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Help Converting All-Grain Chimay Red Recipe
I'm thinking about trying to brew a Chimay Red clone next, but need help in converting to an extract recipe (I'm not yet setup for all-grain).
Here's the recipe:
All Grain Recipe - Chimay Red ::: 1.064/1.015 (5.5 Gal)
Grain Bill (75% Efficiency assumed)
11 lbs. - Maris Otter - 2 Row malt
1 lb. - Candi Sugar (ligh to medium in color) make your own
1/2 lb. - Caramunich Malt
1/4 lb. - Aromatic Malt
1 oz. - Chocolate Malt (optional)
Hop Schedule (28 IBU)
1.25 oz. - Tettnang - 60 min.
1/2 oz. - Galena - 15 min.
1/4 oz. - Styrian Goldings - 15 min.
Yeast
White Labs Abbey Ale Yeast (WLP530) - 1800 ml starter
I don't know what type of extract to use in place of the Maris Otter - any suggestions?
Without knowing the OG of whatever extract you buy, this is hard to figure out. The candi sugar and specialty grains will increase the OG, but given one 7# bucket, 3/4# of those grain and 1# of sugar isn't going to bring it up that high.
I was told by both my early homebrew shop owners that 7# of extract is roughtly equal to 10# of grain, but I think it really depends on who makes it, hence the gravity.
At this rate, I would go ahead with regular pale malt extract and see where that lands you. Unless the shop owner knows the OG of his exact. The specialty will raise you a few points, but since there is not even a pound there, I wouldn't expect a whole lot.
I just punched this recipe into ProMash. Using 7# of Alexander's LME (which is pretty average in OG), it only came out to 1.056, then I changed the LME to 8# and the OG was 1.063, which is much closer to what you want.
So that's what I recommend.
Thanks - I did read that if you are using dry extract to use 0.75# for every pound of base grain. I just don't know grains well enough to know what type of extract to use in place of base grains.
I do like your approach better (looking at what the OG should be).
Again, for something like this, I think going AG would probably be the best thing, but its going to be a while since I can't justify spending the $60 - $100 it would cost to get setup.
So just punching some numbers, the grain is about 1057. So if you did something like 6.6 lbs. of LME and 1 lb. of DME, you should be good. You might do something like two 3.3 lb. containers of Briess Light/Golden LME and a 1 lb. bag of Laaglander DME. The Laaglander DME is slightly less fermentable, which should add a little more malt flavor that you would be expecting from Marris Otter. You could also go with something like Alexanders LME and use two 4 lb. cans. That would put you just a couple points over on gravity, but you probably wouldn't even notice it.
DT
webby wrote:
Again, for something like this, I think going AG would probably be the best thing, but its going to be a while since I can't justify spending the $60 - $100 it would cost to get setup.
All grain being a better method really depends on who you ask. If money is tight, or you just don't have the extra time, extract is the way to go.
I used to belong to a brew club and one guy there had been an extract brewer for 10 years. I asked him why he didn't bother converting, he had no idea.
The way I see brewers converting comes down to this. Can you justify shelling out the extra money for a mash tun and regain it over time brewing all grain? Do you want to learn the full brewing process? For those who only brew 3-5 gallons every few months, besides why even bother brewing, then no, it's probably not worth the expense. If you brew more often, and want to save money each batch, and can spend an extra few hours on brew day, then definitely.
The dude I bought from one time (complete jerk) said all grain is more expensive. Unless you ONLY use imported grains, then yes, but nobody I know does that. All grain is cheaper. A major factor for me is savings. To those who don't take that into account, money is clearly not a problem.
I can tell you that I have never met an all grain brewer who preferred extract. Having complete control and the extra savings make it worthwhile to me.
All grain is overwhelming at first. Mashing in, getting the right temperature, which sparge method to use, using brewing salts, and so forth. Once you have the basic concepts down, it is only slightly harder than using extract. Temperature is one of the most critical things to get down.
In my opinion, I feel a large number of extract brewers are just paranoid about moving up the ranks and think it is too hard. You learned to drive a car, right? I doubt anybody mastered it their first time. It takes time and practice. Same with all grain.
Well, the only thing holding me back right now is time and money (I guess those are two rather large issues, though). As it is, a normal brew session for me takes about 4 - 6 hours, including cleaning. Being married with a baby, that's a lot of time on the weekend.
Also, I currently don't even own a good amount of my brewing equipment (yikes!). A friend let me use his equipment last fall, and I've just constantly been using it since then.
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