Increasing dried wheat malt in little creatures clone

[Lettuce]

Hello all,

 

I made the follwing little creatures pale ale clone:

 

1x Coopers Pilsner

1x BE2

250g dried wheat malt

Cascade and goldings hops in tea bags

US-05 yeast

to 21L

 

Now it turned out very well, but when I purchased the wheat malt I had to purchase a kilo, so what would happen in the next brew if I increased the amount of what malt (to say 500g). I'm keen on experimenting but don't want to ruin a already good brew.

 

Cheers

[LeonardC2]

Pilsner malt,whether dried or liquid,mixed with wheat malt is the basis of Belgian wits,& German weises as well. The Belgians are fun to play with in regards to zest,coriander,spices,etc. You can even brew them with Safale US-05 yeast with good results.

Then just pic the appropriate hops for the nationality being brewed.

[weggl]

Lettuce, I make this L/C and all the L/C drinkers love it, it has more malt than yours.

CAN COOPERS PALE ALE

200g WDME

750 DME

25 g CASCADE BOIL 10 MIN

250DEX

10 g CHINOOK, 10g CASCADE DRY AT

72 HOURS 23L CULTURED YEAST

[jasond4]

just wondering if you are trying to brew the Bright Ale rather than the pale ale? the reason I ask is that your clone dosent show any signs of trying to get an amber colour like the Pale Ale is ie; crystal malt. anyhow looks like a tasty brew, good luck with your experiment.

[Lettuce]

Thanks for the info guys. With regards to adding crystal malt (Jasond4's post). I've not done this before, would 250g of crystal malt be suitable? I notice that one factor is that it increases mouth feel, with the maltodextrin in the BE2 would that be overkill with regards to beer body?

 

Lastly preparation, I found this on a website:

 

"The first thing you need to do is to crack the grains. The object here is to lightly crack open the husks to allow the good stuff to come out, without pulverizing the grains into a powder. I use a grain mill for this but you can also use a rolling pin with a light touch.

 

Now that the grain is cracked and your ready to start brewing your beer, take the brew kettle and fill it with about a 1.5 gallons and add the specialty grains to the cold water.

 

Turn the burner on and just before the water starts to boil (this should take around 20 minutes), strain the husks out of the kettle.

 

That is really all there is to it! Now proceed with brewing your beer as you normally would by adding the malt extract and hops."

 

Would people agree with this?

 

Cheers in advance

[weggl]

Lettuce, I think you will find you have to keep the grain temp between 65 and 70C

for half an hour. If you get too hot tanins will be released, too cold and the conversion to malt wont work.There will be others here who will give you better advice than me.

 

By the way are you by any chance related to Cabbage?

 

Warren

 

[LeonardC2]

Weggle is right,specialty grains should only be steeped for 20-30 minutes at the temps mentioned (150F-165F in other terms). To high,& you start extracting bitter tannins from the husks.

We also use grain bags for this(they look like big hop socks) to make straining unnecessary. Over here,it's called BIAB (Brew In A Bag).

[weggl]

Lads. I've been using half high stockings for hop bags, the amber coloured ones, the only problem is they are 15 dennier. There are 50 denneir availabe, which would be better, they are the ones that you see the girls wearing with fancy paterns on them. they have quite a large mesh. Dont use black the dye comes out, will try and get some white ones.

Will let you know how they work out.

 

Warren

[NewtownClown]

...too cold and the conversion to malt wont work.

Warren

 

Specialty grains have already been converted. Steeping, as opposed to mashing, extracts those converted sugars.

Cold steeping darker and roasted grain overnight is a great way to extract the sugar and leave the tannins, and any associated astringency, behind.

 

BIAB is very different to simply steeping specialty grains.

BIAB is a full mash done on a small scale and is great for small batch or high gravity brews

[Lettuce]

Hi again,

 

In the end I went with this recipe with some rather blind changes

 

1x Coopers Pilsner

1x BE2

250g crystal malt

350g dried wheat malt (was 250)

15g Cascade

15 Nelson Sauvin (was goldings)

US-05 yeast

to 22L

 

Will see how it turns out. As a side note, will the crystal malt add alcohol to the brew or just flavour, colour and body? If it does add alcohol any idea how much the alcahol will increase by the 250g crystal malt addition.

 

Cheers

[Hairy]

The recipe look vey tasty.

 

The crystal malt will add all those things to the brew. As to the alcohol, it depends on the amount of sugar extracted from the grains.

 

It would be a guess at best by me (0.2 to 0.5% ??).

 

Someone else here, like PB2, may be able to help.

[PB2]

The crystal will add a small amount of alcohol (not worth worrying about) but its main pupose is colour, aroma, flavour and residual sweetness (more comple sugars).

[LeonardC2]

I've read that it's the "long chain" sugar molecules that don't ferment out. Wikipedia has these scientific descriptions of all things beer related. Interesting reading. Just look up the individual ingredients to read their description.