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

[Mike Neilson]

Got myself some Black IPA being brewed up for the Wellington Brewers Confrence @ the Fork and Brewer on the 19th of this month, 

 

Black Sabbath II

 

66% Gladfield Pale

15% BB Caramalt

10% Briess Special Roast

5% TF Chocolate Malt

4% Caraaroma

 

69 Degree Mash

 

.5g/l Chinook FWH

2g/l Sorachi Ace, Chinook @ 6, 0

4g/l Centenial @ 6, 0

2g/l each Sorachi and Centenial 7 Day Dryhop

6g/l Centenial 3 day Dryhop

 

1.065 - 1.015 6.5%

40Ibu

1318

 

 

 

[MrC]

Looks good mike, IBUs look a bit low for you though :)

 

I'm brewing today too and mine looks & smells suspiciously like Wellington.

 

The big full moon tonight should make these beers awesome.

[Mike Neilson]

Yeah I dont like the higher IBU Blk IPAs kind of overwhelms the malt and leaves it a little thin in the malt, What you brewing? is this for Clemengers Wellington in a Pint, still dont get this? Rumour has it im brewing one of them on the big batch??  

[MrC]

Yeah it's for the Clemengers Wellington in a Pint comp.  It's yellow, weird, smells funny and will give you wind at both ends.

[Mark]

Brewing an Autumnal Brown Ale:

4.5kg MO

0.2kg Crystal 120

0.12kg Chocolate

0.08kg Brown

20g Challenger @ 60

safbrew s-33

Mashed @ 68.5

OG 1.050

IBU 25

Going for a more traditional malt focused beer.

[MrC]

That looks good too Mark.  I was thinking about S33 last night after drinking a Stoke Gold, Amber, Dark & IPA.  They all had a yeast character that reminded me of S33, in a good way too.  My closest Bookbinder clone used S33 too.  I think it's a good yeast as long as it attenuates well enough.

[Mark]

Agreed, I made an outstanding ordinary bitter with it, definitely keen to experiment a bit more with it.

[jt]

Got a darkie planned too, for tomorrow though nowhere near black IPA specs.
Dark crystal, pale chocolate, chocolate and black.
Super alpha @ 60 then Sauvin and Pacifica 20 10 and 1
1036 and 36 IBU
Tried it with '05 and it was a bit roasty schwartzy, bit different last time with 1099 and this time I'm giving 1968 a run

Cheers, jt

[Dougal]

Just put down my first lambic.
The grist was 60% pilsner 40% flaked wheat, and the interesting bit was abandoning my chillybin mashtun to do a traditional turbid step mash using BIAB. The crucial bit is pulling off some starchy unconverted liquor early and heating to 80C to halt conversion. After adding it back at the end for a hot mashout, (and no koppafloc in the boil) you end up with a fairly cloudy wort- the idea being that the starch provides additional fuel for the bacteria over time.

Pitched some slurry from a Flanders Red made with Wyeast Roeselare Blend... and now the waiting begins :-)  

[Liam Callaghan]

Sounds nice Dougal!

 

[Richard Deeble]

S-33 seems to be a great low gravity beer yeast. Loved using in an APA last year, clean enough to not squash the hops but left enough malt and residual sweetness to make it a great quaffer. Not sure I would ever ferment anything over 1060 though unless I mashed really low and added sugar.

Brewed my first full volume BIAB batch yesterday. I have been doing smallish batches using a chilly bin, lautering through a plastic bucket with a grain bag as a filter, then boiling with two pots (no wort chiller). Way too complicated and long winded, so it is was nice to actually have equipment that does what I wanted it to do with less effort.

Ascension Amber Ale (loosely based on Stone Levitation)

23 litre batch

4.25 kg Golden Promise
0.500 kg TF Medium Crystal
0.250 TF Dark Crystal
0.030 Carafa Special III

Mash at 157 for 60

15 g pacifica, 15 g US cascade at 60
15 g pacifica, 15 g US cascade at 30
40 g pacifica, 40 g US Cascade at 0

Pitched 1098, fermenting at 19. 

Hit my pre boil gravity perfectly but had a higher than expected evaporation rate (need to turn off a burner ring I think or use less water). Got nice and clear wort but had way more trub than I'm used to...ended up with only 17 litres of wort in the fermenter and had to top up with a bit of water. I guess thats the downside of BIAB and using an auto siphon to try and transfer the wort.

[Tilt]

Finally getting round to posting last weekend's brews.  My first double brew day - kept on my toes by a stuck sparge as well as a small boil over but an enjoyable day despite the odd hiccup.

1. Tripel Boonen - Belgian Tripel
OG after sugar added mid ferment: 1.082 SG

Color: 5.0 SRM
IBU: 30.3 IBU

Ingredients:
------------
74.5 % Wey Pilsner
  4.1 % Munich Malt
  2.8 % Wheat Malt
  2% Aromatic Malt

  9.6% Palm sugar added mid ferment

  6.9% White sugar added mid ferment

21 IBU Tettnang (80 min)
  6 IBU Pacific Gem (80min)
  3 IBU Saaz (10 min)

Starter Belgian Ardennes (Wyeast 3522).  Fermented starting low at 17 rising to 22 over a week.

2. Dark Heart - Belgian Stout (somewhere close to the Jolly Pumpkin "Madrugada Obscurens" but this one will stay bug free for now)

OG after sugar added: 1.074 SG
Color: 47.3 SRM
IBU: 32.6 IBU

Ingredients:
------------
43% Golden Promise (Bairds)
30% Munich Malt
4.3% Wheat Malt
2.9% Aromatic Malt
2.8% Chocolate Malt
2.8% Dark Crystal
2.8% Pale Chocolate Malt 
2.8% Roasted Barley
0.7% Black Malt

7% Muscovado sugar added mid ferment

1.5% Clover honey added mid ferment

25 IBU Pacific Gem 60min
9 IBU Styrian Goldings 15 min
Starter Belgian Ardennes (Wyeast 3522) Ferment started at 19 rising to 22 over a week.

1 week in and due to the difficulty in managing both these fermentations simultaneously in the same temp controlled fridge the stout has gone great guns and the krausen has dropped but he Tripel has taken its time and is still sitting at 1025.  There's still a thin krausen but its bloody slow so i'm thinking of pitching a sachet of S05 in a couple of days to finish it off.