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...

[Peter Smith]

New Market had none on Tuesday...  I had a $50 voucher that was expiring, they did have Timothy Taylors landlord bottles tho!  And a decent Garage Project line up and most normal AKL breweries,    Blanc have been a good source of uk beers give them a ring first    Go take a look at Blanc they have a decent range of beers.    they are all cellar imports, can be easier just to mailorder,   got to say they are doing a lot to import decent beers.

130 Lincoln Rd, Henderson, Auckland 0610    09-838 6944      Galbraiths is an import biozone for hops, ie they are allowed to import hops direct from the uk so there brews are a step above ....     its easy to get addicted to brewing the perfect english pint...    I am a little sad that most bottle stores seem only to carry galbraiths pils and us pale, not traditional uk beers...

http://www.brewshop.co.nz/brew-your-own-british-real-ale.html

This is quite a good book, have done a few recipes from it with Gladfields ale , wheat and med/dark crystal malts...  as subs for uk malts..      I have mainly been playing with Goldings, Challanger, Brambling Cross and EKG ,   if you do a simillar beer with each you can learn the individual hops, or go buy the bath ales range, perhaps quicker.    I have tracked down recipes for most of them from people who claim to live next to the brewery.... I do wonder about the freshness of the uk hops here,   I find you sometimes have to go beyonf the 75% IBU to OG ratio to get a decent bitter

[Peter Smith]

If you are around tonight I can give you a big hit of 1968 from a 2L starter flask....   this starter is from a wyeast smackpack so is first gen, got to be very carefull of mash temps with this yeast , its not  a busy attenuater so mash lower then expected, it will still finish pretty high.... txt me 021380611

[David R]

Thanks, but we're planning to escape before the traffic gets too bad!
:p

[Chis]

Hi there,

About to try my first 'big' beer, and keen to get any feedback from the experienced heads on the forum to avoid any c#ck-ups! She's a big grain bill, and with 6 months in the bottle a big investment...

I'm planning on pitching this directly onto a cake of 1968 which is currently under a nut brown, so under pitching shouldn't be an issue, but given the floculation of this yeast, should I agitate it?

Anyway, here is the recipe:

Recipe Specifications

--------------------------
Boil Size: 28.96 l
Post Boil Volume: 24.96 l
Batch Size (fermenter): 22.00 l   
Bottling Volume: 23.70 l
Estimated OG: 1.124 SG
Estimated Color: 143.6 EBC
Estimated IBU: 74.3 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 82.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 89.5 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:

------------
Amt                   Name                                     Type          #        %/IBU         
4.00 g                Calcium Chloride (Mash 60.0 mins)        Water Agent   1        -             
4.00 g                Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash 60.0 mins Water Agent   2        -              
3.00 g                Chalk (Mash 60.0 mins)                   Water Agent   3        -             
8.93 kg               Gladfield Ale Malt (6.0 EBC)             Grain         4        81.8 %        
0.78 kg               Gladfield Roast Barley (1450.0 EBC)      Grain         5        7.1 %        
 0.51 kg              Special B Malt (354.6 EBC)               Grain         6        4.7 %         
0.39 kg               Pale Chocolate Malt (Bairds) (720.0 EBC) Grain         7        3.6 %          
0.26 kg               Cara-Pils/Dextrine (3.9 EBC)             Grain         8        2.3 %        
0.06 kg               Acidulated (Weyermann) (3.5 EBC)         Grain         9        0.5 %         
116.35 g              Challenger [7.20 %] - Boil 60.0 min      Hop           10       54.9 IBUs     
66.32 g               East Kent Goldings (EKG) [5.80 %] - Boil Hop           11       19.4 IBUs     
0.34 tsp              Koppafloc (Boil 10.0 mins)               Fining        12       -              
1.0 pkg               London ESB Ale (Wyeast Labs #1968) [124. Yeast         13       -             
1.65 tsp              Yeast Nutrient (Primary 3.0 days)        Other         14       -               

Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 10.93 kg
----------------------------
Name              Description                             Step Temperature         Step Time     
Mash In           Add 29.00 l of water at 74.3 C          65.0 C                   60 min         
Sparge: Batch sparge with 2 steps (Drain mash tun , 11.40l) of 75.6 C water 

Look forward to the feedback

[Cain Harland]

Not really recipe advice but has anyone both forced carbonated and bottle conditioned a Belgian tripel and can tell me how different the beer was when using the 2 different methods. Really the question is: is it worth going to the effort of bottle conditioning a tripel when you can just keg it.

