Beer Recipe (all grain) help

[savory]

I am familiar with the brewing process. I use the RoboBrew electric kettle. Dispense using corny kegs in a kegerator. I follow recipes OK but have yet to create my own recipe.

Right now however, I have the following inventory and would love to get help with a recipe, which would include the grain that I have not purchased yet. I like malty beers but have brewed most everything.

Ingredients on hand: Hallertauer Magnum 11.6 Alpha, Liberty 4.5 Alpha, Glacier 4.5 Alpha, UK Progressive (like Golding) 5% Alpha. Safale 05 American Ale Yeast, one package. The hop inventory is 2 to 8 oz. I am not opposed to buying another yeast.

I would like an ABV of 5-6%. I do not know what I like when it comes to IBU or SRM. I do know when I have tried very hoppy beers, especially the Cascade hop, it can be overpowering for me. I have never brewed a beer like that but have purchased some. In my brewing experience, I have not brewed a beer that I did not drink.

Do any of the homebrewers have some suggestions for a recipe and/or require more input?

Thanks

 

[braumeister]

Fairly straightforward approach:

Figure out what styles of beer you want to brew, based on your own tasting experience, and get the specifics of gravity, IBU, ABV, etc.
Use the established style guidelines, such as these:

2020_GABF_Beer_Style_Guidelines.pdf

Then get some software that does the calculations for you. All you have to do is tell it what style of beer you want to brew, then input and tweak the ingredients you have (or can get) and the software will tell you how much of each to use.

BeerSmith is probably the most popular app of its kind.

 

[devo]

How do you ferment? We're getting into the tough time of year without some kind of temp control. If you have that sorted out, I'd be looking to brew some sort of 805ish clone, based on your inputs. Doesn't take much of a hop load, bright and crisp, but still in the ale world (though I think FW uses the 1968, Brit strain) so you can turn it quickly. Use that Magnum for some early bittering, and maybe some glacier or Progressive later on. Definitely buy some yeast or prop that thing up with a starter stage or two. Good summer beer. Forgiving recipe. Cheers!

https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/247155/805-clone

 

[brewer12345]

Irish red maybe? Or perhaps a cream ale? I always make one of the latter for the summer.

 

[copyright1997reloaded]

How do you ferment? We're getting into the tough time of year without some kind of temp control. If you have that sorted out, I'd be looking to brew some sort of 805ish clone, based on your inputs. Doesn't take much of a hop load, bright and crisp, but still in the ale world (though I think FW uses the 1968, Brit strain) so you can turn it quickly. Use that Magnum for some early bittering, and maybe some glacier or Progressive later on. Definitely buy some yeast or prop that thing up with a starter stage or two. Good summer beer. Forgiving recipe. Cheers!

https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/247155/805-clone

Not directly answering the OP's question, but summer time brewing = Saison's. The yeasts for these like mid 70's fermentation, and the Wyeast variant is good to go up to 85 degrees (F). You can also possibly use the S05 as a finishing strain.

 

[brewer12345]

Not directly answering the OP's question, but summer time brewing = Saison's. The yeasts for these like mid 70's fermentation, and the Wyeast variant is good to go up to 85 degrees (F). You can also possibly use the S05 as a finishing strain.

You might also consider danstar nottingham for warmer weather ferments. It is extremely neutral so it can stay fairly clean even with warmer ferments.

 

[GalaxyBoy]

I bought a variety of hops last year when I won the silent auction for a gift certificate at our local homebrew competition. Since I had a bunch of varieties I had never used before I googled each one to get an idea of what style(s) of beer each was supposed to be best for. For example, your Hallertauer Magnum is supposed to be a clean bittering hop good for multiple styles, and with that high AA% it shouldn't take very much of it to get the job done. Do the same for each of the other varieties and decide if there's a style in there you like, based on commercial examples of the styles you've had (or will go out and buy). Then you might nose around the various forums and homebrew supplier websites for recipes that you might tweak or combine, or just use. I recently did that with the object of using up ingredients on hand, and I call it "Sittin' Around the House IPA," because it was made with stuff I had sitting around the house, and it's what we all do these days.

Good points above about brewing in summer and temperature control. I don't have a fermenting chamber or chiller, but I have a cool basement which works for me.

 

[savory]

Thanks to all. Lots of good advice that I have begun to put to use. And while I have investigated some of the tools, I have never challenged myself in terms of recipe creation.

I am lucky to have a walk-out basement so my area to ferment is consistent. It is also dark.

