Experiment: Let my daughter pick the grains

[etrain666]

Thought I would share an interesting brew day and get your thoughts on a recipe.

My daughter loves coming to the LHBS with me to measure grains. So, she asked if she could pick the grains one day and see what kind of beer it makes. (PSA: I do not let her have any beer, she just likes the process and helping dad).

So, I thought lets give it a try. First I pointed to all the base grain and she picked Marris Otter. That's a good start. Then, I pointed the couple dozen specialty grains and the first one she picked out was smoked malt. Oh boy. Never tried brewing a smoked beer, so I took a very small amount. Anyway, here is what she ended up with and what I brewed. She clearly went for the dark stuff, so looks like I have some porter.


TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (30.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 6.52 gal
Post Boil Volume: 5.98 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.00 gal
Bottling Volume: 4.60 gal
Estimated OG: 1.055 SG
Estimated Color: 33.2 SRM
Estimated IBU: 89.5 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 82.8 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
8 lbs Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 1 76.2 %
1 lbs Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM) Grain 2 9.5 %
8.0 oz Black (Patent) Malt (500.0 SRM) Grain 3 4.8 %
8.0 oz Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 4 4.8 %
4.0 oz Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) Grain 5 2.4 %
4.0 oz Smoked Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 6 2.4 %
1.00 oz Warrior [15.00 %] - First Wort 60.0 min Hop 7 55.1 IBUs
1.00 oz Summit [17.00 %] - Boil 20.0 min Hop 8 34.4 IBUs
1.0 pkg English Ale (White Labs #WLP002) [35.49 Yeast 9 -

 

[motobrewer]

'scribed.

 

[Rivenin]

i've been thinking about doing something like that! for some reason i never thought to weigh the grains myself... smart move tex!

 

[etrain666]

Ya, I had her pick the grains she wanted first and then did a bit of quick mental calculations on amounts without being to exacting.

Brew smelled super toasty, and just the 4oz of smoked malt was very evident.

 

[wSelwyn]

This is pretty cool.

The master brewer at one of the Michigan Breweries I used to go to got his job because his daughter. They had just moved, and one day they were walking around their new home, and his daughter said "Daddy, I smell beer!" He was a homebrewer, so she recogised the smell of the mash. He walked downtown and found the brewery, walked inside and asked if they had any openings.

Children helping their parents can be a good thing

 

[SamBrewer]

I love smoked beers! I've always brewed fantastic beers with smoked malt! the recipe is good, I think that it will end with a very slighty smoked flavor at the end ( lots of very dark grains in you recipe...) or to be more precise, the smoked flavor will be more the one you can get from dark grains, so it will be roastiness not "bacon-like"

 

[klnosaj]

I had my wife do the same thing for a Winter Holiday Warmer. I handed her a print-out of a bunch of grains with flavor descriptions for each (maybe from Palmer's "How To Brew"?) and she designed a killer recipe. Lots of plum, raisin, and other holiday goodness! My wife is not my child obviously (this is California, not West Virginia....ZING!), but she is really short and can sometimes be mistaken for a kid.

 

[CreamyGoodness]

I'm sure it would be cost prohibitive (another term that needs to be taken out and shot like a Tsarist) but how cool would Iron Chef beermaking be? Each ingredient would be chosen at random, and you have to futs with it to make a palatable beer.

 

[etrain666]

You know, there is a reality tv contest for pretty much every culinary possibility already. Beer would not be too far fetched. 4 weeks of commercials during fermentation would be a bummer.

 

[CreamyGoodness]

You could do it in black and white, film noir style. Hour upon hour of airlock bubbling. And then a clown would be hanging upsidedown by his ankles, and the brew room would rotate.

 

[RickFinsta]

I want to try this with my wife, also. I bet it would end up being a super big smoked stout porter with a bunch of toffee, chocolate, and raisin in it, with some spicy floral aroma, and possibly served over a half ounce of raspberry liqour.

On another note, if your daughter wants to try beer, bring her over our way; in WI we let 'em start young...

 

[Pappers_]

You could do it in black and white, film noir style. Hour upon hour of airlock bubbling. And then a clown would be hanging upsidedown by his ankles, and the brew room would rotate.

You scare me . . .

