I just started brewing about 4 months ago and recently got into all-grain . im looking for a really good 3rd batch recipe to share with my dad. He thinks theres no way to top coors light or other commercial beers. I dont want anything really hoppy but i do like a full flavor beer. I need some help !
My biggest crowd-pleaser to date has been my APAPA (Amarillo and Palisade American Pale Ale). Recipe is:
10 lbs 2-row
1 lb carahell
Mash at 152 for 60 min.
Sparge.
1oz Amarillo @ 60 min
1oz Palisade @ 10 min
1oz Amarillo - Dry Hop for the last 7 days
1oz Palisade - Dry Hop for the last 7 days
Ferment with Wyeast 1056
I always do a 1 week primary and a 2 week secondary before bottling/kegging, but you could always just do a 3 week primary and then bottle/keg.
Enjoy.
Is it a real hoppy beer. I just tried a creame ale a buddy of mine made and the hops over powered the beer. He said it was 27ibu.
Wow, if a 27 IBU cream ale was too hoppy, I guess I don’t have any suggestions.
Im not sure he was right but it clawed my throat on the way down and it was as bitter as a green pecan
Im just looking for a beer thats has a great malt flavor and not to hopped up. I just wanna impress my ole man.
If he is a light beer guy I’d suggest a Kolsch to try and win him over. Northern Brewers all-grain kit is great. Otherwise I did one with nothing but Kolsch malt, kolsch yeast and one bittering addition of Spalter hops. This will get you a nice smooth malty beer.
Now now boys, the OP said this was only his third batch and I suspect based on the comments that he is also rather new to craft beer. I remember back when I was in school (yeah, in the 70’s) I thought the pinacle of great taste was a cold Bud. You will find that the more you indulge in this hobby the more your idea of what good beer is will drift (and I think for the better).
Anyhow, the problem with making really light beers is that there is nothing to hide behind so screw ups will always end up in the glass. That’s why I would normally discourage a neophyte from trying to make most lagers or in the same vein a Kolsch or cream ale. Frankly, trying to impress somebody who enjoys Coors Light is rather like dating nuns, try as you may, you will just never get there. I usually tell new guys that pale ales are a very good beer to start with. There are enough hops to cover minor flavor issues yet the beer is easy to make and still to this day I just love them. I am sure you can find say a best bitter with a hopping rate low enough to at least satisfy you, if not your father. After a few batches, I suspect you will end up enjoying beers with a pretty big hop bite and at some point, if you are not scraping hop residue off your teeth after a few pints you will find yourself disappointed.
Incidentally, if you would be willing to consider dark beers there are plenty of styles with rather low hopping rates to choose from which are also rather easy to make, relatively speaking. Of course, the first phrase you’ll likely hear from a Coors Light drinker is “oh, I don’t like dark beers”. What can you do?
You are so correct about the way i look at commercial beer now is so different from just a few months ago. Acually i cant stand the taste of them anymore. I kegged a batch of light ale a week or so ago and started drinking it this past friday. It was my first all grain beer and after drinking nearly half the keg over the weekend i am a brewer for life. My dad did come over Yesterday and had his first mug of homebrew beer and i was shocked when he said ( DAMN THATS NOT HALF BAD) . I think I got hops taste and bitter mixed up. Im not set up yet to brew a lager yet being i dont have a second frig yet but i am intrested in a good bark beer recipe low ibu if u will share one.
Well I don’t have my recipes in front of me here but you might try looking at some formulations for English brown ales (the Northern version being more hoppy than the southern version) and milds. They are easy to make, lower gravity so you can quaff (always a good thing). If you wish something a bit more agressive from a hopping standpoint an American brown ale is a good candidate. Scotish ales, northern German alt biers and Irish reds are also nice and relatively easy to make.You might consider picking up a copy of Jamil’s book with all the various style recipes, most come out really well and if nothing else will certainly get you started. I almost always consult my copy when trying to come up with a formulation, then of course I start screwing around with it which is what makes this hobby fun in my opinion.
Im brewing a irish red this weekend. Sounds like i gotta get my fermenting temp down a little. I had some feed back that 74 was to high to ferment an ale.
Yeah, I would probably shoot for around 65F. When you get too hot you end up with some “interesting” flavors which generally speaking you would rather avoid. I like to run most British yeasts at 68F because I want some yeast character but for an Irish Red I would think you would do better just a little cooler.
An option I like is doing all late hopping instead of a bitter addition. So instead of the normal hop addition schedule you add all hops in the last 20 minutes of the boil. This typically reduces the harsh bitterness but allows for the natural flavors of the hops to still come out, so say with cascade hops you get a nice citrus flavor without the harshness.
Mr. Gordon Strong’s book brewing better beer has a good discussion about different hop routines and is an excellent book after you have a few all grain brews under your belt.
The rough IBU you get from late additions is a lot lower, a 15 minute addition is approximately half of what a 60 minute addition is. But this is measured versus perceived also.
Another option that I also enjoy is first wort hopping instead of doing a normal 60 minute bitter addition you can add the bittering hops to the wort running off from the lauter. This lets the hops steep in the warm wort before boiling. It also tones down the harshness but actually makes the IBU’s measured higher. But you shouldn’t utilize more then 1/3 of your total hops and perform all other hop additions normally.
As for recipes NB has some great low bitterness all grain action. Just to suggest a few, Caribou Slobber a brown ale, Dawsons Irish Red, or a tasty clone the Dry Dock Vanilla Porter.
I really prefer FWH in place of the flavor hops. I still do a 60 min, bittering addition when I use FWH.
Make the NB Wheat beer or NB Cream Ale. Most drinkers of commercial beers can handle those.
my last batch was a pale ale and it was great. I made a cream ale before that and it was drinkable but nothing to brag about. It was also a extract brew kit. The pale ale i made was an all grain from a recipe a friend gave me.
My wife and light beer drinker really likes the NB Cream Ale and the NB AK 47. The AK 47 is the mildest homebrew I have found to date.
