Questions on a Kentucky Common recipe

[Aristotelian]

I am planning to brew a modified Kentucky Common based on the "Kiss Yer Cousin" (but without the rye) and some of the other recipes I have seen around the interwebs. I have most of what I need on hand but need to make a few modifications and I am wondering how others might approach these.

1. The only grainbill item I don't have on hand is black malt, although I do have roasted barley. Given that the recipe calls for only about 1.5%, how much of a difference will it make to substitute the roasted barley? Other options are chocolate malt or home toasting some two-row as dark as I can get it.

2. I don't have Cluster so I am hoping to get a decent approximation with a small amount of Warrior early in the boil, followed by Fuggles.

3. I could not find instant grits, so I am going to mill some popcorn and do a cereal mash.


Thoughts on the black malt/roasted barley or any other reason why these modifications won't work?

Here is the tentative recipe.


HOME BREW RECIPE:
Title: 16.3 Kentucky Common

Brew Method: All Grain
Style Name: Kentucky Common
Boil Time: 60 min
Batch Size: 8.3 liters (fermentor volume)
Boil Size: 10.2 liters
Boil Gravity: 1.041
Efficiency: 65% (brew house)

STATS:
Original Gravity: 1.051
Final Gravity: 1.012
ABV (standard): 5.11%
IBU (tinseth): 32.78
SRM (morey): 13.59

FERMENTABLES:
1.25 kg - American - Pale 2-Row (59.1%)
0.55 kg - Ground popcorn (26%)
0.25 kg - American - Vienna (11.8%)
30 g - American - Caramel / Crystal 120L (1.4%)
35 g - American - Black Malt (Roasted Barley???) (1.7%)

HOPS:
5 g - Warrior, Type: Pellet, AA: 16, Use: Boil for 60 min, IBU: 26.49
8.5 g - Fuggles, Type: Pellet, AA: 4.5, Use: Boil for 15 min, IBU: 6.28

YEAST:
Danstar - Nottingham Ale Yeast
Starter: No
Form: Dry
Attenuation (avg): 77%
Flocculation: High
Optimum Temp: 13.89 - 21.11 C
Fermentation Temp: 19 C


Generated by Brewer's Friend - http://www.brewersfriend.com/
Date: 2016-03-01 16:43 UTC
Recipe Last Updated: 2016-02-26 23:27 UTC

 

[Revvy]

The thing about the research I did into Kentucky Common is that no one really knows what they tasted like, and what went in them. My recipe was based around the premise that moonshiners may have made a light drinkable beer based on what they might have had on hand. From their shine grainbills.

So there's no hard and fast rules about them, just the scant info from the Handy Book of Brewing, and that doesn't go into much detail. So whatever you have is fine. So if you have roasted barley then use it. Guys making rye whiskey might have had heavier rye grain bills, guys making sourmash may have had some sourness to theirs. Some may have had even more corn in them, but still they were dark colored beers. Some may have been made with lager yeast, some may have been steam beers (my steam version has become my favorite) some may have been ales. I don't think there's any way to "ruin" the beer, as long as you keep it in sort of the same SG/IBU/ABV/SRM range.

But it really is about what you have around.

Most of the other recipes except O'daniel's are all based off of my research anyway, so they don't know much more than I do anyway. (I was excited to see a couple years back that BYO did an article about the style... But disappointed that it was pretty much an uncredited rehash of my info, and nothing new.

I think the roasted barley will be great in it. In fact a local brew pub in Detroit, and one on the Windsor/Canadian side brewed their own versions based on my recipe IIRC the Detroit one used roasted barley and made for a slightly more bitter, yet tasty beer.

Same with doing the cereal mash with the popcorn, I think that's pretty cool...I still haven't done one.

As for hopping, I would skip the Warrior, and just use Fuggles, the reason being that iirc Cluster and Fuggles are cousins, I believe I read somewhere that cluster is just an American derivative of Fuggles. They're also listed as substitutions for each other. And they're both early hops with an historical pedigree.

Plus it's really a low hopped beer, there's really only hop addition in the recipe, it's a quaffer not a burner. So if you're looking to still be close to what the original beers were like, I'd go with a single fuggles addition.

Have fun. Like to hear how it turns out.

 

[Aristotelian]

Thanks for all the info! The thread on your recipe was a major inspiration. I can't wait to try this one out.

 

[Revvy]

Yeah, I was excited to see this thread today!

 

[Aristotelian]

So, I brewed this up in April. Went with 30g each of chocolate malt and home toasted dark chocolate malt (wife was NOT happy about the smell). The popcorn really didn't work in my crappy hand cranked Corona. Very hard to crank. I had to double crush it, spilled a bunch, and ended up using grits for about half of it. Used Galena to replace the Warrior, and flavored with Goldings that needed to be used up. Used US-05 instead of Notty, I can't remember why.

The US-05 took it down to 1.007, 5 points below the recipe target, possibly because my mash temp dropped into the low 140s. However, I prefer dry beers so that was just fine.

Anyway, came out great. Looks like a porter from a distance but a rich amber when held to the light. Hints of chocolate and toast and floral notes from the hops. Smooth mouthfeel I imagine from the corn. Just what I was looking for in a session beer. Thanks to Revvy for the original recipe and advice on the tweaks. I would absolutely brew this again.

 

[bigdaddybrew]

Here is a link to an excellent research article for this style. The link is to download a PDF file from the BJCP...
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...6w2fGLgxF4lC5oLxw&sig2=ZtWUIQ32bAMDARJDXJ0kUw