Nnaakk
Member
For my first post, I decided to share my plans to educate myself. I've brewed 20 something beers, and I enjoy it immensely. However, I feel that I have little grasp of what different ingredients or other brewing variables actually do to finished beer. I have of course read most anything I can get find on the subject, but I would like to experience these differences myself.
I therefore decided that instead of just brewing whatever style beer I felt like(or others requested) all the time, I would start also brewing some batches purely for the sake of learning what effects these different things had. My thought is to start with a very simple recipe, brew it a couple times to try and get a fairly consistant result, and then change one single thing at a time to learn what the effect is. Keep in mind that my primary goal here isn't to make great beers(although I'm hoping they are still enjoyable), but rather find out how different things effect beer. I chose a very basic blonde ale as my starting point:
8# 2-row
.5oz Centennial 10%
WYeast 1056 with 1000ml starter
60 minute Single infusion mash at 152* with mashout
According to Beer Smith, with 80% efficiency I get:
OG: 1047
SRM: 3.3
IBU: 18.7
Here then are some of the ideas I've thought of to try:
Adding different specialty grains one at a time(not literally individual grains obviosly)
Adding late hop additions of various variaties
Using a different bittering hop at the same est. IBU
Different yeast
Changing the base malt
Fermenting at different temperatures
I understand that the base beer I've chosen limits what all I can reasonably expect to learn, but I think it's a good starting point for experimentation.
Why am I sharing this? I guess I'm just curious what others think about it, what they've tried and maybe what other ideas they have. Any comments, experiences, recommendations, rants or other input most welcome.
Thanks.
I therefore decided that instead of just brewing whatever style beer I felt like(or others requested) all the time, I would start also brewing some batches purely for the sake of learning what effects these different things had. My thought is to start with a very simple recipe, brew it a couple times to try and get a fairly consistant result, and then change one single thing at a time to learn what the effect is. Keep in mind that my primary goal here isn't to make great beers(although I'm hoping they are still enjoyable), but rather find out how different things effect beer. I chose a very basic blonde ale as my starting point:
8# 2-row
.5oz Centennial 10%
WYeast 1056 with 1000ml starter
60 minute Single infusion mash at 152* with mashout
According to Beer Smith, with 80% efficiency I get:
OG: 1047
SRM: 3.3
IBU: 18.7
Here then are some of the ideas I've thought of to try:
Adding different specialty grains one at a time(not literally individual grains obviosly)
Adding late hop additions of various variaties
Using a different bittering hop at the same est. IBU
Different yeast
Changing the base malt
Fermenting at different temperatures
I understand that the base beer I've chosen limits what all I can reasonably expect to learn, but I think it's a good starting point for experimentation.
Why am I sharing this? I guess I'm just curious what others think about it, what they've tried and maybe what other ideas they have. Any comments, experiences, recommendations, rants or other input most welcome.
Thanks.