Complex Grain Bill with Extract...waste of time?

[JRR]

I found a clone recipe for Three Floyd's Alpha King, which I highly recommend by the way. It has like 7 different malts on top of the base malt. I'm concerned that I'm wasting my time steeping and won't get the complexity I'm after.

Any thoughts on how effective steeping grains is?

[Billy Klubb]

depends on your process and the amount of steeping water you use. if you're too concerned about it, you could start partial mashing.

[brewinhard]

What does the grain bill look like? there could be some similar malts that you may not need to add "twice". Lets see it!

[Old_Skool]

Well it could be just fine - that said I've been using recipes (all award winners) "Brewing Classic Styles" and most of them are very simple in their grain bills. I've been cutting back on the kitchen sink approach

[JRR]

Here is a recipe, there are lots of different versions:

Ingredients:
10.0 lbs Maris Otter Pale Ale Malt
3.4 lbs American 2-row
1.5 oz Munich TYPE II
3.0 oz Crystal Malt 60°L
1.5 oz Cara 8 - Caramel Malt
2.0 oz Munich Malt
1.5 oz Melanoidin Malt
0.5 oz Wheat Flaked
0.5 oz Magnum (13.0%) - added during boil, boiled 75.0 min
0.75 oz Columbus (15.0%) - added during boil, boiled 75.0 min
2.0 oz Cascade (5.6%) - added during boil, boiled 0.0 min
1.0 oz Cascade (5.6%) - added dry to secondary fermenter
1.0 oz Columbus (15.0%) - added dry to secondary fermenter
1.2 oz Centennial (10.0%) - added dry to secondary fermenter
1.0 ea WYeast 1056 American Ale

Thanks for the replies.

This beer may just give me the kick in the ass I need to go all grain.

[Dirk McLargeHuge]

Here is a recipe, there are lots of different versions:

Ingredients:
10.0 lbs Maris Otter Pale Ale Malt
3.4 lbs American 2-row
1.5 oz Munich TYPE II
3.0 oz Crystal Malt 60°L
1.5 oz Cara 8 - Caramel Malt
2.0 oz Munich Malt
1.5 oz Melanoidin Malt
0.5 oz Wheat Flaked
0.5 oz Magnum (13.0%) - added during boil, boiled 75.0 min
0.75 oz Columbus (15.0%) - added during boil, boiled 75.0 min
2.0 oz Cascade (5.6%) - added during boil, boiled 0.0 min
1.0 oz Cascade (5.6%) - added dry to secondary fermenter
1.0 oz Columbus (15.0%) - added dry to secondary fermenter
1.2 oz Centennial (10.0%) - added dry to secondary fermenter
1.0 ea WYeast 1056 American Ale

Thanks for the replies.

This beer may just give me the kick in the ass I need to go all grain.

I say give it a try. I think you can steep flaked wheat, since it's already gelatanized. If it doesn't work, you can always do a partial mash next time.

[JRR]

Ok, here's my plan. I'll whip this up per my usual methods. Then I'll make this my spring board into all grain and make it again. If all goes well, then I might learn something, but it will definitely be a good enough of an excuse to make more beer.

[thatguy314]

My experience is that beers with a complex malt bill can often taste muddy or have too much going on, and have a lack of focus of flavors. When I'm working on a recipe, I usually try to stick to 3-4 malts tops. Then, if I want a character that's not there, I'll go back and try to add more flavors that I think would help. Unfortunately it's a process to get these more complicated malt bills to work. Think of the 3-4 malts as the main dish, and any additional malts you add as seasonings to the dish. You can't add seasoning before you taste dinner, or you might add way too much.

I don't always stick to this rule (sometimes I think that I'll need a flavor that it turns out I really don't), but I really find that I have better beers when I do.