Less hoppy, more malty.

[UKSkydiver]

I've been drinking lager since I was a teen. Never really got into bitter / real ale as a drink.

In the last 12-18 months, I've been drinking stouts, and darker ales, such as mild, and dark Belgian and Czech beers.

I'm fast coming to the conclusion that I don't really like 'hoppy' ales, can't stand IPAs and thin English ales; malt forward beers are more my thing. Big, bold flavours of coffee, caramel, vanilla, chocolate etc

I don't want to just be brewing stouts - so couple of thoughts....

- How does one make a malt forward beer. Do you bitter less? Add fewer hops or for a shorter time? No doubt it won't be as simple as that as there will be interactions between the malt and the hops etc.

- Is there some kind of online categorisation of beer when I can find those beers that are less hoppy and more malty?

- Any recommendations for darker, bold flavoured brews please?

Thanks for your time.
Cheers, Phil

 

[Pavros]

Perhaps some Scotch Ales or Irish Ales. The Scotch ales tend to be more malty than hoppy.

If you click on the RECIPES link in the header above, it will take you to Brewers Friend recipes. This lists the style as well as the recipe name. If you click on the style you like, it will give you some recipes, typical ingredients, malts and hops. You might find some suggestions there to help

 

[MyQul]

Im all about the malt. I dont like hoppy beers/IPA and have never brewed one

There's a couple of things you can do to brew malty beers

Mash time/temperature - Mash at a higher temp for a shorter period of time will give you a more fuller beer

Yeast - Ferment with a lower attenuating yeast. A lot of dry yeasts ferment really quit high (like 79% attentuation) so it can take a bit of searching for lower attenuating yeast but one that arent too low (like windsor for e.g.). You have more choice with liquid yeast and its easier to find a yeast the attenuates to whatever target you have

Grains - Adding sweeter tasting grains like crystal can balance out any hoppyness

 

[chthon]

Bock: 60% Munich malt, 30-40 % pilsner malt, maybe some caramel malt. Lager yeast or a neutral ale yeast. Bitter between 18 and 24 IBU. If you can take the time, let it lager for a couple of weeks so that it clears nicely. 2,2 to 2,4 volumes of CO2.

 

[Hanglow]

Do you mean bitterness or the floral/fruity flavours of hops? Or Both?

I'd also look at things like bocks, dopple bocks, weizen bocks, munich dunkels. Stronger english beers but with less hops perhaps etc.

 

[Drunkula]

Treat your water with some calcium chloride. If you can get your water profile you can use something like Bru n Water and use a profile like "Dark full". If you want 50 lifetimes worth of calcium chloride go to B&M and buy an AquaTrap. It's pure anhydrous calcium chloride in the bags. Make sure you put some into a fully sealable container and reseal the big bag with an iron or bag sealer.

Oh no! Here come the health and safety police - neee nawwww. neee nawwww You'll never catch me, copper, I'm a wily one, I am!

 

[chthon]

Do you mean bitterness or the floral/fruity flavours of hops? Or Both?

I'd also look at things like bocks, dopple bocks, weizen bocks, munich dunkels. Stronger english beers but with less hops perhaps etc.

The total bitterness. In bock, I use only a single bittering addition at the beginning of the boil, no flavour or aroma additions.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Perhaps some Scotch Ales or Irish Ales. The Scotch ales tend to be more malty than hoppy.

Don't let Ron Pattinson hear you say that! If you look at actual brewing records as he has you'll see Scottish brewers used just as many hops as the English, he's got recipes from Scotland that are 130+ IBU according to the software. But the US seems to have become convinced that Scots don't like bitterness.

Don't forget porters - Fuller's have told us the recipe for their imperial porter and given enough hints to work out the recipe for the "normal" version : https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/...m-the-horses-mouth.642756/page-3#post-8674860

Irish Reds are not a bad shout either.

 

[Pavros]

I was using Scottish ales as an example of not using the usual suspects of American C hops. And traditional Belhaven beers, for example (not the Twisted Mango or Twisted Grapefruit), are definitely more malt forward than hoppy..... or at least they were in the 80s.

 

[Grealish]

Don't let Ron Pattinson hear you say that! If you look at actual brewing records as he has you'll see Scottish brewers used just as many hops as the English, he's got recipes from Scotland that are 130+ IBU according to the software. But the US seems to have become convinced that Scots don't like bitterness.

