hopefully that won't change it too much.

I pitched 1/2 tsp gluco with the yeast, which took my one past attempt at a stronger Brut down to 1.000 with no problems so I'm expecting the same here.

One question... since the enzyme is going in anyway, and it is going to 1.000 regardless, is the low, long mash really necessary?

I have a 10 gallon cooler mashtun, so with this low mash volume and long time, I lost about 3 degrees during the course of the mash. Most of the time I only lose about 1 degree. Just wondering if anyone has tried it with the classic 152 for an hour and see how it goes.
 
It's been a couple of years since I brewed with either Gulo yeast or amyloglucosidase enzyme, but I'll try to relate from memory the steps I took.

First, as you probably know, the glucoamylase enzyme and/or amyloglucosidase work on the 1,4 and 1,6 branches to make those limit dextrins available for conversion to fermentable sugars in the mash. Off the top of my head, I don't remember the active temperature range or the optimum temperature for gluco activity, but it is roughly the same as alpha and beta amylase. Denatures around 175F maybe? Bottom line: more conversion so higher gravity numbers from the mash.

When gluco is added to the fermenter it will further drive the fermentation down to sub-1.000 gravity numbers. The two times I used amyolglucosidaise (both mash and fermenter) my FG numbers were around 0.997~0.998. One was a Brut IPA and the other was a Light Lager, and both turned out super crisp and dry. Also low calorie and low carb.

Fermentation temperatures were around 50F for the lager, so the amylo is active well below alpha/beta ranges. Both beers performed the way I'd hoped, and the Brut won a Blue Ribbon in Category 34 Experimental.

My experience suggests to me that amylo is appropriate for either or both mash and fermentation, but the best way to hit sub-1.000 gravity numbers is to use it in both mash and fermenter.
Mash the way you normally do, but give it adequate time to finish completely in the fermenter before packaging since things slow to a crawl at the end.

Brooo Brother
 
Thanks.... I'm not a microbiologist or chemist, so some of those fine details go over my head.
I did not add any extra enzyme to the mash. My numbers showed 80% extract efficiency.

My understanding is that the gluco will convert all the non ferementable sugar to fermentable in the fermenter, and therefore it will go to 1.000 with just the ferementer addition of the gluco. This is also what I experienced with my first brut.

This is why I was wondering if a shorter, mid-range mash would work since the longer, lower-temp mashes seem normally intended to get a more fermentable wort. If gluco is going in anyway, it seems you are going to have a fully fermentable wort no matter what.
 
Thanks.... I'm not a microbiologist or chemist, so some of those fine details go over my head.
I did not add any extra enzyme to the mash. My numbers showed 80% extract efficiency.

My understanding is that the gluco will convert all the non ferementable sugar to fermentable in the fermenter, and therefore it will go to 1.000 with just the ferementer addition of the gluco. This is also what I experienced with my first brut.

This is why I was wondering if a shorter, mid-range mash would work since the longer, lower-temp mashes seem normally intended to get a more fermentable wort. If gluco is going in anyway, it seems you are going to have a fully fermentable wort no matter what.

Not a microbiologist either, just a retired pilot who struggled through aerospace engineering (Calc & chem were NOT my friends, fortunately physics and flying were). 🥴

The simplest explanation that made sense to my simple brain was that amylo drives conversion in the mash by making 1,4 and 1,6 branches available for alpha and beta enzymes to convert to sugars, but gets denatured with mashout and boil, so more must be added to the fermenter where it facilitates any remaining "non-fermentables" to be made available to the yeast for fermentation. How it accomplishes this is PFM* ("Pure ____Magic") to me, but somehow it does.

So, my understanding is that it will definitely increase mash efficiency, thus drier beer with a lower FG, but even then there are unfermentables present. By adding amylo to the fermenter you drive the FG even lower. It's ends up being an "either, or, both" question where the "both" answer results in the lowest FG.

Brooo Brother
 
Necro!

