I wanted to do this for awhile. The challenge is to still have a full bodied beer with the appropriate bitterness. After doing a lot of studying with all the differing opinions I came up with my own approach.
Keys I used:
Higher mashing temperature – 157 Degrees F. to get more body and less ferementables.
Added a small amount of oatmeal to improve body.
After the boil, reduced the wort temp to 180 degrees and added hops. Let it steep for about 30 minutes. Trying to get some of the hop flavors without boiling off.
This came in at about 4.7% ABV.
I tapped the keg yesterday and I am very happy with the result. I don’t know if I will have any left by the January meeting since this was a 2.5 gallon batch. I am thinking of making another batch.