Kitchen sink beer help?

[belsonc]

Hey there -

So, I just took inventory of the odds and ends I have laying around. I'd like to use (at least some of) it for a beer, but I have no idea where to even start with this one, other than the fact that it's going to be something dark. (Extract with grains, full boil, if that helps...)

12oz Chocolate Malt (338L)
4oz Crystal 60
5oz Caramunich
12oz Victory
8oz Crystal 120
4oz Carafoam

.5oz Mt. Hood
.5oz Cascade
.25oz Kent Golding


I'll buy whatever else I need to for this - but what of all this can I use to put something together? Thanks in advance for any light you can shed on these ingredients. :)

-CB

[jonlouisville77]

Have you ever used the Beer Recipator (http://hbd.org/recipator/) spreadsheet to play around with different ingredients? You just input the grains, hops and times and it calculates attenuation, bitterness, color, etc...

[belsonc]

Yep - I find that, for some things, it's actually my program of choice.


The thing is, I'm not sure what kind of beer these ingredients could be used as the components of, since they came from a few different beers - so that's more what I'm looking for. :-)

[jonlouisville77]

I see. But why not just say "what the Hell", who cares what you call it? Just make some black malty lager. You know what you like. Hey, with those grains I bet you could make a bourbon stout! I've been really into those lately.

[belsonc]

You know, that was my other thought. :)


I don't know that I'd necessarily want to use ALL the grains (12oz Chocolate malt in a beer is probably a bit much), but use some of this, some of that, etc, and see what happens. Make it a TRUE kitchen sink beer. :-)


Would probably need to get some more in the way of hops, but I can cross that bridge when I come to it.


So, does anyone see anything feasible or should I just shoot into the proverbial wind on this one? :)

[causerofwait]

Use it all! Call it Chcrcavicrca Sink Ale. Or Everything But Ale. Have fun!

[markaberrant]

12oz Chocolate Malt (338L)
4oz Crystal 60
5oz Caramunich
12oz Victory
8oz Crystal 120
4oz Carafoam

.5oz Mt. Hood
.5oz Cascade
.25oz Kent Golding


Looks like the makings of a fine Brown Porter. Add all the hops at 60 minutes. Add enough base malt/extract to hit 1.050 or so. English yeast. Yum!

[belsonc]

You know, I could deal with that, Mark. :-) So use all that malt? Or should I cut down a little? (I have a feeling that 12oz of chocolate malt might be a bit much, but... hey, I'm still learning about this stuff.) :-)


Also, no other hops needed? Over the course of today - hooray for taking off from work - I'll do some research on brown porters and see what I can find. :-)

[corkybstewart]

Looks like the makings of a fine Brown Porter. Add all the hops at 60 minutes. Add enough base malt/extract to hit 1.050 or so. English yeast. Yum!
I think with all that crystal Nottingham would be a great yeast for this beer, and since he's clearing out the cupboards that dry yeast won't run up the price of the beer. I'd also shoot for a little higher gravity, maybe 1.060 so that all his gravity isn't coming from unfermentables.

[corkybstewart]

You know, I could deal with that, Mark. :-) So use all that malt? Or should I cut down a little? (I have a feeling that 12oz of chocolate malt might be a bit much, but... hey, I'm still learning about this stuff.) :-)


Also, no other hops needed? Over the course of today - hooray for taking off from work - I'll do some research on brown porters and see what I can find. :-)
My oatmeal stout recipe for 10 gallons calls for 12 oz's each of roasted barley and chocolate so that's not too much dark malt at all. Personally I'd throw more Goldings and less Cascade into this beer, I don't like Cascade in English style beers but that's personal preference only. I like Goldings or Challenger at 60 minutes, maybe 1.5 oz, and 1 oz Fuggles at 20 minutes.

[belsonc]

Well, that shouldn't be a problem. And I'd rather have a little more in there in the way of fermentables since a) i normally have a problem getting the last few points to ferment and b) if I'm understanding you guys correctly, I'll be steeping almost 4 pounds of grain, so I want to know that the majority is stuff I'll be able to ferment beyond a shadow of a doubt. Also, answered my own question about the hops, so nevermind that one. :-)

[markaberrant]

I wouldn't sweat 12oz of chocolate malt, it'll be great.

I don't think the amount of crystal malt is over the top, it suits the style.

.5 oz of Cascade for bittering is not going to make much of an impact on the "english" character.

Nottingham is always a good choice, but for medium gravity English ales, I don't think you can go wrong with some of the maltier/fruitier english strains.

[BrewDog]

4 - 8 oz of black patent might add some coffee notes to this porter, too, especially if he's going towards 1.060 it might make for a better robust porter instead of a brown porter. +1 on the Challenger (Target would be nice too)

[belsonc]

Sorry I disappeared for a couple of days there - thanks for all the advice. Will play around with this and see what I end up with - and I'll definitely post the final recipe back here. Should be interesting - this'll be the first time I've ever steeped 3-4 pounds of grains... :)

[belsonc]

Well, final recipe ended up being everything you saw above plus 6 pounds of light DME. Gravity is 1.063 (uncorrected), and I pitched 1 rehydrated pack of Windsor... that should be enough yeast for something like this, right?

[markaberrant]

1 pack of Windsor should be fine for that gravity.