Ive started crafting up my own recipes and at first wished i could order specialty grains in smaller amounts then pounds. What to do with the stuff that may not fit into the next beer i want to brew.
Being that im a big fan of chopped and iron chef on the food net work i figure why not just buy extra hops, ones i want to try but havent when i place an order, wait to i have a fresh yeast cake to harvest from, toss some or all of the leftover grains together with some base malt/extract and see what happens.
Im sure some great beers can be created by just using whatever is on hand and winging it. I cant be the only one, Anyone make any good brews from leftovers?
Sometimes it works, sometimes you get a confusing mish mash of flavor. Don’t just toss stuffinthere, think about what each ingredient will contribute to the whole.
People in history have certainly made beer with LESS structure than you are talking about, so yes, you can make some good beer with leftovers.
Tossing in the kitchen sink can result in some muddy overcomplicated beers though. As with food, I need to reign myself in when brewing that way.
I would recommend “Designing Great Beers” by Ray Daniels. Randy Mosher in “Radical Brewing” doesn’t mind doing exactly what you are talking about. Ray has a little more restraint though, which I learned from. He explains in great detail how to formulate a recipe, and how you can put recipe books down and start doing it on your own.
In my mind, a chef should be able to make a perfect omelette before making a deconstructed cassoulet. Same with a brewer. You should be able to make one style REALLY well before you start messing with recipes.
But you are right, great styles have been born this way, so mash up the grains and make your brown ale!
I occasionally brew what I call a “Cupboard Cleaner.” It usually starts as something like an APA, but often ends up being more like an Amber or ESB depending on what ingredients I’m using up. I just do a single infusion mash at 152*, use a clean yeast like US-05 or WY1056, ferment in the low 60s and see what I end up with. It usually turns out to be a pretty drinkable but not-to-style ale.
I try to keep it simple and mostly use it as a way to play around with blends of different caramel malts or other thinks like leftover flaked oats, barley or wheat. It’s a useful way to learn something about how things like that affect body, head retention, mouthfeel and color - albeit in a general way.
[quote=“Pietro”]People in history have certainly made beer with LESS structure than you are talking about, so yes, you can make some good beer with leftovers.
Tossing in the kitchen sink can result in some muddy overcomplicated beers though. As with food, I need to reign myself in when brewing that way.
I would recommend “Designing Great Beers” by Ray Daniels. Randy Mosher in “Radical Brewing” doesn’t mind doing exactly what you are talking about. Ray has a little more restraint though, which I learned from. He explains in great detail how to formulate a recipe, and how you can put recipe books down and start doing it on your own.
In my mind, a chef should be able to make a perfect omelette before making a deconstructed cassoulet. Same with a brewer. You should be able to make one style REALLY well before you start messing with recipes.
But you are right, great styles have been born this way, so mash up the grains and make your brown ale![/quote]
I agree 100% especially to the comparison to cooking. My goal is to nail a ESB. i dont actually inted to throw all of everything in there and get a muddled “brown” mess, it may happen but since ive already accounted for the cost ill be more likely to try things i usually wouldnt . Im more thinking like hmm i have some special b, biscuit malt, medium crystal, english hops and 1056 maybe a sorta of hybrid dark english IPA. just an example but thats more what i intend to do.
I agree with Pietro. Designing Great Beers by Ray Daniels helped me to understand how to put a recipe together. For example, if you are looking for a particular original gravity (based on the style of beer you are trying to produce) – Daniels helps you to calculate the amount that each of your ingredients will contribute to the OG. He also gives you ways to adjust an OG that isn’t quite right.
Rather than just throwing things together, the book gives you a strategy. But I love what you are doing! Good luck. I hate it when a recipe calls for 1/4 oz. of hops – and they only come in 1 oz. bags!
I usually bottle my beer. Invariably there is always a half bottle of the beer left at the end of the process. I hate to throw it out – but it’s flat and has priming sugar in it. So it isn’t great for drinking.
Recently, I’ve begun using this left-over beer to make bread. I bottled a high OG Belgian tripel last Saturday. I had roughly 10 oz. of beer left over after bottling. I mixed the beer with some all-purpose flour and salt and let it rise for two days. I baked it into a killer loaf of country white bread. It had a very light hoppiness to it that contrasted the sweetness of the flour. I brought it into work and it was completely consumed. I’m going to keep experimenting with this!
One other thought for your extra grains, and perhaps Dr. Conn can make additional/more specific recommendations, but you can use up some of your extra specialty grains by making a quick wort and tasting it, so you can build a recipe. Denny goes over this a few issues back in Zymurgy.
Example:
-4oz water heated up in the microwave to ~170*.
-stir in 1.5oz of crushed grain and let is sit for ~30 minutes (you may need to reheat in the micro)
-pour through coffee filter
the resulting liquid will really give you an idea of what types of flavors a grain will impart on a beer. Write EVERYTHING you taste down.
[quote=“Pietro”]One other thought for your extra grains, and perhaps Dr. Conn can make additional/more specific recommendations, but you can use up some of your extra specialty grains by making a quick wort and tasting it, so you can build a recipe. Denny goes over this a few issues back in Zymurgy.
Example:
-4oz water heated up in the microwave to ~170*.
-stir in 1.5oz of crushed grain and let is sit for ~30 minutes (you may need to reheat in the micro)
-pour through coffee filter
the resulting liquid will really give you an idea of what types of flavors a grain will impart on a beer. Write EVERYTHING you taste down.[/quote]
I saw that on basic brewing they only did i few caramel malts, didnt really think to do it myself but thats a really good idea
+3 for Designing Great Beers. It’s definately my favorite brewing book. Jam packed with knowledge. And it helps to get you thinking for yourself a bit more with respect to recipe design.
