All Base malt?

I did some searching to see if I'm repeating anyone else, but didn't see anything.

So here's my question. I've been thinking about brewing 3 or 4 pale ales using different pale malts (Halcyon, plain 2-row, Marris Otter, Golden Promise, etc) and keeping everything else about the recipes the same (yeast, hops). But my question is: can I make a decent pale ale using just 8lbs of the base malts or should I really be throwing at least a minimal amount of crystal or something else in there for flavor? If anybody that has tried this before has some advice I'd be grateful.

Thanks fellas.

Yes. You can make delicious simple and crisp beers with only base malt. Try looking up some of the examples in the recipe threads.

do it as you originally planned it out, or toss in the same amount of caramel malt in each recipe.

I like to throw in 3 oz of wheat malt for head retention.

There is a recipe for LandLord ale that uses just G.P. I've made it and tasted awsome! I also now have a Special Bitter made with just M.O. and stryian goldings. Can't wait for that one. The Brits over at http://www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk/ rave about this "Styrian Stunner"

Ender
-I'm Smelling a lotta IF comming offa this plan-

Alright, thanks for the feedback. I think I'll just go with 100% base malts.

Absolutely, you can make a damn fine beer with just "base malt." That term makes it sound so plain, but it's more to underline how essential such malts are to beer.


TL

I've just done it.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=46163

You can do it and I recommend doing it with Vienna. Unless of course you haven't tried Vienna or don't like it

I admire your desire to more intimately know your ingredients! I am on a quest to do the same with hops. I have gotten 2 kinds of hops and brewed 3 beers of identical simple bases, 1 with hops A, 1 with hops B, and 1 with both kinds. So far so good.

Let us know how they turn out!

The plan has been further refined after talking with my brewing buddy. We're going to do 1 gallon batches. His complaint was you would end up with 30 gallons of basically the same simple pale ale. I personally didn't think that was a bad thing, but I agreed to lower the batch size.

We have decided on the following six malts: Dingemans Pilsener, Rahr 2-row, Fawcett Halcyon, Maris Otter, Fawcett Optic, and Simpson's Golden Promise. We're going with all Fuggles and using Safale-05.

I certainly will let everyone know how this turns out. I'm thinking I'll hand out six packs to a few people and give them a scorecard so they can rate each one.

HumOrfyBug: did you mean to link back to this same thread or a different one?

Soulive21 said:

You can do it and I recommend doing it with Vienna. Unless of course you haven't tried Vienna or don't like it

Click to expand...

I'd like to try using 100% Vienna. I think that will be next. I certainly have used Vienna before, and I can't imagine it turning out as anything other than delicious.

Sorry. I'm tired.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=45890

Are you going to play with mash temps or keep them all the same? I could see a 100% MO brew mashed high like 160* or so being pretty tasty....

Good luck!

In the members only section we are planning a big swap where everyone uses 1 yeast, 1 grain and 1 hop. You should become a paid member and get in on that swap, it's gonna be interesting.

I've done 100% Vienna malt for a Vienna lager, 100% Munich for a München Dunkel and 100% Pilsener for a German Pils. I used decoctions for all three and they all came out great.