Oops... Forgot the Grain

[JuGordon]

I recently ordered ingredients for a American Pale Ale recipe that I came up with. I, however, forgot to order my 1 LB of Crystal 20. I only have the 6.6 lbs of Golden Light LME from Breiss. I know, it's fine, BUT any experience on how just straight extract beer tastes like? I don't think I've ever had one without some specialty grain. I want to know if I should just wait a week or two until my LHBS reopens. Thanks!

 

[Johnnyhitch1]

I would wait. Although it will turn out beer, it wont be what your expecting and disappoint you. IMO
The crystal is going to add some residual sugar, color, and some toasty malt tones to the beer.
Either way its beer...yet im sorry to ask but why does your LHBS close for 2 weeks?
You can also order offline(online?) from morebeer.com supersaver shipping and probably get it before then

 

[JuGordon]

They closed for two weeks (or more) because he was busting out of the seams of his old store. He moved to a larger (and closer to me) building. I can have it sent to me, but it costs like 8 bucks for shipping for something that costs $1.59 to buy.

I agree that I think something will be missing from my beer if I don't include the Crystal 20.

 

[gcdowd]

Yeah if you haven't started brewing yet, you might as well wait. I know extracts do contain other things than just plain 2 row but if you have the patience then just wait until the lhbs re-opens.

 

[woozy]

Well.... I agree with everyone so far. But....

If you're *really* eager to get you hand in on brewing and if it's two weeks before he opens the store... two weeks is *just* the amount of time to ferment this up and bottle it and then you can start from square one the day he re-opens without losing any time...

You *could*... but no... I'd wait and do the recipe you actually want.

 

[JLivermore]

Between rushing it or doing it right, I'd do it right. homebrewtalk legend Yooper hipped me to austinhomebrew.com

6.99 shipping, for orders under $100, not bad at all and they pack stuff fresh.

I'd order today and hope for Friday delivery, though there's a good chance it'd be Monday.

If I were you I'd call ASAP, like this morning and plead your case. Maybe they could get it out the door today and get it to you Friday for a weekend brew.

***eta I got all fired up writing that then remembered it's Wed, not Tues.

Friday delivery pretty unlikely. Couldn't find way to delete post.

 

[JuGordon]

I figured I was going to wait, but there's another shop relatively close (45 minutes). I learned last night that I have some stuff to do out there, so, my problem is solved! Good ole Centennial and Cascade hops, yum. This will be my first "original" recipe (I'm sure it's been brewed 1000s of times).

 

[unionrdr]

Crystal 20L is pretty light. I noticed it adds a Euro sort of sweet malt flavor to my light hybrid lager. Not very toasty at all,but more like malty sweetness on the light side. 40-60L would be more like it for a pale ale. Without it,you wouldn't be missing that much flavor wise. I used plain DME in the boil for hop additions with pre-hoped LME cans on many brews.
Came out about the same as the average steeping grain batch. But you have to have a good process to make that happen.
Having said that,I'm happy with having gone PB/PM BIAB nowadays. It is fun making up my own flavor complexities to add to the flame out extract.

 

[JuGordon]

Crystal 20L is pretty light. I noticed it adds a Euro sort of sweet malt flavor to my light hybrid lager. Not very toasty at all,but more like malty sweetness on the light side. 40-60L would be more like it for a pale ale.

Interesting that you say that. I had been wondering if I should maybe do 40 instead of 20. I actually got some 40 and brewed it up yesterday. She's in the fermenter chuggin away. Thanks!

 

[unionrdr]

No problem. I have my NZ hopped Moari IPA in the fermenter 1 week today.
For the partial mash,I used;
2lb pale malt (2-row,uk)
2lb marris otter (crisp)
8oz crystal 40L
8oz carapils
3.2oz chocolate malt
Then 3lbs plain light DME (Munton's)
1lb demerara sugar (brings OG up into min range for US IPA)
So far,it looks like a dark amber color will be had. But that can change by the time it goes into a glass. Leave out the chocolate malt for lighter amber/orange color. I used BS2 to make this recipe.

 

[JuGordon]

Cool recipe. I just formulated my first Partial Mash recipe the other day.

3.5lb Brewers Malt 2-Row (Breiss)
1.5 lb Pale Ale Malt 2-Row (Breiss)
1lb Caramel 60L (Breiss)
4 lb Plain Light DME (Breiss)

1 oz Columbus (60 min)
.7 oz Chinook (30 min)
.4 oz Chinook (20 min)
.4 oz Chinook (10 min)
.5 oz Chinook (Aroma Steep)

WLP-001 California Ale Yeast

What do you think? I've been wanting some feedback on this recipe.