Good cheap recipe!

[hottpeper13]

My way of brewing cheap beers is to purchase 50 lb bags of grain , 1 lb bags of hops, and reuse yeast. All my beers are cheap. Induction burners instead of propane or ng use 1/8 the energy. I read that 1/8 thing, kinda difficult to measure.

 

[rhys333]

Hey, might be a good time to mention... $7 propane tank refill charge at Costco. Canada mind you, but I assume its the same deal or cheaper in the US.

 

[ericbw]

My way of brewing cheap beers is to purchase 50 lb bags of grain , 1 lb bags of hops, and reuse yeast. All my beers are cheap. Induction burners instead of propane or ng use 1/8 the energy. I read that 1/8 thing, kinda difficult to measure.

What size batches do you make? You have large induction burners with large SS kettle/MLT?

With bulk grain and hops, you can get a batch done for about $12, which is very cheap!

 

[Chem-E-Brewer]

If you're worried about your beer bill, try to work a Session version of your favorite beer style, with aproximately 3%ABV. You'll spend less with the grain bill and the beer would still tasty.
Also, wash the yeast cake from the last batch to use it on the new one.
Then, spend all savings you made with the grain bill and yeast with hops, by properly dry hoping your beer.

Cheers

I have considered doing this but have worried about not having enough flavor density to it. But I guess I could get around by focusing more on the hops and do something to give it more body! I actually did dry hopping on my first beer and it turned out good so ill definately put a session beer in my list of waiting beers to make! do you know of one that uses a pilsner malt by any chance? (I bought a couple pounds for a 3 gallon batch while I was around my LHBS which is an hour away ha).

 

[ericbw]

You could do pils with some Vienna or wheat. Add a little roast Barley or caramel.

Hops at 60, 30, 0 for sure. Dry hop if you like it.

Hops raise the cost and you asked for cheap!

 

[Brewmasher]

My way of brewing cheap beers is to purchase 50 lb bags of grain , 1 lb bags of hops, and reuse yeast. All my beers are cheap. Induction burners instead of propane or ng use 1/8 the energy. I read that 1/8 thing, kinda difficult to measure.

1 up on that. I'm not a hophead, I prefer to get my flavors from the yeast that I re use and spices (Belgian freak). I get 50# of "economy" pale 2 row for $49 at my LHBS. My brews come in at $.25- .50 a 12 oz bottle. I figure about 10 batches will more than pay for my Grainfather + Fastferment system, not even taking in to account the beers I brew go for over $5 for 12 oz,

 

[rhys333]

If you really want dirt cheap, with pils, then maybe try a French Saison, with 95% pils malt + 5% table sugar (and add in a little munich/vienna if you want), then ferment it with WY 3711. Add in a single bittering charge and that's it. Since 3711 gets about 90% attenuation, your grain bill will be a lot smaller that an average brew.

 

[JKaranka]

If you really want dirt cheap, with pils, then maybe try a French Saison, with 95% pils malt + 5% table sugar (and add in a little munich/vienna if you want), then ferment it with WY 3711. Add in a single bittering charge and that's it. Since 3711 gets about 90% attenuation, your grain bill will be a lot smaller that an average brew.

As above. Plus nowadays you have good dry seison yeasts. You can use the 5% to dispose of leftovers as well (wheat, leftover crystal, table sugar, etc.).

 

[hottpeper13]

What size batches do you make? You have large induction burners with large SS kettle/MLT?

With bulk grain and hops, you can get a batch done for about $12, which is very cheap!

I do 10 gal with a mashtun and 5 gal biab. !5 gal kettles with water heater blanket insulation that is R19 . The boil burner is the Avanco 3500 watt 220 volt and the HLT burner is the 110v 1800 watt. It takes me about 6 hr to do 10 gal single infusion. 2 other guys in the club use the Avanco without insulation and only 5 gal batches.

 

[Chem-E-Brewer]

So tried out the amber ale and the cream ale this week after bottle conditioning for a little over 2 weeks and sitting in fridge for 2 days. The amber turned out really good! It was a little sweet but im not too familiar with this style to know if this is normal or not. The cream ale i majorly messed up.... i used instant oats instead of grits. Now I thought it would be awful but it turned out pretty decent and one of my roomates loves it!

 

[Chem-E-Brewer]

So next im working up a 5 gallon recipe to split ingredients between 3 people to make it more economically feasible. one of the loves stouts and porters and the other doesn't like really dark but more sweet beers like wheats or cream ales. I was thinking maybe a 4% mild would be good probably. Any suggestions on a recipe? I would have to do a partial boil to do a 5 gallon batch. I really want to do a batch soon because I got a new hydrometer and a much better thermometer (was using a antique candy thermometer i had before).

 

[treacheroustexan]

So next im working up a 5 gallon recipe to split ingredients between 3 people to make it more economically feasible. one of the loves stouts and porters and the other doesn't like really dark but more sweet beers like wheats or cream ales. I was thinking maybe a 4% mild would be good probably. Any suggestions on a recipe? I would have to do a partial boil to do a 5 gallon batch. I really want to do a batch soon because I got a new hydrometer and a much better thermometer (was using a antique candy thermometer i had before).

Orfys mild. This is a 3.8% mild. Drinking it now (brewed it a few weeks ago. I was grain to glass with this recipe in a week). It is delicious and very very cheap to begin with. The recipe is for 6.5 gallons but with a few minor adjustments you can get it down to 5.


https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=52776

It's one of my favorites I've brewed.

 

[ericbw]

I think a mild is a great option. It's kind of a blend of light and dark.

Are you all fermenting it together or separately? What about doing a big beer (like a porter) then a partigyle with the second runnings? You could potentially get more bang for your buck, but you'd have to do separate boils and fermentation.

 

[Chem-E-Brewer]

We are doing fermentation together yeah. We have a 6 gallon and 3 gallon fermentors. A partigyle sounds like aa really good idea actually

 

[Chem-E-Brewer]

So I currently have 5lbs of pilsner malt, 1 oz of cascade, and 1 oz of mosaic currently available to use. Does anyone have any suggestions on how i could make 1 gal of a pale ale / ipa? (Btw i love dry hopping much more than really high ibu). And then maybe make a ginger beer with light hopping and large ginger flavor. Im thinking splitting the malt so i have 2.5 lbs with each gallon. Would appreciate help specifically with amount and timing on hops schedule considering I am still a novice. Thanks in advance!!

 

[mtbrewer403]

heres what id do:

2.5 lb pilsner

.1 oz mosaic at 60
.1 oz mosaic at 15

and the cascade

2.5 lb pilsner

.1 oz cascade at 60
.1 oz cascade at 30
.1 oz cascade at 15


i dont know much about dry hopping but both of these are right around 30 ibu

 

[rhys333]

For good AND cheap, I'm thinking base malt, sugar, bittering hops only and a characterful (possibly high attenuating) yeast strain. Not in reply to anyone's specific request here, but I would do something like this:

GOOD CHEAP BEER
90% base malt of choice (or light DME)
10% homemade "Deep Amber" syrup: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=114837
Warrior or other high aa hop @ 60 to 20 - 23 IBU
Yeast of choice*

* A high attenuating strain like 3711/Belle will give you the cheapest beer possible. My preference would be to use a characterful Belgian strain and medium-high body mash (154-6F). Combined with the amber syrup made from table sugar and lower bittering levels, you have one heck of a complex yet dirt cheap beer.