Help converting all grain to extract

[SadDog]

I found this all grain recipe for a Leinenkugels Red Lager clone and I was hoping someone could help me convert it to extract. Any critique would be also be welcome

Fermentables


2-Row Brewers Malt 9.0 lb Mash 37
2-Row Caramel Malt 60L 0.5 lb Mash 34
Crystal 90L 0.25 lb Mash 33
Munich Malt 0.12 lb Mash 35


Hops

Cluster United States 1.0 oz 60 min Boil Pellet 7.0%
Mount Hood United States 0.5 oz 15 min Boil Pellet 6.1%
Mount Hood United States 0.5 oz 5 min Boil Pellet 6.1%

Yeasts

American Lager Yeast WLP840 White Labs 75.0% 50°F – 55°F

 

[BigEd]

Sub 5.5-6 lbs of light DME for the pale malt. Everything else stays the same.

 

[chad_]

so BigEd whats the conversion factor of the 2 row to light DME?

 

[sptaylor70]

Have you read this article from BeerSmith?

I ran the grain recipe through TastyBrew, and got OG = 1054, FG = 1014, ABV = 5.2, IBU = 37, SRM = 9.

So here's a conversion to extract:
5.5 lbs. Light DME
8 oz. Dark DME
4 oz. C60L (steeped)
2 oz. C90L (steeped)
Same hops.

WLP840 is Budweiser yeast - clean with a slight apple flavor. It should perform well, but you might also look at WLP810 San Francisco, WLP862 Cry Havoc, or WLP940 Mexican.

 

[SadDog]

Thanks for the help and the link, that's a great article. Will these steeping grains be enough to give a good red color? I'm really hoping to get it as red as possible

 

[sptaylor70]

I don't know. The only thing that I'm pretty certain will give a red color is CaraRed. Roasted barley, Munich, Vienna, and Carafa can give you red color under the right circumstances. But does it really matter? You don't taste color. What you want in a beer is flavor, aroma, mouthfeel. Color, while nice to have, is a lower priority.

 

[BigEd]

so BigEd whats the conversion factor of the 2 row to light DME?

It's approximately 2/3 extract to grain but it depends on the grain and your extraction efficiency so it is not a hard number.

 

[BigEd]

Thanks for the help and the link, that's a great article. Will these steeping grains be enough to give a good red color? I'm really hoping to get it as red as possible

Red? Not really and neither will that all grain be red. To get more "reddness" (think Fuller's ESB not tomato juice) try adding an ounce of chocolate malt.

 

[SadDog]

I know color is less important but since this is a red lager clone I was hoping to have it be red. Also wont the amount of hops need to be adjusted to get the same IBU?

 

[sptaylor70]

Shouldn't need any adjustment.

 

[SadDog]

Shouldn't need any adjustment.

Ok I wasn't sure because that's one thing the beer smith said you need to do when converting all grain to extract. Can you explain why you wouldn't change the amounts for this one? I'm trying to learn as much as I can about conversions so I can do them on my own in he future

 

[sptaylor70]

Extract tends to have crystal malts incorporated into it, so if all you do is replace your base grain with with extract, then your resulting wort will be sweeter, for which you will need more hops to balance. So when you convert an all grain recipe to extract, you should cut down the amount of crystal, or other sweet, malts (I did that in my AG-to-extract conversion for your recipe).* If you do that, then you can keep your hop schedule the same.

*Keep in mind that most such conversions are approximations. You'll probably want to do a couple of batches based on this recipe, if you really like the recipe, to tweak it to what you really want.

 

[SadDog]

Extract tends to have crystal malts incorporated into it, so if all you do is replace your base grain with with extract, then your resulting wort will be sweeter, for which you will need more hops to balance. So when you convert an all grain recipe to extract, you should cut down the amount of crystal, or other sweet, malts (I did that in my AG-to-extract conversion for your recipe).* If you do that, then you can keep your hop schedule the same.

*Keep in mind that most such conversions are approximations. You'll probably want to do a couple of batches based on this recipe, if you really like the recipe, to tweak it to what you really want.

Ok that makes sense. Thanks for all the help