Beer Forum

Here is the low down...

I have only been doing 2.5 gal Extract only batches and
I am looking to do my first 5 gal. brew, so I would like to do a fairly easy recipe.

here is what I like thus far in a beer...

I would like to brew something that is not bitter but with a dry finish.
I really like the commercial beer Dundee Honey Brown so maybe something close??
I would at this point only would like to brew an Ale style.
But my over all goal is to brew a good style of beer that is not over powering bitter or very little bitterness .

thanks for every ones help in advance!!

If i were you, to make a flavorful but dry brown ale I would move up to extract + steeped specialty grains. Something like this:

Steep:
1/2# honey malt
1# crystal 60
.25# crystal 120
.25# chocolate malt

boil:
6.6#light liquid malt extract - add at beginning of boil, find English pale ale extract if possible
1oz ekg - add 60 minutes from end of boil
1oz ekg - add at 10 minutes from end of boil, you can leave this one out if you don't like hops

yeast:
11g. Danstar Nottingham - make a starter 24 hours before brewing if possible

I would like to brew something that is not bitter but with a dry finish.
I really like the commercial beer Dundee Honey Brown so maybe something close??

This should be in the relative ballpark:

5.00 lbs. Pale Liquid Malt Extract
0.50 lbs. Chocolate Malt 350L
0.50 lbs. Crystal 120L
0.50 lbs. Crystal 60L
2.00 lbs. Clover Honey added at 2 mins left in the boil

Hops
0.75 oz. Goldings - E.K. Pellet 5.00 60 min

Yeast
Wyeast 1098 British Ale Yeast (Whitbread) or White Labs WLP007

1 whirlfloc tab or 1 tsp Irish Moss at 15 mins.

HTH

You can / should skip making a starter if you use dry yeast.

The issue I see with your request is that you want to brew something dry. Using extract, you have lot less conrtol over the over all dryness of your beer. Dont fear though! You do have some options if you require a dry beer. 1st, maybe think about cutting back on crystal malts as they will leave behind more dextrins that are not fermentable. 2nd, you can add simple sugars (maybe 5-10%) to dry out the beer cause they are 100% (or as close to that as you can get) ferementable. And finally 3rd, you can always do a mini mash with two row malt to adjust the fermentablity of your extract. The enzimes in the two row will actually convert the extract to some point.

UcfLumberjack wrote:If i were you, to make a flavorful but dry brown ale I would move up to extract + steeped specialty grains.

I do not mind doing something like that steeping specialty grains does not seem that hard.

Actually that is what I was more leaning towards.


any other suggestions? Help a fellow brewer out

Sheen wrote:You can / should skip making a starter if you use dry yeast.

True enough, but make sure to rehydrate the buggers at least.