A brew from left overs?

[Nigel1969]

Just wondering what your thoughts are about this brew I'm planning today, from the scraps I have left.

Marris otter = 3000g
Crystal = 500g
Chocolate = 300g
Torrified wheat= 100g optional

A choice of Challenger, Goldings, Cascade or Citra.

[Redimpz]

why not, use all your grain, use a mix of challenger and goldings for bittering, for your final additions use more goldings and some cascade.
This should produce a porter style with a nice hoppy finish.
Another option could be to keep the chocolate and crystal for another day (lasts for ages) and make a pale ale using cascade for bittering and a mixture of cascade and citra for late additions, dry hopping.
I've not given weights as you don't say how much hops you have. just a couple of quite different options and with what you have available there could be several more to come.
happy days.

[killer]

I'd go for Redimpz second suggestion.
Forget the Chocolate, dial back to half the crystal, bitter up with challenger and lots of late Citra and cascade...
Perfect for summer (whatever day that may be)

[Nigel1969]

I'd already got the brew started, I went for Redimpz 1st option, was just to use up the grains. It smells amazing but will probably only end up as a 3.2% porter type thing. 2nd option may have been the best. Cheers anyway,

[Redimpz]

If you are looking to increase the alcohol you could add some white sugar at the end of the boil, another option would be to boil the sugar in some water until it caramelises (darkish brown) this will add some toffee flavours to the finished brew.
you would probably still be able to add it even though you are probably fermenting by now, ensure that anything you add has been boiled, let it cool down for a bit with a lid on the pan and add it carefully to the fermenter.

[seymour]

Since you said "porter type thing" you could also dump some brown sugar, molasses, and/or treacle into the boiler. Mmmmm!

[Nigel1969]

It's been fermenting now only a day, well 2 tomorrow. Would it be ok to add some boiled brown sugar, not sure how much. I need more alc, vol. Anything below 4% seems a waste of a brew to me.

[seymour]

It's been fermenting now only a day, well 2 tomorrow. Would it be ok to add some boiled brown sugar, not sure how much. I need more alc, vol. Anything below 4% seems a waste of a brew to me.

Yeah, definitely. That's a real technique too, sometimes called "continuous fermentation." It's a good way to increase the overall alcohol percentage without getting so many fusel "hot" alcohols, because the yeast does all the heavy lifting on the all-malt grainbill first, thus locking-in more traditional flavors before the much bigger and healthier population starts in on the subsequent simple sugars.

You can add as much as you want. Simply type all your fermentables into your favourite brew calculator/website/software to predict what the OG would've been if you'd done it all at once.

Cheers!

[Nigel1969]

Thanks Seymour, I'll do just that. I'm just experimenting with this brew anyway. Might even add some dried fruit, lol

[seymour]

Thanks Seymour, I'll do just that. I'm just experimenting with this brew anyway. Might even add some dried fruit, lol

I highly recommend chopped, dried apricots. It emphasizes a cool fruity ester which is already there from the ale yeast anyway. That's the secret behind the successful American craft beer Magic Hat #9.