 

[edmanster]

I like how this is going... I should let my kids do it too.. Ill just start with 10lb of 2 row and have each one go to the adjunct grains and point at one and get a pound of each so that will give me 5 different grains in all

 

[thepartsmancometh]

This is a great idea! Good way to push the envelope and break out of style ruts. I might try this with my wife (I don't think my cats would make good decisions...)

 

[CreamyGoodness]

I'll have you know that HBT is lucky to have such a source of my particular dementia and crazy! Where else will you find such a unique take on the world?

You scare me . . .

 

[jlpred55]

Why don't you and your daughter share a cup of first runnings? Kids love the stuff (obvs after it has cooled). It is sweet goodness, plus it gets her involved in the process.

 

[thepartsmancometh]

runnings? ??? I seem to recall my father's. Sharing the finished product with me when I was pretty young... :rockin:

 

[etrain666]

The first runnings idea would have been great. But, its fermenting away. I'll let her try a sip for sure, she'll probably never want beer again.

 

[edmanster]

The first runnings idea would have been great. But, its fermenting away. I'll let her try a sip for sure, she'll probably never want beer again.

That's how my kids are with bitter beer.. 1 sip turns them away but then you make the mistake of letting them try a sip of trappist or abby and now you can't set your glass down in fear that the youngest is gonna think its ok to sip on daddys glass..

 

[bobbrews]

It's almost like that show "Chopped" but for brewing.

Next time have her pick a fruit, a vegetable, an herb, and a spice. Try incorporating all that at once.

 

[CreamyGoodness]

... Plus any item from our pantry.

It's almost like that show "Chopped" but for brewing.

Next time have her pick a fruit, a vegetable, an herb, and a spice. Try incorporating all that at once.

 

[SkiNuke]

I think you should have let your daughter choose the amount of grains as well. I wonder what would have happened.

 

[bobbrews]

Okay daddy, surprise me with:

6 lbs of smoked malt
4 lbs of rye
2 lbs of black patent
2 lbs of maize
1 lb of acidulated malt
1/2 lb of Nelson Sauvin
1/4 lb of Fuggles
1 packet of Lager yeast

You must use it all. And... Go!

 

[etrain666]

Oh man, having her pick the grain amount would be fun, but she has no concept of what makes what. Could end up with 10 pounds of black patent and 1 pound of base.

If I did it again I might combine this exercise with a bit of math homework. She gets 3 pounds to split any way she wants with any specialty grain she picks. Yeast and hops I will keep for my own choosing.

 

[etrain666]

Standard Chopped judge response:
"I really like what you did with the hop bursting and choice of smoked malt, all in all this is a perfect beer.......BuT......you only gave me 12 ounces and I clearly wanted 16 ounces. You've been chopped"

 

[CreamyGoodness]

"I agree that the smoked malt and hop bursting made for a wonderful beer, but your choice of clear bottle was an unforgivable felony. Also, Spondo's kolsch-style from 12 rounds ago is still so fresh in our minds. Sorry, you have been chopped."

This would come after 12 minutes of argument followed by an edited-within-an-inch-of-its-life "so have you come to a decision" "yes we have"

 

[bobbrews]

"Unfortunately, you didn't transform the ingredients and you gave us a dessert beer that wasn't sweet. For these reasons, you have been Chopped."

 

[Reno_eNVy]

This is a really cool experiment!!!

As far as reality show, I'd say it should be more like "Worst Cooks in America." Either two commercial brewers or two homebrew gurus have to teach people who don't know the first thing about making beer. Maybe even throw a couple "eeeeww, beer" people in as contestants.

 

[etrain666]

"I thought the way you puréed *insert whatever ingredient is most difficult here* was absolutely brilliant."

Production times would just take too long, but a beer contest that set brewers up with some kind of challenge would be a lot of fun. Film the brewing process and then cut to the tasting day.

They have blast chillers on the cooking shows, we need blast fermenters.

 

[Shelly]

you ought to put a couple bottles back for her 21st birthday...

 

[etrain666]

Update:
10 days later I took a gravity reading. It's still fairly high at 1.02 from a starting 1.052. But its tasting great. Very toasty, rich, chocolate and a hint of smoke. Pretty excited for this one.

 

[Reno_eNVy]

Ha so this might actually turn out to be a successful experiment.

Keep us updated :rockin:

 

[CreamyGoodness]

I have a feeling your daughter is going to be pretty excited that the beer she helped daddy make is so good.