Northern Brewer German Alt Extract Kit

Specialty Grains

  • 1 lb. Durst Medium Crystal

Fermentables

  • 6 lbs Munich LME
  • 1 lb. Amber DME
  • 3.3 lbs. NB Gold LME

Boil Additions

  • 1 oz. Spalt (60 min)
  • 1 oz. Spalt (60 min)
  • 1 oz. Spalt (60 min)

Yeast

  • WLP029 - German Alt/Kolsh

Notes
This turned out OK. I made a typical n00b mistake, and underpitched. For as high as the OG was on this batch, I should have used a starter. I ended up dumping most of this batch. The fermentation never really finished and it ended up being really sweet.

2 Responses to “Northern Brewer German Alt Extract Kit”

  1. Hello, visiting from your link on NB.

    This same recipe is in my secondary now. Looks like you up’d the gravity quite a bit. I used 5# Munich LME and 2.25# pale LME (what I had left from other batches). Same grain & hops.

    I used US-56, and it was still 1.016 going into the secondary after 12 days in the primary. Other similar gravity batches at this temperature (~62F) went right to 1.010~1.012 in less time. So, I am a bit worried this may end up too sweet. I wonder if the munich LME is less fermentable?

    I don’t think 1.016 will be so sweet that I’d dump it - did you get a FG reading? I will force carb a 1L sample and taste before I bottle. If it is too sweet, I ay try for a really dry beer and then blend them. Hope it does not come to that.

    Nice site.

    Happy Brewing - Ken

  2. Hey Ken…this batch is long gone :-(

    It was very sweet and didn’t carb well. At the time, I knew if I chose to drink it that it would take a long time to work through all the bottles, so I dumped it - mostly so I could free up the bottles for my next batch.

    The Alt was one of my first extract batches, and I think I made a few n00b mistakes, namely not using a starter, not oxygenating, and keeping the ferment temps too cool. I’ve moved on to all-grain now, and would be very interested in brewing up the AG version of this beer at some point in the future.

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