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Light "grainy" style suggestions

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Kaze

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Feb 27, 2017
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Tried to do some research but I'm not coming up with much, so any guidance would be appreciated.

I really like that fresh grain taste that you get when the beer is only a week or two old. I brewed a pale ale back on 12/23 and just got it in the kegerator. It still has that sweet, fresh, grainy taste. Even though it doesn't really go with the hoppyness... I like it. In my experience this taste will fade in about a week, and I'll get a much cleaner flavor.

So what I'm looking for is a light, "grainy" style where that grain flavor sticks around longer. I tried the centennial blonde recipe and it was pretty close to what I was looking for that first week it was on tap, but once again the grainy taste faded and the beer tasted cleaner.

The flavor I'm going for isn't corn / DMS. It isn't malty. It's "grainy". Am I being weird? Is this even a thing :confused: ? I haven't tasted a lot of beers so maybe there is a style for it.

TLDR: Looking for that sweet grain taste. I was thinking of trying a Munich Helles.
 
Try using 6 row in a CAP. It fits the style too.

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction... I had never heard of a Classic American Pils before (I guess the removed the category in the 2015 BJCP). I'm totally going to try this! Found a Recipe:

Bushwick Pilsner (makes 5 gal)
8 lb six-row malt
1 lb flaked maize
1/2 lb Munich malt
1/4 oz Cluster hops, boil 60 min
1/4 oz Cluster hops, boil 45 min
1 oz Stryian Goldings, Saaz, or Halletauer hops, boil 45 min
1 tsp Irish moss, for the last 10 min of the boil
Source

Maybe I'll play around with the hops a bit.
 
I brew one that is

6lb six-row
2 lb corn
1lb light Munich
Bitter with .5 or .75 cluster then add a little cascade right before flame out.

Sometimes I throw a little C80 in there to change it up, 1/4 lb
 
Keeping the beer raw greatly enhances the grainy flavour you are looking for. But it also might decrease the shelf live to 1-3 months. I wrote down an easy Pilsener recipe in the Lager Forum called "the lazy german". Have a read on that one, you can use your recipe, only adapt the technique.
 
IME the grainy taste sticks around a little longer when I use Great Western malts. Even better with their pale malt.
 
I really like that fresh grain taste that you get when the beer is only a week or two old.

I think you should probably think in terms of the "fresh" rather than the "grain". You like fresh beer and you're less keen on stale beer and beer components that increase with time. So you need to think of what you can do to maximise the freshness of your beer, starting with the ingredients. You don't want grain that's been sitting round a LHBS for months/years, ideally you want the new harvest barley and grind it yourself as close to mashing as possible. Then you probablly want to be stealing ideas liberally from the low-oxygen brewers (search on LODO), starting with pre-boiling your water, and adding a Campden tablet to it. You've not said anything about your process, but all-grain rather than extract, adjusting water chemistry, checking mash pH, using fresh versus dry yeast, carbonating with yeast rather than force-carbonating, purging kegs/bottles can all make a difference and should push you in the direction you want. But ultimately beer will always go off, you're always fighting a battle against oxidation.
 
I think you should probably think in terms of the "fresh" rather than the "grain". You like fresh beer and you're less keen on stale beer and beer components that increase with time. So you need to think of what you can do to maximise the freshness of your beer, starting with the ingredients. You don't want grain that's been sitting round a LHBS for months/years, ideally you want the new harvest barley and grind it yourself as close to mashing as possible. Then you probablly want to be stealing ideas liberally from the low-oxygen brewers (search on LODO), starting with pre-boiling your water, and adding a Campden tablet to it. You've not said anything about your process, but all-grain rather than extract, adjusting water chemistry, checking mash pH, using fresh versus dry yeast, carbonating with yeast rather than force-carbonating, purging kegs/bottles can all make a difference and should push you in the direction you want. But ultimately beer will always go off, you're always fighting a battle against oxidation.

Sorry, should have said more about the process. I do a simple full volume AG BIAB. I usually order my grains crushed a few days to a week in advanced. I start with RO and use Brun Water to adjust according to style. As far as oxygen I purge a keg with co2 and then do a closed transfer by pushing the beer out of the carboy with co2.

For xmas I got the gear needed to ferment under pressure in a stainless steel vessel, so hopefully I can go from that straight into a keg to further limit oxygen exposure :D .

Funny that while searching for "grainy" flavor, I see it described a lot as an off flavor.

I'm going to try a CAP recipe in the new fermenter with fresh six row. I'll let everyone know how it turns out! Hopefully it is a big ol' grain bomb :mug:
 

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