Our household has shrunk in half in the last few months. Our beer consumption has even gone down even more. So, I am looking forward to this next brew.

Thanks again!

 

[copyright1997reloaded]

Another fun game is to do small batch variations using a single variable change. For instance, do a bunch of 1-2 gallon batches using the same base recipe but using a different hop for each variation.

For example, check out this (old) recipe: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/da-yoopers-house-pale-ale.100304/

I've done this one normally, but then also made the same recipe using different hops, e.g. Amarillo, Brewers Gold, Centennial, Chinook, ... (one of my fav's for IPAs is actually Columbus). Use software such as BearSmith to adjust hop amounts based on AA values to be consistent in terms of bittering, aroma additions, etc.

Another way - do a batch with a rather neutral bittering hop (for example Magnum), and then do a dry hop "in bottle". That is, drop a couple pellets of each type in each bottle. (p.s. I would keg and then bottle from the keg quite frequently To do so, after carbonation is correct in the keg 1) Sanitize bottles w/StarSan and put in freezer 2) reduce keg pressure to a couple psi, 3) use a broken off plastic racking cane + picnic tap to go from keg to bottle.

The above are off topic but doing SMASH (or offshoots) are a fun way to adjust recipe's.

p.s. The above is how I ended up with 14 corny kegs, a refrigerator full of yeast (from batches - see yeast washing) plus two other refrigerators for beer , hundreds of pounds of various grains, a grain mill, various temperature control mechanisms, 3 shelf's of frozen hops, and hops growing up runners from my backyard to my deck.

 

[RAE]

Another fun game is to do small batch variations using a single variable change. For instance, do a bunch of 1-2 gallon batches using the same base recipe but using a different hop for each variation.

For example, check out this (old) recipe: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/da-yoopers-house-pale-ale.100304/

Ha, this is pretty funny. The recipe linked to above was created by my wife, who is known as Yooper on Homebrewtalk.com. She was a moderator there for many years, before becoming a site administrator. She brews great beer.......her house pale ale recipe above is still one of my favorites

 

[ERD50]

Ha, this is pretty funny. The recipe linked to above was created by my wife, who is known as Yooper on Homebrewtalk.com. She was a moderator there for many years, before becoming a site administrator. She brews great beer.......her house pale ale recipe above is still one of my favorites

Ha as well! I met Yooper a few years back, she attended our home brew club meeting (I think she was visiting friends in Chicago area, or maybe at some beer related event, I forget).

Anyhow, we're talking, and I'm trying to get some sense of who she is, and then I hear "Yooper" and "Homebrewtalk.com.", and it clicks. I used to spend a lot of time on the brew forums when I was getting back into it after a long absence. Good group. It was nice to meet her.

-ERD50

 

[brewer12345]

Another way - do a batch with a rather neutral bittering hop (for example Magnum), and then do a dry hop "in bottle". That is, drop a couple pellets of each type in each bottle. (p.s. I would keg and then bottle from the keg quite frequently To do so, after carbonation is correct in the keg 1) Sanitize bottles w/StarSan and put in freezer 2) reduce keg pressure to a couple psi, 3) use a broken off plastic racking cane + picnic tap to go from keg to bottle.

I do something similar, except I am far too lazy to bottle. Instead I make what I term a "hop bomb."
I make an amber with a solid malt backbone (like a quarter munich malt, a good smack of caramel malt), attenuate well, bitter to 25 or 30 IBUs (nothing crazy), and then I dry hop it generously with whatever very aromatic variety I want to try. I dry hop by pouring boiling water on a muslin hop bag, put an ounce or more of hops in the drained bag, tie it shut, and toss it into the keg before I rack the beer into the keg.

 

[copyright1997reloaded]

Ha, this is pretty funny. The recipe linked to above was created by my wife, who is known as Yooper on Homebrewtalk.com. She was a moderator there for many years, before becoming a site administrator. She brews great beer.......her house pale ale recipe above is still one of my favorites

This is awesome! I'm copyright1997 on that forum. I haven't posted in a couple/few years but used to be an active poster. Please tell her I said hi and a big THANK YOU for all of her many contributions to the site and to home brewers over the years. I have a modified version of her house pale ale (done using Centennial) sitting there ready to keg!

It's funny. I first did home brew in the late 80's (only a couple times), and then rediscovered it after retiring in 2009. I stumbled on HomeBrewTalk in 2011 and found so much incredible information that I was quickly able to go from a "buy a kit" mediocre brewer to someone who had others trying to start a micro-brewery with me. (I declined - it sounded too much like w*rk.) That is because of people like your wife.

p.s. Always got a kick out of the dominatrix avatar.

