What kind of beer is it?

[spratm]

Hi all, I'm a relatively new homebrewer. I have brewed four 5-gallon extract batches thus far and managed to produce four drinkable beers. I used some recipes that I found online that incorporated steeping grains (though I have learned since that some of the grains that I steeped perhaps shouldn't have been steeped ) and bought ingredients accordingly, but I bought the DME in 3-pound bags and the grains by the pound to save some $$.

So I have some remnant ingredients left over from these batches that I am planning to make a new 5-gallon batch with this weekend. I have a few reasons for doing this: I want to see what will happen when I don't have someone else's recipe to follow; I want to use up these ingredients while they're still relatively fresh; and I am a little bit of a freak show when it comes to wasting anything food-related -- I absolutely hate wasting food.

My question is this: What type/category of beer would this be? When I have peeps over to drink it I would like to know what to call it. I was thinking of just calling it a "pale ale" but wasn't too sure where the color would end up after steeping the CaraAroma and Crystal 20L. (I guess I could leave the CaraAroma out, but that option would gnaw heavily at my completionist/not-wanting-to-waste-anything brain.) I also wasn't sure how hoppy it would actually taste given the relatively small quantity of hops that I have -- I plan to bitter with the Northern Brewer and Chinook and add the Azacca at the end of the boil. I also wasn't sure how/if the wheat DME fit into the categorization.

Anyhow, here are the ingredients I have:

1.75 lbs Pale Ale DME
1.50 lbs Pilsen DME
1.25 lbs Wheat DME

8 oz CaraPils
6 oz Crystal 20L
4 oz CaraAroma

0.75 oz Northern Brewer 7%
0.50 oz Chinook 11%
0.50 oz Azacca 12.5%

1 packet Safale US-05

Sorry for the length of my first post -- Any suggestions/input is appreciated. Cheers!

 

[treacheroustexan]

I didn't do a whole lot of research, but just looking at your amounts I bet you could get away with calling it a pale ale. It will probably end up under 4% though since there isn't a whole lot of fermentables, which is technically out of style for a pale ale but it's pretty close. As for the wheat dme, I'm not sure. If it's just left over ingredients I would just use up what you have. If you got rid of it, you would probably end up under 3% abv then and your friends would make fun of you (kidding).

 

[GPP33]

Sounds almost like a little bit of a dunkle wheat pale ale. Kinda an oxymoron but heck, might be the next beer craze. Wont know until you try it. Might also pass as a bit of a wheaty amber ale depending on what you do or do not do with the hops.

I'd probably leave out the Crystal 20 and CaraAroma, get some more pale ale and some more hops and make it a hoppy wheat.

If you don't have beer smith go get it and start putting your ingredients in and playing with styles until you get something that's mid range for a style you like or are interested in trying. From there add in other things you may have that you think would make it interesting.

 

[spratm]

Cool, thanks for the info. One follow up: I also have some honey on hand. I haven't used honey in any recipes so far, but could I throw 8 oz into this recipe to try to bring up the ABV a little?

 

[treacheroustexan]

Cool, thanks for the info. One follow up: I also have some honey on hand. I haven't used honey in any recipes so far, but could I throw 8 oz into this recipe to try to bring up the ABV a little?

Yeah absolutely!

 

[GPP33]

You could always make it a 4 gallon batch to up the ABV.

On second thought, if you go with a pale ale you can probably keep the crystal 20, I'd still choose to leave out the CaraAroma

 

[spratm]

Great info, thanks!

 

[Wayneh]

Wait for the color to finish then call it. It's like a baby. Give it a name when it's born. [emoji3]

 

[treacheroustexan]

Keep us update though. Always love hearing how stuff like this turns out.

 

[tootal]

That's what we call our garbage beer! Whatever is left we throw it in there, in fact we are due for one soon! We always make the beer and then figure out what it is after we taste it. That's how you win competitions, you make it and then figure out which category it fits into!