This thought inspired partly by the APABA discussion and partly by the English DIPA thread, and partly something I've had kicking around my head for a while. It's a fairly common thing on here and elsewhere to see homebrewers wanting a mix of more than one dark malt / crystal malt / aroma hop in a recipe "for more complexity". But does this make sense without a more precise reason? I know a lot of ingredients have a fairly wide range of flavour compounds in them to start with - won't using a combination of similar things often just change the balance rather than actually adding anything new? Obviously, I'm not disputing that carefully selected combinations of similar ingredients can be worthwhile - "I want this character from this malt, but with a bit more of that character that that other malt brings" or "I find this hop can be a bit too piney on its own, but works well when balanced with something more fruity". I'm just dubious when people can't specify what exactly they're trying to do, but are just worried that their beer will be boring if the recipe looks to simple. So yeah, any thoughts? Have people got examples of beers (homebrewed or otherwise) that produce great complexity from simple hop and grain bills? Assuming relatively neutral yeast, obviously - claiming that Saison Dupont is a complex beer with a simple recipe feels like a bit of a cheat.
A couple of examples off the top of my head are historic recipes: historic milds often centre on mild ale malt plus dark invert sugar with very little else, but the range of dark fruit flavours from the sugar can be fantastic. Similarly, historic stouts and porters often just have pale, brown and black patent malts, but the recreations that I've tried haven't generally felt like they're missing anything.
Great beer is made with only 4 simple ingredients and its been that way for millennia. But some brewers forget that most base malts are just fine on their own. And it is pretty common for new brewers to want to add C-60, just because. Part of the fun though is making things more complex than they need to be. I mean any of us could stop brewing and just buy the stuff, right? So yes, I personally try to keep it to a minimum. A base malt and maybe an additional (though not typically crystal). No more than 2 hops. If the yeast is unique everything else has to allow the yeast to shine. And try to get the water correct too. Simple beers include Pils with 1 continental malt, 1 noble hop,a correct water and plenty of yeast management. Same for German Hefe. Even a session Pale Ale. Use a great dual purpose hop like Cascade for example, ferment with neutral US-05 and 100% pale malt. These are no-brainers for me personally. Works for me. I'll never understand why some brewers advertise 4 hop varieties as if that makes it 4 times better. Cheers
My initial reaction when I read the title of the post was "Pilsner malt, one small bittering charge and and "underpitch" a Belgian yeast strain. Put it in a corner and come back later." Hard to get more simple than that. As for mixing multiple malts where some are close in character I brewed my porter recipe about 5 times before settling on the percentages. I would tweak a percent here or there until I really liked the result. As for what result a brewer is looking for I guess that is a bit subjective. I had a pretty good idea what each malt brought to the party and just kept tweaking until I got it "right." As far as hops are concerned I did a few single malt brews with Apollo once. AKA SMaSH brews. I did notice different flavors at different hopping rates, although comparing IPA vs IIPA may not be fair. However, I did notice different flavors at different rates. I suppose once I saw what each rate brought to the party I could use that info in future batches. The variation of a hop variety from different sources probably plays into that as well so as far as hops go it may be more difficult to nail down. My 2 cents.
Best learning, when brewing, is make up your own recipes, then keep notes, especially if it's a great good or shit beer. Brewing tried and true recipes is good, if that's exactly what u want. It's more fun to get a sac of whatever base malt or 5-10 lbs of a specialty malt or hops, and do something different. That's the brewing I like best unless I'm making a request beer. Have fun!
Not being able to specify what an ingredient brings to a batch might be a sign that it is unnecessary, but it also may simply mean that vocabulary to call out that contribution is lacking. Not trained in sensory analysis myself, I stumbled when confronted in the APABr polls when asked why I like to blend roasted malts. I said something that is not entirely satisfying, like it adds depth or rounds out flavors or something to that effect.
