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]

I nearly have my Brett up to a pitchable amount and am going to brew this instead of the Barnyard Brown as the beer will be ready in Feb so it will be perfect time for drinking Blondes well at 6.5%

Bretted Blonde

60% Kolesh Malt
30% Wheat Malt
6% CaraPils
4% Caramalt

Mash @ 66-67

10-15% SG of Dextrose for Dryness

35Ibu 200g late additions of Motueka Riwaka and Nelson Sauvin

Split ferment with Stus Wlp550 (cheers) pitched @ 18 risen to 24 for the first 5 days
100% Brett Brux @ 25 Degrees

Maybee a few bottles Blended 30/70 vise versa and 50/50 it giving me a stiffy thinking about it!!

Any tips

[studio1]

A Belgian Strong:

5.20 kg .Pilsner, Bohemian (Weyermann) (1.3 SRM) Grain
0.35 kg .Caramunich II (Weyermann) (60.9 SRM) Grain
0.25 kg .Munich I (Weyermann) (8.1 SRM) Grain
90 min 1.20 kg Sugar, Table (Sucrose) (1.0 SRM) Sugar

60 min 65.00 gm.Golding, UK [4.80 %] (60 min) Hops

Wyeast Ardennes (Achouffe) repitched from a BPA. Hit my gravity spot on at 1.079!

IBUs 32

[jt]

A sweet brown'ish coloured ale planned for the weekend.
93% ADM Pils
3.5% Dark Crystal
2.5% Caramalt
1% Chocolate
14 IBU of Super Alpha to Bitter and 12 IBU Motueka from 30 minutes and I'll dry hop
1.038 to 1.009 and 26 IBU and US-05
I used to brew something similar as an extract with some Munich and wheat, but I'm off both of those at the moment and adding a bit of caramalt to bring the sweetness back in line with the extract version.

[jt]

Stucck mash for the second time in about 80 batches. The second batch running set solid as concrete. Sliced a few holes in it with the paddle - ran it off and recirculated and waited and drained, recirculated. Good efficiency into the kettle, just pissed off with the xtra time taken. haven't changed the barleycrusher from the factory settings, wonder if they slip over time, worth a check I guess

[Matthew]

All set to go for my first all grain brew. It's a small batch using the BIAB method.

Pale Ale:
2.00 kg Pale Maris Otter
0.20 kg Crystal Malt 30L

6.00 gm NZ Sauvin (60 min)
12.00 gm Cascade (45 min)
11.00 gm Cascade (15 min)
12.00 gm NZ Sauvin (5 min)
7.50 gm NZ Sauvin (0 min)
12.00 gm Cascade (0 min)

SafAle US-05

15.00 gm NZ Sauvin (Dry Hop 7 days)
15.00 gm Cascade (Dry Hop 7 days)

[Ally Mcg]

Looks a tasty recipe to me

Must be brewing a tiny quantity - something like 8 litres? Make sure you've got enough malt to back up the dry hopping.

[Matthew]

Aiming for 9L. It's 'Nano Brewing' (It'll catch on one day)

I have a little bit extra Crystal I'll probably throw in to make it 250-300gm. The hole idea is more around the process of doing all grain. I'd rather experiment with a little than jump in all guns blazing. Call it the pilot phase... :P

[jt]

I did a half batch on the stove top just before I got everything together and it was awful ! I oversparged trying to get a good volume and ended up with an over astringent beer. Moral of the story ? Don't push it too far. Hope it goes well

[Matthew]

Ah well, this is all part of the fun! I'll definitely let you know how I go. Brewing Saturday!

[denimglen]

The real moral of the story is that semi-batches suck because they're always the best and you wish you had brewed it full size. Then you brew something full size and it sucks so you should have only done a half batch on that experiment. Murphy's law of brewing eh?

[Matthew]

Had a pretty good brew session. Was aiming for 1.058 and got1.064, a bit more than I expected. I don't think I sparged with enough water, I must have screwed up my calculations because I came up a couple of liters short overall. Ah well, it was still tasting pretty promising anyway. Time will tell...

[MrC]

You could add some water (boiled & cooled) to increase the volume and decrease the gravity closer to your targets.