Need an extract recipe

[chasemandingo]

Hey all. I need a recipe for a beer. First, I will be going to Florida in Jan. and as such would like the beer to be drinkable in 70 degree weather. I was thinking an ale with at least 5.5 percent abv. and need to use caramel L60. I don't want to have to buy other specialty grains from my home brew cause they don't mill there . Big hassle to use a rolling pin!!!! I also have L20, smoked malt, flaked wheat, and coffee malt on hand. I can purchase the DME and hops just don't want to have to hand crush lots of malt! Any ideas?

 

[TopherM]

would like the beer to be drinkable in 70 degree weather

??? I live in Florida, and I assure you that all beers are drinkable in our weather.

 

[chasemandingo]

I know lol......I'm just thinking I want a nice lighter beer to drink during the day when it's in the 70's and a darker maltier stronger beer for the night when it gets down in the 50's.....any ideas?

 

[TopherM]

Ambers, reds, APAs, IPA are all light and refreshing, and easy to make as extract.

Maybe a brown, porter, or light dry stout at night. Again, all easy to make as extract batches.

Go to one of the big online retailers and check out their extract kits. Tons of great recipes. Stick to the basics, and you'll make a great beer. They'll also mill the grain for you. Here are my favorites. You'll have your order at your door in about 4-5 business days, and for extract batches, it'll cost less than your typical local homebrew store and be higher quality:

Austin Home Brew
Northern Brewer
Midwest Supplies

 

[chasemandingo]

Well I just made this recipe using the beer calculator. Going for an old ale/winter warmer kinda thing. Need advice on it lol.

Ingredients

3 lbs light DME
4 lbs Dark DME
4 lbs Amber DME

.5 lbs Caramel L60
.25 lbs Caramel L20
2 oz. flaked wheat
.25 lbs smoked barley
.25 lbs English Coffee malt

Gonna steep at 155 for 30 min in 2.5 gallons water. Sparge with 1 gallon at 170. This gives me 3.5 for the boil. My main concern is how much DME to add in order to get the correct hop utilization? I am a complete noob so I am at a loss. I planned to reserve at least the Dark malt to add right before flameout.

Was thinking a hop schedule like:
1.5 centennial at 60 mins
2 oz fuggles at 30 mins
.5 oz centennial at 5 mins

What do you guys thinks?

 

[Brew_G]

I'm new at this, but 11 lbs of DME (plus steeping grains) seems like it would make quite a big beer, but if that's what you're going for, then by all means do. Just make sure you have the yeast to get fermentation going well enough.

 

[chasemandingo]

Well that does seem like quite a bit doesn't it. But I am looking for a Abv of at least 7.5 percent and that is how much DME is required to achieve that. I could cut down on the malt and use honey to boost the gravity.

 

[TopherM]

Like Brew G said, this is a big beer, and is going to require alot of yeast. Plan on pitching two packets of dry yeast of making a big starter if you go with liquid yeast.

Also, due to the big grain bill, this beer is literally going to need like 6-8 weeks of conditioning minimum to start to be a balanced beer. You need to make it pretty soon to have it ready by January.

 

[chasemandingo]

K I modified the recipe slightly. I now cut out the 3 lbs of light DME entirely and added an extra 1 lbs of the dark. So I have my steeping grains and my DME. I also picked of 1 lbs of amber Belgian candy syrup to keep the abv above 7 percent. What do you all think? Any other adjustments? Also using Safale 04 English ale yeast.

 

[TopherM]

That isn't exactly how it works. You can't just cut some things and add other things willy nilly with out understanding what it's going to do to the final beer. The changes you made above are likely to throw everything out of wack.

You just cut body, upped bitterness, and threw off the alcohol/malt balance. That's assuming you had a balanced recipe in the first place, which I don't think you did.

When you are talking about APAs/IPAs where the malt backbone is low and the hops are the focus of the beer, it's fairly easy to throw together a recipe, but you can't just throw together a winter warmer. The key to a good winter warmer is balancing the malt character with the high alcohol, then balancing the spices with the beer.