We started doing keto and I was sad to give up brewing. Looks like this is just the ticket I need! Thanks. LHS didnt have 6 row, so I had them order it and should be brewing next week. Cant wait
 
Yeah, I wanted to try it that way first. Used gluco as I pitched the yeast. Was out of town the week after I brewed it, so when I got back this week I checked the gravity. looks like its right at or just a hair below 1.000 So that perfect. Added the dry hops in, raised the temp to 72 and letting it sit for 2 days. Then I'll lower it a bit each day before I leave this week to get it to laggering temps for cold conditioning.

Sample tasted pretty good. OUr club has a fizzy yellow beer comp this month that hopefully it'll be ready for.
 
Yeah, I wanted to try it that way first. Used gluco as I pitched the yeast. Was out of town the week after I brewed it, so when I got back this week I checked the gravity. looks like its right at or just a hair below 1.000 So that perfect. Added the dry hops in, raised the temp to 72 and letting it sit for 2 days. Then I'll lower it a bit each day before I leave this week to get it to laggering temps for cold conditioning.

Sample tasted pretty good. OUr club has a fizzy yellow beer comp this month that hopefully it'll be ready for.
This should be the perfect beer for the comp. Good luck. :mug:
 
So I notice the OG recipe calls for S-05 but could this be used with something like W-34/70 at warmer temps? Like 68ish? I do have a laggering fridge but I would prefer to ferment this more at my room temps which are usually like 66F in the winter. I dont want to hoist a glass carboy filled with the nectar down to my basement. I hear W-34/70 goes well up to like 72F. What are you guys experience with this yeast? I do have both W-34/70 and S-05 on hand but I really wanted to try the lager yeast with this.
 
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Hey guys, I’m trying to figure out how to avoid having to rack this recipe into secondary to achieve the 1.000 FG. I believe some people have just added the enzyme when they pitch the yeast but have had some issues with it stalling. How could I achieve the dry finish without a secondary?
 
So I notice the OG recipe calls for S-05 but could this be used with something like W-34/70 at warmer temps? Like 68ish? I do have a laggering fridge but I would prefer to ferment this more at my room temps which are usually like 66F in the winter. I dont want to hoist a glass carboy filled with the nectar down to my basement. I hear W-34/70 goes well up to like 72F. What are you guys experience with this yeast? I do have both W-34/70 and S-05 on hand but I really wanted to try the lager yeast with this.
I think W34-70 in the range of 60F-66F would be just fine. Make sure to focus on temp control to reduce temperature swings
 
So I brewed a version of this 3x now. Both basically had the same stuff, 6 lb pilsner, 2lb flaked rice. The first I used US-05 and 1/4 tsp of amylase in fermentor and FG was 1.002. Beer was great. 2nd was a lager version using 34/70, everything basically same. FG was 1.002 as well. Tastes great, less filling. Both kegs didnt last for more than a week. I gotta say though the lager was not worth it IMO. Took 2 weeks in the keg to mellow out and in the end it did taste great, but so did the US-05 version, In fact both my kid and wife liked the US-05 version better.

The third try I dont know what went wrong, but I added .5lb more pilsner because I had that much left in bag, and did a mash out decoction of 1/3 grist for 20min just to try it. OG was way up, by my calcs I hit like 85% efficiency at 1.048 not sure if the reading was wrong or WTF happened but was expecting more like 1.043. So anyway I fermented with US-05 again and added the amylase enzyme again but the FG ended up being like 1.008. So IDK wtf happened there. Its kegging and carbing right now. I was expecting more in the line of the other two beers getting closer to 1.000. Im sure the beer will be fine but I jsut want to know WTF happened here, why the spike in the efficiency for one, and why didnt the amylase take this more down to 1.000 like I expected, any ideas?

Im making these lighter beers for my wife which is a type 2 and needs to stay away from the carbs but loves her beers. Personally I could care less if this beer has more or less carbs, but this is more for her which Iw ant to hit that dryness and low carb.

