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

[Stu H]

Today I put down a bastardised version of Jamil's Dunkleweizen.

 

I got confused between two recipes at the LBHS and ended up getting too much Special B, and Crystal, and not enough Munich. I also failed to rouse my 3068 slants (they're pretty old though), so decided to use my unused pack of 3056 (Bavarian yeast blend).

 

So yeah, this one will probably not taste at all like Jamil intended, but hey, at least the yeast cake should be decent enough sized for the Weizenbock I want to brew next.

 

OG 1.052

Mash @ 67

.9 kg Pilsner Malt (Organic)
3.13 kg Pale Wheat Malt
.9 kg Munich Malt Type 1 
.27 kg Special B - Caramel malt
0.2 kg Crystal 65
.057 kg Carafa Special

17 IBU Hallertauer Tradition (6.0%) 

WYeast 3056 Bavarian Wheat Blend (quite a big starter actually, 4L)

 

Ah well, at least it'll be beer :)

[Michael]

I reckon it would still be interesting to drink. You may be pleasantly surprised!

[Stu H]

Hah, let's hope so!

[Ralph]

Put down version 2 of a APA with Nelson Sauvin and NZ Cascade last night. The first version went down really well with mates and most of my bottles are gone and it has only been about a month since I brewed it! Version 2 is going to be more of a hop monster. No 60min hops, all bittering from 10 and 5 min additions... will see how it goes!

 

 

[Martin Bridges]

I decided to have a crack at a clone of Fuller's London Porter. I did a bit of research in Graham Wheeler's "Brew your own British real ale at home" and even exchanged a couple of emails with my old mate John Keeling (head brewer at Fuller's) before coming up with this recipe:

 

4.2kg Maris Otter

570g Medium crystal

570g Brown malt

60g Chocolate malt

 

Punched it into BeerSmith and the colour was looking very pale. I wasn't keen to deviate too far from the advice I'd been given though so I decided to attempt some seat-of-the-pants colour correction. I milled 100g of black malt then ground it even finer in a pestle & mortar. I then kept this on one side until I'd seen the colour of the first runnings. It looked like a brown ale, so I chucked the powdered black malt into the mash tun as I started recirculation. Hopefully this will give me more colour without too much of that acrid black malt character.

 

Hops are pretty simple: 64g UK Fuggles at 90 mins then 21g of UK Fuggles with 10 minutes to go. Yeast is Wyeast 1968 which is meant to be the Fullers yeast. I've rescued an ancient sampel I had left in the fridge - stepped it up gently and it's smelling good.

 

Hopefully this turns out OK. I'm calling it Freedom Porter in honour of today's date.

[JoKing]

Mate - I reckon it's Black malt in the London Porter. I had a bottle on Friday - and fuuuuuuck me it was dry, ashy and acrid. Had Black malt written all over it!

[Martin Bridges]

None in the recipe that John gave me, though. We'll see how this one turns out.

[Kieran Haslett-Moore]

I reckon the acrid comes from the Brown Malt rather than Black. 

 

Love that beer so much. Showcase for good esters and sexy brown malt flavours.

 

 

[JoKing]

Makes sense... Brown is reasonably acrid. I suppose at 10% it could go like Fullers London. I haven't used any more than 2% in a single grist - and it only adds a slight (and by slight I mean virtually undetectable) toasty / biscuittyness to the beer.

[Kieran Haslett-Moore]

burnt sugar,  molasses, and acrid note is what I get from it.

 

I use 15% in Merchant. Love it.

[JoKing]

Bloody hell... 15% I think I read on a manufacturers website not to use more than 5%!!! Goes to show what they know!

[Barry]

Don't go giving Stu any ideas.

I can see it now - 100% brown malt beer, "Fecal Spectrum" #needsmorebrown