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...

[MrC]

I have just been looking at Steph's/Mike's training wheels recipe which apparently had PJ in the dry hopping. I remember that beer tasted very nice and the hopping was compared to Armageddon. Hmm, decisions, decisions...

[JoKing]

Just go for it mate - chuck equal amounts in all the way through (like 15g at 15, 5, 0 and dry). You'll never find out what it'll taste like unless you go for it. Plus... with more hops... you could add that cara in there...

[vdog]

Looking at doing a re-brew of an ordinary-ish bitter I did a few months ago, but wanting to up the malt 'beef' in it - any comments/suggestions? Recipe so far is as follows:
80% Maris Otter
8% Munich
6% Biscuit malt
6% Medium Crystal
Pacific Jade @ 60min - 30IBU
EKG @ 15min - 12 IBU
Nottingham yeast

Aiming for an OG around 1.045.

What I'm looking for is something with a bias towards the malt, but still with a bit of hop fruitiness / esters on the nose. Will this do it?

[JackoNZ]

I'm interested in the responses to this too Vdog. Looking at doing a few bitters soon myself and I'll also be wanting the malt to come through so it doesn't come across as too thin. How do you find that Nottingham yeast by the way? I've heard the guys on aussiehomebrewer not rating it much. Any idea how it compares to S-04? I'm still a dry yeast only man at the moment so looking for options outside of S-05/S-04 if possible.

[jt]

I've used both, very similar but the Nottingham probably attenuates a bit further

[vdog]

I liked Nottingham with the last bitter we brewed - drops nice and bright, and seems pretty clean. My case swap beer used it too actually - pitched it directly onto the yeast cake from the aforementioned bitter.

[vdog]

Had to make a decision so I could order - recipe ended up being pretty much as above, but with Styrian Goldings instead of EK (couldn't get the EK so had to substitute). I guess we'll see how it turns out!

[Reviled]

Yum, I personally prefer styrians to ekg, should be a good beer Vdog...

You could try adding some melanoiden to up the malt character?? Just a thought...

[vdog]

I'd added the munich for that reason (previous batch didn't have it) - I haven't used melanoiden before, how much do you reckon I should add, and would it be in place of or alongside the munich?

[Reviled]

Depends on how malty you want it really? I allways use it in combination with Munich malt and its awesome!! Generally with Melanoiden start out low and learn a bit about its tastes for yourself, its pretty powerfull stuff! But its also a malt that you should allways have in your specialty stock IMO, it works great in alot of different beers!

I think my CS5 brown has about 4% without any Munich and its pretty malty, but also has Maris Otter as a base malt which I also find quite malty... Drink my beer tonight to get an idea ;o) lol

[jt]

I personally prefer styrians to ekg,

me too, one of those hops that's very distinctve

[jt]

Question on dry hopping - probably for Joking as I remember his comment about dry hopping warm - but how warm and how long ?