BTW when I did the 34/70 the ferment hit 74 at high krausen and stayed there for like 2 days, then slowly dropped down to 66F which is my room temp. The room smelled of yeasty apples so I though it was ruined, but this did clear up in the keg, like I said. It was really clean tasting and smooth after the conditioning. So by my experiment, yes you can take 34/70 up to 74F and no pressure and still come out with a really clean beer in the end with some cold conditioning. But I just dont think it was worth it. US-05 is jsut as clean tasting and easier to work with under room temps.
 
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Temperature during fermentation? FG 1.002 seems a bit low, so maybe infection or wild yeast causing higher attenuation. Did you apply temperature adjustments to sample gravity measurements to correct for delta T?

A few possibilities, but if it tastes good and nobody gets sick, then all’s good. RDWHAHB.
 
Temperature during fermentation? FG 1.002 seems a bit low, so maybe infection or wild yeast causing higher attenuation. Did you apply temperature adjustments to sample gravity measurements to correct for delta T?

A few possibilities, but if it tastes good and nobody gets sick, then all’s good. RDWHAHB.
NAhh no infections. Ive been doing this a long time and I know what that tastes like. Both FG were taken at roughly 66F so no correction needed. What do you mean by too low? I thought the whole purpose of this amylase addition to the ferment WAS to get it that low?
 
NAhh no infections. Ive been doing this a long time and I know what that tastes like. Both FG were taken at roughly 66F so no correction needed. What do you mean by too low? I thought the whole purpose of this amylase addition to the ferment WAS to get it that low?
Depending on your mash temperature, if it's on the higher end of the Brewer's Window where Alpha enzyme is more active, and if your yeast is capable of fermenting certain sugars like maltriose, you can achieve lower gravities for sure, though more commonly you'd want a lower temperature in the Window where Beta amylase is more active in converting starches to simpler fermentable sugars. If you really want to go low on FG, you can add amyloglucosidase enzyme which cleaves some otherwise unconverted glycosidic bonds to produce a sub-1.000 FG. I've used it a few times and achieved FG as low as 0.996, but man was it dry.
 
Depending on your mash temperature, if it's on the higher end of the Brewer's Window where Alpha enzyme is more active, and if your yeast is capable of fermenting certain sugars like maltriose, you can achieve lower gravities for sure, though more commonly you'd want a lower temperature in the Window where Beta amylase is more active in converting starches to simpler fermentable sugars. If you really want to go low on FG, you can add amyloglucosidase enzyme which cleaves some otherwise unconverted glycosidic bonds to produce a sub-1.000 FG. I've used it a few times and achieved FG as low as 0.996, but man was it dry.
Yeah just ordered some for my next brew. My mash usually is 145F for 45min and then step up to 158F for another 45. And I typically use US-05 which has pretty good attenuation.
 
Yeah just ordered some for my next brew. My mash usually is 145F for 45min and then step up to 158F for another 45. And I typically use US-05 which has pretty good attenuation.
That’s the same step mash profile I use also. Captures the best temps for Beta and Alpha. I mash in at 60C and mash out at 70C. Really efficient for most beers (I mostly brew lagers).
 
Not sure what a mash-out decoction is process wise, but the decoction drove your better than expected efficiency, plus a little more grain. Also, I find some decocted beers don't seem to finish quite as low as the same beer not decocted.
 
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Not sure what a mash-out decoction is process wise, but the decoction drove your better than expected efficiencyn plus la little more grain. Also, I find some decocted beers don't seem to finish quite as low as the same beer not decocted.
Took 1/3 mash and boiled it for 20 min while mash out temp was being achieved in the kettle. Added it back in while kettle was at 165F or so raising the mash to 170F or thereabouts. then I boiled. So all conversion was done before I took the 1/3 for the decoction. 145F for 45 and then 158F for another 45min.
 

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