I would suggest you find a proven recipe and stick to that proven recipe. The beer you are describing above sounds like a boozy mess with no method to actually balancing the beer.

 

[chasemandingo]

How bout this?

dded By: Anonymous
Method: Extract
Style: Old Ale
Boil Time: 60 min
Batch Size: 5.5 gallons (fermentor volume)
Boil Size: 3.5 gallons
Boil Gravity: 1.122 (recipe based estimate)
Efficiency: 35% (steeping grains only)
1.077
1.019
7.62%
33.15
22.64
Fermentables
Amount Fermentable PPG °L Bill %
9 lb Dry Malt Extract - Light 42 4 79.1%
1 lb Belgian Candi Syrup - Amber 32 40 8.8%
10 lb Total
Steeping Grains
Amount Fermentable PPG °L Bill %
2 oz Flaked Wheat 34 2 1.1%
0.75 lb American - Caramel / Crystal 60L 34 60 6.6%
0.25 lb United Kingdom - Coffee Malt 36 150 2.2%
0.25 lb United Kingdom - Black Patent 27 525 2.2%
Hops
Amount Variety Type AA Use Time IBU
1 oz Centennial Pellet 9.3 Boil 60 min 16.87
1 oz Fuggles Pellet 4.9 Boil 60 min 8.89
1 oz Fuggles Pellet 5.3 Boil 30 min 7.39

 

[chasemandingo]

How would this be for a strong english bitter? What would a hop schedule look like for this? Partial mash by the way.

6 lb Dry Malt Extract - Extra Light 42 2.5 68.6%
1 lb American - Caramel / Crystal 150L 33 150 11.4%
1.5 lb United Kingdom - Pale 2-Row 38 2.5 17.1%
0.25 lb American - Carapils (Dextrine Malt) 33 1.8 2.9%

 

[ChelisHubby]

you should fi nd a extract kit from one of the homebrew places online that will be strong enough for you. Anything you make with a starting gravity over 10.60 needs 4 weeks of bottle conditioning time and if you go much over 10.70 add more time yet. You can just buy ingredients and throw them together and make high alcohol swill if that is the goal. you can also drink it early but the flavor will not be what you want.

 

[Yooper]

How would this be for a strong english bitter? What would a hop schedule look like for this? Partial mash by the way.

6 lb Dry Malt Extract - Extra Light 42 2.5 68.6%
1 lb American - Caramel / Crystal 150L 33 150 11.4%
1.5 lb United Kingdom - Pale 2-Row 38 2.5 17.1%
0.25 lb American - Carapils (Dextrine Malt) 33 1.8 2.9%

11% of 150L would be undrinkable to me. It's very burnt sugar and raisiny flavored.

I'd think about what you want the beer to taste like, and start over from the ground up.

An English bitter is light and not intensely burnt sugar tasting, but I don't know what you mean by a "strong English bitter".

 

[ChelisHubby]

opps dbl post

 

[chasemandingo]

I guess I was going for a Extra Special bitter which according to my research is a higher abv English bitter. I now realize the error of my ways and that the caramel malt would add too much off flavors. my entire reasoning for it was the color. I am shooting for a deep copper color. I have since read that you can add anything over a 300 lovibond rating at an amount of around .75 oz to adjust color without adding any roasted characteristics. I have my back round in wine making and am a complete noob with beer. I am a longtime craft beer drinker and know what I want out of a beer, just don't know how to achieve it! I guess a modified recipe would be light malt extract instead of extra light, keep the 2-row, add some biscuit malt and .75 oz of English coffee malt and use L75-80 carmel malt? Also would use traditional English hops. Does this sound better?

 

[chasemandingo]

So I just went for an American style Pale Ale. However, I fell right on the line between APA and IPA . Used 8 lbs malt extract two of which were late additions, 1 lbs of crystal L60 and 2 oz. flaked wheat for head retention. My IBU's ended up at 42.16 and my ABV at 6.25 which is .05 above what the brewer's friend beer calc says is within APA style guidelines. So what should I call it? APA or IPA?