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...

[Liam Callaghan]

Wicked thanks Brett!

Has seriously got me fired up after tasting your Saison last week.  Hopefully the mill gets finished on Wednesday night so I can mill the grain on Saturday morning.

[jt]

Ok, 760 - Another 'Lil Brownie
This time Munich I as the base malt and looking for some help
Never used Munich as a base malt and I'm wondering if I need the Crystal in there at all, maybe just the chocolate  ?

Looking for a good body and malt in a small beer, 1033 or there abouts and something similar to the Weemix for hops,
With a repitch of W1099 so I hope to end up with a relatively high FG.

An Imperial NZ Draught perhaps

Considering
93.5% Munich I
5% Dark Crystal
1.5% Pale / Regular Chocolate

[Liam Callaghan]

Munich is my favourite malt, never tried a darker beer with it, I usually use it for blondes.  

I often run it at 50% pilsner or pale malt with 50% munich, low hopping, just enough for some bitterness and flavour, low aroma.  You can do a straight 100% munich too, will be a nice beer.  I run mine at 67 degrees mash and end up with a very good malty lager.  I have been using basic packet yeast so far (saf lager etc.) and usually run OG 1.055 to FG 1.016 from my records.  Makes for a great body and clean malty taste.

Hope that helps a bit.  I've never tried it in a brown but don't see any issues with your bill, looks good enough to make!

[jt]

yea, that's good thanks Liam. Now I'm just wavering on the Dark Crystal

[MrC]

I say keep the crystal so that you can tell exactly what changing the base malt does. If you drop the crystal you'll probably want to reasses your hops to cater for the reduced sweetness, maybe...

[jt]

Of course, why didn't I think of that, which is what I would usually try and do.
Thanks Mr Cherry, it's all coming together nicely.

[Mark Meyburg]

So when you say low, what might your hopping regime be for such a beer.  I like my hoppy ones but I also love the malty numbers

[Brent Marquis]

We're brewing for a friends wedding and in trying to make something for non-craft beer drinkers, I googled around for a Blonde Ale recipe.

I found one that plenty of people were saying was good/didnt last long at their place, etc.

So I ran with this...

83.2% Pilsner (Weyermann)
5.6% Carapils (Weyermann)
5.6% Vienna Malt (Weyermann)
5.6% Pale Wheat Malt (Weyermann)

23.10 g Fuggles [4.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min (12.8IBU)
23.10 g Crystal [3.50 %] - Boil 20.0 min (5.3 IBU)
5.00 g     Crystal [3.50 %] - Boil 0.0 min

OG - 1.045
FG - 1.010
IBU - 18

But now that its done fermenting, its not really what I was after - seems a tad sweet, bit thin and lifeless (although that its at 18deg and not carbonated yet, I suspect it wont change toooo much)

Anyone brewed something similar and can give advice on how to change this recipe to get a bit more body into it

Do I just crank it up to "fizzy as hell" and rely on the carbonation to throw a bit of extra 'body' in.

Maybe its just that something this light and lacking in hop and bitterness just isn't my thing, resulting in it simply not being a beer for me, but it'll go down a treat with a wedding party...

any thoughts?

[Michael]

I wonder what would happen if you mashed a lot of crystal with a little base malt, fermented it, and threw it in with your current batch?

Another option is to throw something like a peach extract in there, and carbonate the hell out of it. Not my cup of tea, but I have done this before and it was a real panty dropper.

[Liam Callaghan]

I'd be very happy to make that recipe as it stands jt, already added one to my recipe list to try later in the year.

My last hopping for a blonde is around 25 IBU with Falconers Flight (50 litre batch):-

20g 60m boil

50g 20m boil

50g 2m boil

I am starting to see the benefits of a more varied hopping regime too with multiple hops and more regular additions of hops.  I've only made a couple of these so far and they are only just about conditioned but very happy with the result.

