Need a mild recipe for my SWMBO

[AirRageous]

I'm planning for my 4th batch and can't decide on a recipe that will please my bride of 35 years.

Her favorite beer is Michelob. Yep, Just plain old AHB Michelob. I am more into the heartier IPAs, Stouts, Porters, etc. that she cannot stand and will not drink. I think it is the hoppiness that she does not like more than anything. I have offered to just buy her the Mich and then brew what I like, but nooooo!!! She wants me to brew a Michelob clone for her.

So, I have searched and cannot find a Michelob clone recipe. My experience so far is 2 LME batches and one DME w/ steeped grain batch. Not into all-grain yet. I brew inside with a 3 gallon pot so no full boils.

Anyone have any recipes or ideas?

 

[Mutilated1]

Go on austinhomebrew.com and look at their 50 cent brews sections and I think they have a kit she'll like.

 

[yeasty]

my wife likes the brewers best english pale ale.

 

[LooyvilleLarry]

See if there is an extract version of Biermuncher's SWMBO Slayer. Every female I have given a glass to has LOVED it! (yes, many more than 1).

It is very smooth and has a great flavor. I'll be brewing that again in a month or so.

 

[AirRageous]

I'd rather not do a mail order kit. There is a decent LHBS here and if I had a recipe or commerical kit suggestion, I can pick it up this weekend and get started.

I will see if they have the Biermuncher's SWMBO Slayer in stock or can replicate it. Thanks

 

[bsruther]

The guy at the LHBS told me to just cut back on the hops. I have an american amber ale partial mash that I'm brewing tomorrow at 35 IBUs and I'm gonna cut the hops back and see how it works.
The wife and I both hate overly hopped beers. They have an astringent taste.

 

[nallanrex]

Biermuncher is a guy on the forums. I don't think you can buy a kit for it.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f71/swmbo-slayer-belgian-blonde-26599/

if you scroll down you'll find the extract recipe for the swmbo slayer.

-Nick

 

[boredatwork]

The formatting of this is going to come out all crappy, but if you copy and paste into Excel it should fix it.

I put this together because I myself do not like "Hoppy" beers. Although I am pretty sure that is a misnomer. I think a Hoppy beer really refers to bitter beers. To me hoppy is the hop flavor/aroma of late hop additions, as apposed to the IBU number of bitterness. In any case, I find this useful to target which style of beers to brew based on my tastes.

I used the average IBU and OG values from the BJCP Style Guidelines. Because I used average values I would consider these rough estimates. Also, I am sure people will even say that you cant really categorize beers like this - but I think in general this characterization will hold true. The mapping of IBU and OG to taste level is from the commonly posted color coded graph:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/commercial-beer-reference-ibus-100116/ (post #10 by Revvy)

And here it is...

