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...

[jt]

well it's pale compared to dark crystal :-)

 

I'd formulate the recipe on taste / flavour rather than colour myself (though the two are sort of linked with the addtion of crystal)

[denimglen]

JT's right, pale crystal is around 90 EBC (45ish L) but it's still a great malt that I would use in a blonde.

 

I wouldn't use really anymore than 5% at the absolute most of any crystal malt in a blonde, you just want a touch for body, flavour, and a little complexity.  Otherwise you're pushing into the pale ale side of malt flavour.

 

Stats for NZ Pils - 3.4EBC, 1037 potential, CF diff 0.9%, Moisture 4.3%, Protein 12.2%

 

On the hop schedule, you can pretty much go how ever you want.  I'd stick to a bitterness ratio of about 0.4 - 0.5.  If you really want to brew a blonde to style you'd really only go for a 60 and a very small aroma addition.  I prefer things hoppier so I go with 30g at flame out and 30 dry.  Yours will be pretty hoppy, I wouldn't add anymore than what you've got there.  Cascade and Styrian will make for a good combo, especially if you're going for that English style summer ale.

 

Mash temp - I'd drop it down to about 66, you want this sort of beer to finish out dry.

 

All up, pretty good.  The only thing you really need to do is drop the amount of crystal.

[Druid]

Thanks for those Pils figures.

 

So, like this then?

 

Not too concerned about adherence to style - at this stage it's about tasty brews - and ones that the family will also drink.

 

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 20.00 L     
Boil Size: 26.04 L
Estimated OG: 1.051 SG
Estimated Color: 12.2 EBC
Estimated IBU: 28.5 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount        Item                                      Type         % or IBU     
4.50 kg       NZ Pilsener (3.4 EBC)                     Grain        94.74 %      
0.25 kg       Crystal Light - 45L (Crisp) (88.7 EBC)    Grain        5.26 %       
15.00 gm      Goldings Styrian, NZ [6.40 %]  (60 min)   Hops         12.1 IBU     
30.00 gm      Cascade NZ [9.10 %]  (Dry Hop 3 days)     Hops          -           
10.00 gm      Cascade NZ [9.10 %]  (60 min)             Hops         11.5 IBU     
5.00 gm       Cascade NZ [9.10 %]  (15 min)             Hops         2.9 IBU      
5.00 gm       Goldings Styrian, NZ [6.40 %]  (15 min)   Hops         2.0 IBU      
15.00 gm      Cascade NZ [9.10 %]  (0 min)              Hops          -           
15.00 gm      Goldings Styrian, NZ [6.40 %]  (0 min)    Hops          -           
0.00 oz       Sterilise Wort Cooler (Boil 10.0 min)     Misc                      
0.48 tbsp     Koppafloc (Boil 10.0 min)                 Misc                      
3.49 tsp      Isinglass (Liquid) (Secondary 7.0 days)   Misc                      
18.75 L       Auckland, NZ                              Water                     
1 Pkgs        SafAle American (DCL Yeast #S-05)         Yeast-Ale                 


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion with Mash Out
Total Grain Weight: 4.75 kg
----------------------------
Single Infusion with Mash Out
Step Time     Name               Description                         Step Temp    
60 min        Mash In            Add 7.46 L of water at 78.9 C       66.0 C       
2 min         Mash Out           Add 4.95 L of water at 83.9 C       72.0 C       

[jt]

Not too concerned about adherence to style - at this stage it's about tasty brews

 

yep, that's the way to go, it's a only guide, useful at times though

[jt]

OK, so a year ago I was brewing lots of balanced 4% blonde ales and thinking that less (specialties) was more.
Now I'm brewing 3 point not much % with lots of hops and thinking that more is great

So what's next, perhaps less (specialties) with more (hops) ?

Now how do I make that 3.5% Malteurop ale with little else and lots of hops really standout ?

 

edit * I know it's not a load of super alpha !

[Dave]

Super Alpha is pretty awesome as a dry hop.

[jt]

Yea - I used a nice big amount late in a recent ale but didn't dry hop with it.

Now I know what I was missing - cheers Dave

 

(Are you being serious ?)

 

The ale I did was missing something - it needed a middle addition or another hop in there.

Some nice notes, but not enough

[Stu McKinlay]

yeast is what you are missing... not hops

[jt]

I used some yeast, it fermented the wort start tro finish - you must mean the right yeast

[Ralph]

What yeast would you recommend for the sort of brew jt is talking about Stu?

[jt]

Probably something more characterful than '05 and hopefully not some bloody Belgian !

I'm going to have a tinker with the W1469 for a bit, but I don't really have my methods and processes honed to produce a good starter consistently and I don't know that I want to invest the time in doing that.

But maybe there's more to it than the first question, I mean the often touted opinion of 'O4 is that it's bloody hopeless yet some people brew to it's strengths and produce fantastic beers.

Maybe there's more to using '05 than pitch and ealk away ?

[MrC]

I saw some K97 and S33 at GE recently. I've had good results with hoppy, malty 1.040 beers brewed with S33, just need make sure it finishes the job. Some of mine finished a little higher than expected.