# Developing A Mid-strength Recipe, Suggestions?



## Midnight Brew (25/5/09)

hey hey

Going to make a low-carb midstrength beer for the casual brew after spending a while in the garage.

On hand I have a few kilo's of dextrose and couple of hundred grams of PoR hops and a can of Coopers Draught (used all my Dried malt extract on my last brew  ). Although proberly make a trip to the homebrew shop this week.

Now cause its going to be low carb I only need to use half the fermentable sugars cause of the dry enzyme.

So I was thinking something along the lines of this:

Canned Kit (proberly Draught or Lager)
200g of Dex or 200g of LDME
20g PoR Hops
Low carb modifier
Aiming for 3.5% and topping up to 25 Litres to get a bit more out of it.

Was wondering if anyone had made any mid-strength brews before and if they'd care to share a recipe?
And am I using the right amount of hops and at what times in the boil should i use them?

Also if anyone has a good Mexcian Lager recipe that I could change to a low carb mid strength brew and while I'm at it what is the best kind of hops to use for this?

Cam


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## Sammus (25/5/09)

forget the dry enzyme, it's pretty much unanimously agreed by anyone with experience that they negatively affect your beer. If you want something light just use a bit less extra sugars than normal (which you're doing anyway). The whole low carb thing is a marketing gimmick anyway, the difference is negligible.

I don't have much experience with this type of beer, hops, or even using hops in kit brews (went straight to ag) so can't help you there sorry. If it was me I'd just experiment and I'd use half for flavour and half for aroma. Try boiling half of them for 15min and add them to the fermenter with the rest, and the other half throw in once fermentation has died down.

The brewcraft calculator estimates OG=1.029, FG=1.007, abv = 3.5%


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## masculator002 (25/5/09)

personally I think I would steer clear of por it is a poor hop, pardon the pun, go for something like cascade, northern brewer or something which will give a more pleasant aroma, and flavour. Saaz would also be a good choice. I would also probably avoid the enzyme and use a liquid malt extract something like saunders or coopers. instead of using the enzyme I would add a good teaspoon of citric acid to the hop boil, of which I would only boil half of the hops for about 15 mins and the last of them add approx 1 or 2 minutes before you remove from the boil. Kit beers usually have plenty of bittering so all you really want from your hop addition is the floral flavours and aromas. If you want to get an idea of what amount of IBU's you will get from your brew and also the alcohol a good tool to try out is the brew calculator on beertools.com. 

Personally I would ditch the kit altogether and start from scratch using a liquid malt extract such as those mentioned above and Then you could have complete control of your flavour profile. And trust me if you do you will never look back. Beertools also has some good recipes as does this site and also has information on which yeasts will ferment more fully and what the flavour profile will be like from the different yeasts. Another place to try is site sponsor Craftbrewer, Ross has lots of info on his site regards yeasts and hops.

Ditch the kit and the only differences you will find is the fact that you have to boil your hops for 60 minutes and more importantly your beer will taste better.

Trav


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## Midnight Brew (25/5/09)

So anyone wanna share their midstrength recipes?


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## haysie (25/5/09)

Dickman said:


> So anyone wanna share their midstrength recipes?



xxxx Gold,

Piss in a bucket, Add your ingredients.
Bitter with the tiniiest amount of cluster you can find so not too spoil the malt character. Ferment with the most neutral lager yeast available, filter it then filter it again. Be right on the money $$.

A midstrength what???? Aussie Pale Ale (por hops) check out the style guidelines and dilute the figures!!

dry ensyme + low carb huh, after all these years I thought they were another gimmick too sell > k&k`s, with no true definition of what quantity too use. I think BarryR posted a thread asking re. dry enzyme and nobody really knew.


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## Sammus (25/5/09)

masculator002 said:


> personally I think I would steer clear of por it is a poor hop




Only pay attention to the 'personally I think' part of this guys post. POR is a great hop, it seems like the only people who don't like it haven't ever tried it and are just subscribing to forum folklore.


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## roverfj1200 (25/5/09)

Dick man

There is a number of Mid kits out there I would start with one of those. I would use golden cluster hops boil off the kit and say 10g 15min 15g 5min. .2 and .2 dex/LDME. And better yeast if you like. I would use s-23 at 12deg. easy as that.. leave in the fermenter for 2 - 3 weeks.. Bottle off when steady.. Hope that helps 

Cheers.. :icon_chickcheers:


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## manticle (25/5/09)

masculator002 said:


> personally I think I would steer clear of por it is a poor hop,



Is it poor because it doesn't do what it is supposed to or poor because you don't like it?


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## Ivan Other One (14/11/09)

Dickman said:


> So anyone wanna share their midstrength recipes?



Hey Dickman, Drinking this ATM,

Recipe was,

1 x can Coopers Draught
500g LDM
200g Dry corn syrup.
10g POR hops

Method.
Simply boiled 1.5litres of water,
added the powders,
brought back to the boil and added the hops
boiled for a further 10 mins and added the can of goop,
to the boil again and turned off the heat
pitch the lot into the fermenter and added filtered water to 23litres.
kit yeast at 26C
fermented @ 20C

Been in the keg for 10 days and tastes really good, easy to drink, although could do with a bit more hops, maybe another 10g
Is about 3.8ABV.

Cheers, Ivan :chug:

PS; Having used a few hops now, have found the POR hop adds a very good flavour to the brew.


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## Nick JD (14/11/09)

Any kit can be made instantly into a mid by only adding about 500g of dextrose. 