Don't forget porters - Fuller's have told us the recipe for their imperial porter and given enough hints to work out the recipe for the "normal" version : https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/...m-the-horses-mouth.642756/page-3#post-8674860

Irish Reds are not a bad shout either.

I’m a fan of both hoppy and malty beers. The recipe for 1874 is out there and it’s probably my favourite of the malt forward beers I’ve brewed. I used yeast cultured from a bottle f 1874, not sure how important that is.

 

[foxy]

I would be having a play around with some dark Munich to get a darker maltier taste.

 

[Gulpitdarn]

I've found that you just can't beat experimenting. Just brew a gallon or 4.5 litres of wacky thought up recipes that is/are? not a lot to chuck away if need to or having to drink a beer that has not gone according to taste. Less equipment to clean, sterilise and cost are kept low. I think I can honestly say I've enjoyed brewing this way immensely and although I have not had to chuck much away I certainly have gone on to brew larger batches of successful brews.

 

[Bernie]

I would be having a play around with some dark Munich to get a darker maltier taste.

Good point. Maybe something like a Bock?

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

I've been drinking lager since I was a teen. Never really got into bitter / real ale as a drink.

In the last 12-18 months, I've been drinking stouts, and darker ales, such as mild, and dark Belgian and Czech beers.

I'm fast coming to the conclusion that I don't really like 'hoppy' ales, can't stand IPAs and thin English ales; malt forward beers are more my thing. Big, bold flavours of coffee, caramel, vanilla, chocolate etc

I don't want to just be brewing stouts - so couple of thoughts....

- How does one make a malt forward beer. Do you bitter less? Add fewer hops or for a shorter time? No doubt it won't be as simple as that as there will be interactions between the malt and the hops etc.

- Is there some kind of online categorisation of beer when I can find those beers that are less hoppy and more malty?

- Any recommendations for darker, bold flavoured brews please?

Thanks for your time.
Cheers, Phil

Some ideas for consideration...

Fewer hops should by definition mean less hoppy so pick recipes with fewer hops.

While not strictly necessary, strong bittering is a typical characteristic of IPAs so you may prefer recipes that use fewer hops in the bittering additions (watch out for high alpha acids though).

Use a “noble hop” for a less fruity/floral flavour/ aroma?

Mash at a higher temp as suggested by @MyQul. 140F for dry crisp ale, 160F for sweeter fuller ale, most people use 150F - it’s a good middle-ground and safe if temps drift a little.

Look at the descriptions of malt from your supplier and pick the ones you like the sound of. For the base malt I’d probably use something more flavourful like Vienna than Pilsner. For specialty additions you might use Caramalt for more caramel flavour, brown malts for a richer coffee/toffee flavour, or even chocolate malt for chocolate tones (use only very small quantities to start - something like 40g).

Good luck!

 

[skulltat280]

Would a bread yeast like easy bake yeast work for this type of beer? Actually interested in trying it myself as I'm not the biggest fan of hoppy beers either

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Bread yeast and beer yeast are basically the same recognising there is more than one beer yeast! It’s fine to use bread yeast but maybe avoid the fast yeasts because these are intended to produce more CO2 more quickly - why the bread rise is fast!

You *may* find that bread yeast doesn’t clear quite as quickly?

If you give it a try, let us know what you use and how you get on.

 

[HarryFlatters]

Perhaps some Scotch Ales or Irish Ales

I'd go with this, I've made dry stouts and 80/- recipes that are pretty much all malt flavour with minimal hop aroma.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Would a bread yeast like easy bake yeast work for this type of beer? Actually interested in trying it myself as I'm not the biggest fan of hoppy beers either

There's no advantage in using a bread yeast just because it's malty - and there's all sorts of problems you can have with bread yeasts in beer. Since they're not intended to live in beer, they can have very low alcohol tolerance (so die whilst the wort is still sweet), they can throw lots of phenolic off-flavours, and they may not flocculate very well. But some beer yeasts promote malty flavours better than others.

Having said that, I have made beer with the standard Allinsons bread yeast from Tesco in a <5% beer and it actually worked fairly well, enough that I half wonder if it's actually a beer yeast being sold for bread rather than a specialist bread yeast.

 

[dwhite60]

I'm getting to really dislike "hop bombs". Fun for a while but they've just gotten, boring.

I'm looking to to more malty, less bitter beers. Current working on blonde ales but adding
Vienna or Munich to add some flavor.

All the Best,
D. White

 

[HarryFlatters]

"hop bombs"

A bottle or two is fine, but I don't want an entire keg of the stuff.