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...

[Dougal]

Looks nice Paul, but that yeast always seems to attenuate to 100% (for me at least). Reset your attenuation and mash at 70C if you want a hope of holding it back. I mashed my last 3711 beer at 69C and it still went to 100%. 

[Kelly Milligan]

Seconded! Brewed a plum saison using 3711 a couple weeks ago and was sitting at 1.004 at racking time :O madness!

[Paul Fraser]

Yes, I thought this would be my problem. I hear the yeast type is pretty integral to the style though. I was planning on a high mash temp to keep fermentables down but how do you reset the attunuation?

[Dougal]

Don't have Beersmith but there must be a way as you can do it in other software. Using this calculator: http://pint.com.au/calculators/alcohol/, set the FG to 1.000, then change the OG till the ABV is where you want it. 

You could stop 3711 by chilling, but there's no guarantee it wouldn't just carry on in the bottle unless it's filtered out. Tricky...

[Paul Fraser]

Yes i think you can with beersmith. I've just checked with brewshop and they stock the belgian saison yeasts - any experience with these?

[Liam Callaghan]

Your recipe looks nice Paul, let us know how you get on.  Are you planning on kegging it or bottling?

They seem to need high carbonation so I think I will botle mine and bulk prime ones its cleared.  Anyone with tips for high carbonation kegging I'd be interested to know.

I'm brewing my first Saison this weekend too (If the workshop is clean enough, kauri dust everywhere...)  I've gone for similar quantities of Pilsner, munich and wheat.  Saaz B hops.  I want to keep the malt clean so I can see what the yeast is going to add.  I think I'll split it into 2x 15 litre batches and ferment one at 25 degrees the other at 30 to see what additional esters I get.

Farmhouse yeast for me, the others were not available at the time.

Pretty excited after tasting a saison of Bretts last month, it was amazing.  A real eye opener and very different to anything I have ever brewed.

[Paul Fraser]

I'm bottling my lot Liam. I'm going to go for 2.7/2.8 vols CO2 i think. I'm also going to try my hand at the White labs Belgian Ale yeast. I like the description of it and think it could work quite well. I didn't manage to get bitter orange peel but will have a hunt around. Good luck with your one mate.

[Paul Fraser]

Brewed this today. All went well except that the bitter orange didn't arrive in time. I am just going to add it as a dry hop. How should i go about this - just drop it in or boil some water and add the orange to make a brew then add this liquid to fermenter??

[MrC]

I'd boil it in a little water for 10 min, cool and then add it to the fermenter. That way you'll be simulating adding it late in the boil and killing any bugs. You could even add a little a acid like tartaric or citric to adjust the pH to be like wort. I wouldnt worry about the pH though.

[Paul Fraser]

Sweet, I'll give that a go this weekend. Will just boil in a pint or 2 of water and not worry about ph. Cheers

[Paul Fraser]

Ok so fermentation is going good and I was about to boil 1 and half pints water with orange but I just had a thought. Should I wait till fermentation slows before adding incase it stalls or should it be ok??

[Dougal]

I can't see how it would stall anything. Usually it's when you're adding sugar you have to be careful with timing.