Leftovers Recipe

[jtreach]

I'm thinking of doing the following brew with my 'leftovers'. Any thoughts appreciated. I just bottled a 'bock' ready for Christmas hence the Tettnanger hops.

Leftovers

Original Gravity (OG): 1.050 (°P): 12.4
Final Gravity (FG): 1.013 (°P): 3.3
Alcohol (ABV): 4.91 %
Colour (SRM): 11.5 (EBC): 22.6
Bitterness (IBU): 34.7 (Tinseth)

26.39% German - Munich Light
19.26% Belgian - Caramel Pils
19.26% German - Wheat Malt
13.17% United Kingdom - Maris Otter Pale
12.6% German - CaraMunich II
9.32% American - Pilsner

1.8 g/L Northern Brewer (7.8% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil)
0.6 g/L Tettnanger (4.5% Alpha) @ 15 Minutes (Boil)

Boil in the bag method. Boil for 60 Minutes

Fermented at X°C with Safale - English Ale Yeast S-04

 

[GerritT]

Isn't that a lot of cara? I'd mash it at 63º-ish, just to be on the safe side.

 

[cushyno]

Glad you said that @GerritT, I was thinking the same, but as a relative newbie, what do I know?

If you have any more MO or American Pilsner left over, I would use them in place of the Belgian Carapils.

Do you have any other yeast? A Bavarian/German yeast may go better with the wheat.

 

[jtreach]

Isn't that a lot of cara? I'd mash it at 63º-ish, just to be on the safe side.

What's the thinking behind the lower mash temperature?

 

[jtreach]

What's the thinking behind the lower mash temperature?

The technique I'm using means I don't have great control over the mash temperature. I generally get to 75oc with my mash water and place my bag o' grain in this. Normally this drops to below 70oc and then I wrap the pan in thick towels for an hour.

 

[Zephyr259]

Lower mash temp creates a more fermentable wort, crystal and caramel malts are meant to be less fermentable than other malts due to the caramelisation process. I'm not convinced on this point but don't have much evidence though. Mashing low would help balance a higher potenatial FG from high crystal malt percentage.

@Dutto might be able to offer some experience as several of his beers have rather high percentage of crystal/caramel malts.

Looks reasonable and pretty tasty, if you halved the carapils it would look a bit more reasonable, but should work fine as is.

This link should help you work out how to target different mash temperature. I used it when I first started doing 5 - 8 L stove-top batches and it worked well.

Good luck.

Edit: I just found this article about Carapils, quite interesting and mentions you Belgian version at the bottom. If these malts work by adding dextrins to the wort then by mashing them you will reduce these dextrins to more fermentable sugars which kinda defeats the purpose in my head.

 

[MrRook]

The caramel pils and caramunich are both caramel/crystal type malts and add up to over 30% of your grain bill which is way too much in my opinion.

 

[MyQul]

The technique I'm using means I don't have great control over the mash temperature. I generally get to 75oc with my mash water and place my bag o' grain in this. Normally this drops to below 70oc and then I wrap the pan in thick towels for an hour.

You'd be surprised how much control you have over mash temp with such a low tech method. I also simply wrap my pot in towels whilst it mashes

First of all I use a strike temp calc. I find the one from jims pretty accurate. I'm never normally more than about 1C or so out of my target mash temp. I then use a bit of boiling water or cold water to adjust to target temp.

https://www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk/calc.html

 

[jtreach]

Thank you all for the great detailed replies, all very helpful. I'll have a little think about the recipe and will try and post again when I get time to make this.

So great that this forum exists.

 

[Dutto]

What I do is:

• Work out what I have left.
• Knock it up into a Recipe on BrewersFriend.
• See what it looks like on the small panel that shows you a facsimile of what it may look like.
• Take a look at the IBU, ABV etc.
• Decide whether or not I wish to make something like that! (Always a difficult moment!)
• Search in the BrewersFriend categories to see if I can find a match!

The last bit is so that I don't make yet another "Leftover" brew!

It's amazing just how many brews fall into different categories with identical ingredients and techniques! (e.g. My "Dark Lager" became a "Mild" after tasting and surprise, surprise it also met the same style guidelines!)

Enjoy ...

... but remember that I still have some Barley Wine up on the shelf from January 2016 due to a mistake when brewing up leftovers!

 

[jtreach]

What I do is:

• Work out what I have left.
• Knock it up into a Recipe on BrewersFriend.
• See what it looks like on the small panel that shows you a facsimile of what it may look like.
• Take a look at the IBU, ABV etc.
• Decide whether or not I wish to make something like that! (Always a difficult moment!)
• Search in the BrewersFriend categories to see if I can find a match!

The last bit is so that I don't make yet another "Leftover" brew!

It's amazing just how many brews fall into different categories with identical ingredients and techniques! (e.g. My "Dark Lager" became a "Mild" after tasting and surprise, surprise it also met the same style guidelines!)

Enjoy ...

