Homebrewers Bible - Grains

[D_Rabbit]

So Made, what I call the "Homebrewers Bible to Yeast, Hops and Grains".

I printed out several pages of info and stuck them in a binder and than I took all the yeasts out there and made a document of them all and printed that and added that to the bible. I wanted to post the links to the Grains and hops here and will attach a word document or pdf file for the hops in the hop thread.

Here is the link to all the different grains along with descriptions of each on.

http://www.onebeer.net/grainchart.html

[Beer-lord]

Nice......saved. Thanks!

[Dawg LB Steve]

Thanks for the stickies!

[Gman20]

thanks man

[Dawg LB Steve]

Thanks D_Rabbit, Good info!

[mashani]

This is in general great info.

There are things in this document however that I do not agree with - which is not your fault in any way, I know you pulled all this information from other places and consolidated it. So *do not* take any of this personally, it is not meant to be... but I think it needs mentioning before folks totally rely on a document.

For example:

Molasses - Imparts strong sweet flavor.

This is not right IMHO. It imports a strong bitter iron flavor, more so with some types then others. But everything sweet about it ferments out. It only still tastes like molasses sweet if your bill provides enough back sweetening keep it tasting "mollassey". Molasses can easily ruin a perfectly good beer if you use too much. Depending on your taste threshold, too much might not be very much. It works best in sweeter beers.

This is in general true with any kind of sugar adjunct that has a strong flavor and that will ferment fully or nearly fully. The flavors left behind are not what you expect because what you expect is what it tastes like with the sugar still in it... without residual sugar, the taste can be radically different unless your grain bill provides enough sweetness to counter this.

Special B - Extreme caramel aroma and flavor.

I don't think of Special B as providing a lot of caramel except perhaps in the lightest versions which are similar to 120L. If I want a stronger caramel I use 60L or 80L. To me, it really imparts a lot of dried plum/raisin/dark fruity flavors more then caramel. Honestly even 120L crystal and lighter Special B to me provide a lot of dried fruit notes. Too much of it, especially the darker stuff, can produce some unwanted roasty flavors that can really mess up a beer (especially a Belgian) where it is not intended or appropriate. But because of this you can use the really dark stuff instead of chocolate malt if you want those roasty notes like you would get from chocolate malt, along with a boost of dark fruit but have it be a bit smoother then if you used the same amount of chocolate malt.

There is more, I could nitpick this stuff all day, I'm just mentioning it as you might want to go look at some alternative sources, and perhaps read some grain descriptions at MoreBeer or Northern, and see if they jive with your original sources, and perhaps tweak the document accordingly.

I didn't look at the hops one yet, but I probably would have some similar thoughts there, as tastes are subjective and individual.... it won't hurt to pull from other sources and add more detail in any case.

[zorak1066]

OO OOOOO! I GOT ONE!!!

brown sugar... when I used it (in a stout of all things) the yeast ate all the sugar and left the molasses which made for a very strange beer. drinkable but way off tasting. today's brown sugar is mostly processed / refined sugar with molasses added in varying amounts. it was like drinking black licorice beer.

[BigPapaG]

Nice job Dan!

So, as long as we are on the topic of changes... We should discuss how you propose we submit 'adds' a well as updates / changes...

I'm sure myself and other Borg will be happy to assist in finding info!

Some of the grains that are now available (for example Oak Smoked Wheat Malt) are missing...

Same for some of the newer yeast strains (Belle Saison, Abbaye, stuff from some ofthe newer yeast labs) and hop vareties (Austrailian, New Zealand, Japanese, etc)

[ScrewyBrewer]

Great post Dan, thanks for sharing! I've got it bookmarked for future reference, keeping in mind that I've never added molasses or special b to any of my recipes yet. .

[Beer-lord]

I use Special B often enough. I first used it on an Arrogant Bastard clone. It wasn't AB but it was a damn good IPA.
It's very slightly nutty but I only use it sparingly, like 1/4 to 1/2 lb in 6 gallons. It's perfect in brown ales too!

[D_Rabbit]

Just an FYI, I didn't do anything with the grains or hops besides bookmark it myself. If anyone wants to make a spreadsheet or word document with it and updates some of the characteristics on it than feel free to do so and upload it when you have it done. I just find it useful on occasion for a quick reference along with some of my other tools I use like Beersmith.

[RickS]

I tried to upload a spreadsheet that I did in Excel, for the grains, but I am not able to upload the file. It says that the file extention is not allowed.

[D_Rabbit]

I tried to upload a spreadsheet that I did in Excel, for the grains, but I am not able to upload the file. It says that the file extention is not allowed.

I was having that issue with the yeast one. beerlord seemed to find a work around to it by changing thr format to .zip instead of the .doc or .pdf and it worked. just have to remeber to change it back after downloading.

[M42]

Outstanding! Thank you.

[RickS]

Here is D Rabbit's list in Excel format. Change the format back to .xlxs after you download it.