Looking to hack the Sierra Nevada PA recipe a bit

[dynohack]

Greetings all.

After a bit of indecisiveness of what my 5th brew will be, I eventually picked up the Sierra Nevada PA recipe mini mash kit from AHS yesterday. I love hoppy beers, especially pale ales, so I can't wait to get started...except for this one little thing. This time I really want to wander off the path and brew a little something to call my own, not just a standard recipe following.

I'm excited at the idea of finally deviating a little away from the recipe and doing my first 'customization' to the recipe. The problem that I need help with is I don't know what I literally can use and when in the brewing cycle I should do it. Fruits? Veggies? BBQ sauce? What are my general options here?

For topic's sake let's pick a fruit that for some reason keeps going through my head; cherries. I love the taste of cherries in alcohol. I've had the Sam Adam's cherry wheat and think it's a great beer. I've seen on the forums here that fruits go better with american wheats as their backbone due to their more-bland taste, but why not try a cherry pale ale? It sounds like it'd be fun experiment, if nothing else. Unless it came out tasting like NyQuil, in which case, perhaps not.
Or maybe Jalapenos. Why the hell not? Ever tried the Twisted-X Fuego jalapeno-infused pils? MmmmmMmmm, tasty!

Anyways, let's say that I wanted to use one of the above fruits with my standard 5-gallon AHS recipe. Here are my questions:

1. How much should I add? A few pounds worth? Also, see question 4.
2. How should they be added? Dried out or just as you'd find them in their native form?
3. When do I add them? During grain steep? Or throw them into the secondary?
4. I think I know the answer to this but, how much is too much? I realize this depends on preference really, but what are some estimated amounts of fruit to add to a recipe to get a hint versus a real kick? Few cups versus few pounds?

The above list of fruits are just some that have come to mind as ones that I would enjoy over the past day or so. I'm open for suggestions as well as to anything that I might be able to add to a PA recipe such as this.

Thanks for reading. Cheers!

 

[bigbeergeek]

Just brew the beer. Don't add wild things to it. You're still in the "learning-the-process" stage, not the "reinvent beer" stage. If you want information on how to add fruit/etc to a batch of homebrew, search for the keywords in the top right search box. I personally wouldn't want to try a cherry Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, but this hobby is one of personal expression (to say the least). Good luck and happy brewing.

 

[Brulosopher]

Add whatever you want, just be prepared to ditch the batch if it sucks. Most of what you listed would be best added to secondary, and fruit will ferment, so...

How much is too much? Let me know when your beer is done

 

[muthafuggle]

I totally respect your desire to branch out, but I wonder if snpa is the beer to start doing that with. Wheat beers or other, more neutral beers like blondes or cream ales would give you a more "neutral canvas to paint on" so to speak. The very strong hops flavor of a pale ale or IPA may not be the beginners' first choice for going off the reservation.

Don't misunderstand, I all in favor of making any kind of weird ass spruce vegetable ginger appletini oaked smoked beer you can dream up. Ultimately it is YOUR beer and if a cherry SNPA is what your mouth is set for, go for it!!

If it were me, I'd start a bit simpler until you really know your ingredients and have your processes DOWN.

 

[broadbill]

+1 to the comments above, esp. the ones about playing around with ingredients when you should be focusing on your process/technique, and for putting cherry into SNPA...there is a reason why you don't find too many fruit-flavored PAs.

If you do decide on this...I'd recommend NOT going with real fruit and use an extract instead. Easy to dose the beer and not overdo it, doesn't re-ferment, doesn't cause haze/protein problems. Expect that is will take 3-4 batches to get it right.

Good luck!

 

[kellanv]

An architecture professor once gave me some advice that has stuck with me through life:

"Just because your idea is unique, does not make it good"

 

[dynohack]

An architecture professor once gave me some advice that has stuck with me through life:

"Just because your idea is unique, does not make it good"

True. However I prefer one that somewhat contests the demotivation behind yours:
"A single success often comes after a thousand failures."


From the sounds of your replies, I think I've determined two important things:
1. This PA recipe really shouldn't be fooled with.
2. I'm trying to start my adventures too early and should focusing still on my processes, etc.

Re #2: To be honest, I'm not sure what else in the process I need to learn, which is why I'm at this cross-roads, but more practice can't hurt.


Maybe try spices instead?

Thanks for the guidance, everyone.

 

[Brulosopher]

True. However I prefer one that somewhat contests the demotivation behind yours:
"A single success often comes after a thousand failures."

From the sounds of your replies, I think I've determined two important things:
1. This PA recipe really shouldn't be fooled with.
2. I'm trying to start my adventures too early and should focusing still on my processes, etc.

Re #2: To be honest, I'm not sure what else in the process I need to learn, which is why I'm at this cross-roads, but more practice can't hurt.

Maybe try spices instead?

Thanks for the guidance, everyone.

