making tow batches with one set of ingredients

[GrootGruit]

I designed my own IPA following a hop bill I found online, but looking at my ingredients I realized if I buy some sugar, maybe a little dme, I could probably get two brews. So I did. I came up with two recipes, ones a lighter IPA then I was thinking, the other a cream ale. Now I'm fairly new to brewing and only yhave a few simple brews under my belt, what will be (if any) the consequences of using sugar in place of malt extract, which is what I've used in the past? Or will it not really matter besides being a drier beer, cheers

IPA 5.5 gallons
3lb canadian two row
.5lb melanoid
.5lb special w
2lb amber lme
2lb brown sugar
2lb cane sugar
1oz columbus 60min
1oz simcoe 45min
1oz centennial 15min
Danstar west coast ale yeast

OG: 1.050

Amber Cream Ale 5.5G

2lb cnd tow row
3lb amber lme
1lb vienna
1.5lb corn flakes
1lb cane sugar
1.1lb dme
1oz cascade half 30 half 15
DanStar notingham ale yeast + wyeast german ale

the wyeast german ale is yeast wash from my last brew, a liquid yeast for a lager extract brew. I figured let the two compete as I understand cream ales traditionally used ale and lager yeasts, but from reaction seems more like the lager yeast has taken front and center, it being a week now and the krausen's fallen except for a fine layer of white bubbles, like last brew. At the low temps i ferment at the ipa just got started a few days ago but blew over now its settling down.

 

[estricklin]

Sugar will definitely dry the beer up a bit, and when your using it in place of malt, obviously it's easy to lose some malt flavor as well. It will be beer, go for it. Let us know how it turns out.

By the way, welcome to the forum!

 

[alexacuna]

I've heard the general idea is no more than 20% of your bill as cane sugar. 2 pounds might be a bit much, but i've seen plenty brews with 1 pound. It'll make it drier, which is desirable sometimes, but it can also make for a cider-y or hot beer flavor.

 

[chickypad]

Honestly I would reconsider. With 4 lbs of sugar in that first recipe you're at about 40% by weight but if you go by fermentable contribution you're looking at about 67% if you're really only expecting 1.050 (what efficiency are you expecting BTW, I'm getting more like 1.065 at 70%). I've not used brown sugar but lots of folks say the molasses flavor carries through. That plus a dark raisiny crystal like special W - I don't think I'd want all that in an IPA. Then for hops you've got a single oz at 15 as your only flavor/aroma addition. I'd move the simcoe to flameout plus throw in 2-3 more oz there and something like 3 oz of dry hop.

For the second recipe the only thing that seems in line with a cream ale is the hops. I don't think you want the vienna or amber extract in there (which contains likely C-60 and munich). The corn sugar would be okay for a percentage but you've already got the flaked corn. Also I'm getting a gravity around 1.059. I think this is going to drink more like a thin bodied under bittered amber at 14 IBU.
***Edit: I see now that you were planning it not really as a cream ale but a sort of amber. I'd still rework so it's not so big and less overall percentage of corn/sugar so it doesn't come out underbittered and boozy. You could swap back in some of the amber LME below for the light DME and put the latter toward your IPA**

Personally I would rework to something like this (you'll have to drop both batch sizes to 5 gal):

Amber IPA: 70% efficiency, 1.063
2 lb 2 row
1 lb vienna
0.5 lb melanoidin
5 lb amber LME
1 lb sugar

Cream ale: 70% efficiency, 1.041
3 lb 2 row
1.5 lb flaked corn
2 lb light DME

Then rework the IPA hop schedule as I mentioned.

 

[GrootGruit]

Yeah...definitely gonna post my recipe before making it next time. Props to chickypad for the advice. I'm not too worried about styles since I'm still new and experimenting, as for efficiency I have no idea. That was my og reading so from what you say I assume its not great. Any advice to improve that