 

[sengsational]

If it were me, I'd pick a low hopped style (probably a pale) in BeerSmith software, drop-in my grain (all of it), adjust the volume until it came to the right ABV, drop in enough of the magnum to get the IBU target, then smell all the rest of the hops and pick the one that I thought smelled the best and throw that in at 15 and whirlpool. It will be beer. EDIT: just re-read the OP and realized you are going to have to buy grain. Since you're willing to buy yeast, the thread title might be more appropriate as "using-up my hop inventory". Kind of a "stone soup" situation, hehehe! I usually buy only what I need, and toss anything I don't use because I don't brew often enough to trust old ingredients...not worth the risk based on how much time it takes to brew and how cheap ingredients are.


Plan 2 would be to buy some of that Kveik yeast and try that (because I've never used it before)


Plan 3, which might just be the one I'd really go with because I love the style, and the flavors the yeast throws off, is brew a saison. Hops are minimal in the style, but depending on the saison yeast you pick, fermentation can be finicky. But I loves me the saisons I've brewed in the past!

 

[RAE]

This is awesome! I'm copyright1997 on that forum. I haven't posted in a couple/few years but used to be an active poster. Please tell her I said hi and a big THANK YOU for all of her many contributions to the site and to home brewers over the years. I have a modified version of her house pale ale (done using Centennial) sitting there ready to keg!

It's funny. I first did home brew in the late 80's (only a couple times), and then rediscovered it after retiring in 2009. I stumbled on HomeBrewTalk in 2011 and found so much incredible information that I was quickly able to go from a "buy a kit" mediocre brewer to someone who had others trying to start a micro-brewery with me. (I declined - it sounded too much like w*rk.) That is because of people like your wife.

I will tell her!

 

[KarlH]

As its been a couple months, I suspect the brew has been brewed, fermented, and may be long gone at this point. I just wanted to pop in and say that I would be interested in following any homebrewing related posts. I have been brewing since around 2000, and spent a good deal of time with extract and all grain brewing... even placing 3rd in the Midwest Homebrewer of the Year standings several years back. My system evolved from a canning pot to an outdoor burner to a MoreBeer "sculpture" that has a capacity to make 20 gallons, although I rarely make that much. I agree that the easiest approach is to go to the LHBS and it might be the least amount of trouble to just pick up a kit for the style you like. In Covid times, you can likely order via online tools and either pickup or have it shipped.

 

[sengsational]

My LHBS is also a mail order place, but they don't have curbside as an option on their web site. I brew rarely, but over decades. I found that I like to hang around brewers (most of them are my kinda people) more than brewing. And I liked building/tweaking equipment more than brewing. If I could, I used equipment that wasn't made for brewing, adapting cheap stuff to make beer was the interesting challenge for me. There are some guys that like the fanciest HERMS all electric, but I'm old school with a drink cooler for a mash tun. If you search videos for "sengsationa1 inexpensive compact brewing" you'd probably find my turkey frier gravity system video. I'm a "no inventory" guy...I buy just what I need and use it (except for water salts and stuff that lasts forever). I use RO water and build the water profiles. And I have a dorm fridge with a controller for fermentation temperature control. Never did get an O2 wand ... and now I've grown out of brewing huge beers, and still physically able to shake 5 gallons, so don't really need one.

 

[KarlH]

I was much like you in my original systems, and mine somehow evolved over the years through converted equipment, coolers, and things given by friends. I started out with something that sounds a lot like your gravity and cooler system, but had friends give me kettles, build me a 3 tier stand, etc., until I had a nice 3 tier system built on the cheap. I then sold that to a willing buyer and bought my "sculpture" 3rd hand for a few hundred dollars over what I got for the old system.

I think that some of the best brewers I know still use a cooler and kettle system like you are describing. The sculpture is nice, but my DW absolutely hates it (but slightly less than the old 3 tier system). I have evolved more towards hanging out with brewers more than brewing myself in the last few years. I have already been offered a part time job at a local brewery if I pull the plug and FIRE myself this year. But I am also hoping that I have the opportunity to homebrew more when I pull the plug.

 

[old medic]

Ha, this is pretty funny. The recipe linked to above was created by my wife, who is known as Yooper on Homebrewtalk.com. She was a moderator there for many years, before becoming a site administrator. She brews great beer.......her house pale ale recipe above is still one of my favorites

Small world... Remember her from there years ago