What are you brewing?

[nzbrewer]

Since this is the most popular thread on the RealBeer.co.nz forum I thought I would start it here just to see what happens

[Edward Siddle]

you got it just right! i've never really bothered with them, but as far as i can tell, that's textbook!

[Stu McKinlay]

I was just reading a Zymurgy article about some of the small "craft" lager breweries in Germany. Diacetyl rest is severly frowned upon there (I suppose it is a modern commercial invention to decrease need for lagering). The German lager brewers, according to the article, are into pitching very cold and allowing it to rise a degree or two during fermentation - certainly not into the pitch-and-cool method used by lots of homebrewers. The article talks about how they pitch massive quantities of yeast, usually purchased from larger breweries nearby, and how most of them don't have any idea what strain it is. The large pitch drops pH and that, combined with the cool temps, keeps the risk of infection very low. It was quite interesting. Their pitching process was surprisingly unscientific - all volume-based ('x' number of sterlised milk jugs per hectolitre) with no cell counts or vitality checks. Lots of talk of open fermenters too.

[Edward Siddle]

if you have a look at the ron pattinson/barclayperkins link i posted a few posts ago that little brewery - and most of the ones he visited - use open fermenters. i guess they can be bothered cleaning their fermentation areas! i certainly can't (at least not to the degree i'd need to).

i don't like pitch high and cool later either, for my lagers. I usually try and get it as low as possible (which means 12C in winter) and then pitch plenty, and i'm not very scientific either. it's a habit i got from reading dave miller's homebrew book, which is where i learnt my grain brewing from. even mr malty i can't quite be bothered with.....interesting about diacetyl rests, i always thought they were standard practice. but then i do allow the bottled beer to condition up at around 14C so maybe it is effectively getting this kind of rest at that point.

[Stu McKinlay]

I'm the same Ed. I played a lot of golf as a youngster and saw a lot of guys go from good to average when they got too "scientific". Same sort of thing with brewing, it's good to know enough about the science without knowing too much... I use Mr Malty but "0.6 packs" is just a sprinkle and an estimate. I know now that a 1.045 ale is pretty nice with a full pack of dry yeast. 1.030 likes a bit less and 1.080 needs a couple.

[HerrSchnapps]

Okay, so the stout is to be brewed tommorrow (finally, exams finished!), but seeing as I now have two weeks off, and the pilsner won't be out of the secondary for another 3 weeks, I thought I'd devise a porter recipe to follow right on after the stout (can't let the primary fermenter sit dormant for too long!), gotta get my dark beers out of the way for now...

NZ Brown Porter (23L):

3.6kg Light LME
350g Crystal 70 L
250g Chocolate
100g Black Patent
15g Pacific Gem (13.9%) @ 60 mins
15g NZ Hallatuer (5.2%) @ 30
10g NZ Hallatuer @ 10
Safale s-04
+ irish moss at 20mins
and ferment in the hot-water cupboard

Should come out to OG: 1.052, SRM: ~30, IBU: 24
I do have styrian goldings (for the stout), which I thought about using, but I liked the idea of all NZ hops (and price + I came accross some organic porter recipes which used Pacific Gem and NZ Hallatuer, and I already have both...)
Thoughts please? :)

[Nicholas Jones]

I know it was a wee while ago, but how did this porter turn out ?? Looks like a solid recipe, and I have all of these ingredients as well. Have some nice coffee beans to which I may add a couple of ounces to late in the primary...

[Martin Bridges]

I'm thinking of doing a partial mash version of my Altbier. My plan was to keep the 1.5kg of speciality malts (crystal, munich & vienna) but replace some of the LME with Pale Ale malt. How much Pale should I be using - an equivalent amount to the specialty grains or more? I have a reasonable-sized pot to mash in and a pretty big sieve/pasta strainer through which I'll pour the wort. However, I don't want to overdo the grain.

Thoughts

Martin

[MrC]

Hi Martin

I had a similar dilemma with my first partial mash. I would recommend using one can of LME (1.6kg John Bull) and mash enough grain to try and reach to target OG. You could try plugging figures into one of the online calculators but off the top of my head I would say 2.5kg of pale malt would roughly equate to the other 1.6kg of LME. You could go for 3kg of pale just in case your extraction is poor (like mine was). If your gravity ends up too high, you could add some cooled boiled water to reach you target OG and of course, get more beer.

[Horace]

When I convert recipes I use

Pale malt x 0.8125 = LME
Pale x 0.6875 = DME
Wheat malt x 0.937 = liquid wheat malt (if you can find it)

Obviously divide by those numbers to get the reverse.
Found these in a book - Homebrewers Recipe Guide from memory

and it will vary a little with your efficiency

[Tony]

Finally got the oatmeal stout down, my first full mash!

Final recipe:
2.7 KG pale malt
400 g roasted barley
500 g oats
150 g crystal malt
300g chocolate malt
50g NZ super alpha @ 12.5% AA at start of boil
50 g UK Fuggles @4.3% AA at end

OG= 1.056

I had a problem in that my first lot of yeast failed! I have repitched it and it is happily fermenting now.

Fingers crossed! It smells rich and full at any rate. The wort I tasted from the hydrometer had a dark, roasted front with the bitterness coming through to the end. I will see how it changes through fermentation?

Thanks for the help guys.

[Stu McKinlay]

Fug 'n' Oats! Nice one Tony. Looks like a bitter brew. Welcome to the all-grain world. It's less scary than it seems, isn't it. You'll never look back now.

[Edward Siddle]

looks a great recipe tony, hope fermentation goes smoothly and you get a great beer. as stu said it could be quite bitter so give at least some of your bottles time to mature (eg. up to 3 months - put a few aside) and see how they change over time, it is always interesting to observe their development. which yeast did you use in the end? saf04?