increasing steeping grains in extract recpie ?

[mongey]

so got some bits and peices for putting on a brew this week . I just moved from sydney down south so checked out the local homebrew shop . just a question for my own learning

so made this coopers session IPA recpeie a coupel times before and have mostly the right hops in the fridge so gonna make it again .think I have mosiac instead of bravo this itme .

• 1.7kg Pale Ale Brew Can
• 2 x 500g Light Dry Malt
• 200g Crystal Wheat Grains
• 25g Nelson Sauvin Hops
• 25g Galaxy Hops
• 25g Bravo Hops
• 11.5g Safale US05 Yeast
• 250g pkt Carbonation Drops

30 min boil

Strain into a good size pot (around 8 litres) then add 500g of Light Dry Malt plus another 2 litres of water and bring to the boil.

Add Nelson Sauvin hops and boil for 10mins then Galaxy Hops for a further 10mins then Bravo Hops for the final 10mins









so question is the local shop only sold grain in 500g bags. If I was to steep the whole 500g what would it change in the beer flavour wise ? I know it will bump the the alc a little after putting it in the spreadsheet but will I need to tweak anything else ? will increased grain just for the hell of it have any negative effects ?


I was thinking about also putting in 500g dextrose to bump up the alc a little too from just under 5 to 6ish

 

[Grott]

Personally I wouldn't add the dextrose, either leave or if extra alc needed then add more malt.
Cheers

 

[TwoCrows]

You could save halve of the grains 250g for your next brew, just bag up and freeze. Just don't crack the grains.

 

[LAGERFRENZY]

+1 for using half the bag - 250 grams of Crystal is plenty. I used to do a very similar recipe with the Pale Ale can and found that the Dextrose accenuated the kit twang taste. Adding more LDM would boost the ABV without detriment.

 

[damoninja]

No need to freeze grain.

Mosaic is a bloody nice hop, one of my favs in pale ales.

 

[mongey]

thanks all

grains are already cracked by the store so can't freeze em. will try to keep em fresh and do a quick turn around on another batch

I'll just use half and maybe pick up antoehr 500g of ldm instead of dex

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Vac sealing them is the best if can. There really cheap. Or just put it in a sealed container and put them in the fridge

 

[Gigantorus]

Mongey,

My experience is that its better to use more LDME than using dextrose, as the dex gives a harsher flavour.

Re the grains. I regularly use a grain steep of 1kg+ in a 5litre hot water steep, as it adds great body and head retention as well as flavour/colour.

A basic pale ale mix of mine would be something like:

- 3kg LDME
- a 1kg to 1.5kg grain steep
- 90grams or 2 x 90grams of hops (50% in the boil and 50% as a dry-hop.

Cheer,s

Pete