I want to brew a Budweiser.

[Tripod]

You know, I'm with Orfy on this one. I've heard people say many times, "Brew what you like", and then everyone heaps derision on those that like BMC. That's not the way I want to go mind you, but I can see people wanting to brew commercial style beers. It's often a goal of the first time brewer and maybe even some experienced brewers that have friends that like it.

I think that a lot of new brewers don't have a beer benchmark other than BMC. Particularly younger (therefore comparitively less experienced) drinkers haven't put in the time to try enough different styles to compare against. They want to brew BMC for the reasons you mentioned above and because it is their benchmark to compare theirs against and gauge how the first home-brewed batch(es) came out.

I'm not picking on any young people, by the way. I'm 37 and I can't possibly say I've tried everything there is to try...although I'm trying my best. But I have tried enough to evolve past BMC unless I'm kyaking down the river for 8 hours and don't want to completely dehydrate. It takes time to develope a knowlegable sense of many different styles. Until that happens, BMC is familiar to many new brewers. But that just my take on it...

-Tripod

 

[Coastarine]

You need to be careful not to sparge bellow around 1010.

Is this the general rule to keep from over-sparging? I've been wondering how I can make sure I'm not picking up harshness.

 

[Saccharomyces]

Is this the general rule to keep from over-sparging? I've been wondering how I can make sure I'm not picking up harshness.

If you double batch sparge, your chances of oversparging are almost nil unless your boiloff rate is insane and you are planning to do a two hour boil. Doing a small beer and fly sparging you have to watch your runnings. Easy though... After you collect 5 gallons, start running off into gallon jugs and measure the gravity before adding to the kettle. Top off with water in place of any wort that is below 1.010.

Also a good idea to watch your pH of the last few gallons of runnings if you have moderately hard or harder water. A few mL of phosphoric or lactic acid in the sparge water helps. Keeping the pH under 6 will avoid extracting tannins.

 

[Revvy]

This basic brewing podcast should be added to the "canon" of info on this thread as well...

December 21, 2006 - Brewing American Pilsner
Chris Colby, editor of Brew Your Own magazine walks us through the hoops and hurdles home brewers have to go through to brew American Pilsner, the most maligned of all styles.

Listen live via mp3

 

[TexLaw]

Is this the general rule to keep from over-sparging? I've been wondering how I can make sure I'm not picking up harshness.

It is a general rule, but only that. It really is all about pH, as you do not want your mash pH to climb high enough to extract tannins. The general rule is that, as long as your runoff OG is at or above 1.10, then your should be able to keep buffering to a good pH range. Really, that will vary from mash to mash.

If you really want to see how far you can go in a particular mash, measure the pH and stop sparging when your pH climbs above 5.5ish.


TL

 

[Vuarra]

I do have one question... I used the original recipe, substituting 2# rice flakes for the honey (I know, substitution means we can't help you ), and Nottingham for the American/Canadian Ale Yeast (LHBS did not have any).

Now that we have the substitutions available, what can I do about the hops... Me and SWBHO and some friends all agree that this is just too "fruity" or "flowery"... what might make for better flavouring in the hop department?

 

[flylock_jac]

I brewed this for my BMC friends. I did it as a 4 gallon batch and used 3# of light DME .
Was surprised at the results , for an easy recipe with little ingredients ,it came out as a nice drinkable lawnmower Ale. Will be doing another batch as soon as I get to Wally world for the honey.

 

[Revvy]

I think this should be added to this thread, for those who stumble on it in the future, but Biermuncher has come up with what seems like a really close BMC type beer.

Pretty close.

10.0# Pils
.75# Flaked Corn
.75# Minute Rice
1.0# Cane Sugar

.50 ounce Magnum x 60
.50 ounce Hallertau x 10

1.037
IBU's around 15-17 or so.

* I took the corn and rice down a bit and replaced with 1# of table sugar.
* I mashed at 149 for 90 minutes.
* Boiled the crap out of it to the point that I almost had 3 boil overs.
* Pitched on a yeast cake of Kolsch yeast at 64 degrees.
* Gave it 2 weeks and racked to a secondary vessel on gelatin.

I was shooting for a 3.5% beer, but this dried out enough that we'll have to settle for a 4.7% instead.



Very dry.

Here's the whole tread. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/i-dried-crap-out-one-117960/#post1307996

It was already hard to find, so I figured cross linking it in this thread would be good for future brewers considering brewing some like this.

 

[Orfy]

I've added the link in the first post.

 

[Babylon]

Personally I am really glad that AB M and C make the beers they do. If their beer was not easy for them to make, and cheap, there'd be a lot of very frustrated beer drinkers out there because, as this thread has proven, it's not easy or cheap to make at home. The fact that my favorite style (dark as can be, with hops but not too much hops) is much more expensive bothered me, but it is also seems to be about the easiest style to homebrew, so I am not upset about that either.

 

[doctorRobert]

is it even cheaper to brew your own bmc? Why not just buy it at that point

 

[HB92649]

Truth be told, BMC is probably one of the most difficult styles for a homebrewer, for this reason. I think it would be extremely difficult for an extract brewer to achieve the "correct" color, and it would require excellent quality control for any brewer to brew a beer with very little malt character and very low hop bitterness and flavor without detectable flaws.

I guess it's hard for me to see why anyone would bother at all: it's a lot of effort and expense to achieve a result that can be puchased at the store for less.

Very accurate. The craftsmanship on these guys is more about the absence of flavor than the presence. Think high end vodka... nearly tasteless.

There are approximately 750 flavor profiles in Coors Light that if any were to go wrong would be immediately apparent whereas in a more bold beer, the hops and larger malt flavors would likely cover some of the minor flaws.

The other impressive thing is the quantities in which these are brewed but are still able to maintain a consistent taste despite the fact that they are brewed in any one of two or three dozen breweries across the country with a wide range of climate and water conditions.

 

[lumpher]

bud clone... hmm.. drink homebrew. recycle. drink. recycle. keg. as many have said here, might as well just buy it, since making it really would involve extreme temp controls, water pH, precise hops, and not enough aging. freshness dating? it's longer than that till i keg (i'm sure i'm beating a dead horse, and not telling you anything you don't already know)

 

[HB92649]

bud clone... hmm.. drink homebrew. recycle. drink. recycle. keg. as many have said here, might as well just buy it, since making it really would involve extreme temp controls, water pH, precise hops, and not enough aging. freshness dating? it's longer than that till i keg (i'm sure i'm beating a dead horse, and not telling you anything you don't already know)

Would that dead horse happen to be a Clydesdale?

 

[lumpher]

maybe it WAS a clydesdale drinking, then recycling...

 

[Cellarbrau]

10.0# Pils
.75# Flaked Corn
.75# Minute Rice
1.0# Cane Sugar

.50 ounce Magnum x 60
.50 ounce Hallertau x 10

1.037
IBU's around 15-17 or so.

This looks like the best recipe so far. I would suggest the following changes. This is in 5.5 gallon size because I think it's what the majority of people use.

6# American 2-row
1.75# Minute Rice

Mash at 148* F for 90 mins

20 grams US Hallertau (5%AA) 14 IBUs

Yeast: WLP 840 or Wyeast 2007

OG:1.040
FG:1.004

 

[billf2112]

it's the king of beers, so glad I live in a republic