I just found out that I have Sunday free. Since I have been dreaming of doing some brewing experiments I figured Sunday is brew day! I have three ideas that I want to try all rolled up into one brew session. First, I want to do a brew using Munich malt as the base malt (or even 100% of the malt). I want to get a better feel for some of the more special base malts. The last brew was with Vienna as the base, but that will be a sour ale so I don’t know how much I will learn about vienna from that. This Munich malt brew should give me a good impression of what Munich can do. The second experiment will involve splitting the batch between two fermenters. In one I will add Safale US-05, a neutral yeast so I can really taste the malt. In the second fermenter I will add Wyeast Brettanomyces Bruxellensis. I really want to get into brewing beers using wild yeast and bacteria so I figure I need to do an all Brett ferment. I am really curious about that. The third experiment may or may not actually happen, I haven’t decided yet. I was thinking of doing a no-sparge mash. This isn’t really all that interesting but I’d like to know if it really would save a lot of time on tight brew days. I’d end up with a mash that is about 20% less efficient than my typical batch-sparging but on a 1.050 OG beer it won’t need too much extra grain to make up for that.

Since I just decided I will be brewing, I haven’t finalized a recipe yet. Obviously it will be Munich based, but I don’t know if I will be adding anything to that. I want to get a feel for the Munich but I also would like something with some interest. Perhaps something like this then:

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Munich Malt 90%

Pale Wheat malt 7-8%

Belgian Chocolate Malt Debittered (800EBC) 2-3%

East Kent Golding 60 Min From End and perhaps a 20-30 minute addition. In total about 25 IBU.

Single infusion mash around 68C (154F)

Split ferment with half getting Wyeast Brett Brux and the other half getting US-05

…but then again, 100% Munich with EKG hops is an option. One of these days I want to do an 100% Munich IPA with EKG and Fuggles. I just like the idea, but for now I don’t want the hops to cover up the malt too much.