Or perhaps fully designing your own beer, Reinheitsgebot style

 

[A4J]

A jalapeño pale ale sounds pretty good. I was gonna out it my next batch of Kolsch but might also set aside a couple of gallons of my next pale ale just to try it out. As others have said I wouldn't add anything to the SNPA.

 

[Ramitt]

True. However I prefer one that somewhat contests the demotivation behind yours:
"A single success often comes after a thousand failures."


From the sounds of your replies, I think I've determined two important things:
1. This PA recipe really shouldn't be fooled with.
2. I'm trying to start my adventures too early and should focusing still on my processes, etc.

Re #2: To be honest, I'm not sure what else in the process I need to learn, which is why I'm at this cross-roads, but more practice can't hurt.


Maybe try spices instead?

Thanks for the guidance, everyone.

Add more hops! I like SNPA alot, but a few more late additions, or dry hop would be more tasty.

 

[Reno_eNVy]

Re #2: To be honest, I'm not sure what else in the process I need to learn, which is why I'm at this cross-roads, but more practice can't hurt.

I don't usually say this but lulz, sir.... lulz. People who have been brewing for years can always learn more.

Stuff you could probably still learn:
1) Water chemistry adjustments
2) Effects of different mash rest temps
3) Toasting your own grain
4) Conditioning your grain
5) Stepping up to all-grain (you said you mini-mash, right?)
6) How making SMaSH brews teach you how each individual ingredient affects the final taste
7) The wide variety of yeasts available and their contributions
8) How to make a lager
9) Learning new techniques (no-chill, BIAB, decoction mash, etc)
10) How to make Hot Scotchie (won't make you a better brewer but you'll sure think you are after drinking a couple :rockin


So there ya go, 10 things you could learn about brewing before you get crazy. I'm sure others could contribute plenty of other suggestions.

However, because I love cooking as well and love to experiment, I'll throw in #11 for you:

11) Experiment with crazy ingredients


This hobby is all about having fun so why not do it your way? There are plenty of threads on here about crazy beers with all kinds of ingredients (i.e. peppers, oysters, fruit, coffee... the list goes on.)

And speaking of crazy beers, you could try what I plan on making a gallon of this summer: CHICHA BEER!!! I found a place online that sells whole purple peruvian corn... and to make chicha you chew the corn into a mash or paste and let sit to dry, all the while the enzymes in your saliva are converting the corn starch into sugar. You boil as normal afterwards so there's no chance of swapping pathogens... I tell people I'm going to try it and I get weird looks. Luckily SWMBO is totally down for this kind of stuff.

 

[coastwx]

Yeah, I'd use SPA as a base recipe and expand upon the hops additions and use the cherries in an upcoming wheat beer. When I did my first American Wheat about this time last year, I had these dried Aji dulce pepper grown the previous summer. These peppers had almost this tropical fruit aroma, so I decided to add some of these with my own corriander and orange peel. Turned out to be a very unique, but tasty brew. Took a keg to a St. Patricks Day weekend party and it was gone the first night.

 

[joeybeer]

Get a one gallon carboy, and after primary put 4 1/4 gallons untouched into a secondary, and 3/4 of a gallon into the 1 G carboy, then put whatever you want in there - you haven't wasted a whole batch !!

 

[kellanv]

True. However I prefer one that somewhat contests the demotivation behind yours:
"A single success often comes after a thousand failures."

That comment was not meant to be demotivational at all. In fact it was meant to say "create for a reason". Put meaning into your work. If you want to do something off the wall and atypical, do it from a footing of "I understand the intricacies the process and the subtleties of each ingredient to the point that adding cherries will enhance the fruity/spicy/citrus character of this hops" etc etc. That is a bit different from "lets see what this will do!". Each has its place but with brewing and food in general there is tons to learn before random additions are your only learning experience

Good luck and happy brewing!

 

[dynohack]

kellanv - Totally, thank you. My response came out hastily, sorry about that. Thank you for the advice.

Reno_eNVy - My processes definitely need to be expanded, however for some reason my mind jumped to this versus the other things that you've mentioned...sans the chica beer, that sounds awful

There's a good reason why I'm positing in the beginner's forum

 

[dynohack]

Get a one gallon carboy, and after primary put 4 1/4 gallons untouched into a secondary, and 3/4 of a gallon into the 1 G carboy, then put whatever you want in there - you haven't wasted a whole batch !!

This is what I'm going to do in this case. Also, instead of fruits or cherries, I might try some spicy dry-hopping techniques instead.

Thanks!

 

[Ramitt]

Get a one gallon carboy, and after primary put 4 1/4 gallons untouched into a secondary, and 3/4 of a gallon into the 1 G carboy, then put whatever you want in there - you haven't wasted a whole batch !!

I need to work on getting swmbo to drink Gallo so I can collect more 1 gallon jugs for experiments. Both of mine are busy.

 

[joeybeer]

I try to get SWMBO to drink a gallon of gallo for several reasons