gunhaus
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Mar 8, 2006
- Messages
- 721
- Reaction score
- 1,018
I have noticed that one of the biggest questions anytime a recipe is posted is; Can i substitute "X" ingredient, and what will happen. Often this sparks great debate!
I look at it this way - the answer is most often YES. This hobby of ours is cooking, not alchemy. If there are flavors you like go for it.
One of my favorite examples is Ed Wort's wonderful and beloved Haus Pale Ale recipe. As is, it is a wonderful beer. It is also one of the most wonderful and useful grain bills in my repertoire. At various times, I have upped the American Hops, and switched to a yeast Like US-05, stayed with the English yeasts, and gone to English hops like EKG, i have used Kolsch yeast, and noble hops, I have used 34-70 and brewed this with noble hops as a lager, and 34-70 and Northern Brewer as a common, I even backed off the cascade a bit from the original and secondaried this on 4 lbs of raspberries for a brew that came very close to Rubeus. ALL of them made good and interesting beers from one bill. Many beers - one good grain bill.
Recently, I took the grain bill for Biermuncher's Oktoberfast, which is a fine recipe as is; left the grain bill as is, but switched to some Pearle and Saaz hops, then reduced the mash temp from 158 down to 149. I wanted to up fermentable sugars a bit to try and get more attenuation drying things out a bit and getting a little less sweetness and malt. There is a LOT of flavor in this bill so I was not worried about making it bland in any way. I also brewed this one with 34-70 as a common beer. The result was a wonderful Amber brew that i will be doing again.
The point is; most grain bills are pretty flexible, and in the end this is YOUR beer, so feel free to tweak the ingredients, and techniques a little to make it taste the way YOU like. As i said at the top this is cooking - have fun and suit you own tastes.
Now my water is ready - time to go crush some grain and get to mashing!
I look at it this way - the answer is most often YES. This hobby of ours is cooking, not alchemy. If there are flavors you like go for it.
One of my favorite examples is Ed Wort's wonderful and beloved Haus Pale Ale recipe. As is, it is a wonderful beer. It is also one of the most wonderful and useful grain bills in my repertoire. At various times, I have upped the American Hops, and switched to a yeast Like US-05, stayed with the English yeasts, and gone to English hops like EKG, i have used Kolsch yeast, and noble hops, I have used 34-70 and brewed this with noble hops as a lager, and 34-70 and Northern Brewer as a common, I even backed off the cascade a bit from the original and secondaried this on 4 lbs of raspberries for a brew that came very close to Rubeus. ALL of them made good and interesting beers from one bill. Many beers - one good grain bill.
Recently, I took the grain bill for Biermuncher's Oktoberfast, which is a fine recipe as is; left the grain bill as is, but switched to some Pearle and Saaz hops, then reduced the mash temp from 158 down to 149. I wanted to up fermentable sugars a bit to try and get more attenuation drying things out a bit and getting a little less sweetness and malt. There is a LOT of flavor in this bill so I was not worried about making it bland in any way. I also brewed this one with 34-70 as a common beer. The result was a wonderful Amber brew that i will be doing again.
The point is; most grain bills are pretty flexible, and in the end this is YOUR beer, so feel free to tweak the ingredients, and techniques a little to make it taste the way YOU like. As i said at the top this is cooking - have fun and suit you own tastes.
Now my water is ready - time to go crush some grain and get to mashing!