Category Style IBU OG Flavor
Light Lager Lite American Lager 10 30 Malty+
Standard American Lager 12 45 Malty+
Premium American Lager 20 50 Malty
Munich Helles 20 50 Malty
Dortmunder Export 25 50 Balanced
Pilsner German Pilsner 35 45 Hoppy+
Bohemian Pilsner 40 50 Hoppy+
Classic American Pilsner 30 50 Hoppy
European Amber Lager Vienna Lager 25 50 Balanced
Oktoberfest/Marzen 25 55 Balanced
Dark Lager Dark American Lager 10 50 Malty++
Munich Dunkel 25 50 Balanced
Schwarzbier 25 50 Balanced
Bock Mailbock 30 70 Balanced
Traditional Bock 25 70 Malty
Doppelbock 20 100 Malty++
Eisbock 30 100 Malty+
Light Hybrid Cream Ale 20 50 Malty
Blonde Ale 20 45 Balanced
Kolsch 25 48 Balanced
American Wheat or Rye 22 48 Balanced
Amber Hybrid Northern German Altbier 30 50 Hoppy
California Common 38 50 Hoppy+
Dusseldorf Altbier 40 50 Hoppy+
English Pale Ale Standard Bitter 30 35 Hoppy+
Special/Best/Premium Bitter 30 44 Hoppy+
Extra Special/Strong Bitter (English Pale Ale) 40 55 Hoppy+
Scottish and Irish Ale Scottish Light 60 15 33 Balanced
Scottish Heavy 70 15 38 Malty
Scottish Export 80 22 48 Balanced
Irish Red Ale 22 52 Malty
Strong Scotch Ale 22 100 Malty++
American Ale American Pale Ale 38 52 Hoppy+
American Amber Ale 32 52 Hoppy
American Brown Ale 30 52 Hoppy
English Brown Ale Mild 18 34 Hoppy
Southern English Brown 16 38 Malty
Northern English Brown Ale 25 45 Hoppy
Porter Brown Porter 28 45 Hoppy
Robust Porter 35 58 Hoppy
Baltic Porter 30 75 Malty
Stout Dry Stout 38 44 Hoppy+
Sweet Stout 30 54 Hoppy
Oatmeal Stout 32 55 Hoppy
Foreign Extra Stout 50 65 Hoppy+
American Stout 55 58 Hoppy++
Russian Imperial Stout 70 100 Hoppy+
India Pale Ale English IPA 50 58 Hoppy+
American IPA 55 65 Hoppy+
Imperial IPA 90 80 Hoppy+
German Wheat and Rye Weizen/Weissbier 12 50 Malty++
Dunkelweizen 15 50 Malty+
Weizenbock 22 76 Malty+
Roggenbier (German Rye) 15 50 Malty+
Belgian and French Ale Witbier 15 48 Malty+
Belgian Pale Ale 25 50 Balanced
Saison 22 70 Malty+
Biere de Garde
Belgian Specialty Ale
Sour Ale Berliner Weisse 5 30 Malty++
Flanders Red Ale 18 54 Malty
Flanders Brown Ale 22 55 Malty
Straight Lambic 5 48 Malty++
Gueuze 5 50 Malty++
Fruit Lambic 5 50 Malty++
Belgian Strong Ale Belgian Blond Ale 22 70 Malty+
Belgian Dubbel 20 70 Malty+
Belgian Tripel 30 80 Malty
Belgian Golden Strong Ale 30 82 Malty
Belgian Dark Strong Ale 28 100 Malty+
Strong Ale Old Ale 45 75 Hoppy
English Barleywine 50 100 Balanced
American Barleywine 80 100 Hoppy+

 

[SteveM]

Here is one - but consider lightening the hop load by a little bit. I came up with this one for exactly the situation you describe.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f66/extra-pale-ale-93981/

 

[boredatwork]

Ouch, the formatting came out worse than I thought. What you will need to do is copy it, then instead of pasting it into Excel do Edit->Paste Special and choose Unformatted Text. Then check of Separated by 'Space'. That should fix it.

 

[AirRageous]

SteveM, On your Extra Pale Ale I have a question.

For the steeping you say, "I used only half my normal amount of steeping grains for this, and took them out as soon at the water temperature reached 160F. I put the rice solids right into the boil, but did a late addition for the malt extract, at about 40 minutes."

Help a noob out here. Do you start with cold water, drop in the grain and then bring the heat to 160 and then remove the grain? Or are you starting with a higher temp and remove when it cools to 160.

I have only done one batch with steeped grains and it was at constant 158 or so the whole time.

 

[AirRageous]

Biermuncher is a guy on the forums. I don't think you can buy a kit for it.

-Nick

That must be why I couldn't find it anywhere

 

[flylock_jac]

I was looking for a similar recipe because I have some friends who tried my
ales and stout and asked if I could make a batch of regular beer for one of their cookouts. Their ide of fancy is bud in bottles instead of cans.
Any way found this recipe and plan on brewing it as soon as my shipment of supplies arrive in the mail.

Beer Recipes: Clone Recipes
The recipe is 2/3 down on the left.

 

[TheFlatline]

I'm planning for my 4th batch and can't decide on a recipe that will please my bride of 35 years.

