my first recipe

[400d]

I did a nut brown ale in May to the following recipe

2.50 kg Pale Malt
0.50 kg Munich Malt
0.25 kg Amber Malt
0.25 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt
0.25 kg Wheat, Torrified
0.10 kg Chocolate Malt
0.60 oz Northdown [8.50 %] (60 min) Hops 18.0 IBU
0.50 oz First Gold [7.50 %] (30 min) Hops 10.2 IBU
1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (5 min) Hops 3.5 IBU
1 Pkgs Windsor
Around 4 kgs of grain, just over 2 oz of hops in that one. it turned out to be a 4% ABV so maybe your not too far off your goal! I'd keep the sugar till the end and take a hydrometer sample 45 minutes into the boil and cool in the fridge.You can always continue to boil or add sugar later if you want stronger. Are you ok with not much head retention? That's why i hoy in a bit of crystal and a bit of torrified wheat. In saying all that i think you'll end up with a good beer. Look fwd to seeing it on brewdays!

unfortunately I don't have all these ingredients. I only have 100 kg of pale malt... All I can do with it is to try to roast it somehow to get crystal or sth similar....

[dave-o]

Oats are easy and cheap to get, and you can toast them yourself.

[400d]

Oats are easy and cheap to get, and you can toast them yourself.

I wanted to ask one thing....

all I want is to make delicious, drinkable, refreshing ale beer that would have above 5% ABV and a bit darker amberish colour...

If I make a grain bill with only pale malt, and add just a little bit malt that I roasted for colour, and some flaked barley for head retention, would I do a good thing?

let's say

pale malt.....................4,50 kg
roasted malt.................0,20 kg
flaked barley.................0,50 kg
---------------------------------------------
TOTAL.........................5,20 kg

[dave-o]

It's your first beer. What you suggest will be fine. Brew it, see what you like about it and what you don't.

200g of roast looks a bit more reasonable, but if it's as dark as commercial RB then 50-100 grams would be quite enough for a normal ale.

[400d]

It's your first beer. What you suggest will be fine. Brew it, see what you like about it and what you don't.

200g of roast looks a bit more reasonable, but if it's as dark as commercial RB then 50-100 grams would be quite enough for a normal ale.

thanks a lot, you helped me!

[pantsmachine]

You are on the right track and i like your idea of roasting your own to get the colour, damn good idea, let us all know how you get on.

[400d]

today I crushed the malt that I toasted...

I have to say that it smells very good. And also, it tasted very good! The flavour is nutty with a strong note of caramel, something like snickers chocolate bar.... I will post some pictures later to show you how it looks. It's quite dark.

I believe it will be very important in my brew, and probably the most potent flavour of all....

[dave-o]

IME proper roast barley tastes almost exactly like coffee beans.

Perhaps yours is more like chocolate/caramel malt?

[400d]

IME proper roast barley tastes almost exactly like coffee beans.

Perhaps yours is more like chocolate/caramel malt?

I toasted it after I soaked it in water for two hours. So it was wet... That's why it has this caramel note

I think you're forgetting that I roasted malt - not unmalted barley....

[aus069]

If you haven't brewed it yet I would probably stick to the heavier side of the malt bill for if this is your first BIAB your expected efficiency could be in the low 60's . Check out Aussie homebrew forum it has a large following of BIAB . First time BIAB have a lower than expected efficiency so that is why I suggest a bigger malt bill . You can also use the sparge method by dunking the bag into a bucket of water that has a mash out temp . Usually the water volume is 1:1 ratio for sparging this way . Don't be frightened about squeezing the crap out of the bag either .


Cheers
aus069

[6470zzy]

How does the bag thing work? Interested!

Here is a link to everything you would want to know about BIAB, it really is a fine way of brewing, I'm not much one for a nasty sloooooooow sparge

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum// ... opic=11694

Cheers