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

[Reviled]

Old ale blend eh? Nice bro, should turn out good with that styrian/motueka blend!

Steve was saying the brett from the Porter noir should kick off in my old ale....... In about 6 months :o( lol, bloody bugs, i cant believe they take so long??

[Mike Neilson]

Yeah Could be right!! I'll get you some Brett before that though!!

[jt]

Brewing a Cascade amber ale on the weekend, weighed out last night. Brewed it before with W1275 before I went dry
87% ADM Pils
2.5% Chocolate
1% Pale chocolate
6% Medium Crystal
3.5% Caramalt

1.040 with US 05 15IBU Cascade to bitter and 15 IBU flavour

[JoKing]

Looking to do a traditional / new world (bit of an oxymoron isn't it?) type ESB. I want big malt presence with some background new school hop flavours. That's all the Maris Otter I have left, but feel free to comment on the recipe - I've been pretty crap at making English style brews.

Amaillo ESB
8-C Extra Special/Strong Bitter (English Pale Ale)
Author: J Wood

Size: 24.39 L
Efficiency: 85.0%
Attenuation: 73.0%
Calories: 189.43 kcal per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.057 (1.048 - 1.060)
Terminal Gravity: 1.015 (1.010 - 1.016)
Color: 23.85 (11.82 - 35.46)
Alcohol: 5.43% (4.6% - 6.2%)
Bitterness: 40.3 (30.0 - 50.0)

Ingredients:
4.4 kg Maris Otter Pale
0.75 kg Munich TYPE II
.250 kg Crystal 15
.100 kg British Dark Crystal
30.0 g Amarillo (8.4%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min
35.0 g Amarillo (8.4%) - added during boil, boiled 15 min
35.0 g Amarillo (8.4%) - added during boil, boiled 0 min
1.0 ea WYeast 1968 London ESB Ale

Schedule:

00:03:00 Mash In - Liquor: 13.75 L; Strike: 74.85 °C; Target: 67.0 °C
01:03:00 Mash - Rest: 60.0 min; Final: 66.0 °C
01:33:00 Sparge - Sparge Volume: 22.95 L; Sparge Temperature: 75.6 °C; Runoff: 23.02 L

[Martin Bridges]

Looks pretty good to me. Little bit paler than my version, which will be in the case swap. It's cold conditioning now, just waiting for a keg to go into.

That's my kind of malt profile, anyway. Will be interesting to see how the Amarillo works with that.

[Mike Neilson]

What I recomend you do is brew this and get me a bottle of it as is looks very good!!

[JoKing]

I'll bring some bottles down with me when I come stay at your place next month brother...

[Mike Neilson]

Sweet more beer to drink!!!!!

[Stu McKinlay]

Why the munich? I played around with Munich after getting into the Brewing Network a couple of years ago. Now I'd not bother, it just messes with the English malts. You could go a little pale caramalt instead. Or some amber if you want to up the malt aromatics. I find it lifts the nutty biscuit character a bit.

Make sure the CO2 volumes are low and serve through your new system. If they are, I'm sure you'll brew a cracking beer. A couple of weeks warm conditioning and a little dry hop... It'd almost get me on a plane.

[JoKing]

I was planning on using Maris Otter for the entire base, but weighed it out last night to find out that I dont have enough... Now - I do have half a sack of Pilsner, and a few kilos of Munich II. I figured that if I wanted a full malt profile, I'd be better off with the Munich than the Pilsner, so I want for the Munich.

As far as the Caramalt goes, that Crystal 15 is it: 30ebc - I love that stuff. I'm almost tempted to double it, and whack 250 grams off the munich... but then I'm down to my last kilo of that too! Pretty much all my Pale Ales and IPAs has the CaraMalt in it... it's so damn good! If I could use that as a base malt, I would! I reckon you could easily go up to 25% with that stuff in some beers.

Anyhow... I know I'm safe with the Munich malt... but preferably would want the lot to be Maris Otter.

[Stu McKinlay]

Fair enough... I'd probably go the Munich over the Pilsner too.

[jt]

I think we've been through the Munich discussion before.
When I was dithering over the lack of Munich for a recipe JK recommended dropping the Munich and just mashing a little higher.
I used 5 or 10% in some recipes religiously until Jan / Feb , but haven't used it since and have been happier with the beers.
But there again, it's all subjective according to your own tastes which is the good part about brewing.
You have the ultimate say and can get the brewer to tweak recipes to suit you - something you can't do with bought beer !