Flavoring vs Aroma

[rodwha]

If I were to use 1 hop addition other than the bittering, and I did it at 7 or 10 mins would I still get a bit of flavoring and aroma with it?

I'm making an ale version of an American light lager, and the one recipe I found used just a 5 min addition, but I figured I'd like a little bit of a bridge between a "light" ale and a blonde with a reduced IBU of 10-12.

 

[Mozart]

I'm making an ale version of an American light lager....

I know this doesn't answer your question -- I'm purposely leaving that for brewers far more knowledgeable than yours truly...

But if that's your goal, have you considered a Cream Ale?

Cheers!

 

[tre9er]

I'd go 15 minutes for flavor and aroma. I think 20 is the sweet spot for flavor, but aroma is lost. You can also do a 20, then dry-hop for aroma.

 

[rodwha]

I haven't actually looked at a cream ale yet. I need to as it is one of my brother-in-laws favorites, but since we both like stouts and porters that's all I've cared about making.

I only decided to make a "light" ale due to SWMBO having brought a bunch of girls over for dinner and my beer. I gave them each 1/2 a beer of my blonde and amber. These were all at the low end of their IBU scale, but were a little stronger than I had hoped (turned out closer to 5.5%). As they are more into light lagers and wine it took them all about an hour to drink 5 oz of beer. I took that as they didn't want to dump it, but weren't enjoying it. Maybe it was just too strong, but if they drink wine than I'd think it would have been drinkable for them.

This is what I intend on making (5.25 gal yield)

4 lbs ultralight LME (FO)
3/4 lb of light DME (FO)
3/4 lb rice DME
13 oz MrBeer booster (corn sugar?)
3 oz carapils
0.7 oz Liberty (4.9%) @ 60 mins
0.3 oz Liberty @ 5-10 mins
WLP 001

This gives it 4.8% ABV 12 IBU's and 6 SRM

 

[DocScott]

I think your recipe looks pretty good. I'm not too familiar with "Mr. Beer Booster" so I can't add much there though. I agree with tre9er on the hops. I'd do the second hop addition at 10-15 min if you're set on only doing one late addition. Do you have any more hops other than the 1 oz of Liberty?

Maybe your SWMBO's lady friends just aren't into homebrew. There are a lot of people who are put off by the idea of it. I'd hate to have you make 5 gallons of something you don't enjoy in the hopes that others will.

 

[rodwha]

This was originally going to be a 1.8 gal test batch, but I made mistakes in what I had on hand so I just compensated by increasing the volume.

I have a bunch of 1 and 2 oz hops on hand. In the 1 oz division I have Simcoe, Centennial, Bravo, HBC 342, Santiam, Perle, Mt Hood, Warrior, Cluster, Palisade, Liberty, Willamette, and Columbus. Of those I have 2 packs of Centennial, Liberty, and Willamette. So I figured one of the latter 2 as I like to have 1 of each on hand.

But I'm buying 2 Mr Beer fermentor kits and a 3 pack refill today, and I'll be subbing out all of the booster for DME and adding a 20 and 5 min hop addition to them all so opening up a larger hop bag is OK since I can spread it all out. I have less to choose from there, and only Cascade as an additional offering.

One of her friends seems to be strictly a light lager drinker. The other two are more open. One almost got into home brewing.

Mr Beer booster:
"Booster™ is made from corn syrup solids, and is ideally suited for use as a brewing adjunct. It provides a full and balanced range of both fermentable and unfermentable sugars that is designed to mimic the carbohydrate profile of all-malt wort, consisting of 8% glucose, 56% maltose, 16% maltotriose, and 20% dextrine."

 

[rodwha]

I looked at the recipe for MoreBeer's version of this idea, and they used a 60 and 5 min addition.

 

[rodwha]

"I'd hate to have you make 5 gallons of something you don't enjoy in the hopes that others will."

I felt this way at first, but we enjoy having people over, and if I can make someone happy I will try. They had just better come over often enough!!!

I'm hoping it's not nearly as bad as a typical light lager, but somewhat of a transition, which may lead someone to like other beers.

 

[DocScott]

I think light lagers are pretty tasty - and really hard to brew correctly!

I'd say go for it with your recipe above. I like the idea of brewing a tested recipe first, then making changes based on what I thought of the original. If you are concerned about not enough hops flavor/aroma as you said in the original post, I'd move the later addition to 10-15 min OR open up some of those other oz packs and use some at 20 min for flavor and do a third addition at flame out or dry hop it. These changes will move you away from the light lager flavor/aroma though. This is one of the many reasons I love this hobby -- you get to be creative and make it your own. I think you'll make something light and tasty either way.

thanks for the Mr Beer Booster info too - never used Mr Beer before.

 

[jtratcliff]

definitely try biermunchers cream of three crops recipe...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f62/cream-three-crops-cream-ale-66503/

Very drinkable for the light lager crowd

 

[rodwha]

Funny 'cause I recently brought a friend away from Mr Beer by making him my own kit and giving him some stuff to get started. Now he's making better stuff.

I just wanted the little fermentors hoping I can try some lagers in the fridge, and these ought to sit on a shelf nicely. The bottles were a bonus in that I'd like to make mead or something we can take backpacking. Lighter and won't break. And since I upped the volume the booster can be used to lagerize it again.

Figure since I have the Mr Beer HME's I'll see what I can do with them. I'm getting a fairly good deal on it all. It won't cost much to Dr them up a bit.

 

[rodwha]

I think I'll give that a go jt. Thanks!

I see there was nothing more than a bittering addition, which is what my original small batch was going to use (0.175 oz Willamette @50-60 mins).