ok, I know we all like hops but a have been considering making a base malt only beer just to see what my hops do and what the difference is but , is un hopped beer drinkable and enjoyable?
I also am trying to find where some of my flavors are coming from. has anyone done this and what did you find out. thanks .
I’ve never made one but I have had one and it was ok, I wouldn’t want 5 gallons of it.
It’s drinkable. It depends on your taste if it’s enjoyable. If you’re goal is to learn about hops, make a 1 gallon batch of your hop-less base, and then at bottling drop a hop pellet or two of various hops into each bottle. Or even easier, buy a 12 pack of BMC and do the same.
If you want to see what the base would be without hops do as CliffordBrewing said and make a 1 gallon batch. Then at that point you know what the base is like and you can start making full batches of single hopped beer to see how each hop is with your beer.
I believe it could be enjoyable if made right. Not sure if I’d like such a beverage fermented to ‘bone dry’ condition, but something with a bit of residual sweetness might actually be pretty nice.
Interesting thing is that historically (like in the the middle ages), “ale” generally was actually assumed to be a drink made without hops.
Technically it wouldn’t be beer.
Some craft malt liquors are made without hops.
True, but it WAS bittered using “gruit” which was a mix of herbs that was subject to monopoly powers from the church (one of the basis for monk-brewing tradition). It was widely recognized that something is needed to balance the malt sweetness to make ale drinkable (or at least decent).
I’ve made a gruit before. I used sweet gale, yarrow, and mugwort. The yarrow adds a lot of tartness, which offsets the sweetness in an important but different way than bitterness. None of the herbs were terribly bitter but it still tasted “balanced”.
If you want to make a no hop beer, determine whether you might want to add some tartness and/or bitterness via a different method. This could most easily be done by adding a high proportion of fruit juice, which always tends to add a lot of tartness. Or if you are interested in tasting something completely different, you could use gruit herbs. Look up some gruit recipes, taste some herbs and see if that sounds interesting at all.
Or, if you are interested in just running an experiment to learn what malt does for you without any distractions at all, go for it! Just don’t expect to enjoy a full 5 gallons of it. Maybe just make a small 1-gallon batch of it.
ya the one gal batch is what I’ll do and after posting I also think this experiment will let me know how good my base malt is . who knows maybe the base malt is bad or just not what I like in flavor .
Don’t get discouraged if you don’t like the base malt only brew. To me, base malt alone tastes too cidery to enjoy, but that’s what specialty grains and hops are for. Just a little specialty grain can do wonders to a simple recipe; for example, huge difference between a SMaSH and a cheater-SMaSH with a little crystal.
oh I will not get discouraged , to far gone and into this making beer thing for that. I’m just going to keep trying until I’m perfect , witch means I’ll always be trying. ha ha. cheers!
[quote=“S.Scoggin”]
craft malt liquor.[/quote]
Isn’t that an oxymoron? 
[quote=“Rookie L A”][quote=“S.Scoggin”]
craft malt liquor.[/quote]
Isn’t that an oxymoron? [/quote]
I’ve never heard of an oxy, and don’t call people moron…
:cheers:
[quote=“Rookie L A”][quote=“S.Scoggin”]
craft malt liquor.[/quote]
Isn’t that an oxymoron? [/quote]
Hahah, it sure sounds like an oxymoron. But Full Sail made one, and Walking Man used to make one called “street walker”, Walking man’s doesn’t have enough reviews for a score, but the few reviews it has are pretty good.
http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/53 ... =Spikester http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/4983/30844well after cold crashing (45 temp)for a week and 10 days bottled I tasted it and its not bad , and no ,I would not want 5 gal of it . I will probably do this again with different base malts and yeasts to get better at building my own beers. If any thing I could always use it to mellow out a over hopped beer, if there is such a thing. ha ha.
[quote=“JMcK”]I’ve never heard of an oxy, and don’t call people moron…
:cheers: [/quote]
Most people are okay with moron as long as you don’t call them Shirley. 
My friend thinks he’s allergic to hops, and recently we brewed a beer with orange peel as the bittering component. Its bottled now, not yet ready. I hadn’t though of using a gruit, I have some of that. Will give it a try.
[quote=“tom sawyer”]we brewed a beer with orange peel as the bittering component[/quote]A buddy of mine made a really good pepper beer recently, it’s not hot but it has a good bite from the peppers, you could probably get some bitterness that way.
I have a friend also who claims he has reactions from highly hopped beer. I think I’ll look into this peppered beer. most likely just have to find the right peppers.
