What's a good extract ale recipe that approximates the big-brewery/BMC-style beers?

Question

People are probably wondering why exactly I am looking to make a light, flavourless BMC-style beer. I personally enjoy better beers - my winters are full of stouts, porters, brown ales, great IPAs etc. However, there are times where a BMC-style light lager just hits the spot, such as when I am working outside in the heat during the summer. Also, most of my family, friends and wife equate these style beers with the term 'beer', and just straight up prefer them, so I'd like to have something comparable on hand for hospitality purposes as well.

I'd like to brew up a big batch of something that approximates the BMC-style beers in a reasonable fashion. Can anyone recommend a decent extract ale recipe that comes close to what you would expect from a BMC beer?

Answer 1

It's quite hard to get such a light color with extract, so start with the palest extract you can find (e.g. extra light pils extract.) To avoid too heavy a malt profile and to keep the mouthfeel in check for the style, use a large amount of adjuncts, up to 40% of , for example, table sugar, or glucose. If you start with hopped extract, aim for one in the range of 15-20 IBUs to keep the bitterness down, otherwise use a hop calculator and boil your hops for 30 mins to extract bitterness and some flavor.

Finally, carbonate well, around 2.5-2.7 volumes by adding the appropriate amount of priming sugar.

Despite the mocking that the BMCs of the world get, brewing something comparable is quite tricky for a homebrewer - to achieve a product that has relatively little flavor even smaller amounts of faults takes a good quality assurance panel and process.

If you want to pick up a kit, my first ever was a Coopers Blonde Ale, which came out very drinkable to people who normally only drink pale lagers.

Answer 2

I always found that using a late extract method with the lightest DME I could get and using some rice solids syrup as part of the fermentables made a great clean crisp lawnmower style beer. I also really like Liberty hops in these types of beers.

Something like this: 6 lb extra light DME 1 lb Rice Syrup 2 oz Liberty 4.5%AA (60min)

And good old Dry USO5 Ale yeast fermented cool (65F).

Answer 3

Like MDMA, I have found that Blonde ales are very palettable to the uninitiated drinker.

I think the big guys use more rice and less wheat or barley in their brews. this may accont for the lighter color.

if you search for clones of your favorite BMC you'll get a ton of hits on Google :)