I’m gonna pitch some yeast tonight and in the morning brew up 5 gallons. NOt sure what to make. I’ve got ingredients for about 4 different batches (will use honey to make the malt go further). I live where there are no homebrew supply shops so have to make due with what I’ve got stashed or is readily available (like honey, oatmeal, etc)
Any recomendations? I’m a bit of a hop head. The Coopers Australian Stout with about two pounds of honey and some extra hops makes a really fine light stout. I’ve never used the Pale Ale kit or the Alexander pale ale malt before.
Here is what I have in the pantry.
3 oz Chinook 10.8 IBU
1.25 oz Cascade 6.0 IBU
1 oz cascade 6.2 IBU
1 oz northern brewer 9.5 IBU
1 can Ozzer Stout (use northern brewer)
1 can Ozzer Pale Ales (use cascade)
3 pounds dark malt
4 pounds Alexander pale
dextrine powder
Honey
You can get the Coopers range in China?? Whatever your source, if it’s available, you can’t go past their bitter. It’s a strange beast - not one of those piss-poor Australian “bitters” which are really lagers, yet it’s nothing like an English bitter. But it’s bloody nice, and one of its strong points is that it’s a great basic homebrew if you don’t have much else handy but yeast, anything fermentable and water. It’s extremely forgiving in this regard.
Given what you’ve got, I’d make up the stout with something mild like a pale / dextrine mix, and keep it lightly hopped (do add some though, but maybe towards the end. Quick and easy. Have it at the lighter end of the stout spectrum - almost like a regular dark ale for quaffing. However, that’s just what I happen to be in the moood for right now, so YMMV.
For starters, I’ll pass on some of the info I learned here before I even starting my homebrewing adventures:
www.homebrew.com has a great board and there’s a guy who goes by “CJ in J” (japan) who is one of the most respected posters there and the winner of many homebrew awards.
That said, your question cannot be answered without one fundemental answer (to which I probably know the answer)…
Your 3 lbs dark malt, and your 4lbs alexander pale, they are whole grain, yes?
And the cans are are liquid malt extract, right? But the “use notherbrewer, use cascade” throws me… they LME already contains NO hops, right?
Assuming the pound quantities you describe are All Grain, what efficiencies do normally achieve with your mash setup?
As far as the OP goes, given my above assumptions, personally, I’d say use almost all of it… maybe 1 oz of chinook at the beginning of the boil for bittering, all the malt, then most of the cascade and northern every 5 minutes from 30 minutes until flameout. Then the last of the cascade dryhopped after you pitch your yeast.
Good luck… You can’t screw up beer any worse than 90% of the swill they sell commercially.
One more thing… I’ve never used canned LME, so I don’t know what size the “cans” are…
And your hops, are they whole flowers or pellets? (or plugs)
If the cans are anything like five to eight pounds each, I’d scale up to 10 gallons and then use everything… starting with two ounces chinook… then chinook/northern/cascade every 5 minutes from t plus 30 until flameout… saving maybe half an ounce of cascade for dryhopping…
Unless your hops are all pellets… in which case I wouldn’t bother dry hopping and would use the last of the cascade 1-2 minutes before flameout for aroma.
I think you’d end up with something like an imperial stout… If you don’t want a stout leave out a pound or two of the dark malt for something closer to an imperial IPA. If you do want a stount, then add an ounce or so of the maltodextrin at flameout.
If the cans are like the ones available here in Australia, they are pre-hopped. They are designed to be very easy “instant beer” (ie. add a kilo of dextrose, add the water, and pitch the yeast).
The other end of the scale is hobbyists who brew from scratch with their own grain, etc. From what I gather, China Guy, like most of us, is somewhere in the middle. We take a can of brew mix and use that because it’s easy, but we’re not satisfied with making it to directions, so we tweak it considerably.
When I was brewing, I was getting into some quite complicated recipes, but I still kept that pre-mix can as a base because it was convenient.
Thanks for the replies. Apologies for the confusion, it’s all malt extracts (IMHO all grain is more trouble than it’s worth and I don’t have the space or equipment anyway these days).
3 oz Chinook 10.8 IBU hop pellets
1.25 oz Cascade 6.0 IBU hop pellets
1 oz cascade 6.2 IBU hop leaf
1 oz northern brewer 9.5 IBU hop leaf
1# crystal malt
1 can 3.75# Coopers Stout malt extract (recomendation to use northern brewer)
1 can 3.75# Coopers Pale Ale (recomendation to use cascade)
3 pounds dark malt extract
4 pounds Alexander pale malt extract
dextrine powder
Honey
So, I’ve got 4 batches to do over the next few months.
For the Stout extract kit, someone recomended Northern Brewer hops. I’ll use honey and some dextrine powder.
For the Coopers Pale Ale, I got a recomendation for Cascade. Again, use a couple pounds of honey
The Alexander Pale Malt extract is straight extract, so I’m inclined to use 1/2 the crystal malt and dextrine powder and honey.
I’ve got 3# dark malt extract. Was even thinking of trying 2 cups Quaker Oats (Steep the Oats for 1/2 hr in cold water. Heat mixture and remove grains as boil is reached.) just for fun. Also use honey, crystal malt and dextrine. No idea on the hops or how hoppy to make it.
Any other thoughts based on what I’ve got in supply? My preference is for lower alcohol beers, I find between 4-6# malt/fermentable to 5 gallons gives a decent balance between taste and alcohol content.
Loaded Dog, I first picked up a Coopers Stout kit on a visit down under about 15 years ago. I wish I could buy it in China. I was amazed how how good of a brew it makes. Yep, it’s on the lighter end of the spectrum. 1-3 pounds of additional fermentables (I usually use honey because it’s available and malt extract usually isn’t. Much better result than straight dextrose), plus some additional hops. For the amount of effort and ease of brewing, this is by far the best result I’ve consistently gotten. By any homebrew standard, it’s a damn fine beer.
Wish I had posted this about 10 days ago. I was in the US and had 5 minutes in a supply shop (and overweight on luggage), so I made a bee line for two cans of malt extract and some hops. I grabbed the Coopers Pale Ale for a change of pace and now wish I had picked up the bitters. Next time I get a chance…
If anyone is curious, went for the tried and true since it’s been about 2 years since I last brewed up. Started the yeast this morning and got it nice and foaming. This afternoon, went for the Coopers 3.75# stout kit with honey. boiled 1/4 oz of Northern Brewers leaf hops for 30 minutes and another 1/4 oz for the last 10 minutes. Calculate that this should add about 13 IBU, with both aroma and a little bite. Also added about 1.5# of honey. Nice and easy and it’s foaming up nicely in the fermenter.
Still thinking about my next batches and welcome any additional thoughts.
Must be the season… I just got an Irish Draught Ale kit for my birthday, and I’m going to be brewing on Tuesday night for the first time in a year and a half. Hope my sanitizer’s still sanitizing…
Why not? You can get anything into a beer, but the point at which you must cease calling it “beer” depends on your school of thought. Nevertheless, there’s no reason why you couldn’t make an alcoholic (beer-strength) carbonated blueberry drink which you might want to call “beer”.
Whether I’d want to drink it is another matter, but it’s certainly possible.
I’m sure there is a Belgium Trappist blueberry lambic ale that’s called beer. I’ve had the raspberry. It was quite good, although I wouldn’t call it beer myself. Eg, didn’t have your basic malt and hop beer taste, but much more like a raspberry spritzer.