Help with Leftovers!

[I-Train]

I'm trying to figure out what to brew this weekend, and I want to use up my leftovers from my last couple brew days. Here's what I have on hand:

Safale US-05 Dry Yeast

.6 oz Magnum Hops @ 14.7% AA
.66 oz Willamette Hops @ 4.7% AA

.5 lb Breiss 60L Caramel Malt
.25 lb Breiss Chocolate Malt
.25 lb Carastan Malt

Does anyone have any suggestions for an extract recipe which would use up some or all or these ingredients? I'm also considering just throwing this all together with a couple cans of extract - any thoughts on how that might turn out?

Thanks!

 

[kingwood-kid]

You could make a strongish American Brown with all that, plus 2 cans extract, using the magnum for bittering and the willamette at flameout. Or you could use 1 can extract and half the magnum (keeping the rest the same) to make a mild. I would use S-04 or Cooper's for the mild, but 05 would still make a drinkable beer. Both sound nice for fall drinking.

 

[I-Train]

Thanks for the advice! I'm leaning toward the first option. This will only be my fifth batch but my instincts are telling me it could be decent. What type of extract do you think would be best - just plain old light?

 

[kingwood-kid]

When I used extract, I always used the lightest one available and adjusted the base grains for the recipe. Light extract is pretty similar no matter who makes it, basically 2-row and carapils. With darker extracts, you never know what different companies will put into their recipe to get the taste/color.

 

[strambo]

I'm not sure what Carastan is...but aside from that, those ingredients in Beersmith2 along with 7lbs of pale LME should give you a decent Brown (or Red, depending how the color turns out) Ale. Just use all the Magnum @ 60 minutes, the Willamette at flameout like Kingwood-kid suggested. The stats on my equipment (10 gal kettle, 1 gal. top off water) for that are 1.050 OG, 17.7 SRM, 5% ABV, 31 IBU.

It may seem just slightly on the bitter-side...upping the LME to 7.5-8lbs will improve the IBU/SG ratio a bit. 8lbs will get you closer to a 6% beer with a IBU/SG ratio of close to .5, so evenly balanced between malty/bitter. This is probably what I would do.

I'd brew it! I just did a Red Ale with my leftover hops (some Perle, Hallertau and Centennial)

 

[I-Train]

Strambo, thanks for running the stats on it - sounds promising! I'm still a noob so this is my first time freestyling. I'm going to go for it on Sunday and see how its turns out. I've never heard of the IBU/SG ratio before though - how does that work?

By the way, the carastan malt is around 17L, I believe. I was looking for a 10L caramel malt for another recipe and it was the closest thing my store had in stock.

 

[strambo]

I've never heard of the IBU/SG ratio before though - how does that work?

It is the ratio of your original gravity (specific or starting gravity SG) to IBUs. Just knowing a beer has 30 IBUs doesn't mean much. 30 IBUs is kinda bitter...for an english mild @ 3.8% ABV. However, it would be cloyingly sweet for an Imperial Stout.

Each style is bittered to a certain IBU/SG ratio range, exceed the ratio and the beer will be too bitter for the style and for the amount of malt in the beer. Ratio too low, beer is too sweet. A ratio of 1 or more would be very bitter...you'll see that in a big IPA. .5 is balanced, .3s are sweet (my Belgian Golden Strong Ale was a .3-something) I brewed a Strong Ale (not Belgian) at 8.6% ABV with 47 IBUs...it is only slightly bitter, the malt comes through nicely. Its ratio is .577, I was shooting for between .5-.6 to keep it just barely on the bitter side of evenly balanced.

I highly recommend getting the free Beersmith 2 trial. I wouldn't brew without it! I only started brewing in earnest after this past Christmas...but have yet to brew a kit, I create all my recipes in Beersmith based on proven recipes for the style with adjustments for my personal tastes. None have been bad, some needed more tweaking than others.

 

[I-Train]

Well I went ahead and brewed this on Sunday. I steeped all the grains I listed above and used 6.6lbs of Breiss pale LME for a 3 gallon partial boil (I'm limited to the stovetop in my 7th floor apartment). Boiled the Magnum for 60m and added Willamette at flameout. I also threw in 2.5 oz dextrose I had leftover from my last bottling session to boost the ABV a bit.

Smelled great during the boil and came out a nice rusty color. My OG was about 1.054. The fermentation chugged away for the first 3 days and is now slowing down.

Can't wait to see how it comes out!

 

[strambo]

Nice! I'm sure it will at least be decent. I just tried a grav. sample from my red ale made with leftover hops today, solid flavor, not overly bitter, nice malt. I think late summer leftover batches should be an annual tradition.