Good cheap recipe!

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Chem-E-Brewer

Member
Joined
Jul 6, 2016
Messages
13
Reaction score
3
Hello I am working up the plans for my 3rd batch. I have done 2 all grain pale ales and love the way that they turned out! But now I'm looking for a good, cheap, and relatively straightforward recipe for a low ABV beer. Let me know if yall have any good provenews recipes. I'm mostly interested in doing something a little different than a normal pale ale but would like to keep it relatively small on the selection of hops that it will require.
 
8 lbs of 2 row and 6 oz of crystal 10. Bitter with one oz of williamette at 60 ferment with Bry 97 or any relatively clean yeast. I would mash at 150. A cheap blonde should be around 4.6 to 5 % :mug:
 
I just finished a really nice 5.4% blonde, it worked out real cheap any very tasty. The blondes use hardly any hops, and if you can reuse a yeast cake then the cost comes down to how much abv you want.

To be honest though, by the time you include gas, shipping, sanitisers, bottle caps etc I find the cost difference between a cheap session brew and a hardcore RIS is like 90c vs $1.30 a bottle, not that much in tbe scheme of things.
 
5.5gal 5lbs 6 or 2 row 2 lbs each flaked cor n and flaked maize. 1oz hops at 15and 5 min low alpha noble. Add bittering hops at 60 to get to 19 ibu. Ferment at 64 for two weeks . If you have biofine clear or gelatin transfer to secondary and hold for three days then bottle
 
6.5 lbs. Golden Promise(or normal two row)
2.5 lbs. Instant Grits
.5 oz cascade - 60 min.
.5 oz cascade - 5 min.

Notingham yeast fermented cold(60 degrees)

Easy, cheap and tasty cream ale
To be honest I know little to nothing about yeasts but this sounds great to me! What would be the difference in switching to us-05 for yeast? I live in the hot wasteland of Oklahoma and have trouble with heat management of my fermentation. I know us-05 is decent with fermenting at high temps.
 
US-05 isn't as clean as Nottingham and it doesn't drop clear as fast. I prefer Nottingham in most of my ales for this reason. It's very clean! us-05 would work as well though just follow what chelisHubby suggests.
 
Thanks for the help guys! Just one more question, would I mash in at 152f or a little lower? And would I just combine the malt and the grits in the mash together?
 
Combine the grits and grains together in the mash. When I brewed it I wanted a dry beer so I mashed at 150 degrees. Let us know how it turns out!
 
But you have to mash in higher so it settles to the temp you want. I lose about 12-15 degrees when I mash in and stir.
 
Correct, I heat my water to 163 and it normally settles in around the 150 to 152 range after I add my grains. It all depends on what system you are using.
 
So I made the blonde ale recommended by chelishubby earlier and was gonna dump the cream ale wort on top of the yeast cake from the blonde (the struggle of having only one carboy...). Im assuming this will work well enough as being the cream ale will be in the carboy for 2-3 weeks before I can get around to bottling it.
 
I would have only used 1/2 of the yeast cake, but you should be alright. What was the gravity of the Blonde if you don't mind? :mug:
 
I would not use all the yeast cake because it could be very active - blow out.

I poured out 2 quarts of yeast cane and used a pint in the next batch.

Save the rest in a mason jar for the next batch. Make a starter if it's too far out.
 
Hello I am working up the plans for my 3rd batch. I have done 2 all grain pale ales and love the way that they turned out! But now I'm looking for a good, cheap, and relatively straightforward recipe for a low ABV beer. Let me know if yall have any good provenews recipes. I'm mostly interested in doing something a little different than a normal pale ale but would like to keep it relatively small on the selection of hops that it will require.

If you're looking for something straightforward and cheap ($15-25 range), but different than the usual pale ale, how about a nice Kolsch? Something like this:

KOLSCH (5.5 gal)
94% 2 Row (9 lbs)
6% Vienna (0.5 lbs)
1.5 oz Hallertau @ 60
0.5 oz Hallertau @ 15
WY 2565 Kolsch

I've really been getting into these lately. Simple and a safe bet for most, but done right they're absolutely beautiful beers.
 
