I need clarification when ordering malts...

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JasontheBeaver

JasontheBeaver

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My first bottling is this weekend so as I scan through my recipe to determine the amount of priming sugar to use I realize I think I made a huge mistake.

I'm making the Oak Butt Brown Ale from Palmer's 'How to Brew' book.
I made a photocopy of the recipe and handed it to the guy at my LHBS.
It calls for:
7 lbs pale ale malt
2 lbs amber malt
0.5 lbs crystal 60L malt
0.25 lbs chocolate malt

The guy gives me 7 lbs of pale ale malt EXTRACT and 2 lbs amber malt EXTRACT, then the crystal and choc malts in grain form.

Me, being the complete n00b think he must know what he's doing and I go home and brew it up. Now that I've read more during the last 2 weeks fermentation period I realize I think this recipe was for an AG brew, not extract. Soooooooo this will be interesting to see how it turns out.
I suspected something was wrong after never seeing any bubbles but thought I was just being the typical nervous first-timer. I took a gravity reading after 4 days and it was indeed fermenting.
I'll post updates as I take another gravity reading this weekend and peer into the bucket.
Comments?
 
Well,...there are formulas for converting AG to extract. Look up one of those to get the numbers. Then you'll have a better idea of what you have now. I'd think it's pretty close.
 
Gravity wise this will increase your starting gravity. With the grains (base only) you would have been starting at 1.047 if your mash efficiency is 75%. With the extract you used, you starting gravity (base only) is probably 1.061 or so. If you didn't compensate by adding more hops, the beer may lean towards the sweeter side of things.
 
He was probably confused by the amber malt. Palmer's recipe is old. It is very difficult to find amber malt nowadays. There are recipes to make your own amber malt by toasting 2-row. The amber malt extract is not a good substitute for amber malt, but I'm sure your beer will be fine... probably a bit sweeter than intended, but still a brown ale just the same.
 
I believe the starting gravity was 1.070 (notes are at home, I'm at work now, getting a lot done as you can see).
So it sounds like this batch may end up a little sweeter but then again I tend to like a brown ale that's light on the hops and is a little sweeter... maybe this will be one of those accidents that results in something very different and very cool!
 
Agreed, a bit more alcohol, and the hops thing...yeah it'll be malt forward for sure (not a bad thing).

It should be very drinkable, just a little stronger than the recipe intended.
 
Update:
OG=1.070
After 3 days in primary= 1.030 (no bubbling in airlock whatsoever)
After 14 days at bottling= 1.020 (yesterday)

I used the chart in Palmer's book to come up with 3oz dissolved corn sugar added to the bottling bucket, then I bottled it all.
Since this is my first time I have no frame of reference for what to expect it to taste like, but for the record it tasted very watery. So much so that it was difficult for me to really discern many different flavors. I guess the extract malt would be the strongest type of flavor I could detect.
The color was maybe a little light compared to standard American brown's I've sampled like Lost Coast's Downtown Brown.
So now we'll wait 3 weeks and crack open a bottle and see what we got!

Now, after what I suspect is going to be a severe disappointment what this recipe malfunction, I need to get something back in the primary asap!
I'm considering either just using Rogue Brewery's kit for their Hazelnut Brown, or digging around on here to find a good extract recipe for a brown (what I initially thought I had with the Palmer recipe).
 
I've been meaning to try the hazelnut brown myself. Sounds tasty. But their should be a good brown recipe on here too. Seems to me some dead guy clones as well. I like him.
 
The only reason I question using a kit is because my ultimate goal is to create my own beer recipes eventually. To get there I feel like I need to push my skills with standard recipes first, instead of just having all the ingredients and steps laid out for me. (Though with this first debacle that's probably what I should've done in the first place!)
 
BigB said:
He was probably confused by the amber malt. Palmer's recipe is old. It is very difficult to find amber malt nowadays.
Click to expand...

Crisp makes an amber malt, and Crisp is widely distributed. Most homebrew stores should be able to get it if they don't have it in stock. Several online retailers have it, also.
 
I just looked that recipe up in my copy. If you look in the preamble to the brown ale section, he specifies amber malt as biscuit or victory, which would lead to that nice bready taste you get in an english brown.
 
Midwest has both of those too. Been thinkin about those myself. Munton's DME's have those in'em. I can taste them.
 
JasontheBeaver said:
The only reason I question using a kit is because my ultimate goal is to create my own beer recipes eventually. To get there I feel like I need to push my skills with standard recipes first, instead of just having all the ingredients and steps laid out for me. (Though with this first debacle that's probably what I should've done in the first place!)
Click to expand...

No better way to learn than to ditch the training wheels...even if by mistake. New original and modified recipes is also my ultimate goal, but I admit when it comes to directions I tend to "not feel right" if I'm not following them, so I took my own advice and my next brew will be based off a recipe found here on this site.

Just gotta take the plunge! :ban:
 
Now, after what I suspect is going to be a severe disappointment what this recipe malfunction, I need to get something back in the primary asap!
I'm considering either just using Rogue Brewery's kit for their Hazelnut Brown, or digging around on here to find a good extract recipe for a brown (what I initially thought I had with the Palmer recipe).[/QUOTE]

Search for a Lazy Magnolia Pecan Nut Brown. If you like nut browns you'll love this.
 
Stevo2569 said:
Search for a Lazy Magnolia Pecan Nut Brown. If you like nut browns you'll love this.
Click to expand...

That sounds absolutely amazing :eek:. Is this a commercially available beer? I've never seen or heard of it, but in my head it's the greatest thing ever created. I searched for it and couldn't find anything. Little help?
 
I found it just fine with the search. I'm thinking of doing a clone and there are several recipes out there. It's great I'm drinking one now. It is a commercial brewery out of Mississippi.
 
UPDATE: 6/19/2011
Cracked open my first ever homebrew a couple days ago, (19 days in the bottle).
What a feeling as you put the bottle opener to your first bottle... not knowing if you'll get a gusher, or totally flat, or something in between. I got something in between, seemed perfect.
The color is dark and clear, not cloudy whatsoever, NICE!:)
Aroma is very mild.
Carbonation ended up being a little low, due to 3 oz priming sugar, AND spilling some of that initial sugar/beer mix onto the floor after forgetting to close the valve on the bottling bucket. :( But it's not flat by any means.
The flavor is mild with the strongest note being molasses. Too much molasses flavor for me. I think I'm naming it "Jason Licked Molasses".
So its not a great beer, but its drinkable and when I really think about it, I've paid money for worse beer than this MANY times!!!

Just bottled my second batch, Orfy's Mild Mannered Brown. I really want to do a Hoegaarden clone next but I really think I need to keep pursuing my beloved browns until I perfect it.
I couldn't have gotten even this far without the help and free information sharing on this forum.
Thanks!! :mug:

Jason
 

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