Converting an APA to extract

Beer Recipes
1

For fun/experimentation, I want to take a recipe I’ve brewed successfully as [edit] all-grain at least twice, and brew it as an extract brew.

This is my top contender: http://beerdujour.com/Recipes/AmarilloPaleAle.htm

My initial thoughts are…

  1. Use a little base malt to do a mini-mash with the flaked barley and the crystal
  2. Use an extract that’s as close as possible to Maris Otter – most seem to be 50/50
  3. Use a Munich extract, but factor in that “Munich” extracts are around 50% non-Munich, so increase the proportion of Munich extract accordingly
  4. Do a full boil

Sound about right? Add all the extract at the beginning, or reserve some as a late-boil addition?

2

Since it’s only a lb. of Munich I’d be tempted to throw that in with the mini mash and not have to deal with Munich extract.  I’ve always added all the extract at the beginning, but I’m beginning to experiment with adding some early and the majority late.  No preferences yet.

3

Thanks, Denny. I like that idea about the Munich–it could be the “conversion” grain for the mini-mash. Would keep the recipe simpler, too. And I changed “all-grant” to “all-grain.” You can tell what’s been keeping me busy!

4

For a 3.5-gallon extract batch of Fred Bonjour’s Amarillo Pale Ale ( http://beerdujour.com/Recipes/AmarilloPaleAle.htm ) I came up with the following.

Corrected. At this point, the only advantage of the extract is that I was able to use my smaller (2-gal) MLT.

Batch Size (fermenter): 3.50 gal 
Bottling Volume: 3.10 gal
Estimated OG: 1.055 SG
Estimated Color: 11.2 SRM
Estimated IBU: 38.4 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 101.9 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:

Amt                  Name                                       
12.0 oz              Munich Malt (9.0 SRM)                     
6.0 oz                Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM)         
6.0 oz                Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM)       
1.50 oz              Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Boil 15.0 min     
2.00 oz              Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Boil 5.0 min       
1.00 oz              Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Boil 1.0 min     
1.0 pkg              Nottingham Yeast (Lallemand #-)           
0.50 Items            Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins)                 
3 lbs 8.0 oz          Pale Liquid Extract (8.0 SRM)                 
6 oz                Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM)               
6 oz                Barley, Flaked (1.7 SRM)                       
6. oz                Aromatic Malt (26.0 SRM)

The “pale liquid extract” in this case is Williams Brewing’s  Pale Ale (G30), which they say is a successor to a Maris Otter extract they once carried.

5

With 18 oz of diastatically active malts out of 42 oz total, I’d worry about conversion. You might want to add half a pound of base malt just to be sure.