I guess it depends on what you like to drink. Northern Brewer has a Spotted Cow cream ale clone kit for under $20. Dry Irish Stout, brown ales and milds are cheap too. Reusing yeast knocks at least $7 off the price to brew a batch, and you won't need to make a starter if you saved enough or pitch on the cake of a just-finished brew. Buying grain and hops in bulk knocks off even more, even for the biggest hop monster.
 
If you're looking for something straightforward and cheap ($15-25 range), but different than the usual pale ale, how about a nice Kolsch? Something like this:

KOLSCH (5.5 gal)
94% 2 Row (9 lbs)
6% Vienna (0.5 lbs)
1.5 oz Hallertau @ 60
0.5 oz Hallertau @ 15
WY 2565 Kolsch

I've really been getting into these lately. Simple and a safe bet for most, but done right they're absolutely beautiful beers.

might have try this, haven't done a kolsch yet but you're right, they are pretty good beers. even cheaper if you do a 1 gallon batch, if that's your thing :)
 
I would have only used 1/2 of the yeast cake, but you should be alright. What was the gravity of the Blonde if you don't mind? :mug:

to be honest havent gotten around to getting a hydrometer... I really do like doing things the rustic way. But from what I hear looks like I need to get one haha.
 
Mostly 2 row, add a darker specialty grain to change it up. Hop with a cheap uncommon hop and use a yeast not usually used in a pale ale and you will have something different.
 
You will find a hydrometer is quite useful and will help answer questions about your beer.:mug:
 
6.5 lbs. Golden Promise(or normal two row)
2.5 lbs. Instant Grits
.5 oz cascade - 60 min.
.5 oz cascade - 5 min.

Notingham yeast fermented cold(60 degrees)

Easy, cheap and tasty cream ale


I don't think I can ferment that cold...could I get away with 70?
 
Hello I am working up the plans for my 3rd batch. I have done 2 all grain pale ales and love the way that they turned out! But now I'm looking for a good, cheap, and relatively straightforward recipe for a low ABV beer. Let me know if yall have any good provenews recipes. I'm mostly interested in doing something a little different than a normal pale ale but would like to keep it relatively small on the selection of hops that it will require.

If you're worried about your beer bill, try to work a Session version of your favorite beer style, with aproximately 3%ABV. You'll spend less with the grain bill and the beer would still tasty.
Also, wash the yeast cake from the last batch to use it on the new one.
Then, spend all savings you made with the grain bill and yeast with hops, by properly dry hoping your beer.

Cheers
 
I don't think I can ferment that cold...could I get away with 70?

I wouldn't. I would try and go as low as possible to prevent yeast off flavors. Try the swamp cooler method. A large bucket of water, a towel and change out frozen water bottles a couple times a day. This should be able to keep you below 65 degrees. You would only need to do this for the first couple of days, maybe up to a week.
 
5.5gal 5lbs 6 or 2 row 2 lbs each flaked cor n and flaked maize. 1oz hops at 15and 5 min low alpha noble. Add bittering hops at 60 to get to 19 ibu. Ferment at 64 for two weeks . If you have biofine clear or gelatin transfer to secondary and hold for three days then bottle

forgot to mention nottingham ale yeast
 
heres my recipie for irish stout i invented

5lb pale 2 row
2lb flaked barley
1lb chocolate malt
1lb crystal 120
.5lb roasted barley

then the hops is 2.25 oz east kent golding. .25 oz at the start of boil. .25 oz at 30 mins and .25 oz at 45 mins
and i used safale s-33 yeast

its 4.6% and 40 ibu. when i made it i only did a gallon but i translated it into 5 gallons. i call it oxtail brew just cause it sounds irish
 
My way of brewing cheap beers is to purchase 50 lb bags of grain , 1 lb bags of hops, and reuse yeast. All my beers are cheap. Induction burners instead of propane or ng use 1/8 the energy. I read that 1/8 thing, kinda difficult to measure.
 
