Having some fun with grain bills

[gunhaus]

I have noticed that one of the biggest questions anytime a recipe is posted is; Can i substitute "X" ingredient, and what will happen. Often this sparks great debate!

I look at it this way - the answer is most often YES. This hobby of ours is cooking, not alchemy. If there are flavors you like go for it.

One of my favorite examples is Ed Wort's wonderful and beloved Haus Pale Ale recipe. As is, it is a wonderful beer. It is also one of the most wonderful and useful grain bills in my repertoire. At various times, I have upped the American Hops, and switched to a yeast Like US-05, stayed with the English yeasts, and gone to English hops like EKG, i have used Kolsch yeast, and noble hops, I have used 34-70 and brewed this with noble hops as a lager, and 34-70 and Northern Brewer as a common, I even backed off the cascade a bit from the original and secondaried this on 4 lbs of raspberries for a brew that came very close to Rubeus. ALL of them made good and interesting beers from one bill. Many beers - one good grain bill.

Recently, I took the grain bill for Biermuncher's Oktoberfast, which is a fine recipe as is; left the grain bill as is, but switched to some Pearle and Saaz hops, then reduced the mash temp from 158 down to 149. I wanted to up fermentable sugars a bit to try and get more attenuation drying things out a bit and getting a little less sweetness and malt. There is a LOT of flavor in this bill so I was not worried about making it bland in any way. I also brewed this one with 34-70 as a common beer. The result was a wonderful Amber brew that i will be doing again.

The point is; most grain bills are pretty flexible, and in the end this is YOUR beer, so feel free to tweak the ingredients, and techniques a little to make it taste the way YOU like. As i said at the top this is cooking - have fun and suit you own tastes.

Now my water is ready - time to go crush some grain and get to mashing!

 

[Dland]

I have lots of fun with grain bills, hop bills too. Other types of bills,.. not so much.

 

[brewbama]

To simplify my brewing life, I lump beers into 5 colors: SRM 2-3, 4-6, 9-12, 15-20, 30, and 40 = Blonde, Pale, Amber, Brown, Black, and ‘Stout’ (extra dark pitch black?).

If you take one grain bill — say Amber, add Amer hops and yeast you have Amer Amber Ale; replace the hops and yeast with English hops and yeast you have a Bitter; use a hybrid yeast and Northern Brewer hops for a Cali Common; use Czech hops and yeast for a Czech Amber; and on we go down the style lineup. Higher OG style = more base malt, less OG = less base malt.

Blonde is even better: base malt + whatever hops and yeast for the style. Blonde Ale, Amer Lager, Czech Premium Lager, German Pils, Munich Helles, Kölsch, etc...

English beers are really easy to move up and down the style guide because of the partygyle grain bills.

I use a base malt and choose from four ‘character’ malts to brew about every beer. There are exceptions but far fewer than I thought. (Westy 12 = base + dark candi syrup). I simply call those modifications to the basic recipe. For me this has simplified my recipes to include what is needed but eliminates the fluff.

It just makes life easier to rely on process, techniques, hops, yeast, and water vs reinventing the grain bill wheel every time I brew. I credit Palmer, Beachum, and others for the concept.

 

[kh54s10]

I often take a recipe and use what I have on hand. If one calls for c-20 and I only have c-40 so be it. Same for something like Chocolate malt or pale chocolate. I will use either but not expect to make the same beer. There are also a lot of recipes that call for a specific malt from a specific maltster. I just use the brand I have.

I do the same when cooking, I use a recipe and if it has an ingredient that I like, but I think it could have more, I just add more. If there is an ingredient that I don't particularly like I will use less or even eliminate that one. I also start from scratch a lot. Sometimes something I cook is not so good, usually good and sometimes fantastic. About the same as my brewing.

Now to hops, I have several online hop description sites bookmarked. If a recipe calls for one that I don't have I often look for a similar description for one that I do have on hand.

I also like to create my own recipes. I decide what style I want to make, look at some proven recipes, then start adding similar ingredients in Beersmith. One of my best wasn't even based on any recipe, I had leftovers, put them in BS and produced a Brown Ale recipe. I changed it up several times and though good they didn't impress me as much as the original. I then wondered "Do I really remember the original as being so good" I brewed it again as close to the original as I could and yes it was better than my altered ones..

 

[NitrogenWidget]

I bought 30lbs of wunder grain from austin homebrew supply for $27 and free shipping.
basically all the grain they dump filling orders thrown into a bag. LOL!
it's crushed and no idea what type of grain it is.

whatever happens though, the chances of producing it again are nil.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

Could you use the "The Hot Steep Method" for your 'mystery' malt (or malt blend)?

http://blog.brewingwithbriess.com/the-hot-steep-method-step-by-step-instructions/

 

[NitrogenWidget]

Could you use the "The Hot Steep Method" for your 'mystery' malt (or malt blend)?

http://blog.brewingwithbriess.com/the-hot-steep-method-step-by-step-instructions/

think i'll just bitter with columbus and i've got some Rhythm hops which is a blend of experimental hops from yakima i'll ad late in the boil.
seems appropriate.