Recipe Advice Thread

[denimglen]

Thought it might be handy to have a thread for some of the more advanced brewers to give some advice on recipes.

Let's see how it goes eh...

[Karl Hayes]

Hi. A friend of mine has requested a keg of Spike's Pilsner for a birthday bash. I've never tasted it and the website is vague. Any pointers anyone?

[Dave W]

have a read of the rate beer ratings.  :)

http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/the-resident-spikes-pilsner/179095/

Not looking promising.

[Crusader-Rob]

the red rye ale isn't bad.

[Grant R Baker]

argh... tried it at Beervana last year.. .had to find something alot better to rinse with after that. I'm not a big Pilsner drinker but heck I don't even think that classifies as beer (about now I get flamed for such comments).

 

Do yourself and yer mate a favour... try a bottle of Crouchers Pilsner vs Spikes.

[Karl Hayes]

Yup, preaching to the converted. Mainstream shite with a couple of 'craft' ingredients thrown in to jump on the bandwagon. I reckon I'll plain refuse to do it. Fuck it, life's too short to be brewing muck.

[David R]

Tell him you'll do it then brew a Pilsner that actually has some flavour. Either that or just buy him a keg of Hop Rocker...

[mattd2]

Yeah just tell him you'll brew him a pilsner from a good recipe on the internet, but it likely will be a bit different to Spike's because big breweries don't really like to share their recipes as it is their IP.

[David R]

My wife is a big fan of Libertys C!tra, so when I was ordering some hops and she saw Citra on the list she was very keen to get some and try brewing a single-hop Citra IPA (not an exact clone of Libertys). The Liberty is 9% and 99IBU, but I've toned it down a little to 6.5A% and 65IBU. What I'm not sure about is the late hop additions, we really want to to pack a punch but I'm sure it's not as simple as pouring bucket-loads of hops into the boil at the last minute.

http://hopville.com/recipe/1693970

65g of Citra in the last five minutes (only a 12L batch too), too much? Not Enough? I'm going to dry hop it too, but after the recent talk of "hop bursting" I would like to see how it goes relying more on the late additions than the dry hopping. Should I skip the 60 minute addition all together and go with all late hops, or is that likely to be a citra-overload? or should I just shut up and brew it and see how it goes?

I know it's not going to be just like C!tra as that uses a "top secret hop combo", should still be good though right? I've also got a bag of Simcoe and Amarillo I could add to the mix, but I was liking the idea of doing it with just the one variety.

[Damon Colbert]

I brewed an American IPA fairly recently, using Simcoe and Citra.  I used 30g of each as 10 and five minute additions, plus another 30 each as 3-day dry hops (in a 23L batch)

Instead of doing a straight 60-min addition, I used first wort hopping.  Just added my 60 min addition to the kettle at the start of the sparge (nominally the addition should be approx 1/3 of your end-boil additions - so I used 10g each). 

I honestly think this made all the difference.  Before a terrible cataclysm (which still pains me to talk about), it had a beautiful tropical/citrus aroma, and a smooth, pleasing bitterness.  Can't say exactly what the end product is like, mind.

[David R]

Good idea! I'm doing a sort of bastard BIAB, mashing in the bag in a chilly bin to hold the temp then sparging the grain bag into the brew pot. Should I just chuck the 60min hops in at the start of the sparge, or does it need to sit/brew/infuse/whatever for longer than the couple of minutes it takes me before I start the boil?

[Crusader-Rob]

Next brew is a belgian Red ale, following on from my belgian brown /saison beer, i figured i'd give it a stab, quite malt forward and more sessionable than some belgian beers:

21litre batch

4.5kg pale malt

0.5kg munich malt

0.2kg Caramunich 2

0.2kg Aromatic

and 0.22kg Special B

30g of styrian at 60

and 15 at 15.

22IBU

OG 1.053

Est FG: Beersmith suggests 1.007, but I'm thinking more along the lines of 1.012-14ish

mash at 67.5give or take.

Yeast WYEAST 1214, 2 litre starter, fresh smack pack. cake will be used for belgian strong.

Thoughts anyone?

[Damon Colbert]

I just threw it in at the start of the sparge, letting it sit for as long as the sparge took. To be fair my sparge takes a little while, maybe half an hour minimum, up to an hour. 

I assume doing BIAB your sparge is a lot quicker? Not really sure how long you should leave it for; maybe 15 minutes would do?