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...

[JackoNZ]

Cheer jt, the unhappy face was for the drive out to the home brew shop not using 04! I've used it myself before and I let it get a little too warm and got some banana aroma, not what I was after. I'll be keeping it in the temp controlled fridge at 17-18c this time. Here is my recipe by the way, picked up from here some time ago I think, a clone of sorts of Bookbinder, Riwaka swapped for Motueka:

Batch Size: 20.00 L
Estimated OG: 1.038 SG
Estimated Color: 11.2 SRM
Estimated IBU: 32.3 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 66.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
3.52 kg ..Global Cologne (4.5 SRM) Grain 88.00 %
0.24 kg .Crystal, Pale (Bairds) (50.8 SRM) Grain 6.00 %
0.22 kg .Cara Malt (Bairds) (17.8 SRM) Grain 5.50 %
0.02 kg .Black Malt (Bairds) (659.9 SRM) Grain 0.50 %
15.00 gm .Pacific Jade [11.60 %] (60 min) Hops 23.5 IBU
10.00 gm Fuggles, NZ [5.20 %] (15 min) Hops 3.5 IBU
10.00 gm .Motueka [7.80 %] (15 min) Hops 5.2 IBU
10.00 gm Fuggles, NZ [5.20 %] (0 min) Hops -
10.00 gm .Motueka [7.80 %] (0 min) Hops -
1 Pkgs SafAle English Ale (DCL Yeast #S-04) Yeast-Ale

[jt]

That looks good, you brewed it before ?

[JackoNZ]

No, not before. But you're right, it does look great. I have been using Bairds Pearl pale for the last few brews but just recently got a sack of the Kolsch so thought I'd give it a try in this.

[jt]

Riwaka swapped for Motueka

And nothing wrong with that either, shoud turn out well

[Reviled]

Mate that does look tasty!! Fuggles and Mot should go down a treat together!!

[Patrick]

Stout mk2

Hi everyone!

I want to brew a strong stout with a bit of smoked malt, some crystal (120?), maybe some chocolate malt, and some roast barley.

I want to try adding a sugar of some kind to bump up the gravity (first attempt at this)

I want to keep the grain bill to around 6kg - 6.5kg max - any more is too difficult to deal with using my BIAB and bucket sparge techniques.

I have a 1060 amber ale fermenting at the moment with US05, so I am going to pitch the stout onto the dregs of this one.

Questions:
How much smoked malt should I use? 10%?
Would 1080 SG be achievable with 70% efficiency and without using too much sugar?
What would be best in a stout between honey, golden syrup, mollases, and brown sugar?
Should I add the sugar during the boil, or add to primary a few days after primary fermentation starts?
Will the dregs of the 1060 beer contain enough yeast to cope with a big beer like this?

Basically after a winter warmer around 8%abv and would like to be able to drink it by mid-October (heading to a party near the mountain) Any advice appreciated as always.

Cheers!
Patrick

[Reviled]

How much smoked malt should I use?
Depends how smoky, but if its the weyermann smoked malt don't be afraid to use smoked malt for your entire base, seriously, its worth it and not overly smoky!!

Would 1080 SG be achievable with 70% efficiency and without using too much sugar?
Probably not with a 6.5kg grist mate, for a stout I wouldnt reccommend adding any sugar tbh, it will thin it out too much for the style IMO.. If I were you i'd be more inclined to brew 10-15 litres of 1080 all malt goodness, surely if you did that you wouldnt regret it untill you ran out ;o)

What would be best in a stout between honey, golden syrup, mollases, and brown sugar?
If I had to pick, I would say mollasses, but user beware, it can ferment out and leave a harsh taste that many dont like if you use too much of it.. Second choice would be brown sugar, but again really not good for the style, would be more of a dubbel if you use sugaz I reckon...

Should I add the sugar during the boil, or add to primary a few days after primary fermentation starts?
Most reading advises to add after a few days of fermenting so that the yeast doesnt get lazy and chew on the easy sugars first and slow right down when it gets to the complex sugars..

Will the dregs of the 1060 beer contain enough yeast to cope with a big beer like this?
Yes, more than enough!!

Seriously tho mate, the more I read this the more I think, "dont add sugar!!" If you really want to add sugar and keep the volumes up, id go for something like a belgian dubbel personally...

[Patrick]

Thank you for your feedback, I will have a play in beersmith tonight and see what I come up with.

I had a bit of trouble with the 7.1kg grain bill in the amber - I brew in a sheet essentially, with a seam stitched right round it, the only problem with this is the bag of grain becomes very "round" when being gathered up at the end of the boil and it is hard to fit into the bucket I sparge in, without lots of spillage.

I am interested in adding some kind of syrup or sugar purely from an academic perspective - never tried it before. I would have thought with a hot enough mash the beer would not dry out too much?

[Patrick]

OK: How about, a 15L batch.
5kg smoked malt
500g crystal 120
500g roast barley
500g chocolate malt
70IBUs of green bullet at the start of the 90 minute boil.

Should crack 1080 easily, and only 6.5kg of grain should be manageable. Thoughts?

[David Wood]

Weyermann or Peat smoked malt? If it's peat smoked then it'll be undrinkable for a year or so.

[Patrick]

Weyermann :)

[Reviled]

Looks good to me Patrick, im guessing Weyermann smoked in which case its about right, its advisable to try and get the chlorine out of your water if possible for the mash as the chlorine can react with the phenols in the smoke.. Also might pay to add a couple of grams of chalk to smooth out all of that roast!!

Should be quite the tasty beer after a month or so in the bottle/keg!!

If you want to experiment with adding sugars later consider brewing a Dubbel, Golden Strong or maybe an Old Ale with some molasses if you dont wanna go down the belgian path