If you're adding hops to kits ... add them for flavour/aroma - the kits almost always have the bitterness side covered. 

POR is a brilliant hop, if you want your beer to taste like a commercial beer.


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## mfdu (14/11/09)

firstly, i love POR. it has great spice character and can work really well with another hop like galaxy to really broaden the palate. the POR can make a great 'father-in-law' beer similar to VB original. 

mids.
i generally keep mine at around 3.8%. so, here's a couple i've done. all to 23 litres.
also, i've been playing with the saunders malt extract (at the supermarket, usually next to the honey) which is liquid, so 1kg = 750g dried malt to get more body without bumping up the alc.vol too much.

chinook ale :
1 x 1.7kg coopers draught
1 x 1kg saunders malt extract
20 g chinook @ 10 mins
20 g chinook @ 0 mins
us05 yeast(500ml starter)

very tasty, lots of body and good head. i'm growing my own chinook and wanted to get a taste for it . . .

amber :
1 x coopers daught
1 x 1kg morgans caramalt
20g columbus hops @ 5 mins
US05, 16 degrees.
only two weeks in the bottle so far. wow, that columbus is a unique tasting hop (in a good way)

pale pale :
1 x 1.7kg coopers lager
500g LDME
15g POR @ 15 mins
20g galaxy dry hopped
2 x coopers yeast sachets (500ml starter)

a great success, too. fermented around 16 degrees.

hmmmm. i've also done a real ale / saunders malt extract with fuggles dry hopped that came up a treat.

then there is my first honey, being 1 x coopers lager, 750g honey and T58 belgian yeast. no hops. an absolutely awsome drop with spice character from the honey and from the belgian yeast.

and got another honey in the fermenter at present with 1 can lager, 500g LDME and 500g honey + saaz hops (US05 yeast trub from the amber, above). mmmm. that's coming in at a higher % than most of the ones i do, due to the honey + LDME.


does that give you any ideas?


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## mfdu (14/11/09)

Nick JD said:


> POR is a brilliant hop, if you want your beer to taste like a commercial beer.



you can use it as a flavour addition to add spiciness to a floral / citrus hop which works really well.

or, yes, make a father-in-law brew along the lines of melbourne bitter / VB original, except so so so much better.


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## brenjak (14/11/09)

Dickman, 

If you really just want to use what you have got on hand cut your "kilo" by a third or use an online calculator. POR hops will go well also.


http://www.grainandgrape.com.au/gg_kit_recipes.htm



The above link is for the Grain and Grape who have K&K recipes and the 20/20 method of hops usage. This page will definately help.


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## ianh (14/11/09)

When developing a mid strength recipe I tend to use a low attenuating yeast like Windsor, 1099 or 1187.

Benefit is twofold lower alcohol beer produced, resulting beer has more body because of higher FG.


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## ianh (16/11/09)

Having further thoughts on this and came up with 2 recipes for Standard Bitter (23 litres)

Recipe 1

1.4Kg Dark Malt Extract
0.6Kg Dextrose
20g Northern Brewer 60 mins
10g Cascade 20 mins
US05 yeast
OG 1033
FG 1007
%alc Keg 3.4% bottle 3.8%

Recipe 2

1.9Kg Light Dry Malt
0.2kg CaraAmber
0.2Kg CaraAroma
0.2Kg CaraPils
20g Northern Brewer 60 mins
10g Cascade 20 mins
10g Cascade 0 mins
Windsor yeast
OG 1036
FG 1011
%alc Keg 3.2% bottle 3.6%

I think the first recipe will produce a very poor beer, it will have very little body, mouthfeel and poor head retention.

Whilst I think the second recipe will produce a very acceptable beer with good body, mouthfeel and good head retention.

This improvement is made by getting rid of any dextrose from the recipe, using light malt extract plus speciality grains to give colour. The speciality grains also add to the body, mouthfeel and head retention.

Using a lower attenuating yeast, producing a lower alcohol % but more importantly a higher FG.

I think the aim for producing a good mid strength beer should be OG <1040 and FG >1010

Recipe 2 can be further improved by bulk priming with say 105 g of dextrose for 2.0 vols of CO2 rather than using carbonation drops.

My 2 cents worth


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## boingk (16/11/09)

Put down a simple kit-based quaffer not long ago, should be bottling today:

1.7kg Homebrand Draught
250g LDME
250g Maltodextrin
10g Cluster @ 15min

22L volume with US-05 yeast @ 20'C.

Nothing special, but samples taste alright - reminicent of Four-Ex Gold...but not nausea-inducing somehow.

Cheers - boingk


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## RobboMC (16/11/09)

Dickman said:


> So anyone wanna share their midstrength recipes?



American IPA, 

Coopers Canadian Blonde can
1kg Morgans Caramalt 
1.5 kg Light Liquid malt
1kg Light Crystal grain, steeped 45 min at 70 deg C
100g Cascade Hops ( equal quarters boiled at 40, 20, 10 min and steeped )

Oh, did you say midstrength, whoops only joking,
brew volume 50 litres.
I've only got the usual 30 litre fermenter so brew at 25 litres and
water it down 2:1 when bottling/kegging.
Recipe makes 50 litres at 3%.

Had one of these last night after mowing lawn at went down really well.

Thoughts on mid-strength beer:

never use dex
never use cheap kits as they contain sugar
use as much extract as you can, use as much grain as you can
have a crack at extract only

good thoughts for full strength brewing too I reckon


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