Bought ingredients months ago, lost recipe (Pilsen Extract)

Hello!

I ordered some ingredients some months ago, at the beginning of summer, but then put off the brew because my basement would be too warm to ferment.

Finally have time this week to pick it up again. But no idea what the plan was, since I can't find the recipe. It feels like I'm missing a quantity of LME to make any of the recipes I do find.

Maybe someone can piece something together from what I got?

This would be my 6th or so beer.

Ingredients:

2lbs Briess Pilsen Light DME
3lbs Biress Pilsen Light LME
1lbs Flaked Rice
1 Lbs Carapils Malt
1oz Perle
1oz Saaz
Irish Moss

The hops I feel good about the plan. But the combo of flaked rice, grain malt, LME and DME - I have no clue. The Pilsen recipes I find call for 10lbs of LME!

Thoughts?

 

Is this for a 5 gal batch? If so, that looks very low...maybe you were going to do a 2.5 or a 3 gal batch?

 

Those extracts and grains will get you a 1.045 OG in a 5.5 gallon batch, or 1.050 in a 5.0 gallon batch. The only thing I'm not sure about is the flaked rice, which needs to be mashed if you want the sugar extracted from it. I don't think Carapils has the enzymes to do that (although I could be wrong). To be safe I'd buy a pound of 2-row and throw that in with the rice for a mini-mash. The extra 2-row will boost your OG by about 5 points

For the hops it kinda depends on what style you're brewing. If you are going for the czech lager style, where higher bitterness is accepted, I'd use 1oz Perle at 60 and the 1oz Saaz late in the boil - maybe 5-10 minutes out. If you're going for a cream ale, where bitterness is less, you'll want to cut the perle down to .25oz and leave the saaz at 10. Or you could cut the perle altogether and use the saaz at 60 minutes

 

Well...

1. Steep your flaked rice and carapils (EDIT: you might need to mash the flaked rice...it's been awhile since I've done an extract brew and I can't remember if those are steep-able or not. They go into the mash either way in an AG brew)

2. Use your extracts in the boil (maybe DME at the beginning of the boil, LME as a late boil addition, to keep the color lighter; hop utilization will be affected slightly, but I wouldn't worry about this)

3. Use your Perle hops for bittering (60 min addition) and add the Saaz 5 minutes before flameout. Irish moss goes in 15 minutes before flameout.

This is just a super general template using what you have...I'm not sure if it's what you were asking for or not. Did you want to know if you had enough fermentables? Not sure, but you can make a beer with what you have. If you want a stronger beer, add more extract. This will make a good session beer (I didn't do the exact calculations for OG on a 5 gallon batch with these ingredients).

Finally, are you trying to make a Pilsner? That is a lager style. It sounds like you don't have temp control, which is generally assumed if you are going to lager (though there are ways to work around it, if you've got some experience). You will do best to make an ale with this. Since this recipe is a pretty middle-of-the-road, you could choose any of the many different ale yeasts out there and get radically different beers, so that's where I'd focus my attention. A saison yeast with this recipe would produce, duh, a saison. A characterful English yeast would get you a nice English pale ale (more or less). A Belgian/Trappist yeast would get you a very light Belgian single. A neutral American yeast would give you something like a blonde ale. See what I mean? The ingredients you listed above don't define a given style, so your yeast choice is important. Just don't do a Pilsner or other lager style unless you absolutely know what you're doing for proper fermentation and lagering temperature control.

 

Great advice all, thanks!

Some questions -

IslandLizard is right in that I don't know how to properly mash my rice / malt. Would steeping do the job of adding something to the brew? Basically, if anyone is willing to help, I'd need some step by step on using these ingredients.

No one else seems too worried about my extract amounts for a 5 gallon brew, so thats good.

Hops instructions seem good.

Here's what I'm thinking, step by step - stop me if I'm wrong.

Bring 3 Gallons to a boil, then turn off heat. Steep flaked rice and malt for an hour. Remove steeping bag, draining and washing it off. Top off the water back to 3 gallons, bring back to a boil. Add all 5 lbs of the extracts. Add Perle Hops, boil 50 mins, add Saaz, Boil 10 mins, turn off.

Transfer to primary, top off water to 5 gallons, cool, add yeast.

 

Don't steep your grains in near-boil-temp water. You want it somewhere around 150-160F for steeping.

If you want to do a mini-mash of your rice and carapils, you should get 1 lb of 6-row malt from your local home brew shop (or online), then add that along with the rice and carapils to your water and hold it at a temperature of ~150F for about an hour (to ensure that it is complete). Remove the grains from the liquid before bringing it to a boil, then continue your brew as planned.

Two other things:

1. Chill wort BEFORE transferring it into the fermentor! You don't need to be melting your plastic bucket, or worse yet, shattering your glass carboy.

2. Again, what yeast are you using? What style of beer are you trying to make? You called it a Pilsen...are you planning to try to do a Pilsner? Do you know what that entails? I really think you should put some thought into this, and quite likely do some research into how this works. It's no small thing.

 

maybe you should ask your mom what to do

 

Best advice here. Thanks! Glad I came to these forums.

 

Thanks for mini-mash advice. This was useful. I've only done one all-grain, and it was over a year ago. Everything else has been extracts.

The yeast is 2035 American Lager. Though I won't be lagering the beer, it was still the one suggested in the original recipe. In the end, I believe its an american summer ale.

Never had a problem with my plastic bucket through 6-7 brews, but worth considering that it may be a problem in the future. Thanks.