Complete newb wants to make beer from these leftover ingredients.

[D_Nyholm]

So, i have a few leftover ingredients and I was thinking of trying to make a 2.5g brew with them. THis is what I have:

3 lb Extra Light DME
.25 oz Target
.5 Williamette
.5 Kent Golding


I was thinking making the recipe below and seeing what comes out, but since i am a newb and have never just thrown ingredients together, I'd like to see what suggestions could be made to make this a good brew.

2.75 lb Extra Light DME
.25 oz Target 60 min
.25 oz Williamette 15 min
.25 oz Kent Golding 15 min
.25 oz Williamette 0 min
.25 oz Kent Golding 0 min


I was thinking of adding 4 oz of dark brown sugar, but I am not completely sure.

Let me know what you think.

Beersmith gives me the following (this is with the brown sugar):
OG 1.053
IBU 30.9
Color 6.4
ABV 5.4%


I have Nottingham and Safale US-05 and was thinking of using the US-05

 

[COLObrewer]

Sounds good, brew it up, it looks to be close to an american pale ale. Either of those yeasts will have similar results.

 

[cms]

Wondering... If you are a complete newb, how do you have extra ingredients? Most brewers consider themselves experts by the time they stock up that many leftovers...

Like the previous poster said - looks like a decent recipe. Go for it. I might save the EKG's for my next English beer, but it would be great with or without.

 

[lumpher]

i have way more leftovers than that, and way away from an expert... i need to brew for 5-10 more years to be an expert. D : leave out that .25 ekg add as a flame-out, and make that a pale ale

 

[birvine]

Mmmmmm... EKG!

Enjoy!

B

 

[D_Nyholm]

Wondering... If you are a complete newb, how do you have extra ingredients? Most brewers consider themselves experts by the time they stock up that many leftovers...

Lol, a kit I bought came with more hops than were needed, so these were the leftovers. I had the dme because I was considering using it to prime bottles.

What do you all think of the brown sugar? Needed or unnecessary? I was thinking for color, but it seems that I might still get some decent color for the dme, especially if I boil it for 60 minutes.

 

[cms]

3# of Extra Light DME isn't going to give you much color in a 2.5G batch. It depends what you're after, but I only would worry about the color after everything else. Brown sugar is a good way to get some more color, but only use it if you really wanted the additional gravity (opposed to using, say, dextrose to increase the gravity and leave the color alone).

 

[RobWalker]

I'm quite the amateur too, but that looks like a lot of hops to me. Have you checked it side by side by other recipes? Just a thought...

 

[D_Nyholm]

3# of Extra Light DME isn't going to give you much color in a 2.5G batch. It depends what you're after, but I only would worry about the color after everything else. Brown sugar is a good way to get some more color, but only use it if you really wanted the additional gravity (opposed to using, say, dextrose to increase the gravity and leave the color alone).

Well, wouldn't mind a nice copper color. Not as dark as a amber, but darker than a Budweiser. The gravity doesn't really bother me since i think that 1.053 isn't really that high, right? I think with it taken out, it was 1.051 or something I just don't know if it will change the flavor at all since i've never used it before. I've only used brown sugar in a brown ale and that is in the fermenter right now so I don't know what it will taste like yet.

I am going to be brewing this tomorrow night and it is for a party on August 20th. I want it to be a relatively easy drinking beer that most people would go up and get a second one instead of grabbing thier usual Bud Light since there are only 3 'beer drinkers' in the crowd.

Anyone else have any input on the hops? I was thinking since they are so late in the boil they really won't be adding too much bitterness. Only the Target hops are the real bittering hops and I don't have too much of them.

The style seems to fall under a American Pale Ale or a California Common, though it is lightly hopped for those types.