Recipe ideas and name this grain!

[shacked]

I recently acquired some additional AG gear from ebay and the guy that was selling it threw in loads of bags of hops and some random bags of grain. Add all that to my current stocks and I have a random array of different ingredients and I was looking for some guidance on putting together my fourth AG brew. The last 3 AG brews have been based on recipes from the DB. I BIAB with a 40L crown urn and tend to make 23L batches.

Here's what I have:

2.1 KG Maris Otter
300g Caramunich I
330g Crystal 80
450g Roasted Malt
250g Crystal 60
230g ??? (see picture below)

I also have a range of hops:

200g each of:
Cascade
Citra

100g each of:
Northdown
EKG
Amarillo
Saaz
Summer


25g to 75g each of:
Galaxy
Nelson
Willamette
Chinook
Magnum
Columbus
Challenger

I've got S04, US-05, BRY-97 in the fridge.

I tend to brew dark ales, porters, IPA, APA and blonde ales. Any ideas would be great! I'd be happy to pick up some more base malt as required.

Does anyone have any idea what the attached grain is?

Thanks!!

 

[warra48]

Without tasting it, it looks to me like it could be Brown Malt.
Works great in a Porter.

 

[danestead]

Pale choc?

 

[Blind Dog]

It could pale choc, brown malt, roasted barley or one of the darker crystals. Taste it and smell it and that should answer your question

 

[danestead]

If you like american amber ales, below is a similar version to what I brew at home but suited to your malt and hops. You will need more base malt (maris otter or similar).

Og 1.050ish
32-35ibus ish

mash at 67 degrees

92.5% maris otter/base malt
5-7.5%ish crystal/caramunich malt
2.5% pale choc or choc malt if that is what your mystery bag is (you dont want yourt roasted malt in this)

60min addition of magnum to bring ibus up to 32-35
15min 40g total of any or all of citra, cascade, amarillo
dry hop 40g total of any or all of citra, cascade, amarillo

ferment with us05 at about 18 degrees if you have temp control.

drink and enjoy

 

[Mardoo]

I agree with brown malt, but as Warra says taste will determine. Outside chance it's pale chocolate malt, but that's just based on the photo.

You could make yourself a nice dark mild with what you have there. The Maris Otter, bit of each of the crystals, the brown malt and a touch of the roast barley. I'd go Challenger for bittering and flavor and EKG for flavor too.

Have a look at Manticle's Dark Mild recipe and discussion topic for ideas:

http://aussiehomebrewer.com/recipe/1642-dark-mild/

http://aussiehomebrewer.com/topic/69618-recipedb-dark-mild/

Most mild recipes I see have sugar to dry it out a bit. Most milds are mashed high, as is Manticle's, to give more body. The sugar offsets that in my opinion. I tend to use golden syrup for the sugar at around 8% of total fermentables.

Edit: sugars and mashing

 

[idzy]

Does anyone have any idea what the attached grain is?

Chew a couple of grains in your mouth and let us know how it tastes

 

[shacked]

Doesn't taste chocolately or roasted... so I'm guessing it's brown!

 

[danestead]

Choc malt doesnt taste like chocolate, it looks like chocolate

 

[Mardoo]

Does it taste a bit like burnt sugar? Having a look at it on the computer just now, rather than the phone I was on earlier, Blind Dog's darker crystal is definitely in the running too.

 

[rheffera]

Doesn't taste chocolately or roasted... so I'm guessing it's brown!

Choc malt doesnt taste like chocolate, it looks like chocolate

If it wasnt astringent then it wasnt roast barley. To me it looks like pale chocolate

 

[danestead]

Don't know if this helps but here is a photo of some of my grains.

Top Left - my darkest crystal, Carabohemian, Top right - Pale choc, Bottom right - choc and Bottom left - roasted barley.

 

[rheffera]

Your mystery grain could be joe white chocolate, Looks precisley like my joe white chocolate

 

[danestead]

Can you contact the ebay seller to ask what it might be. Pale choc isnt all that common so that may rule it in or out.

 

[shacked]

Choc malt doesnt taste like chocolate, it looks like chocolate

Ha! Fail on my part...

 

[shacked]

Just tasted some more and there is no burnt sugar flavor. I'm going to take it to the LHBS and see if I can work I out with them!!

 

[droid]

been brewing here with mo pale ale base and weyerman crystal and also crystal pale, best results with the darker weyerman

the base has had an addition of 5 - 7.5% (ish) of weyerman crystal than crYstal pale) if using crystal pale I have used 10-12.5% and added a bit more bittering to balance the sweetness, its not very dark, wont use it again to get any rubyness that's foa shoa

bry - 97

anything for bittering that is +++ AA but go backwards from dry hopping with galaxy until you run out

shitchair