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

[Matt Lory]

Brewed a Simcoe Blonde today, currently awaiting the kettle to cool enough for transfer to the fermenter.

95% GP; 5% Carapils to pre-boil gravity 1.048; OG 1.056 (however, I got much better efficiency than expected and overshot my pre-boil gravity at 1.052, so expecting actual OG to be 1.060 or 1.061 )

Hopped entirely with Simcoe: 15g@60, 30g@15, 40g@flame-out to 43IBU

I'm trying out BRY-97, will be interested to see how that comes - anyone had an experience with it?

Cheers, Matt.

[Matt Lory]

(terrible) picture of first runnings certainly the best wort clarity we have had yet.

[Peter Smith]

BRY-67    about to bottle first use, it goes off real fast even with temp control rig a blow off you will need one!!!

crazy action inside carboy during ferment,  took 5 days at 18 C 

dropped out very well and I racked to secondary for dry hop citra IPA clone

[Tonz]

Newbie planning an easy peasy Extract Brew for the weekend, anyone care to comment, esp on the hop additions. I’m trying to create something middle of the road.

3.0kg LME

.200 DME (used in my 2L starter)

Hops

20g Fuggles @ 60

20g Fuggles @ 15

1 heaped tsp Irish Moss @ 10

20g Cascade @ 5

Safale US05

 

Batch Size 20L

OG 1050  --  FG 1013   =>  4.8%

IBU 21.9

 

[jt]

I'd just question the need for a starter. A single packet of 05 is ok to ferment a 20 litre batch of 1050 ale.

Have a read of recent posts about some extract brews finishing higher than expected too

Cheers, jt

[Tonz]

Hi JT, Thanks for the comments. Reason I was going to use a starter was to hurry things along alittle. I searched back to Dec (What are You Brewing) for the post you said to check out but couldnt find them. I dont want my brew to be any higher than 5% for a while, as the misses still has me on probation from the last two high OG brews, came out at 9 & 8 %  lol -  can laugh about it now - but wasnt funny at the time :-(

[jt]

http://www.forum.realbeer.co.nz/forum/topics/fg-1-022-too-high-stuc... was the most recent one ....

[Tonz]

Thanks for that info. I'll keep a watch out. What do you think of my hop additions. Would you be inclined to up the 15 & 5 mins like Richard suggested? If so see my reply to him below.

[Richard Deeble]

Looks pretty good to me for an easy drinking ale. I might add a tad more hops at 15 and 5 to add a little more flavour but that is more my personal taste than something hard and fast.

I'd second what JT said about a starter. Unless you are repitching yeast from another batch, I would just rehydrate your dry yeast in some pre-boiled warm water. If you are sprinkling dry yeast directly into a starter you end up killing about 50% of the existing cells anyway and you certainly have enough yeast to ferment the beer in the pack on its own.

[Peter Smith]

what OG is the point at which you would pitch 2 packs or a starter and how does temp of ferment effect that ie a 1.075 ipa starting at 18 degrees?

what if stronger larger but starting lower?

[Kelly Milligan]

The Mr Malty calculator has a really handy dry yeast calculator :) http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html

I think the fermentis packs are supposed to have 220b (11.5g packs) cells per pack or something like that? so 20L @ 1.050 = 1 pack.

[Tonz]

Hi Richard, I'm gonna take Yours & JT advice and skip the starter. I just wanted things to happen a little faster lol. Re: hop additions, I only have Czech Saaz pellets (alpha 2.9%) available at short notice. Do you recomend adding these at 15 & 5. If so how much on top of what Ive already got ! ! !