What I like is a moderate bitterness but medium to high flavour to cut the sweetness of the residual sugars and malt.  its all to do with balance.  It does depend on hop bags or direct additions too though.  I need hop bags to keep my line clear but they do reduce the effect somewhat.

[Kelly Milligan]

 

Evening y'all,

 

I picked up 2.8kg's of very ripe red-fleshed plums from the parents trees while I was home over the long weekend! I've done a bit of reading on using plums in beer before as I've always entertained the idea of using them for a batch. The general consensus seems to be that they're too tart/acidic of a fruit to get a good flavour out of them. These however are extremely ripe, I mean rotting on the tree, layer of them on the ground around the tree kinda ripe. To the taste they have become very mild, slightly sweet, and almost neutral in tartness, leading me to believe they may be the exception to this obstacle. 

 

My plan is to make a Plum Saison. Recipe below :) If anyone has experience brewing with fruit (plums especially!) then please give me any tips you've got. Formulated the recipe my self, so if it doesn't quite look right for what I'm going for please speak up. Planning to de-pit and casually de-skin the plums, chuck them in the food processor to make a chunky puree, then boil for 15mins to pasteurize. Dextrose is in there to try and thin the body a bit, as I'm unsure how much body will be added by the plums.

 

Partial mash

22L Batch size

2KG plum puree added to secondary along with extra yeast dose

 

%	KG		MALT OR FERMENTABLE	YIELD	EBC
36%	1.500		Black Rock Light LME (NZ)	73%	6	~
24%	1.000		Malteurop 2 row pale malt	73%	5	~
24%	1.000		Wheat Malt	84%	3	~
12%	0.500		Corn Sugar (Dextrose)	99%	0	~
4%	0.150		Caraaroma	76%	370	~

EST OG 1.051 (primary)

USE	TIME	GRAMS	VARIETY	FORM	AA
boil	60 mins	10	Pacific Gem	pellet	14.0
boil	15 mins	5	Hallertau aroma	pellet	7.5
boil	15 mins	5	Pacific Gem	pellet	14.0
boil	15 mins	5	Pacific Jade	pellet	12.9
boil	10 mins	5	Hallertau aroma	pellet	7.5
boil	10 mins	5	Pacific Gem	pellet	14.0
boil	10 mins	5	Pacific Jade	pellet	12.9
boil	5 mins	10	Hallertau aroma	pellet	7.5
boil	5 mins	5	Pacific Gem	pellet	14.0
boil	5 mins	10	Pacific Jade	pellet	12.9
post-boil	1 min	10	Hallertau aroma	pellet	7.5
post-boil	1 min	5	Pacific Gem	pellet	14.0
post-boil	1 min	10	Pacific Jade	pellet	12.9

1tsp Irish Moss and 5g of Yeast Nutrient to be added at 15mins

EST IBU ~35 (after plum addition in secondary)

Yeast: WYeast 3711 French Saison

From here I'll add the ~2kg of plum puree @5 - 7 days in, along with a small extra dose of yeast just to ensure it all attenuates out well. Est that the plums will add ~ 20-25 gravity points, or 2-3% ABV which should hopefully land me at about 7.5% ABV.

I know.. its a bit complicated ;P Any feedback is GREATLY appreciated. 

Cheers!

Kelly

[JackoNZ]

Hey Kelly, I brewed an IPA with plums a while back, perhaps have a look here: http://www.forum.realbeer.co.nz/forum/topics/1500433:Topic:8?commen...

The only thing I found with the plums is that once the sugar had all been eaten up the plum leftovers themselves started to give off a fairly putrid rotting smell. I added plums plus the stones, you might find a difference if you stew them right up. I got around this by putting the plums in a swiss voile bag and pulling them out after 3-4 days. I think I did a couple of additions of plums to get the right colour and flavour.

Check out the tasting notes here:

http://www.forum.realbeer.co.nz/group/nzcaseswap/forum/topics/cs5-j...