Help me figure out what to make

So I got myself into a little competition.....

I was provided with the following:

7# of Base Malt Blend (average 2 Lovibond)
(consisting of 26% CM 2 row, 20% TF MO, 20% CM Maritime, 20% Pearl and 14% GW 2 row)
1.5# White Wheat Malt (1.5L)
1.5# Pilsen Malt (2L)
12oz Cara Pilsen (10L)
12oz Malted Oats (1.9L)
8oz Baird Carastan (30L)

1.24oz of Cascade (7.1%AA)
0.75oz of Summit (17% AA)

Mangrove Jacks West Coast Ale Yeast

Everybody has to use MANGO in the recipe....
Must be 9%abv or less

We can use as much / as little of the ingredients (BUT ONLY THESE INGREDIENTS)
Edit: everyone had to use mango, cascade and m44 yeast; the rest is up to the brewer.

I am a noob at recognizing beer styles so what kind of beer has 2row, pilsen and wheat in it? (even though i do not have to use it all)

just a regular pale ale can have pils and wheat in it. THis would also be a good base for mango. I'd say use everything except a few lbs of the base malt blend. Or you could forgo the pils if you want

I feel like we are being tested on our knowledge base with this recipe.
The CaraPils and oats are gonna benefit head retention, but are they both really necessary?
Is a step mash necessary because of the oats, the pilsener, or the wheat?

If you dont have to use all of the ingredients, I think a Blonde Ale would be a nice.
Bitter with some Summit, flameout with cascade. Not too sure about the mango, as Ive never really added much fruit to beer (except sours). I would be more inclined to add after fermentation, to preserve the flavor, but would worry about additional fermentation from the fruit's sugar... Maybe extract mango juice and add it at flameout as well.

It looks like that cara pilsen is 10L - so more like crystal 10 than dextrin malt (carapils). It's probably a light Belgian crystal. With the mango I think a blonde ale sounds good. You could go with the base malt, a lb or so of the wheat, and 0.5 lb of C-10 for about 1.046-1.048 (or adjust for your efficiency). I'd be careful with the summit not to over bitter, you may just be able to go with cascades for bittering plus a small late addition, thinking 20 IBU or so. Then mango juice or pureed mango in the secondary.

chickypad said:

It looks like that cara pilsen is 10L - so more like crystal 10 than dextrin malt (carapils). It's probably a light Belgian crystal. With the mango I think a blonde ale sounds good. You could go with the base malt, a lb or so of the wheat, and 0.5 lb of C-10 for about 1.046-1.048 (or adjust for your efficiency). I'd be careful with the summit not to over bitter, you may just be able to go with cascades for bittering plus a small late addition, thinking 20 IBU or so. Then mango juice or pureed mango in the secondary.

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A blonde has been one of my top choices all along. I've had great success with an orange blonde in the past.
One thing that I forgot to mention is that the only MUST be in there ingredients are Cascade, yeast and mango.
I have been trying some versions of the recipe in beersmith without the summit.
Some with just a pinch as a FWH.

And another with just a pinch as a dry hop along with some cascade.

Hey chicky.... How does this look?

7# Base blend
1# White wheat
8oz Cara Pilsen (10L)
6oz Malted Oats

0.50oz Summit (Mash hops) (6 IBU)
0.50oz Cascade (60min) (12.6 IBU)
0.25oz Cascade (15min) (3.1 IBU)
0.25oz Cascade (10min) (2.3 IBU)

Fresh mango (DH 10 days)
0.24oz Cascade (DH 7 days)
0.25oz Summit (DH 7 days)


Estimated FG: 1.011
3.6 SRM
24.1 IBU
4.9% abv

Anyone else have any thoughts on this recipe?

I would probably go for an American pale ale. In my limited competition experience, blonde ales seem to always do poorly against pale and amber ales.

Looks pretty good to me, though I've never dry hopped a beer that also has fruit. I would not disagree in general with the thought above but for fruit I think a milder, less bold beer is better unless you've got a really bold fruit. Another reason why I lean toward lower hopping rates - so as not to compete. That all being said I'm not a huge fruit beer fan and mostly brew them for friends, so take that all with a grain of salt. You don't list the OG but I suspect this one is kind of straddling the blonde/pale border.
Whatever you decide let us know how it does!

I think the recipe looks solid and refreshing. One idea though, have you given any thought to using a hop like citra or galaxy that is actually known for some mango character? Galaxy in particular would be a great dry hop to play off the mango

I had good results doing a hop stand into the mash with a high AA hop (based on a flat warm sample this morning on the way to a keg.) It seems to have nice mellow flavor without much bitterness. I also did a hopstand at flamout with just a sprinkle tossed in the boil to bond with the proteins and then dry hop when ferm finishes up.

m00ps said:

I think the recipe looks solid and refreshing. One idea though, have you given any thought to using a hop like citra or galaxy that is actually known for some mango character? Galaxy in particular would be a great dry hop to play off the mango

Click to expand...

I wish it was that easy.
We are bound to use these ingredients ONLY....

All entrants have to use mango, m44 yeast and cascade hops.
The rest of the ingredients can be used in as little or as much as we want.
I have debated scrapping the oats all together to avoid any haze issues.
I have debated scrapping the pilsener malt instead.

I wish that I could use a hops that would blend better.

Picked up my kit for this competition and was drawing up my recipe along the same lines. My only concern is that it will turn into a best IPA comp....as it seems that's what most people want now a days.

I'm definitely scraping the oats due to chill haze and couldn't find a good reason to keep the pilsen......

I think I have my hop schedule figured out, but that's subject to change.

Here's a link to CMC Maritime Malt. http://www.canadamalting.com/cm/Products/products#Distillers

Also, Morebeer.com recommends 1.5 lbs of mango per gallon of wort.

Good Luck

I agree about the pilsener, as there simply doesn't seem to be enough to make a difference in the outcome.
I disagree about the oats though. The creamy mouthfeel is worth a little haze and a step mash will take care of most of that.

My hop schedule has been thought and rethought about 10 times lol....
I've decided on using the summit in an outside the box way.

So the final recipe was decided upon and brewed this week.

Not going to report on it at the moment in case there are other contestants out there that may decide that my way is a good way...


Looking forward to seeing how this turns out, as it was very tasty on the way into the fermenter.

The sponsors provided us with Mangrove Jacks M44 / West Coast Ale yeast.
Notoriously slow starter and it did not disappoint this time...
I am so used to using starters and seeing action in <12hrs.
I start to get nervous and my eye twitches when it gets up around 24 h before I see anything.
In defense, I am keeping it down at 61 degrees, so maybe that made it slow.

Bottled 2.25 gallons of the final product tonight. Tasted and smelled great while bottling.

Had a ton of fun with this competition so far.
Can't wait to hear some feedback on my creation.

OK... it's up to the judges now.

Turned in my 3 bottles for the competition on Saturday.
My friend and I sampled a couple of them after volunteering for the 2015 VBF in Burlington on Friday night.

Not too bad. Mango did not come though as pronounced as I may have wanted it to, kind of a lingering fruity/sweetness on the palate after each sip.

Maybe that is what they judges are looking for???
Let's hope so right?