First time partial grain

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Permalink Reply by Andrew Dixon on February 8, 2011 at 12:49pm

Hi Craig,

 

I'm not expert, and I haven't tried this recipe, but Jamil Zainasheff's recipes seem to be pretty well liked.  Here is a link to the "extract + specialty grains" version of his American Amber ale recipe.  I believe that it is supposed to be pretty hoppy.  Not sure if it's an ideal recipe for a beginner but hopefully it give you a starting point to work from.  Hopefully you'll get a few more responses.

 

Andy

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Permalink Reply by craig shilliday on February 8, 2011 at 3:33pm

Hi Andy

 

Thanks for your help we will give this ago on thursday have changed ingredients slightly as could not get everything .

Will let you know how it goes.

Craig

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Permalink Reply by denimglen on February 8, 2011 at 3:45pm

Yeah that's a great recipe.

 

Although I'd pitch a pack and a half of SO5 and be sure to aerate by rocking the fermenter for about 3 minutes.

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Permalink Reply by Rhyno on February 9, 2011 at 3:29pm

What do you substitute for the LME Munich and Horizon hops?

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Permalink Reply by Andrew Dixon on February 9, 2011 at 4:03pm

Horizon appears to be a low-cohumulone bittering hop, so if I was making this recipe I'd probably substitute with Southern Cross or Pacific Jade (since I have some in my freezer ;-)).  Not sure about the munich, probably depends on how close you want to get to the original recipe.  Since the original poster is a beginner, I'd think that just using pale LME would be the way to go.

 

Andy

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Permalink Reply by Rhyno on February 9, 2011 at 4:16pm

Yeah, was wondering that if you were to just steep 0.5kg of munich with your speciality grains would it have basically the same result?

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Permalink Reply by Andrew Dixon on February 9, 2011 at 4:27pm

Don't quote me on this because I'm still pretty new to this myself and I've not brewed with munich malt yet... I believe Munich malt needs to be mashed to get at the sugars, but I'm guessing that steeping it would get you at least some of the colour and flavour which for this recipe would probably be fine since the munich is a fairly small part of the grain bill.

Maybe someone else with a bit more experience can throw some light on this?

 

I'm hoping to make by first American Amber Ale in the coming months and I think this is the recipe I'll use (or rather the all-grain version).

Andy

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Permalink Reply by denimglen on February 9, 2011 at 4:47pm

For the hops personally I'd use Warrior, Southern Cross would be my second choice.

 

You're right, Munich malt does need to be mashed.  You can still get a little flavour and colour from steeping but the down side is you will potentially drag over a lot of unconverted and insoluble starch which can lead to a hazy beer and you won't extract the potential sugars.  Technically biscuit malt should be mashed also but I would just steep it.

 

You could do a 'micro-mash' with the Munich.  Just get a pot, put your Munich in a muslin bag and enough water to get it a bit thinner than porridge.  Heat it up and hold at 67C for 30 minutes.  Remove the bag and dunk it in a litre or so of hot clean water.  Add both lots of water to the boil kettle.  I would do this separate to your other steeping grains so that the enzymes aren't diluted.  

 

This is where partial mashing is good, gives you a lot of freedom with specialty malts.

 

That recipe calls for 11oz of Munich extract which I'm unsure of how much grain that translates too, my guess would be a 1.0 - 1.5kg.

 

The recipe I brew is the slightly updated version and only calls for 400g of Munich.  To be honest I think you could just use a little more light extract and forgo the Munich if it's too much hassle.

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Permalink Reply by craig shilliday on February 9, 2011 at 7:59pm

Hi Guys

Thanks for all the help , i have changed the following so don't shoot me still learning.

For the LME PALE and LME MUNICH we changed both to just use WEYERMANN PILSNER EXTRACT.

We changed the HORIZON HOPS TO CHALLENGER  and the CENTENNIAL to AMARILLO.

I know its not an exact match to the recipe we probably need to plan our brewing more instead of spur of the moment and then we could probably get exactly what we need.

Will try harder next time haha.

Thanks again everyone seems to know there stuff .

 

Craig

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Permalink Reply by Andrew Dixon on February 9, 2011 at 8:06pm

Craig,

 

Even though you've changed a few things I'm sure you will make a great beer.

 

Good luck

Andy

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Permalink Reply by denimglen on February 9, 2011 at 8:51pm

Weyermann pils extract will be a fine substitute, there's enough specialty malt to give the beer a good back bone.

 

Challenger for Horizon will be fine in this case as you won't get much flavour or aroma from that 60 minute addition.  I prefer higher alpha though just to keep down the amount of hop material in the kettle.

 

I would rather brew that with Amarillo than Cent,  I haven't been a big fan of Cent lately.

 

Will make a great beer bro.

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