Her favorite beer is Michelob. Yep, Just plain old AHB Michelob. I am more into the heartier IPAs, Stouts, Porters, etc. that she cannot stand and will not drink. I think it is the hoppiness that she does not like more than anything. I have offered to just buy her the Mich and then brew what I like, but nooooo!!! She wants me to brew a Michelob clone for her.

So, I have searched and cannot find a Michelob clone recipe. My experience so far is 2 LME batches and one DME w/ steeped grain batch. Not into all-grain yet. I brew inside with a 3 gallon pot so no full boils.

Anyone have any recipes or ideas?

Look into something like an Irish Red, or anything with a little bit more of a malt profile than hops. Look for something with only a little bittering hops as opposed to aromatic/flavor hops.

 

[Beerrific]

Asking for a "mild recipe" why not brew a mild?
Here is Orfy's Mild recipe: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f67/mild-mannered-ale-ag-e-uk-us-52776/.

It is a darker beer, decent amount of malt flavor, and character from the yeast. Not much in the way of hop flavor, easy drinking.

 

[SteveM]

SteveM, On your Extra Pale Ale I have a question.

For the steeping you say, "I used only half my normal amount of steeping grains for this, and took them out as soon at the water temperature reached 160F. I put the rice solids right into the boil, but did a late addition for the malt extract, at about 40 minutes."

Help a noob out here. Do you start with cold water, drop in the grain and then bring the heat to 160 and then remove the grain? Or are you starting with a higher temp and remove when it cools to 160.

I have only done one batch with steeped grains and it was at constant 158 or so the whole time.

There are different ways to steep grains. There was a thread about this just within the past week or two. My method is to use room temperature water and partial boils - two to two and a half gallons usually. I put the steeping grains into a grain bag, turn on the heat (I brew in my kitchen) and when the temperature reaches 160, I take the grain out.

In this recipe, the rice solids go into the pot early (shortly after the boiling starts - they are basically neutral as far as flavor and will add no color), and the malt extract goes in late, forty minutes after the boiling started. The idea is to minimize any activity that would cause the beer to darken. Stir the water as you put in the extract to keep it from hitting the hot bottom of the pot to keep it from caramelizing (and therefore darkening).

You could get a heartier flavor by substituting dry malt extract (DME) one for one for a part of the rice solids. For that matter, you could use all DME and eliminate the rice altogether but the color will be darker as you substitute more. I can't confirm that using DME results in lighter color in general than liquid malt extract but many report it. I've never noticed any real difference but there are a LOT of variables that everyone controls differently.

 

[brian_g]

So, I have searched and cannot find a Michelob clone recipe. My experience so far is 2 LME batches and one DME w/ steeped grain batch. Not into all-grain yet. I brew inside with a 3 gallon pot so no full boils.

Anyone have any recipes or ideas?

Michelob makes a lot of different beers. Which one would you like to clone? I just got a poster that gives info about their beers (hops, specialty grains, OG). It's got Marzen, Amber Bock, Irish Red, Pale Ale, Porter.

 

[AirRageous]

Thanks for all the suggestions. My SWMBO has decided that I try this American Red Ale: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f66/272-american-red-ale-93596/ The recipe seems simple enough for my limited experience.


Would it hurt anything to only use half the bittering hops to make it milder? Or add them a little later in the boil?

 

[LooyvilleLarry]

I would add them later instead of omitting them, but with 2 oz of Willamette, at those Alpha levels, I would say that this needs them to balance out that malt. Should be a bunch less bitter than a Killieans.

 

[beerthirty]

When you are ready for her to experience another brew, I also recommend SWMBO Slayer. This beer gets rave reviews from women who don't even like beer. I have had many friends wives ask me to brew this again. Last week a couple requested it for their wedding.

 

[Eves]

Its funny, my wife hates Sierra Nevada's Pale Ale but the AHS clone Sierra Nevada Pale Ale has been her favorite of all of the home brews I've made.