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

[MrC]

Yes that does help. I will review my planned recipes.
Cheers Joking

[denimglen]

Awesome, cheers joking.

Mr Cherry, you're going to use the caraamber then?

Bottle swap may be in order then to see what's what aye? :-P. Lemme know if you're keen.

Do you have Centennial or are you subbing with something? I swapped it for Amarillo and bittered with Pacific Gem.

[MrC]

Yes I will be using the caraamber and I will be substituting Amarillo for Centenial.

I have a lot of Mac's kits at the moment so I'll be brewing with them for a while using them as tests for specialty malts and hops.

This brew will be a "biscuit and hops" test for me using a Macs Kit as a base. I won't plan any bottle swaps until I've tasted them.

[Danimal]

OK, today I have started my summer German Pilsener. Using 5kg German Lager malt, 1.5kg Vienna. Using Pacific Hallertau (60g for 75 mins, then 25g for 1 min) and the new Crystal hop (20g for10 mins,). Got my handson some Bohemian Pilsener (WY2428). So far so good. Boiling now...

[MrC]

Two kitsperiment brews this wekend (both 11.5L).

Aye Caraamber!
This is a hoppy and hopefully biscuity APA.
1 x Mac's lager kit
Caraamber (200g)
Crystal 30 (100g)
Amarillo pellets (10g, 10 min)
Cascade cones (14g, 10 min)
Amarillo pellets (14g, 0 min)
Cascade cones (10g, 0 min)

Cherry Merry Christmas
This is my first attempt at a spiced beer.
Aiming for a toasty, xmas spiced beer with a reddish color designed for drinking on a hot NZ xmas day.
1 x Mac's lager kit
Crystal 40 (200g)
Crystal 120 (100g)
Caraamber (100g)
Brown (75g)
Pale Chocolate (45g)

Cinnamon (1/4 tsp)
Ginger (1/8 tsp)
Nutmeg (1/16 tsp)
Allspice (1/16 tsp)


Split a packet of US05 across the two brews.
Both bubbling away after 12 hours at 18c.
Both smelling great.

[denimglen]

How's that APA coming along?

Just cracked the keg on mine with the amber.

Not much 'biscuit' there but my biscuity sense is tingling, it's in there somewhere, I think, or maybe it's psychological. I don't think I should have halved the amount of amber.

Overall great recipe. Next time round I think I will up the amber by half of what I used. It came out a little grassy for me so I might double or half again the 0min addition and half the dry hop.

[Stu McKinlay]

"Kid Chocolate"

6.5kg Maris Otter
600g Crystal 90 EBC
400g Brown Malt
200g Pale Chocolate
100g Black Malt

Mashing at 69c. Expected OG is 1.038, for 45L.
60min boil. Not sure what I'll hop with yet, as it's a long mash while I look after the kids this afternoon, I'll probably go with NZ Fuggles (but I'll check the hop freezer first).

Slainte mhath
Stu

[jt]

That porch'd be a great place on a day like this Stu - swap you places ?

[Stu McKinlay]

In about half an hour? The kids will be up by then. Wind is just picking up, it was perfect all morning - we were paddling at Scorching Bay this morning as a couple of young french tourist couples washed themselves and smoked about a pack of cigarettes between the four of them. Nice place to wake up on holiday.

[jt]

Jeez Stu, it's tempting ... just had a squizz through the bino's .. can't quite see the jetty

I could always get Mum to write a note for the boss

[Stu McKinlay]

"Kid Chocolate"

6.5kg Maris Otter
600g Crystal 90 EBC
400g Brown Malt
200g Pale Chocolate
100g Black Malt

50g of 5.2% NZ Fuggle @ 60min
50g of 4.1% NZ Golding @ 15min

44L at 1.040, 25 IBU.
S04 yeast.

Bedtime... something stronger tomorrow.

[Stu McKinlay]

My first really really big beer - Imperial "Black IPA" (I once did an Imperial Red but it only lasted a couple of months because I kept sampling it so much - an it was only 1.080).

25L

73% ADM Pilsner
9% Munich II
9% Crystal 90 EBC
5% Pale Chocolate
3% Black Malt
1% Roast Barley

60 IBU of Sauvin at 60min
Then 45 IBU of NZ Cascade and Imperial Styrian at 20, 15, 10, 5 and 0min (300g all up).
I've got 100g of Cascade flowers for dry-hopping the fermenter.

There's so much hop in there, I'm not sure I can get a proper gravity but it's looking like somewhere around the 1.100 mark. It's been sitting for 90min since the boil finished, I'm going to try to fill the fermenter now... wish me luck.

I'll try to save 10L, at least, for Kieran's Winter Solstice party in June.