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...

[Phil]

Mmmm,
Thanks for that. Yeah I suspected it was pretty heavy the cara/crystal, but had been trying to use a tweaked BYO clone recipe. The biscuity element sounds like a great idea :)

[JoKing]

I dunno Phill - the only way you're gonna learn what these malts do is to brew with them the way that you want. Don't be scared to pump up the "Cara"s here is a couple of recipes with 15% plus specialties, and they all turned out delicious: not only to myself but to anyone else who had a drink.

The Levitation Ale was fantastic - enjoyed at my place by a great many... one batch even better through the hand pump.

The American Amber was a bit more of an English Amber, but more because of the yeast that I used than anything. It was a wee bit sweet - but the bitterness was more than enough to combat this.

The Pickwell Pale was for a party at my 'in laws and the keg was demolished in 2 hrs by a thirsty group of green bottle drinkers... they loved the idea of drinking an Ale with a bit of flavour!

Levitation:

http://www.forum.realbeer.co.nz/forum/topics/1500433:Topic:8?commen...

American Amber:

http://www.forum.realbeer.co.nz/forum/topics/1500433:Topic:8?commen...

Pickwell Pale:

Can't find the recipe on here - but it had a kilo of 750g of Cara Red in it...

I think the key is to make sure you get the beer to attenuate - so be sure to use a strain that will get you down to the 75 - 85% attenuation mark.

Let us know how you get on.

Cheers.

[jt]

The Pickwell ? Do you mind if I paste ..
I liked the look of that and though I did baulk at the 12.5% carared and only went to 9% I think, but totally enjoyable because it's balanced by the hops.
If I did it again I'd go the full 12.5%

Pickwell Pale
10-A American Pale Ale
Author: J Wood
Date: 24/04/2010

Size: 24.24 L
Efficiency: 80%
Attenuation: 80.0%
Calories: 192.89 kcal per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.058 (1.045 - 1.060)
Terminal Gravity: 1.012 (1.010 - 1.015)
Color: 16.12 (9.85 - 27.58)
Alcohol: 6.13% (4.5% - 6.2%)
Bitterness: 43.3 (30.0 - 45.0)

Ingredients:
5 kg Golden Promise Pale (83.3%)
.75 kg Carared® (12.5%)
.25 kg Carapils®/Carafoam® (4.2%)
20 g Cascade (7.5%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min
30 g Cascade (7.5%) - added during boil, boiled 20 min
30 g Cascade (7.5%) - added during boil, boiled 10 min
30 g Cascade (7.5%) - added during boil, boiled 5 min
30 g Cascade (7.5%) - added during boil, boiled 1 min

[JoKing]

Cheers JT - I searched for about half an hour for that bloody recipe!

[jt]

No worries - I have a habit of copy & keeping interesting looking recipes, bit of a magpie thing.
Best when people explain why they use what they do and what they're trying to achieve.
There's definitely two sorts of recipes out there. Those that are put together with an result in mind and those put together to see what the result will be

*EDIT* Also interesting to watch themes in peoples recipes or in the ingredients that they use

[JoKing]

Have you then noticed that my stuff goes all over the place?

[jt]

haphazzard brewing you reckon ?

[Phil]

Hey Joking,
Thanks for the thoughts.
I was trying to come up with something to recreate Redhook ESB - a US brew that I have always loved. On its website it gives
Style: Amber
ABV: 5.8%
Malts: Pale, Caramel, Carapils
Hops: Alchemy, Willamette, Centennial, Crystal
Color SRM: 13
Bitterness Units: 28.0 IBU
Original Gravity: 13.75 degrees plato

I tweaked the recipe from a BYO clone book recipe I found floating around. With Beersmith, I just cant seem to come up with another way to get the SRM without that much specialty.
Maybe I will just give it a shot. I was thinking S-05 with adequate pitching rate hoping for reasonable atenuation.
Whatdyall think?

[JoKing]

I actually had Redhook when I was over in California a couple of years ago. I wanna say just go for it... but be mindful of your colour conversions. SRM = L... which is about half of EBC. With that in mind -what they reprt as their Caramel could be a very very dark version. Something like 240 - 280 EBC. You definately dont need much of that stuff to get your beer to 25 - 30 EBC. Something like 300g of Bairds Dark should get you there. Cara Pils just smooths the palate out. 5 - 10% will get you there. 5% if you want it dry... 10% if you wan tto balance out the dark edges... 15% if you want to taste it.

It's a balancing act. I reckon go with what you have planned. This way - you own the beer. It wont go bad... especially if you use US-05. Have a feel... after that, then try to clone Redhook ESB.

That's what I reckon.

[Phil]

Thanks Joking,

After reading your reply (apply inspiring music in background..), I think that you can expect an order for those malts in your inbox quite soon.
Will let you know how it goes :)
Might even have to get some s-05 of you as I let my s-05 strain that i had been whipping for several brews go the graveyard.

Cheers,
Phil

[jt]

SRM = L... which is about half of EBC.

Not sure where I got it, or even if it's right, but this is what I use for colour conversions

ebc = (Lovibond x 2.65) - 1.2

[Nick T]

Mixing base malts - any problems with this? I want to brew some sort of a stout, probably a fairly high IBU one and I have an assortment of leftover base malts to use up. Namely about 2.4 kg of Golden Promise, 0.5 kg of MO, 0.7kg of Golden Promise and 1.6kg of Pilsner. Will mixing these up cause flavour problems? Should I drop out the Pils malt? (I have a heap of Global Munich malt that I could throw in too). Is this mix better suited to something else? Throw it all out and start again? Any suggestions?