Hey, might be a good time to mention... $7 propane tank refill charge at Costco. Canada mind you, but I assume its the same deal or cheaper in the US.
 
My way of brewing cheap beers is to purchase 50 lb bags of grain , 1 lb bags of hops, and reuse yeast. All my beers are cheap. Induction burners instead of propane or ng use 1/8 the energy. I read that 1/8 thing, kinda difficult to measure.

What size batches do you make? You have large induction burners with large SS kettle/MLT?

With bulk grain and hops, you can get a batch done for about $12, which is very cheap!
 
If you're worried about your beer bill, try to work a Session version of your favorite beer style, with aproximately 3%ABV. You'll spend less with the grain bill and the beer would still tasty.
Also, wash the yeast cake from the last batch to use it on the new one.
Then, spend all savings you made with the grain bill and yeast with hops, by properly dry hoping your beer.

Cheers

I have considered doing this but have worried about not having enough flavor density to it. But I guess I could get around by focusing more on the hops and do something to give it more body! I actually did dry hopping on my first beer and it turned out good so ill definately put a session beer in my list of waiting beers to make! do you know of one that uses a pilsner malt by any chance? (I bought a couple pounds for a 3 gallon batch while I was around my LHBS which is an hour away ha).
 
You could do pils with some Vienna or wheat. Add a little roast Barley or caramel.

Hops at 60, 30, 0 for sure. Dry hop if you like it.

Hops raise the cost and you asked for cheap!
 
My way of brewing cheap beers is to purchase 50 lb bags of grain , 1 lb bags of hops, and reuse yeast. All my beers are cheap. Induction burners instead of propane or ng use 1/8 the energy. I read that 1/8 thing, kinda difficult to measure.

1 up on that. I'm not a hophead, I prefer to get my flavors from the yeast that I re use and spices (Belgian freak). I get 50# of "economy" pale 2 row for $49 at my LHBS. My brews come in at $.25- .50 a 12 oz bottle. I figure about 10 batches will more than pay for my Grainfather + Fastferment system, not even taking in to account the beers I brew go for over $5 for 12 oz,
 
If you really want dirt cheap, with pils, then maybe try a French Saison, with 95% pils malt + 5% table sugar (and add in a little munich/vienna if you want), then ferment it with WY 3711. Add in a single bittering charge and that's it. Since 3711 gets about 90% attenuation, your grain bill will be a lot smaller that an average brew.
 
If you really want dirt cheap, with pils, then maybe try a French Saison, with 95% pils malt + 5% table sugar (and add in a little munich/vienna if you want), then ferment it with WY 3711. Add in a single bittering charge and that's it. Since 3711 gets about 90% attenuation, your grain bill will be a lot smaller that an average brew.

As above. Plus nowadays you have good dry seison yeasts. You can use the 5% to dispose of leftovers as well (wheat, leftover crystal, table sugar, etc.).
 
What size batches do you make? You have large induction burners with large SS kettle/MLT?

With bulk grain and hops, you can get a batch done for about $12, which is very cheap!

I do 10 gal with a mashtun and 5 gal biab. !5 gal kettles with water heater blanket insulation that is R19 . The boil burner is the Avanco 3500 watt 220 volt and the HLT burner is the 110v 1800 watt. It takes me about 6 hr to do 10 gal single infusion. 2 other guys in the club use the Avanco without insulation and only 5 gal batches.
 
So tried out the amber ale and the cream ale this week after bottle conditioning for a little over 2 weeks and sitting in fridge for 2 days. The amber turned out really good! It was a little sweet but im not too familiar with this style to know if this is normal or not. The cream ale i majorly messed up.... i used instant oats instead of grits. Now I thought it would be awful but it turned out pretty decent and one of my roomates loves it!
 
Back
Top