Dipping my first toe into all grain brewing.

[DarrenUK]

Decided to get a small number of Hops and malts to have a play around with all grain brewing. I got the following :

Black malt.
Cara malt.
Maris otter pale malt.

Citra hops.
Challenger hops.
Fuggles hops.

Irish moss.
Gypsum.

I wanted to be able to have a play around and make some different beers with few items since its my first go.

Any ideas?

Definitely an ale. Maybe an Irish Red or an IPA.
Obviously dark malt is very dark and heavy so it was just to mess about with rather than being a main ingredient. But any recipe ideas with this and amounts would be appreciated.

 

[thegrantickle]

I would suggest a single hop pale ale, heavy on the late Citra, 98% marris otter, 2% Cara.

I keep saying it to folk, but try out a 1:1.4:2 ratio for late addition hops at 15:10:5 mins from the end.

With black malt, be really careful. Even a tiny bit too much will be overpowering. Also think about adding black or roasted malts just at the last 10ins of your mash, or immediately before the sparge to avoid excess bitterness/astringency. You could turn it into a black IPA by going for 95% Maris otter, 2% black, 3% Cara. Same hop schedule at the end but bitter at FWH with challenger too.

That would be my thoughts... Hope that helps :)

 

[Surfingobo]

I love challenger for bittering. I’d do 25 ibu of challenger at the start of the boil with 10 ibu of fuggles or citra at 10 minutes for a super simple pale ale using all MO for the grist. Go fuggles for more of an English bitter/pale ale and citra for more of an American pale ale flavour, whatever floats your boat.

I’d also do a Porter with about 5-10% cara malt for sweetness (more for more sweet) and then black malt to bring the colour to the place you want it. Challenger for bittering and maybe a small charge of challenger again near the end of the boil

 

[chopps]

97% Otter 3% Cara to 1.057 OG
Citra 16iBU at 20 mins (approx 20g)
Citra 16IBU at 10 mins (approx 30g)
Citra 16 IBU at 5 mins ( approx 40g)
Citra 1oz Hopstand at 80C for 30 mins
(approx 30g)

The approx weights assume 13.5% AA Citra in a 33L boil. YMMV!

 

[thegrantickle]

97% Otter 3% Cara to 1.057 OG
Citra 16iBU at 20 mins (approx 20g)
Citra 16IBU at 10 mins (approx 30g)
Citra 16 IBU at 5 mins ( approx 40g)
Citra 1oz Hopstand at 80C for 30 mins
(approx 30g)

The approx weights assume 13.5% AA Citra in a 33L boil. YMMV!

+1 to this or something very similar

 

[DarrenUK]

Well the plan is to do 5 or 6 small boil in the bag and ferment in Demijohns. So really small batches so I will probably do all that's suggested so far. I do like the sound of that American IPA... Citra heavy but I will definitely go with something like that.

 

[DarrenUK]

Any suggestions for a more Cara heavy beer? I get the feeling I'm going to be out of Otter and Citra pretty fast

 

[thegrantickle]

So Cara is a speciality malt, if you use more than a few % you'll end up with an overly sweet, claggy kinda beer.

It will keep for a good while, so just hold on to it, and keep buying base malt (MO) till you use it up.

I did the same mistake when I first started AG - ordered loads of speciality malts and ended up buying sacks of 25kg base malts with roasty Bois and caramalts still kicking about loooong after the base malt gone.

 

[DarrenUK]

Correct me if this is wrong because I don't really know... I'm going on instinct and the little I do know. But would a 75% Cara 22% otter and 3% dark not give me the base of a Irish red ale?

Then I could go with Fuggles and challenger for the hops. Or am I way off?

 

[DarrenUK]

So Cara is a speciality malt, if you use more than a few % you'll end up with an overly sweet, claggy kinda beer.

It will keep for a good while, so just hold on to it, and keep buying base malt (MO) till you use it up.

I did the same mistake when I first started AG - ordered loads of speciality malts and ended up buying sacks of 25kg base malts with roasty Bois and caramalts still kicking about loooong after the base malt gone.

Ohh just saw that

 

[thegrantickle]

Here is a fairly standard recipe for an Irish red ale (stolen from BYO). This for 5gal. Smash the crystal malts together and still nowhere near those proportions.

9.9 lbs. (4.5 kg) Crisp British pale ale malt or similar British pale ale malt
6.0 oz. (170 g) Great Western crystal malt (40 °L)
6.0 oz. (170 g) Great Western crystal malt (120 °L)
5.0 oz. (142 g) roasted barley (300 °L)
5.25 AAU Kent Golding pellet hops, (1.05 oz./30 g at 5% alpha acid) (60 min.)
White Labs WLP004 (Irish Ale), Wyeast 1084 (Irish Ale) or Fermentis Safale US-05 yeast

 

[DarrenUK]

That was the description when I got the Caramalt. That's going to be a shame if I can't use much of it. Also. Not so great if the description isn't true

 

[DarrenUK]

Here is a fairly standard recipe for an Irish red ale (stolen from BYO). This for 5gal. Smash the crystal malts together and still nowhere near those proportions.

9.9 lbs. (4.5 kg) Crisp British pale ale malt or similar British pale ale malt
6.0 oz. (170 g) Great Western crystal malt (40 °L)
6.0 oz. (170 g) Great Western crystal malt (120 °L)
5.0 oz. (142 g) roasted barley (300 °L)
5.25 AAU Kent Golding pellet hops, (1.05 oz./30 g at 5% alpha acid) (60 min.)
White Labs WLP004 (Irish Ale), Wyeast 1084 (Irish Ale) or Fermentis Safale US-05 yeast

Ahhh so no I can't. I could sub some of that I guess but I don't have barley. I'm assuming that's a dark roasted to give it the colour.

 

[thegrantickle]

up to 20% though. In an extreme example of the malt you could use 20%. What comes to mind there would be something like a Scottish 120/- or a best bitter.

 

[thegrantickle]

Ahhh so no I can't. I could sub some of that I guess but I don't have barley. I'm assuming that's a dark roasted to give it the colour.

Yeah the higher the °L (degrees lovibond) the higher the roast/darker the colour. You might also see EBC scale used more commonly in Europe. Black malt will do the same thing, contributes next to no fermentable sugars, but gives dark colour and a little roasty flavour.

 

[DarrenUK]

So IPA's are a safe bet and maybe Ales and bitters are what I'm aiming for?

 

[DarrenUK]

OK then. Thanks guys. I'm going to go have a research

 

[Tanglefoot]

That was the description when I got the Caramalt. That's going to be a shame if I can't use much of it. Also. Not so great if the description isn't true

I've used it in recipes at up to 10% and made some very nice beers and ales ( 2nd prize in March freestyle comp
for my 'almost smash' Cascade pale ale, 90% extra pale MO, 10% Cara hem, hem )
Try it at different percentages and see what you think for yourself.


I'd use it with the MO ale malt and single hop with the Challenger

 

[DarrenUK]

I've used it in recipes at up to 10% and made some very nice beers and ales ( 2nd prize in March freestyle comp
for my 'almost smash' Cascade pale ale, 90% extra pale MO, 10% Cara hem, hem )
Try it at different percentages and see what you think for yourself.


I'd use it with the MO ale malt and single hop with the Challenger

I will . I'm definitely doing the American IPA on here too.
After a little research I think I need a few more hops and grains to have a real play around.

 

[DarrenUK]

OK. Just ordered a little more base malt