Looking for cheap recipes

[CalmYourself]

Ive just finished building my new all grain setup and want to brew quite a bit while tweaking the process to try get my efficiency up.

SWMBO doesnt approve of me spending lots on beer stuff so i need to find some cheap recipes that i can go from grain to bottle quite quickly. I need to stock up for a wedding in 6 months time too.

Im in the unfortunate spot of struggling to find ingredients, particularly yeast and specialty grains. I can get a locally made 2row quite cheaply, marris otter is nonexistent here, and there's a locally grown hop (southern promise) which is dirt cheap and very easily available.

Yeast is tricky but safale is easy.

I cant lager yet either.

Ive searched around here and there was a very helpful thread for beers with a quick turnaround (cream of 3 crops and edworts haus pale were winners there) but i was wondering if there were any other recipes that win the bargain award?

 

[Pappers_]

Well, I have got my costs (for ingredients) down to around $15 US per 5 gallon batch. There is a sticky thread in the yeast forum you might look at - Bernie Brewer did a tutorial on how to harvest, wash, save and reuse yeast - drops the cost a bit if you can buy the yeast once and make five batches from it instead of one.

Making a batch with your local two-row malt, local hops, and a Safale US-05 or 04 and reusing the yeast for the next time should get you about as low as you're gonna go on costs.

Do you have any ideas on the AA% of the hops?

 

[FishinDave07]

Any of the light hybrid beers are going to be cheap with a quick turn around. If all you can get is 2-row, maybe get 5% of the 2-row in your recipe and toast it in the oven at 350F for 15-20 minutes to make your own specialty grains. Look up grain toasting

 

[CalmYourself]

If memory serves the southern promise is around 11.5% AA.


Im definitely going to look at reusing yeast, thanks.


As for making my own specialty grains, that might be an idea for now. Something just to get some different colour and flavour in the beer while i try nail the all grain process down.

 

[Edcculus]

try for lower gravity session brews too. Less malt and less hops = cheaper beer

 

[KingBrianI]

try for lower gravity session brews too. Less malt and less hops = cheaper beer

I agree with Edcculus. Low grav will keep costs down and also decrease turn around time. If you buy the local 2-row in bulk you can use it exclusively to make a variety of beers using the aforementioned methods of toasting to get a little more complexity of flavor very economically. You can also try a method I've found to produce really nice rich caramel flavors to simulate crystal malt by taking a portion of your first runnings and boiling them down to a sticky caramel consistency, then adding that back in to the rest of your runnings for the boil. You could make a very nice ale by toasting a pound for some good toasty/bready flavor and boiling down the first runnings for some caramel flavor. Aim for an OG of 1.045-1.050, bitter to about 30 IBU including an ounce or so at flameout, and use s-04 yeast, washing it after the first batch to reuse on subsequent batches. I don't know how much your local malt and hops cost, but if you follow this general outline, you should be able to make 5.5 gallon batches for less than $15.

 

[Palefire]

Either AHS or morebeer (maybe both?) have a bunch of kits that are advertised as less than $0.50 a beer. If you're washing yeast that would get things even cheaper.

 

[Bullshivit-brew]

dang KingBrian reading that post made me thirsty for a scottish/80 LOL

 

[homebrewer_99]

Send me an email and I'll send you so many recipes your head'll spin..."death by recipe"...FREE...cheap enough?

[email protected]

 

[CalmYourself]

hehe I didn't actually mean that the recipes themselves must be cheap, just the ingredients

So I've decided to go with a couple batches of Ed's Haus Pale as it's cheap and gives me room to buy bulk grains for experiementing.

I'm going to try a couple "vanilla" batches i.e. following his recipe by the book, then mix it up with a couple variations.

I'm going to toast some of the grains myself, boil down for some extra caramel flavours, throw the Southern Promise hops in.

I also want to compare a no-chill version (doing a 90 - 110 minute boil). Given that it seems like a light beer any DMS should be easily detectable on the nose.

I figure 10 or so batches should give me enough room for process experimenting and should give me a decent enough stockpile for the upcoming wedding.

Thanks for all the advice guys, et brewing season begin!

 

[CalmYourself]

I found this Summit SMaSH Beer recipe which looks like it'll work perfectly for my needs right now. Just going to change the hops out with the Southern Promise ones and adjust the hop schedule so the IBU's are similar. Also might throw some Dry Orange Skin in there to try get the tangerine feel of the Summit hops...

Thanks again.

 

[jacksonbrown]

I'm a big big fan of Orfy's Mild Mannered Ale. Cheap, delcious and a quick turnaround.

 

[RichBenn]

hehe I didn't actually mean that the recipes themselves must be cheap, just the ingredients

So I've decided to go with a couple batches of Ed's Haus Pale as it's cheap and gives me room to buy bulk grains for experiementing.

I'm going to try a couple "vanilla" batches i.e. following his recipe by the book, then mix it up with a couple variations.

I'm going to toast some of the grains myself, boil down for some extra caramel flavours, throw the Southern Promise hops in.

I also want to compare a no-chill version (doing a 90 - 110 minute boil). Given that it seems like a light beer any DMS should be easily detectable on the nose.

I figure 10 or so batches should give me enough room for process experimenting and should give me a decent enough stockpile for the upcoming wedding.

Thanks for all the advice guys, et brewing season begin!

Here is a recipe I formulated and made that should be close to what you are asking for. I was looking to experiment with Melanoiden Malt, which supposedly can give some of that German grain decoction flavor in a simpler infusion mash. Yet it uses inexpensive two-row, and is done as an ale rather than a lager. I'm getting kinda tired of crystal malt, so hopefully this will take the taste in a different direction while still being simple. Was also looking for a little lower alchohol but still some great flavor. This one is barely into the APA category for alchohol. But you could certainly get a bit more by upping the grain or efficiency a little.

Note that although I used Centennial AND Cascades, you can just use a single hop (Cascades) with this. I had both left over, so that's what you see here.

NAME: Rich's Fall Session APA
Style: American Pale Ale
TYPE: All Grain

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 5.50 gal
Boil Size: 6.50 gal
Estimated OG: 1.046 SG
Estimated Color: 5.6 SRM
Estimated IBU: 33.5 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
8.50 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 85.00 %
1.00 lb Melanoiden Malt (20.0 SRM) Grain 10.00 %
0.50 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 5.00 %
1.00 oz Cascade [7.50 %] (60 min) Hops 25.4 IBU
0.25 oz Centennial [9.00 %] (15 min) Hops 3.8 IBU
0.25 oz Centennial [9.00 %] (10 min) Hops 2.8 IBU
0.25 oz Centennial [9.00 %] (5 min) Hops 1.5 IBU
1 Pkgs Safale US-05 Yeast-Ale


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Light Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 10.00 lb
----------------------------
Single Infusion, Light Body, Batch Sparge
Step Time Name Description Step Temp
62 min Mash In Add 13.30 qt of water at 167.0 F 152.0 F

WhirlFloc for last 10-15 minutes of boil.

It tasted very good at bottling/kegging, but it hasn't aged enough yet for a full report. I'll post the recipe separately once it is ready.

You should add a little more IBUs if your efficiency is better.

Hopefully this will give you some ideas. Using some bulk 2-row with a pound so so of something with color and flavor, dry yeast, and a simple hop bill is, I think, an inexpensive way to get good beer on a budget.

EDIT: I just had an early taste of this -- while still way early, I'd recommend a cutback on the amount of Melanoiden. Seems to me like the low alcohol level just doesn't support as much as I have in there. Some really like that kind of flavor though....