Also has anyone primed and naturally carbonated in the keg? I certainly wont be doing this as standard (my standard brew being some kind of IPA) but maybe for some of the beers that benefit from natural carbonation. I was thinking slightly under prime then top up with CO2 if necessary. Does this end in a murky yeasty disaster or does all the sediment come out with the first pint?

And at what age is a tripel at its best?

I haven't even got my kegging gear yet just trying to figure out how many of my 250+ bottles to keep. I hate bottling and want to get rid of all of them but probably want to keep some around for imperial stouts and the like that benefit from age instead of tying up a keg for months.

[Cain Harland]

Also not recipe related but not worth starting another thread. I was thinking about getting a second fermenter. I have a stc-1000 controlled fridge with heater and usually do 2 - 3 week primary no secondary then .5 - 1  week cold crash. I was wondering do I actually need another fridge or could I do the first week while all the action happens temperature controlled then move the fermenter to ambient temperature (garage floor) while the yeast cleans up so I can put a fresh brew in the fridge. I'm thinking the first few days is the critical time temperature wise, but am I wrong and should just get another fridge and stc-1000 to avoid ruining my beer.

[Peter Smith]

depends on how stable your garage floor is but yes I do this in summer 16-17C for a few days then let it free rise on day 4-5 on garage floor to 20C for a week or 2 or 3 then crash , sometimes cold crash multiple beers at a time, they can sit at 20C for a while no harm imho...   you hust have to time the dry hop well   doesn't work in winter when my garage is 12C ambient, good for end of lager ferments tho, a mate puts his fermenters out side in winter for lagers.    In winter I find my heaters are on in fridge most of the time rather then cooling, I have a warm box with an stc1000 as well.

Be real carefull trying to ferment two beers with  different yeasts in same fridge,   you just can't control both of them, with one sensor, one will cook.... or freeze

[Cain Harland]

I couldn't get 2 in there if i wanted to. My 50L keg fermenter takes up most of the space.

[Peter Smith]

When you use Challenger for bittering in a UK beer, does it impact and major flavours on the beer?  I am  thinking 14 IBU at 60min

[William Fitzgerald]

Hi guys, I am keen to attempt a weizenbock later this week. Here's my recipe (the original is on Brewtoad - "Aventinus Clone", I tweaked it a bit). I wanted to keep the weight of my grains down, hence the DME which is not in the original recipe.

4.50 kg Wheat Malt

1.50kg Munich Malt

1.00kg Pilsen Light DME

600g Caramunich Malt 60L

200g Carapils Malt

60g Hallertau Tradition @60

1/2 tsp Wyeast Nutrient @10

15g Hallertau Tradition @0

Wyeast 3068 Activator (planning to make a yeast starter with 1/2 cup DME)

OG 1.083

FG 1.020

Expected ABV 8.1%

I have a couple of questions.

1. I have actually never used DME before in a beer. I moved directly from extract brewing with LME, to all grain brewing. Maybe this sounds stupid, but do I need to add more water to the boil to accommodate the DME, and if so, how much?

2. I would like to have make sure I can get some banana flavour. Having looked around the net, the general consensus seems to be to ferment between 21-24C and to under pitch. The problem is because this is a higher gravity beer, i'm not really sure what under pitching would entail. How much yeast do i need?

Thanks.

[Kevin Sharp]

I would expect that you'll have a hell of job lautering that brew. The wheat malt has no husk so it relies on the barley malt to provide the filter bed in the lauter tun. If you're going to do a partial mash, substitute some wheat malt extract for some of the wheat grain.

I brewed an Aventinus Clone last year (http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/151552/aventinus-...). I went with a triple decoction mash which was a mission and took hours to lauter. It helps a lot if you can do a mash out and keep the mash at 75degC while it lauters.

In answer to Q1, you'll want to add the extract at the beginning of the boil and add sufficient water to bring the volume up to the preboil volume for the recipe you're using.

In answer to Q2, I used Wyeast 3333 and got good banana esters. I pitched at the rate of 0.75 whereas the normal pitch rate is 1. This is still quite a big starter - 304B cells for my 21 litre batch. I fermented at 21degC which was very vigorous - blow off hose required! From what I've read Wyeast 3068 is more restrained with its esters, but I wouldn't risk stressing it anymore than I did with the 3333.

[Peter Church]

+1 on Kevin's comment re lauatering, I would even up the wheat vs munich ratio.

The adventinus clone I have uses equal parts wheat and munich with 3% caramel wheat and 1% choc wheat and 1% carafa iii. can't remember where I sourced it originally anyway pitch the correct amount but use a yeast to suit the style, eg WLP300, I prefer the WLP 380 personally, either way this should give you the character you are looking for without the risk of stressing your yeast too much