Specialty Grains Or Dex Or Both

[gals]

A quick question, I did my first extract brew a couple of months ago based around a recipe called Niell's Centerillo Pale Ale & I've just started drinking it & it's pretty good, my best brew to date. For my next trick, I want to have a go at steeping specialty grains into this brew. Along with the cans & different hop additions the recipe calls for 500gm of dextrose. Should I substitute the specialty grains for the dex or add the grains as well as the dex? I've also gotta say that this web site is bloody excellent.

 

[bullfrog]

I did this brew with 200g of crystal. Snuck a taste at 2 weeks since bottling and it's tasting good (if a bit green).

I say just add your grain to the rest of the ingredients. The liquor from the grain won't be anywhere near as fermentable as the dextrose so you will sacrifice both alcohol content and (even more of) the consistency of the brew if you were to substitute.

My 2c

 

[jacknohe]

Personally, a bit of both. Run it through Ianh's extract spreadsheet to see what it looks like for both finished gravity and alcohol for the mix youre after. I pretty much use a specialty grain in almost every brew now with a little dex to bring the alcohol to the level I'm going for.

 

[manticle]

A quick question, I did my first extract brew a couple of months ago based around a recipe called Niell's Centerillo Pale Ale & I've just started drinking it & it's pretty good, my best brew to date. For my next trick, I want to have a go at steeping specialty grains into this brew. Along with the cans & different hop additions the recipe calls for 500gm of dextrose. Should I substitute the specialty grains for the dex or add the grains as well as the dex? I've also gotta say that this web site is bloody excellent.

Two different things. Use both or sub the dex for a bit of malt extract. Personally I'd just go with the recipe and the spec grains.

Dextrose is a simple sugar that will ferment right out and give dryness and less body.

Spec grains will offer colour, flavour and contribute to body but very little sugar (some caramel/crystal malts give more sugar than other spec grains)

 

[gals]

Thanks fellas, once again the answers to all my questions are found at this website.

 

[Neill]

yeah mate just throw in 200 or so grams of steeped crystal grains (remember to crack em first!), it will raise the alcohol level by like 0.1%, nothing to worry about, should add slightly more body to the beer but some of the best extract beers i've made haven't used any steeped grains. i guess it's all in the palate - if you like it, do it!