Help me build a recipe

[bpgreen]

I got into a bit of a rut, brewing mostly IPAs and APAs for a long time. I had kind of a base that I'd vary, depending on hops, grains, etc. But it was kind of a house brew.

I want to brew soon. But I don't have any of the specialty grains I'd normally use.

Instead, I have some biscuit, some chocolate, and some black (those are the labels I have on the containers they're in). I've got plenty of each.

I've got a lot of different hops, and can substitute for suggestions as needed.

Wat do?

[mashani]

Do you have any crystal malt at all?

You can make a good brown ale with something like: (for 3 gallons)

5# pale malt/2-row (or a bit more)
~5oz or 6oz each of crystal, biscuit, and chocolate malt

Something like Willamette or Fuggles or Styrian Golding hops if you have anything like that, 1oz or so, half for bittering, the other half split as @15/@flameout additions.

Without the crystal you could make a dry stout with some nutty/biscuit undertones by just doubling up the chocolate and/or throwing in some of the black malt too, and moving the second half of the hops to more like @30 or just using them all as bittering hops.

[John Sand]

My first thought is stout. You could make your own crystal, but it takes time to mellow. If you have temperature control, you might try a lager. You could leave out the dark malts and make a SMaSH. Keep us posted.

[bpgreen]

Thanks for the ideas. No crystal at all.

The stout sounds good. So does the smash. I don't have temperature control, but my basement outs in the mid 50s, and I have Nottingham, which ferments a lager like beer when fermented that cool.

[The_Professor]

Have you considered doing the APA or IPA without the specialty grains (just the base malt)?
There are a lot of styles I enjoy using only base malts with (although not necessarily APA). I can't imagine a good APA/IPA recipe will actually be bad without the specialty malts.

[mashani]

Have you considered doing the APA or IPA without the specialty grains (just the base malt)?
There are a lot of styles I enjoy using only base malts with (although not necessarily APA). I can't imagine a good APA/IPA recipe will actually be bad without the specialty malts.

I've make many pale malt + single hop SMaSH APA like beers that I've liked quite a bit. But I did them with extract.

But for AG, you can always mash at a slightly higher temp to add some of the residual sweetness that you would miss by not using crystal or would get if using extract. You would just lose some ABV, and it is more of a malty sweet then a caramel sweet - but still it would have similar balancing effect. For me at least the loss of ABV would be is a non-issue.

And even for that you could throw in a few oz of any of the dark malts for color if wanted. And even the biscuit malt, which would still go well with many hops, especially those that will give you a "bread and jam" like vibe in the final product.

[bpgreen]

I've decided to do a no-boil batch with mostly two row and a little raw wheat (the raw wheat is because I'm a cheapskate and get raw wheat for next to nothing at Costco).

I'm going to use a bunch of home grown hallertauer hops and mash overnight.

At some point, I need to brew a few browns and stouts to use up those specialty grains (but I'm going into SLC tomorrow, so I'll be picking up more crystal and another 50 lb bag of 2 row).

[bpgreen]

Apparently, BeerSmith3 doesn't automatically save recipes. I have my notes from my spreadsheet, though.

I ended up going with a lager like beer. I used some homegrown hallertauer and some saaz pellets. I also did this as a no-boil and no-chill overnight mash batch as an experiment.

I kegged it today after 30 days in the fermenter in the mid 50s. It was pretty cloudy, which is out of style for a lager. I suspect that's a side effect of the no boil and no chill.

I didn't get great efficiency, but I used more grain because I never get good efficiency. But with the overnight mash and pitching on Nottingham slurry, it fermented out to 1.006, so I got a fairly strong beer, anyway.

[mashani]

Beersmith 3 PC version automatically saves recipes. I don't have to do anything, it just does it. So ?

FWIW, both of the no-boil beers I made were fairly clear for what they were and cleared up more in the bottle the longer they sat. The Brut IPA with a couple days in the fridge pours pretty clear now, any haze that it still has I can easily attribute to the huge amount of hops (10oz) that went into it, and not the method. The first one was 65% wheat, so being totally clear there wasn't expected, yet it still turned out very clear for a wheat beer. The 3rd one I am bottling in a few days, but it looks pretty clear in the fermenter too.

I did to a full step mash for all 3 of them though. IE I started at 95 or so and heated it at 1000 watts up to my mash temp. So there was a protein/glucan rest in there, which I think will be necessary to get clear beer with this method.

In your case, I'd expect the notty to drop out and much of what is still in there drop out with it in the keg.

EDIT: FYI, for perspective, this is what the Raw Brut IPA looks like right now at 5 weeks in the bottle. It's somewhat clear considering the amount of hop tannins and polyphenols and the like that are floating around in it. I think it would be pretty much crystal clear without so much hops.

IMG_0433 (002).jpg (59.05 KiB) Viewed 502 times

[bpgreen]

I don't know why BS 3 hasn't been saving recipes automatically. I'm sure they saved in 2 when I closed the recipe tab.

I just remembered that when I started it this time it said there might be another copy running. Maybe my PC rebooted while the tab was open and that's what caused it not to save.

Some experimentation is in order.