... but remember that I still have some Barley Wine up on the shelf from January 2016 due to a mistake when brewing up leftovers!

Thanks Dutto, I've had some disasters in my time so am keen not to repeat. I'll have a go at looking at the style guidelines, sounds like a good idea. :)

 

[GerritT]

Thanks Dutto, I've had some disasters in my time so am keen not to repeat. I'll have a go at looking at the style guidelines, sounds like a good idea. :)

And there are plenty of good brews to make without many ingredient. Take a base fermentable and continue from there .

 

[stz]

You've got a rough d power of about 40-50 °Lintner there? This is prime mash at 64-65C maximum for 90m at least depending on the age of the grain and if it was stored crushed or not to ensure complete conversion. I'm guessing your belgian caramel pils is carapils/dextrine malt? If so while that is a lot, it shouldn't have the same impact on flavour and final gravity as actual caramel and crystal malt.

 

[jtreach]

Right brew day is tomorrow. I think I might replace the carapils with flaked oats. I realise 16% is a fair bit but I've brewed with 20% before and it seemed to work out.

Leftovers
Original Gravity (OG): 1.048 (°P): 11.9
Final Gravity (FG): 1.012 (°P): 3.1
Alcohol (ABV): 4.72 %
Colour (SRM): 10.5 (EBC): 20.7
Bitterness (IBU): 35.3 (Tinseth)
27.44% German - Munich Light
20.03% German - Wheat Malt
16.03% Flaked Oats
13.7% United Kingdom - Maris Otter Pale
13.1% German - CaraMunch
9.7% American - Pilsner
1.8 g/L Northern Brewer (7.8% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil)
0.6 g/L Tettnanger (4.5% Alpha) @ 15 Minutes (Boil)
Single step Infusion at 66°C for 60 Minutes. Boil for 60 Minutes
Fermented at 20°C with Safale - English Ale Yeast S-04

 

[GerritT]

Right brew day is tomorrow. I think I might replace the carapils with flaked oats. I realise 16% is a fair bit but I've brewed with 20% before and it seemed to work out.

Leftovers
Original Gravity (OG): 1.048 (°P): 11.9
Final Gravity (FG): 1.012 (°P): 3.1
Alcohol (ABV): 4.72 %
Colour (SRM): 10.5 (EBC): 20.7
Bitterness (IBU): 35.3 (Tinseth)
27.44% German - Munich Light
20.03% German - Wheat Malt
16.03% Flaked Oats
13.7% United Kingdom - Maris Otter Pale
13.1% German - CaraMunch
9.7% American - Pilsner
1.8 g/L Northern Brewer (7.8% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil)
0.6 g/L Tettnanger (4.5% Alpha) @ 15 Minutes (Boil)
Single step Infusion at 66°C for 60 Minutes. Boil for 60 Minutes
Fermented at 20°C with Safale - English Ale Yeast S-04

Yup, that looks like a recipe. 1012 might be a bit optimistic, but it will become an ale I would drink. Repeatedly. You keg or bottle?

 

[jtreach]

Yup, that looks like a recipe. 1012 might be a bit optimistic, but it will become an ale I would drink. Repeatedly. You keg or bottle?

:) Excellent, validation from a forumite. That's a definite go then.

I tend to bottle. Not sure I have enough at the moment but I guess I can find a way of acquiring some over Christmas .

 

[jtreach]

Yup, that looks like a recipe. 1012 might be a bit optimistic, but it will become an ale I would drink. Repeatedly. You keg or bottle?

What's your thinking behind the prediction of a higher FG out of curiosity?

 

[GerritT]

What's your thinking behind the prediction of a higher FG out of curiosity?

13% CaraMunich, not a very lot but I thought it a bit high (I'm just a brewer for a bit over a year but I teach maths and there's this thing with numbers and me) and the oats, not sure about fermentability but it will not be ale-malt-like. If I had to guess it from my guts, I'd put it nearer 1020, like 1018 or so.
But S04 might chew down to 1005, because S04 and 05 are chewers.

 

[jtreach]

For those interested brew day was yesterday and I learnt two things:

1) I haven't been paying enough attention to the mash temperature (I previously assumed I would be in the correct region by having the strike temperature at 75C) but I needed to add 750mL of boiling water yesterday to get to 66C from about 55C.

2) My hydrometer is out by about 5 points! I measured against water and got 1004 and water as around 15C is apparently 999.

The mash did seem to go well after the adjustment falling from 66C to around 64C after an hour in thick towels. After adjustment of my hydrometer I reckon I got an OG of 1043 which is ~63% efficiency (not great). I'm thinking that this might be due to the oat content (11% in the end) as it did seem to make everything a little gloopy. That all said I'll still have a beer of around 4% which is not to be sniffed at. Seems to be bubbling away nicely in a 19/20C room.

 

[GerritT]

63% is not bad either, if it's consistent. Just add more malt at the start (it's dead cheap as it is). Or add sugar to correct it a bit, no shame in that either. Good luck!