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What was I thinking beer?

Beer Recipe Design
#1

On my last brew session I decided to use Munich malt in ale. Now dont ask me why, but I decided to

6lb Munich LME 60 minutes
5lb LME Gold NB 60 minutes
1lb wheat mash at 154 for 1hr and sparge
1 1/2 oz cascade 60 min
1 1/2 oz cascade 40 min
1/1/2 oz cascade 15 min
2 oz nuggets at flameout

wort chiller to 60 degrees pitch active 2l starter US-05 and hold at 58-62 degrees for 2 weeks till active fermentation stopped
and bottle

Geeze, I never knew how friggin sweet munich malt is :shock:

My bad, definately something different on the palate- would probably been a good beer if I would of just added 6 more lbs of LME and left the Munich for an Octoberfest

What was I thinkin :lol:

#2

what was your FG? i’d assume the gold LME will leave a lot of sweetness

IIRC, munich LME is made from 50% pale and 50% munich. i’m not so sure the sweetness you taste is completely from the munich

#3

1.014 FG , its not bad, kinda like a funky Octoberfest ; the nuggets definately trump the cascades

#4

Munich isn’t necessarily sweet…the extract, between the Munich and the gold, probably had a high level of unfermentables which prevented your FG from getting as low as it should be. I always recommend using some sugar along with extract to dry it out. In addition, low hopping will make a beer seem sweet. Look at your BU:GU ratio to help determine how sweet a beer will be.

#5

Although its not ideal as it might have been with more “base” DME/LME or some sugar as mentioned and slightly less adjunct grains in the mixture of extracts. With the amount of cascades it seems as though the bitterness should be high enough to somewhat balance the brew.
I have to think you maybe either simply bottled early and/ or are experiencing too much “green” characteristics still and it will end up being a fair to average recipe after its all said and done as 1.014 doesn’t seem overly “sweet” necessarily and as stated the Munich is 50/50 base and Munich malts(which doesn’t add a lot of sweetness typically as a grain as its considered base also.) The gold/amber is if I remember right maybe 10% carapils and 30-40% C40/60L and the remaining is all base malt also. So all in all you really had a good percentage of base but a bit of munich, C40/60L and a little carapils thrown in along the way.

Ill bet the beer tastes pretty good in a one or two more weeks as its sheds some young/green aspects. Report back if it melds at some point.

#6

Oh, :shock: crap…another term to learn!

Lucy, you got some 'spanin to do :wink: What is the BU:GU ratio?

#7

Oh, :shock: crap…another term to learn!

Lucy, you got some 'spanin to do :wink: What is the BU:GU ratio?[/quote]

It’s the ratio of Bittering Units to Gravity Units. For example, an IPA that’s 1.070 OG (70 GU) and has 70 IBU has a 1:1 BU:GU ratio. A pils with a 1.050 OG and 35 IBU is .7:1. It’s not a hard and fast rule, but it helps you develop a sense of how bitter a beer you might want to make based on gravity.

#8

This beer has mellowed some- still to sweet. I guess my homegrown cascades were alot lower in AA than an average year

Thanks for the replies :cheers:

Brad

#9

You should pick up the last Zymurgy and read the article on recipe formulation. It’s written by some guy named Denny. :stuck_out_tongue:

#10

I would never trust an old hippie named Denny…

#11

let alone an old hippie that can remember his name :stuck_out_tongue:

#12

It’s this name tag I wear…

#13

[quote=“spunky”]On my last brew session I decided to use Munich malt in ale. Now dont ask me why, but I decided to

6lb Munich LME 60 minutes
5lb LME Gold NB 60 minutes
1lb wheat mash at 154 for 1hr and sparge
1 1/2 oz cascade 60 min
1 1/2 oz cascade 40 min
1/1/2 oz cascade 15 min
2 oz nuggets at flameout

wort chiller to 60 degrees pitch active 2l starter US-05 and hold at 58-62 degrees for 2 weeks till active fermentation stopped
and bottle

Geeze, I never knew how friggin sweet munich malt is :shock:

My bad, definately something different on the palate- would probably been a good beer if I would of just added 6 more lbs of LME and left the Munich for an Octoberfest

What was I thinkin :lol: [/quote]

Love me some Munich! Your hop schedule is what I would change. With that much extract, I would have used the Nugget as your bittering addition and would have broken up the Cascade additions over the last 15min while saving an ounce or 2 for dry hopping. As Denny suggested, you just need a little more balance.

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