So I recently went all grain and am working to convert the first (and so far, only) recipe I ever formulated to all-grain. Here is the goal of the beer - It falls somewhere between an Imp. Stout and a BSDA. It needs to be black, but have very minimal or preferably no roasty bitterness at all. Chocolatey is fine, but not too much. Dark fruits are fine. It also needs to be smooth and velvety. Emphasis is on the malt, with just enough hop balance. And it has rose-hips in it. So this is what I've devised thus far. Its a ~13# Grain bill, so - 45% Belgian 2-row/pale 5.8# 20% Dark Munich 2.6# 7% Melanoiden 0.91# 10% Flaked Oats 1.3# 8% Wheat (gonna use a little malted and a little flaked) 1.04# Last 10% will be comprised of: Dehusked Carafa 8oz Special B 8oz Crystal 120 2oz Crystal 60 2oz Roasted Barley 1oz 1# of Belgian Candi-syrup (darkest) at some point during boil. 3oz Styrian 60min (Would a longer boil be wise?) 1.5oz Saaz 15 .5oz Saaz 5 .5 - 1oz Rose Hips 5 Scotch Ale or Trappist yeast, might do both. I know doing a cereal mash or a glucan(?) rest or whatever for the oats and wheat would be smart, but I don't have the logistics of that process figured out with my setup, so I'm thinking a normal infusion mash for 1 hour at I guess around 150. I'm hoping the quantities of oats and wheat are little enough that I'll be ok. Any feedback is greatly appreciated.
what's the point of having two types of wheat and oats? why both crystal malts? grain bill in general seems a bit over complicated
Complexity? That was the idea anyway. I guess you're saying it wont matter. And I'm only using 1 type of oats. They were to aid in the creamy/smooth factor.
I also think it is too complicated. There is a Brew Strong podcast (I think one of the going Pro ones?) that goes into the limited malts pro brewers tend to use. The mostly use fewer for ease but on the other hand think about how many professional beers there are out there that are simply amazing and probably more on the lines of what you want to create. It will also save you loads of money. As for how I think you should tweak the recipe I'm not sure.
I don't think you have to have a complex grain bill to achieve a complex beer. I probably should have given my actual input - I'd stick with either the oats or wheat, ditch the crystal 60 (not sure if you'd want to up the 120)...I'm sure there is more to do in terms of reaching the color/flavors you want, but that's really up to what you're going for.
You both may be right about it being a little cluttered. I would still love to hear what some alternatives are considering what I'm trying to achieve. As far as "pro-beers out there that are more along the lines of what I want to create" - I'm not trying at all to create a beer based on any commercial beer I've had before, so I don't really know what you mean.
I don't mean anything specific as more of an example. Post your original extract version and maybe we can lend more help.
Disregard the fact I've done this once as an extract/partial-mash. It won't have much bearing on the all-grain formulation. I brewed it in November, and have not bottled it yet, but when I tasted it it was not what I was going for. So I'de rather not factor it into this too much. I figured since I started all-grain, I would just build it again from the ground up.
Drop the wheat, Crystal 60, melanoiden, and the roast barley. Use Carafa II for the darkness, I would probably go to .75 pounds. Use at least 1/4 pound of the Crystal 120 or leave it out. I don't think 2 oz's of anything adds to a grain bill unless it's peated malt. The hops look good, and I would go with the Trappist yeast. Also the single infusion will be fine, try to keep it low-I like 148F for my big Belgians.
It probably tastes a bit mellower now, but back when I initially sampled it (about 4-5 weeks after primary), it was not black, just really dark brown, and the rose hip flavor was a bit much. It was also a bit sweeter than what I was hoping. Then again the O.G. was 1090, probably due to the fact that there was 2# of the candi-syrup in it. I think I overdid it a bit on the extract batch.
