Finlandia traditional ale hack

[Chris]

I was getting a few bits in HBC and saw these kits. Because of the cheap price I picked up a couple for a bit of experimenting.

So I'm taking suggestions, this is what I have in the larder;

LME
Clear candy sugar
Brown sugar
Roasted barley
Cara pils
Black patent
Special b
Chocolate malt
Assorted fruit and spices

US-05
US-04
T-58
Supplied yeast
Champagne yeast
Irish moss

Suggestions?

[Blueshed]

http://nationalhomebrewclub.com/forum/index.php/topic,688.0.html

should get some info here, got a few of the dark ale kits myself and plan on hacking them.

[LordEoin]

Do you have any hops in the larder?
I'd deffo use some of the darker grains and carapils with the S04 and some fuggles/EKG if you have them.
Or the US05, carapils and american hops like cascade/amarillo/chinook/etc

[Chris]

Forgot to put the hops in have,
Fuggles,
EKG,
Magnum,
Delta

[LordEoin]

option 1 so 

[Chris]

This is what I decided for one of the kits,

Finlandia Pale Ale Imperial stout.

100g Cara Pils
200g Belgian Special B
200g Chocolate
100g black patent
200g roasted barley
200g torrified wheat
100g rolled oats

Boil oats for 5 mins in 3 litres H2O
Top up to 8 litres, add grains and mash at 64deg one hour drain.
Sparge with 4 litres.

Add LME and brown sugar
Boil 60mins. 30g EKG at 15mins

Add 1kg finlandia pale ale kit.

Pitch onto US-05 yeast cake.

[LordEoin]

ooh, roasty 
Let us know how it turns out.

Boil 60mins. 30g EKG at 15mins

Why didn't you just boil for 15 minutes? Was there something else in the juice from the 60?

[Chris]

ooh, roasty 
Let us know how it turns out.

Boil 60mins. 30g EKG at 15mins

Why didn't you just boil for 15 minutes? Was there something else in the juice from the 60?

Your right I was thinking of a protein break but as its going to be dark it won't matter.

[loftybush]

I was just logging on to start this exact topic. Got my hands on the traditional kit.

I was thinking something like:
150g Cara Pils
200g Biscuit
200g Cara-amber
150g Flaked wheat

Wheat and cara-pils with the idea of bulking up body / head retention.
Biscuit for a bit of flavour, and the amber for a bit of flavour / colour.

Haven't worked out hops amounts and boil times but was thinking along the lines of:
Some magnum for a bit of a boil to up the bitterness, and a good bit of cascade at min 0?

Any advice, guidence, ect.

Edit:
Going to go 50/50 on LME & brewing sugar. 500g of each, and aiming for around 17-18lt

[Chris]

I was just logging on to start this exact topic. Got my hands on the traditional kit.

I was thinking something like:
150g Cara Pils
200g Biscuit
200g Cara-amber
150g Flaked wheat

Wheat and cara-pils with the idea of bulking up body / head retention.
Biscuit for a bit of flavour, and the amber for a bit of flavour / colour.

Haven't worked out hops amounts and boil times but was thinking along the lines of:
Some magnum for a bit of a boil to up the bitterness, and a good bit of cascade at min 0?

Any advice, guidence, ect.

Sounds good, would you consider keeping the cascade for Dry Hopping as the kit will probably have a bit of a hop profile of its own.

[loftybush]

Sounds good, will do.

How are my ratios of steeping grains? Too much cara-pils vs the rest?
Also, is there anything I have to go with the flaked wheat, or do I just throw it in with the rest of the grain?

[LordEoin]

Your carapils and other grain look fine. It's going to be a nice drop.

Maybe split your cascade for a 5-10 minute boil and the rest dryhopped like Chris said.
I've never used flaked wheat.
I'd probably ditch the brewing sugar and go with a 1.5kg can of LME or 1kg of DME. About 300g brewing sugar seems to be the tipping point in 23liters, 500g in 19L might kill some of the body you're going for.

[Blueshed]

Any update on this brew, plan on doing the dark ale kit soon.

[Eoin]

100g Cara Pils
200g Belgian Special B
200g Chocolate
100g black patent
200g roasted barley
200g torrified wheat
100g rolled oats

But none of those are diastatic malts and will not mash from what I understand. They all look like non-mashable malts to me without checking, have I missed something?

[LordEoin]

There's also the 1kg kit can for the fermentables.
The planned 12L puts the OG somewhere around 1.040 + whatever quantity of LME and brown sugar.
I've not used some of those grains so i'm not sure if any need a mash, but it doesn't look like it. But I see what you mean, no need to mash the grain, a steep will do fine (but a mash won't hurt)