Frankenstein beer...should I?

[CDS]

This is just for fun. I was bored today, so I decided to input all of my "odds and ends" grains that I have leftover from other brews into Brewfather to see what would happen. Here's the grain bill:

930 g Munich Light
913 g Pilsen Malt
700 g Caramel Malt 40L
364 g Canada Malting Co 2-Row Malt
333 g Melanoidin
313 g Pale Ale Malt
311 g Maris Otter
271 g Pale Chocolate
186 g Amber Malt
137 g Victory Malt
135 g Carared

Resulting vitals are:
Original Gravity: 1.044
Final Gravity: 1.010
ABV: 4.5%
Color: 26 SRM

What do you all think? Foolishness? Waste of time and grain? Or should I just have some fun and try it? If you think I should do it, what hop and yeast suggestions do you have?

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

Base malts (62%)

• 913 g (20%) Pilsen Malt
• 364 g ( 8%) Canada Malting Co 2-Row Malt
• 313 g ( 7%) Pale Ale Malt
• 311 g ( 7%) Maris Otter
• 930 g (20%) Munich Light

"character" malts (38%)

• 700 g (15%) Caramel Malt 40L
• 333 g ( 7%) Melanoidin
• 135 g ( 3%) Carared
• 137 g ( 3%) Victory Malt
• 186 g ( 4%) Amber Malt
• 271 g ( 6%) Pale Chocolate

Another option would be to get some additional "2-row" and make two franken-beers.

 

[Drewch]

Go for it. What's the worst that could happen?

 

[Gusso]

Most of my beers are Frankenstein. I just wing it on my brews. I have a good idea on what makes sense.

 

[Alan Reginato]

Make your own recipes is awesome!

I've already done something like that.
IMO too much caramel malt, proportionally. Cut off the 40L.

Avoid "sweet" hop flavour, like fruit/citrus. If it's going to be a dark beer, target and northern brewer matches. But if you have some hops leftovers, why not?

Cheers!

 

[Barbarossa]

Like @BrewnWKopperKat mentioned, that's a lot of specialty and not a lot of base malt.

But if you like sweet beer, go for it!

 

[duffy5018]

Do it. I just used about 50% of my leftover grains from other brews and made a jalapeno lager I'm calling "House Money Jalapeno" since all the grains are basically "house money". So far seems pretty solid after about a week in the fermenter under pressure (using Mexican lager wlp940).

Though, as stated above, I'd probably half the caramel 40 or it may be pretty sweet.

 

[Dland]

Defiantly gonna end up w a "dessert beer", too sweet for my taste, but I'm sure some would like it.

 

[cmac62]

I'd save all of the c40 for another beer, and keep both the yeast and hops understated. If you're going to do it you may as well taste your creation and use S05 or 001, or one of the cleaner Kveiks, and maybe an oz or 2 of high alpha at the boil. Sounds like fun.

 

[NickTheGreat]

As long as you know what's going into it.

One time I mixed all my odds and ends spices and rubbed a pork butt with it. It was wonderful, but impossible to reproduce.

 

[Beermeister32]

I think we’ve all made Frankenbrau out of leftovers at one point or another.

I would agree that the caramel and dark malts should be reduced, you will enjoy the beer more that way rather than turning it into a malt bomb.

I’ve made one of those, it takes a long time to drink 5 gallons of sweet, dark, malt bombed Frankenbrau!

 

[grampamark]

double post

 

[grampamark]

The OP didn’t mention a batch size. The base grains total a little over 6 lbs, which would produce 2.5-3 gal of 1.040-1.050 beer. Add 6-8 oz of the caramel 40, hop appropriately, and it would be a Pale Ale. Add 3-4 oz of the chocolate to that grain bill, hop appropriately, and it would make a Porter. Save the other specialty grains for future use.

As almost everyone has mentioned, throwing everything into the pool is going to make a real malt bomb. Better, I think, to use most of the stash for something which could be enjoyed, rather than use it all and have to choke down the results.

 

[tracer bullet]

The OP didn’t mention a batch size.

...

Better, I think, to use most of the stash for something which could be enjoyed, rather than use it all and have to choke down the results.

Completely agreed. For 5 gallons maybe add a bunch of 2-row and then it won't be nearly so nuts on the specialty grains. And probably choose one, maybe 2 grains to tweak in %age and head some sort of direction with it.

Might depend on how often you brew, too. I used to go willy nilly but stepped back and chose ~ 10 recipes to keep repeating until I really dialed them in. I'm close on some and not at all there on others, and either way making much better beer now. Where I'm going is - if you brew all the time then this could be fun to just go for it. If not so much and you kinda care about your results, you might want to think twice about this one.

 

[bwible]

The OP didn’t mention a batch size. The base grains total a little over 6 lbs, which would produce 2.5-3 gal of 1.040-1.050 beer. Add 6-8 oz of the caramel 40, hop appropriately, and it would be a Pale Ale. Add 3-4 oz of the chocolate to that grain bill, hop appropriately, and it would make a Porter. Save the other specialty grains for future use.

As almost everyone has mentioned, throwing everything into the pool is going to make a real malt bomb. Better, I think, to use most of the stash for something which could be enjoyed, rather than use it all and have to choke down the results.

And thats a crapload of melanoidin malt for a 3 gallon batch. Almost 12 oz.

One of the best brown ales I ever made was by using up odds and ends leftover grains

 

[dwhite60]

Most of my beers are Frankenstein. I just wing it on my brews. I have a good idea on what makes sense.

I agree 100%. I know what I like. I'll just check my inventory and see what the universe tells me to put together. I do plug everything into BrewTarget just to check bitterness, gravity, etc. I don't brew to defined stores.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

@Gusso, @dwhite60: what's your sense that OPs reciepe would be a good recipe for you?

 

[CDS]

And thats a crapload of melanoidin malt for a 3 gallon batch. Almost 12 oz.

One of the best brown ales I ever made was by using up odds and ends leftover grains

Sorry - forgot to mention the batch size I input was for 5.5 gallons and BIAB.

 

[dwhite60]

@Gusso, @dwhite60: what's your sense that OPs reciepe would be a good recipe for you?

I didn't say it would be a good one for me. It's his beer. He can make what he wants. I agree with others in that the specially grains need to be thinned out especially the melanoidin.

 

[grampamark]

And thats a crapload of melanoidin malt for a 3 gallon batch. Almost 12 oz.

One of the best brown ales I ever made was by using up odds and ends leftover grains

I wasn’t including the Melanoidin; only the base malts.

 

[Gusso]

@Gusso, @dwhite60: what's your sense that OPs reciepe would be a good recipe for you?

Personally, not my cup of tea. I don't keep a lot of specialty grains on hand, I rarely use caramel malts. Plus, I like big beers.