Leftovers Partial Recipe

[marc e]

Hi all, I've not brewed in a long time, and am still a bit of an amateur. But the other day decided I would get back into the swing of things!

I had some leftovers in the cupboard that I thought I should just use up rather than go out and buy new ingredients. So this is what I ended up throwing together:

1 x Can Coopers Dark Ale
1 x Can of Tooheys Draught
250g of Caramalt (? i think)
500g of Caramel Wheat Malt
1 kg Dex
1 x Pack Fermentis WB06 yeast
Norther Brewer Hops 90g

The grain was steeped at a bit over 60 degrees C in about 2 - 3 Litres of water for 40 mins. I then added this to my brew pot and topped up to a bit over 10L of water. I boiled for only 30 minutes, with half of the hops thrown in at 30 min and the rest at 5 min. I added both cans of extract in at 5 minutes also.

Cooled this down and placed in the fermenter, threw in the dex and pitched the yeast at about 20 degrees C. Have been fermenting in my dead fridge rigged up with computer fans blowing on frozen drink bottles at a constant 17 degrees.

Sorry, no SG readings as my dog ate my hydrometer (literally).

To the guru's out there, do you think this has a hope of turning into something drinkable? Or do you think it was a lost cause? All feedback appreciated!

 

[malt_shovel]

Am I reading this right that you ended up with around 10 ltrs (minus evaporation during the boil so closer to 8ltrs) with those ingredients? If so I imagine the OG would be huge. Even with a 20odd ltr batch it would be big. Too big for a single packet of old yeast. I wouldn't expect great things from this one. Expect a very high FG and a cloyingly sweet beer. Hope the dogs OK.
Edit for suggestion.
If it does finish high you could look to brew a similar but drier beer with an attenuative yeast to blend.

 

[marc e]

Thanks for the feed back. The dog was fine,only just got hold of it but did enough damage to send it to the bin.

I'm assuming its too late to add some more yeast at this stage? Put this down on Sunday. The final vol ended up being 23l.

I kind of knew I was going a bit overboard, by the sounds of it very overboard. Still learning.

 

[carniebrew]

I'll just point out for clarity, this is not actually a "partial", rather it's an extract with steeping/crystal grains recipe. A partial mash brew involves mashing some base grain.

It looks like malt_shovel's concern was that you didn't mention any top up water post boil, so he was basing his gravity calcs on your post boil volume of 8 litres.

Your gravity might be alright, but I wouldn't be brewing without any way to check gravity to be honest. Also, your recipe is ummm...interesting...to say the least. Two kit cans, one meant to make stout, the other a pale ale style, put together with a hell of a lot of steeping grain (I wouldn't personally use much more than 500gm in a batch), and a big bag 'o dex. And then fermented with a wheat beer yeast....but at least you're doing it at the right temperature for that yeast!

I think you'll end up with beer....something like Coopers Pale Ale mixed with Schofferhoffer and Guinness, all in the same glass. Please do let us know how that goes!

 

[marc e]

Thanks Carniebrew, i realised that fact after I posted here. Apologies for putting this in the wrong section.

I knew I was mixing things that aren't usually mixed together. But these were all of the left overs i had that have been there for a while, and just wanted to clear the cupboard before ordering new ingredients. Sounds like I still have a lot to learn about how much is too much ingredients wise. I've found the beer recipe spreadsheet in the extract forum and have been playing around with it. It has opened my eyes and can't wait to brew something using this spreadsheet.

I've not kegged this yet, it has been about 11 days and will be purchasing a hydrometer this arvo to at least see what the FG will be. I'll let you know how it goes when its kegged.

 

[marc e]

So this behomoth fermented out to 1008 to my surprise.

Kegged it after 13 days. Force carbed it. Poured the first glass...

Good head. Looks like mud! But OK, pretty drinkable. No twang. Hard to describe the flavour. If I had to, maybe tastes like a guiness crossed with maybe a Newcastle brown ale? Or maybe something German? It does pack a punch!

Its OK, but prob wouldn't make again. Lesson learnt!

 

[indica86]

Hahaha, top post. Thanks.
750g of caramel / crystal. **** me.

 

[marc e]

Yeah mate i know. I keep getting told to eat more grains so i thought, why not drink them?