Leftover Ale Recipe Challenge

[bigteachey]

I am brewing a Dunkelweizen next weekend and am pumped about it. However, it was my first time building my own recipe and ordering the ingredients a la carte, this has left me with an exciting and terrifying opportunity.

The Challenge :
I want to brew a small batch of beer using ONLY the ingredients i have leftover with the exception of any other ingredients that can be picked up at a local grocery store (nearest LHBS is too far away....and would be the easy way out).

In addition to limiting myself to using only the ingredients I have left, I would also like ot use ALL of the ingredients I have left. Throwing an ounce or two of hops or grain out is fine, but no more than that.

The Materials :
1/2 lb. Weyermann chocolate wheat
1/2 lb Weyerman dark wheat
0.5 oz Hallertau (3.8a)
0.5 oz Tettnang (4.5a)

That's what I have to start. My first idea was to do a weird wheat black IPA, but I dont know how that would be viable since I only have 1 lb of fermentables. The next idea was to add atypical fermentables. I have spent the last hour or so trying to make a 2 gallon batch of oatmeal stout work, but there's just no way I can get enough gravity out of the oats without going way over the suggested max of 20% of total fermentables. I am also more than willing to toss in honey/molasses/syrup as fermentables, but again....I can only do so much with those without making a ****ty mead mutant.

If anyone has any idea what I can do, I'm all ears.

you guys are kickass, someone can figure this out

Rules/Guidelines :
- i dont give a **** about batch size, I'd prefer at least 2 gallons, but if your recipe can only yield 1.5 gallons, I'll still give it a whirl
- keep the suggested fermentables limited to something that I can MOST LIKELY find at a grocery store
- style is not a huge issue, but I would love to able to categorize this bad boy somehow. I realize the SRM on this will be way too high for most styles, so stouts/porters/dark ales are pretty much where the focus should (?) be.

Let the games begin. Also, don't poison me.

 

[Hamsterbite]

Got yeast, or does that have to come from the grocer too?

 

[bigteachey]

Forgive my ignorance, but I'm not sure if I can use the stuff at the grocery store that is labeled "brewer's yeast". If I can, I may go with that....if it's decent. Otherwise, I can always figure out how to pick up some yeast from the LHBS (I will only consider that a minor failure of my mission haha)

As far as the challenge goes, make whatever yeast suggestion you'd like. It's wide open.

 

[DrHop]

I've been thinking about trying maltomeal for a while. Manufacturer says its just malted wheat but I don't know if the enzymes are intact. I also don't have any on hand. It would be interesting to hear if anyone has ever tried to mash it. Or somebody who has some could to a super tiny mash and iodine test which would be awesome.

 

[Hamsterbite]

You could always use bread.

 

[Sir Humpsalot]

I would just do a mead. Get yeast for three bucks, delivered to your door via ebay. Honey is available at the grocery store. Make a full 5 gallons. Why not?

 

[bottlebomber]

You don't technically have any fermentables, since those grains need to be mashed to contribute to Brix. Why not wait till you have what you need, or has been mentioned, if you can get any of those 5 lb cans of Wild Mountain honey, make a mead.

 

[bottlebomber]

Make JOAM

 

[mcwilcr]

You could get a couple gallons of tree top apple juice and make some kind of creamy chocolate covered hard cider. Also, I'm pretty sure you can actually use the grocery store brewers yeast but I don't think the results are that reliable. Double check though before you just take my word for it.

Edit: you could make a big starter and use some of your dunkel yeast or wait until you are ready to secondary, assuming you plan to, and use some of your yeast cake.

 

[kaconga]

Buy a 2.2 lb can of premier malt extract. They sell it at my grocery store so that is what I would do.