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

[David Wood]

Brewed this American Stout the other day. It's version 2.0 of my second ever brew, with more hops! The first version was great, very excited about this one.

Pale Malt, Maris Otter (5.9 EBC) Grain 84.42 %
Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (39.4 EBC) Grain 5.19 %
Chocolate Malt (886.5 EBC) Grain 3.90 %
Roasted Barley (591.0 EBC) Grain 3.90 %
Black (Patent) Malt (985.0 EBC) Grain 2.60 %
40.00 gm Centennial [10.00 %] (20 min) (First Wort Hop) Hops 25.0 IBU
40.00 gm Centennial [10.00 %] (60 min) Hops 37.6 IBU
40.00 gm Williamette [5.50 %] (15 min) Hops 10.3 IBU
60.00 gm Centennial [10.00 %] (15 min) Hops 28.0 IBU
60.00 gm Williamette [5.50 %] (2 min) Hops 2.6 IBU
65.00 gm Centennial [10.00 %] (Dry Hop 7 days) Hops -

Got great efficiency, and now have 20L of 1.080 wort bubbling away. Someone needs to bottle the scent of hoppy beer fermenting, seriously.

[Barry]

Damn, that looks amazing David.

[jt]

Ok, from the Pilsner Help thread, weighed this out for 702, maybe a Saturday afternoon brew
86% Malturop
10% Munich I
4% Caramalt

1.040 with 1gm/litre of 34/70 from my favourite mail-order homebrew shop
I don't have any temperature control - apart from a chilly garage.
So the plan according to the guy in the shop is to chill as far as I can and then transfer to fermenter, no aeration
The leave to chill to ambient, probably 12C, overnight and then pitch the yeast

I had a change of heart over the hopping after a discussion with Brother Chris.
This one'll be all Motueka (which I liked in 599) and the following one from the re-pitch of slurry will be the Cascade/Motueka hopped batch

[jt]

I love brewing early morning, good routine and no distractions
As soon as I do something different I have problems.
This afternoon I forgot to take a preboil gravity, had a boil over, added the 10 minute hops at 15 mins .. messy

But, volume and gravity spot on and I still have half the hydrometer sample to sip too, can't be all bad ..

[Tony]

Aquarius Agua V.3

2 kg Marris Otter
2 kg Golden Promise
200 g Cara Munich
3 Wheatbix

5 g Calcium Carbonate to mash

Sticklebracht 40g for 60 minutes
NZ hallertauer 30g for 10 minutes
Nelson sauvin 25 g FO

Wyeast Czech pilsner

IBU= 77
ABV=4.5%

What has become my staple lager, revised a little. I can't seem to bring myself to brew the exact brew twice, no matter how good it is.

[Mark]

Whenever I see Wheatbix in your recipes I get a shock, do they really work?

[Tony]

Yup, they increase head retention in the beer. I was given this tip by a professional brewer and I have noticed a difference. I have been told cornflakes will achieve the same thing, something to do with the 'cereal' qualities (excuse the pun). One down side I have noticed, if you over carbonate the beer, you will really get a lot of head/ice cream. The other thing is it does tend to clog the mash, but I it is never a major problem.

[Mark]

might get the balls to try it one day! it doesn't affect flavour too much?

[Reviled]

I still reckon you are a crazy mofo for using wheatbix Tony ;o) But each to their own...

[Tony]

No for the amount you use (6 wheatbix per brew), it's not noticeable.And yes, I'm just your regular crazy mofo Tyler ;) Whats the worst it can do, but what I have already mentioned? No worse then adding any other weird and wonderful adjuncts like fruit or herbs for example. If you think about the flavour of wheatbix or cornflakes, they sort of go with the same flavours of barley and wheat anyway, maybe with a little sugar added.

[Matthew]

Yep 6-8 weetbix does wonders for head retention. I'll attest to that!

Oh and I've never had a hint of flavour from them either. No one knows ;-)

[Ally Mcg]

My secret shame is that I've used Cornflakes in a couple of beers Gives a nice soft sweet cornflake thing that people would mistake for actual maize. And its got vitamins and minerals in there, making the subsequent beer vitatastic and minerabulous