BrewBrain Sports Investing

My first attempt at this beer went into the bucket last night.  I decided to make a lighter beer, both in color and in ABV.  It should clock in at just under 5% ABV.

For my 5 gallon batch, I used 8# MO Pale Malt, 1# honey malt, 1# Crystal 10 Malt and 1/4# Pale Chocolate malt.  The chocolate malt darkened things up a bit, but not too much.

I didn’t want to go too far with hops as I want the chai to sort of fill that roll.  I used 8oz Northern Brewer at the 60 minute mark.  At flame-out, I steeped 4 Double Spiced Chai tea bags for a few minutes.  I’ll cut up four vanilla beans and soak in vodka for a week or so before adding them to secondary for at least a week, maybe two.  Then I’ll bottle it all up and hope for the best.  I’m hoping it is drinkable, but fully expect to need to make some adjustments before the recipe is declared final.  My bet is I used too many chai bags for such a light grain bill.

The goal is a light, sweet malt backbone with noticeable, but not overpowering chai and vanilla flavors mixing well with chocolate notes.  I suspect I’ll get a barely perceptible malt presence overpowered by humongous volumes of harsh chai flavors masking any hint of $20 vanilla been additions.  We’ll see.