Simplest of all simple beers

[abike2many]

PDub --

what you are thinking is a great idea. I did a similar experiment last july. I did 6 batches in 4 weeks. Same yeast, (almost) same hop schedule yada yada.

I did my experiment on an amber ale (similar to speakeasy prohibition). Start with an all (or almost all) base malt. then do it again with another base malt. repeat the process adding some adjuncts.

My learning from this was: I've got alot to learn about brewing. Yeah, I've read books, studied malt tables, read magazines (mostly without pants). But nothing beats real data. I enjoyed this little set of tests so much, that I'm doing another set on hefeweizens next month (comparing infusion to decocts as well as different yeasts), then this summer I am repeating the amber ale experiment with hop varieties.

Have fun and ride safe.

[kace069]

I went to my buddies house last Sunday for a brew session and had his newest pale ale. It was damn tasty and made me realize what little character 2 row imparts. I think he used a belgian pale malt and not sure what else. But the beer had a nice malt complexity to it that my beers are missing. I to am making simple malt bill beers to get an idea of the malt character. My buddy keeps saying to throw some munich in everything I brew. Going to have to take his advice. 2 row was good to get me started and nail down my brewing procedures but I don't see another bag of it in my near future.


Running in from the cold when its 50 degrees? Damn you got it rough. I plan to brew Sunday with a forecast of 8 degrees.

[Bugeater]

I did a similar type of experiment a year or so ago. I brewed 6 cream ales, the first had both rice and corn in it. On the rest of them, I substituted some other grain for the rice. Four were merely drinkable, one tasted like crap, and one turned out excellent. I have since brewed my Rye Cream Ale from that experiment a good half a dozen times.

I, too wimped out on brewing in the cold weather. I don't plan to brew again until next week when the high temperature is forecast to get up to almost 20°.

Wayne
Bugeater Brewing Company

[crazymonkey15]

Not having those ridiculous cold numbers down here I can't speak from experience, but it seems like if its that cold outside and you could get the boil going then chilling it down would be a extremely easy and fast.

[kace069]

Yeah I expect to be finished chilling in less than 10 minutes. The other week it was 25 and I chilled in about 12 minutes.

[BrewerJ]

You can make a real nice beer with just base malt. My blonde ale is about 95% base malt. Rogue makes an IPA with 100% marris otter and amarillo hops. As long as you are staying on the pale side you don't have to have any specialty malts to make a good beer.

[3 Dogs]

I make a simple lite ale every spring to enjoy in the summer. I use just
2-row malt. I use British pale malt since it will give my beer a slightly darker srm than NA malt. It is great on a hot summer day. I guess it could be called a lawnmower beer, but it is all-malt. OG - 1.040 IBU - 18. I know, low hops, but you can adjust it if you want.

3 Dogs

[brewatl]

If you are going 100% base malt, Maris Otter is a good one to use. I use that as my primary source of 2-row in almost all of my beers.

Mosher has a recipe called Dragon's Milk October Beer in Radical Brewing that uses 100% Maris Otter and 100% E. Kent Goldings (and it's a pretty big beer at OG 1.088 and 74 IBUs). Can't get any simpler than that.

You can also play around with decoctions and long boils to see what flavors those techniques contribute.