Tom,
I remember the mash temp by MALT (More Alcohol, Lower Temps). I really try to hammer that lower end temp to convert more starch. You do sacrifice some body to get more conversion.

The Beano actually aids in converting more starch to sugar for the bugs to work on. The lower the final gravity, the lower the carb count. I'm going to have mine analysed one of these days to see where I'm at. If I'm in the 5-7 carbs per 12 oz., I'm a happy camper!

BTW, if you are interested I have an article from Brew Your Own magazine I could send you. Just PM me.

Bruce

Awesome, I love pnemonic devices.

I've made some stouts in the past, using oatmeal. THe brew club loved my "breakfast stout", named for the oatmeal and coffee beans in the recipe. I wonder if the soluble fiber in the oatmeal ups the body of the beer, without contributing too much in the way of carbs? Even a thin porter would be tasty though.

I'm PMing you right after I hit send.

M'kay, this is going to be the weirdest homebrew ever.

I'd post this on a homebrewing forum, but I'm too afraid of the Atkins-bashing beer snobs who don't understand that I'm not trying to make an award-winning homebrew here; I'm trying to go for lowest carbohydrate content while still tasting better (or at least less boring) than Labatt Sterling.

So thanks to Bruce's suggestions, here's how the recipe is shaping up:
4.4 lbs light DME
1 lb local unpasteurized honey (from the farmers market - it's fabulous)
2 oz roasted barley
1.5 oz Cascade hops (60 min)
.25 oz Cascade (15 min)
.25 oz (<1 min)
Cooper's yeast
Beano

I think I'm going to add the beano as soon as I pitch the yeast. I have no access to liquid yeast cultures. I have a packet of Cooper's and a packet of Nottingham right now. I want to go with the Cooper's because the last time I used it, it was *very* fast. I want to make sure it doesn't dally around with the Beano in there.

I might not use all of the DME. It's sold by the 1/2 kg here, so my packages are 1.1 lb each.

Thoughts?

Update, Sept 5 - I brewed 'er up less than 24 hours ago and she's fermenting like mad! Cooper's yeast is possessed. One thing I forgot to take into account is the temperature. My apartment is hot, even with the A/C on. The air temp is about 76. The fermentation temp is about 78. I'm doing the wet T-shirt trick to try to keep it down. Maybe I'll try this brew again in winter, with Nottingham yeast, when my poorly-insulated utility room gets down below 60.

I decided against adding the Beano until I transfer it. That's what the more experienced folks seem to be doing.

Update, Sept 27 - It's a little young, having only been bottled a couple of days ago, but it's really nice! Infinitely better than what I can buy from the megabreweries.

OG = 1.052 (Wow.)
gravity at transfer (9/10), before beano = 1.016
FG = 1.009

That's 6.6% alcohol.

Kristine,
Jeeze, it's 8 o'clock in the morning and I'm ready for a homebrew!

Hey, your recipe looks good to me! Let us know how it turns out. My only suggestion might be, only because I'm a hop head, is maybe up your hops a little. I guess I go on the high side of hopping because I love 'em and I get them free. Lots of hops grown here and we have a hop dealer is in our brew club.

Happy brewing!

Bruce

Heh heh... and I thought they were a little high! I'm a hop head, too. You must get a lot of nice Cascade (my fave) and Yakima around there. If/when I'm ever living in a house, I'd like to try growing my own.

I will let you know how it turns out. I'm probably going to do it on Sunday.

Looks tasty to me. I suppose this is for 5gal? Let us know what the initial and final gravities are.

We're headed to my wife's home town this weekend, that has a brewstore. I'm going to get stuff to make a nice low carb porter.

Yes, I can't lift more than 5 gallons onto the kitchen counter.

Gee, now I can't decide between my next batch being hard cider or a nice fall porter.

You make the cider first, and I'll make the porter. Then we'll switch and make the other.

I have taken to making half batches of stuff (2.5gal), its enough of a pain bottling a case at a time. And more fun to brew more often.

I did hit the brewstore, got extra dark DME, some roasted barley and both ale and champaigne yeasts. I'm going to brew with the ale, then spike it with champaign and beano later. The store has expanded their selection of pelletted and leaf hops, of course they were out of my Centennial. I selected a low alpha acid German Hallertau hop for this porter, figured I didn't need a lot of bitterness. I do need to brush up on my hop knowledge now that they carry so many.

What do you bottle in? Do you recycle bottles or always use new???
~JamesBlond~

I recycle my brown glass bottles. When I give beer to friends, they are under strict orders to rinse them and return. Else, no more free beer. You can't use the screw-top bottles, it has to be the ones that you open with a bottle opener.

I also have a nice collection of old pint soda bottles, Coke, Pepsi, Mountain Dew and Seven Up. I like putting my dark beers in the Pepsi and Coke bottles, reminds me of when I was a kid.

I recycle my bottles, too. It was fun building the collection. We drank an awful lot of Beck's, Tenant's, and a local micro called Steam Whistle.



Me, too. My LHBS carries the usual faire, but the place I order from online has all kinds I've never heard of: Amarillo, Glacier, Santiam... am I out of the loop or what?



I thought you were going to say, "and we'll trade 2.5 gallons each." Too bad you can't mail beer across the border...

I thought about that (trading booze), but even ignoring the legalities, the shipping would be outrageous.

They had some hops there that were in the 20% range for alpha acids, that is amazingly high. I liked the Centennial and it was 14%, and also had a nice aroma. Reviewing the characteristics of hops should be another neat internet task. Just got DSL at home, so I can do it at my leisure now. Though I like getting paid to surf, better.

How do you re-cap the bottles

I'm going to the library this weekend to check out a couple of books on this subject. Any recommendations???
~JamesBLond~

You need a bottle capper.

For books, I would recommend Charlie Papazian's "Complete Joy of Homebrewing". He's the grand poo-bah of homebrewing. John Palmer's How To Brew is also very good. I have it bookmarked. The whole book is published online.

Check out a forum like this one, too. Homebrewers tend to be a friendly bunch who are always willing to help out those less experienced. I hang out at The Brewboard.