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...

[denimglen]

I think that's a lot of hop for the malt bill.

I'd say drop the carapils and swap with a single crystal malt - my preference would be pale first, medium as a second choice. Around 300 - 400g for a 20L batch is about right.

This still fits in with your simple pale ale, you should be able to distinguish between what flavours are coming from which malt. The residuals from the crystal will still give you some body and head retention that you'd get from the carapils.

As far as chewyness goes you can control this with your mash temperature - you can get a nice caramel flavour and still have the beer finish out dry, mash really high and you'll get the chewyness you're trying to avoid. With US05 and 300ish grams of crystal I'd mash at 67C.

I'm all for a single hop if you want to learn what it tastes like, I've done a few beers like this myself, although I do find they're a little one dimensional on the hop front but definitely not bad beers.

100g of hops/20L in a pale ale is about right for me. There's nothing wrong with your hop schedule but I'd be tempted to move that 45min addition to 60, because you'll get better utilization but you won't get much flavour from a 45min addition. I'd also move the 5 minute addition to 0 minutes just because I feel it gets better aroma at that time.

[Paul Harrison]

For those that are interested this is what I ended up brewing in the weekend:

5kg maris otter
.3kg carapils
mashed at 67*

50gm amarillo @ 60min
50gm amarillo @ 30min
50gm amarillo @ 15min
50gm us cascade @ 0min

US-05

Now I didn't ignore your advice on purpose. I did take it into account. Reason for the carapils instead of crystal? I already had the carapils. addition of us cascade? forgot I had it so threw it in at the end.

Have made a note of your suggestions for next time.

and for those that care, I used petone spring water. will it do anything? I have no idea.

[jt]

I want to reduce my reliance on cascade and motueka
They're a tasty combination and I use them a lot with hallertau

I was looking back over some old recipes and came accross the NZ Hops Honey brown recipe
Now a 1.056 ale with 18 IBU is ridiculous, i'd never do it, either from the OG to the IBU

But I'm really interested in the combination of Hallertau and Sauvin.
I was thinking of using a third Sauvin, 2 thirds Hallertau - anyone used them together and got an opinion ?

[Mark]

Not too sure about that combination, although I've used Hallertau Aroma plenty of times with other hops and on its own (it's a surprisingly nice dry hop). I'm also looking for something to go with Sauvin in a well hopped lager. I was thinking either Motueka (sauvignon blanc with passionfruit overtones) or Riwaka (citrus overtones). Or maybe a combination of all three?

[jt]

Yea, I like Hallertau, used it a lot last year in the Blande Blondes but I've been a bit distracted by the more distinctive qualities of the others lately.

I know Stu M mentioned he liked Sauvin / pacifica / Motueka in equal quantities an amber and as I'm looking at a brown wondered if I'd go 50:50

Just a little cautious of overdoing the Sauvin though

[Reviled]

lol, its funny watching you slowly head down the path to hop heaven JT ;o) Embrace the strong hops, if youve allready got a hankering for sauving I doubt youll over do it - IMO you either love it or hate it in any quantity!

[jt]

hop heaven

Been down the Bitterness path already Rev, went through a patch where i wouldn't brew anything less than 80% BU:OG, also done the Sauvin until I was sick of it.

Now if I start spending the family's grocery money on fancy imported hops you'll know I've really lost it ....

[Reviled]

"spending the family's grocery money on fancy imported hops"

LOL, its a wonder I havnt been divorced really ;o)

[JR]

About to brew a Wee Heavy this weekend as per below. It’s a blown up version of Caramelized Scottish Ale in Brewing Classic Styles, but I have a couple of decisions to make. I would like it to be a good example of the style 9E: Strong scotch Ale

How big should I make it? 6.5% - 10%?

What temp should I ferment it? I’m using the Wyeast Scottish ale yeast. Ray Daniels book says colder is better, Jamils recipie (which I have adapted) says 18 and Wyeast say the yeast is good from 13-24. Unless I get a better suggestion I will go with 15 to keep it clean but away from the limits of the yeasts range.

Recipe is
??kg Bards Marris Otter (quantity depends on what strength I make it)
85g Roasted Barley

East Kent Goldings at 60mins for OG:BU ratio of whatever the Brewing Classic Styles wee heavy is.

Caramelize first 4L of runoff from mash then mix with the rest for a 2-hour boil.

[Reviled]

The best scotch ale i've ever had in my life was one of Sorens home brews, it was 9% from memory, chock full of caraaroma and hopped to hell with NZ cascade!! It was absolutely delicious! Think he used a bit of peated malt as well but im not sure...

But more on topic JR, ive brewed a few brews with the 1728, and in my experiance its a bit*ch when it comes to attenuation, so id be inclined to start cool but warm it up near the end.. 16*c would be a good starting point, I wouldnt know personally what its like any lower, but I had issues at 16*c so wouldnt suggest going lower...

I'd aim for 8.5% minimum, IMO a scotch ale should be a big beer with a bit of warmth...

[Chris Scott]

I'm looking at brewing a Baltic style porter tomorrow.
20L

5.0 kg Light Munich
0.3 kg Biscuit
0.5 kg Pale Chocolate
0.3 kg Special B
0.2 kg CaraAroma

Hop to around 35- 40 IBU with Styrian Goldings and Czech Saaz at 60mins and 15 mins

Should I add any high diastatic power Pilsner Malt? Possibly Oat malt?
Any suggestions appreciated.

[Jared Phipps]

Hey there,

Currently taking some recipes from Brewing Classic Styles and putting together what I can to get something in a similar style.

About to rack "Hoppiness is an IPA", in which I substituted the american hops for NZ.

30gGreen Bullet @ 60 mins
30g motueka @ 10 mins
30g Pacific Jade @ 5 mins
30g Nelson Sauv @ 0 mins

4.5 kg black rock light
450g pale crystal
112g med crystal

I have no idea when it comes to hops, have had a quick look at pie graph showing hop characteristics, basically i popped into simply brewing and just went nuts on NZ hops.

So anyway I'm looking at attempting to make an Imperial APA following along the lines of Hop Hammer in Brewing Classic Styles. Given that there are around 454g of hop pellets in that recipe across 5 different types of hops, I can see this turning pear shaped...

Hop Hammer

warrior 57g@90min
chinook 57g@90min
simcoe28g@45min
columbus28g@30min
centennial64g@0min
simcoe28g@0min
columbus92g@dry
centennial50g@dry
simcoe50g@dry

Right, my stocks are:
70g Green Bullet
70g Motueka
70g NZ pacific jade
70g Nelson Sauv
100g fresh Hallertau aroma
70g fuggles

Should I just go nuts, and see what I end up with, or should I relax a bit and make it a bit more simple?

Any suggestions on my hops and how i can apply them?

By the way this will be extract with specialty grain and im going to use a wyeast irish ale as it needs to be used in my eyes,( unless i get some s05 and keep the wyeast for an imperial stout maybe?)

Any advice would be much appreciated, cheers