Hi guys, I've been home brewing for some time, and for Christmas I received a sort of mixed set of ingredients intended to make a batch of beer. Here's what I got: Grains: 1# Crystal 60 1# Crystal 20 1/2# British 55 1/2# Melanoidin 3# Light DME Bristish Ale Yeast WLP 005 2oz Centennial @ 8.7AA 1oz Cascade @ 7.1AA 1oz Amarillo @ 8.7AA I am familiar with the Caramel Malts. I am unfamiliar w/Melanoidin and with Amarillo hops. I have enough additional DME to deal with a partial Mash, but I'm curious what style I can approach with these ingredients. I have plenty of other hops I can substitute also. With all those caramel malts am I headed for a British Brown or ESB? Thoughts/suggestions welcomed. Cheers!
I'd be real tempted to just use those hops, I bet it would be tasty. I would make something of a pale ale or ESB type beer from those. I don't think you can reasonably include all (quantity) of those crystal malts tho, it would be thicker than motor oil and way too sweet. However, you could easily include each type, just not ALL of each type. Now I am not certain about melanoiden malt, but according to weyerman... Sounds like it would go well in an ESB. Note must be mashed, and you don't have any base malts listed, so you would need a base malt and to do a mini-mash. I would consider making a recipe with enough extract to bring your total OG up to 1.050-1.060. I would get perhaps a pound or 1.5 lbs of base malt and use a total of 1 lb crystal malts (mix it up, about 1/3 each) and half a pound of melanoiden. Others might have a better take or more specific advice than this, but it's a thought. Then I'd use all four ounces of those hops. I would take enough centennial to bitter to your desired level of bitterness (I wouldn't go real high, btw), then mix the rest together and add in two late additions, 10 minutes and flameout. Alternatively, add one ounce of cascade and centennial at 10 and 0, and dry hop with the amarillo. Oh, and make a starter!
Wow! That is an ‘interesting’ assortment of ingredients! You made mention of: “am I headed for a British Brown or ESB?” All of those hops are American aroma hops so strictly speaking you won’t be making a purely English style beer with them. You also mentioned: “I am unfamiliar w/Melanoidin and with Amarillo hops.” I have homebrewed with Amarillo hops several times (I use them for late/aroma hops). To my palate, Amarillo hops have a predominantly citrus aroma/flavor. I have never homebrewed with Melanoidin malt but it is my understanding that it is intended to provide a malty flavor akin to performing a decoction mash. So, a question is what to do with those ingredients? You could brew with some of those ingredients and create an Americanized ESB? I would highly recommend that you add some more DME to arrive at an OG of around 1.054. If you have some other high alpha acid hops like Warrior or Magnum you could use those hops for the bittering addition? Maybe a hop schedule like: 10 AAUs of bittering hops at beginning of boil After 45 minutes of boil 1 ounce of Cascade At end of boil 1 ounce of Amarillo Save the 2 ounces of Centennial for another brew. I would also suggest that you don’t brew with all of those Crystal Malts; a total of 2.5 lbs. of crystal and 0.5 lb. of Melanoidin is too much in my opinion. I would think that a total of 1 lb. (maybe 0.5 lbs. of British 55 and 0.5 lb. of 60L crystal?) should be the most you should use. Anyhow, those are my thoughts. Good luck with your brew! Cheers!
