Mix and Match time!

[catdaddy66]

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1420158759.180987.jpg

Ok, I think I'll try this differently than last time when I did what I'd seen a lot of people do on HBT. I posted my latest recipe for critique and commentary. Got no responses with that, so how about instead ask members to help me create a recipe or two by showing you my current ingredients.

I have a bag with all the grain for a cream ale (7:2:1 lbs of 2Row:flaked corn:rice in the upper right corner of pic) but after that I'm stumped.

The other two large bags (in back and to the right) are 20#'s each of 2row and pilsner malts. To the left are 1# bags of carafoam, carabelge, caramunich, caraAroma and acidulated malt. Also have .5# of aromatic malt.

I have several hop varieties to choose from, all in 4oz bags. Northern Brewer, Summit, Warrior, Tahoma, Triskel, Saphir and Green Bullet.

I've never used pilsner malt before and am intrigued by the cara-malts and NZ hops...

What do you think? Let your inner brewmaster flow! Lol

 

[buzzerj]

Wow I'm not even going to ask why/how you got all these various malts without a recipe in mind. Check out BierMuncher's Cream of Three Crops Cream Ale recipe for your cream ale. For Pilsner malt as your base malt I'd suggest 90 minute boil times to take up any residual DMS. I can't comment on the hops selection as I haven't used NZ hops. But Northern Brewer in moderation would work in the lighter ales. For some of the other malts consider a Dusseldorf or North German Altbier. If any of your malt has been milled don't keep it more than a week. Hope that helps.

 

[Calder]

If any of your malt has been milled don't keep it more than a week. Hope that helps.

Milled grains will keep fine for a long time, if kept sealed and dry. Months at least, probably still be OK after a year.

 

[catdaddy66]

Wow I'm not even going to ask why/how you got all these various malts without a recipe in mind. Check out BierMuncher's Cream of Three Crops Cream Ale recipe for your cream ale. For Pilsner malt as your base malt I'd suggest 90 minute boil times to take up any residual DMS. I can't comment on the hops selection as I haven't used NZ hops. But Northern Brewer in moderation would work in the lighter ales. For some of the other malts consider a Dusseldorf or North German Altbier. If any of your malt has been milled don't keep it more than a week. Hope that helps.

I got most of these ingredients as gifts. The Altbier sounds good! May just pull the trigger on that one...

 

[catdaddy66]

Alright, I think I've got it! I've been wanting to use my Belle Saison yeast (Danstar) for a while now and after researching them I realized my ingredients should work out well.

10#'s of Pilsner malt
1# of CaraMunich
.5#'s of Carafoam
.5#'s of CarAroma

.5oz Green Bullet 12.2%aa @ 60
1oz of Saphir 2.1%as @ 15
1oz if Saaz 4.1%aa @ 15

Maybe dry hop with 1.5oz of green bullet

What do y'all think of this recipe?

 

[buzzerj]

I think I know what you are trying to do with the Green Bullet hops, to lend some fruitiness in the aroma addition. It looks like you are trying to keep the IBUs in the general range for a saison of 20-35. You need to steep the grains for 90 minutes and follow it with a 90 minute boil with all that pilsner malt so make sure the pre-boil volume is enough. The mash temp should be low to keep the wort as fermentable as you can. Mash in the high 140's. You want to make sure you get a low F.G. (something around 1.010 or less). Start your fermentation at 68 degrees and try to target for a warmer fermentation into the 70's to get the esters and phenolics to result. I know you want to use your grains up but I'm wondering if the CaraMunich at 1 lb. may be a bit much. I'd drop it to 6-8 oz. if I were doing this recipe, I'd also consider using 8-12 oz. of cane sugar to provide a bit more fermentable sugar. Additionally I'd add a bit of wheat malt 6-8 oz. depending on what it might push your O.G. estimate up to. But yeah, I see where you are going here. I personally would use noble hops for this but I see what you are attempting with the hops you selected. It's definitely worth the effort. Let us know how it comes out.

 

[catdaddy66]

I think I know what you are trying to do with the Green Bullet hops, to lend some fruitiness in the aroma addition. It looks like you are trying to keep the IBUs in the general range for a saison of 20-35. You need to steep the grains for 90 minutes and follow it with a 90 minute boil with all that pilsner malt so make sure the pre-boil volume is enough. The mash temp should be low to keep the wort as fermentable as you can. Mash in the high 140's. You want to make sure you get a low F.G. (something around 1.010 or less). Start your fermentation at 68 degrees and try to target for a warmer fermentation into the 70's to get the esters and phenolics to result. I know you want to use your grains up but I'm wondering if the CaraMunich at 1 lb. may be a bit much. I'd drop it to 6-8 oz. if I were doing this recipe, I'd also consider using 8-12 oz. of cane sugar to provide a bit more fermentable sugar. Additionally I'd add a bit of wheat malt 6-8 oz. depending on what it might push your O.G. estimate up to. But yeah, I see where you are going here. I personally would use noble hops for this but I see what you are attempting with the hops you selected. It's definitely worth the effort. Let us know how it comes out.

Thanks for the reply! You make some great points regarding the grain bill. I noticed wheat malt was common in saison recipes. Actually I researched Saphir hops and it seems they do have a noble hop lineage. Would some light/medium candi sugar be ok to up the gravity?

 

[buzzerj]

That should work too. But cane sugar might be all that's needed.

 

[catdaddy66]

Alright... I'm going with .5 Green Bullet at 90 minutes then adding 1oz ofHallertau at 30 followed by 2ozs of Saaz, one at 15 and one at 5. Let's do dis!!

Ok maybe next weekend. Lol