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...

[Reviled]

"I have read of guys using 2Kg of cherries, would this be too much for the Quava's?"

What batch size are you doing? If its a full 20 litre batch id suggest at least 2kg to start with, try if after its been on the fruit for a few days and if you think it needs more, wait a few more days WITHOUT ADDING MORE, then, if its still not enough its safe to add more..

In my experience with fruit beers it takes about a week to get all the nice flavors, but only a day or so for the color

[Dan Filihiahekava]

I did a wheat beer with 3463 and had a couple of kilos of plums in the freezer chucked them in secondary (20l) , beer came out all good but next time i will use a little more fruit.

also looked at cherries but at the time they were 15 a kilo .I'm digging Feijoas at the moment so will put something down this weekend

[Tilt]

Good advice Rev and Dan - thanks.  I've wondered about amounts, when to rack and time on the pulp. 

Here's another idea worth considering Cigar City guava grove saison

[Reviled]

I brewed 10 litres of cream ale, and then put it onto 2kg of cherry pulp.

 

I brought the frozen cherries from the supermarket, which worked out to about $15/$20 per kg (not cheap - but sooooooo worth it)

 

In hindsight, I wish I used 3 or 4kg - The color was spectacular, but the flavour was a little bit lacking, even with a cream ale it was still more sublte  than I wanted.

 

Let it ferment for 4/5 days before racking onto the pulp, then leave it for about 3/4 days before having your first taste - I reckon a week to 10 days MAX, don't leave it longer than this, if it's still not where you want it, rack it onto a new batch of fruit - after a week or more you'll start extracting more nasty flavours from the fruit...

[Tilt]

How did you end up getting on with this beer Scarfie?

In the end I decided I'd do a Pacifica/ Nelson Sauvin hopped American Wheat fermented slightly warm with a Kolsch yeast.  The aim is to try and accentuate the subtle fruity/ winey characteristics of the yeast to see if they compliment the guavas. 

I'm about to rack 13L onto 3kg pulp and leave for a few days - I'll get back on how it ends up.  A sneaky snifter of Richard Jack's Saison version last week was tasting damn fine.

[Scarrfie]

Unfortunately they are still sitting in the freezer Tilt. I brew in ambient so have all my fermenters (4) full of lagers. I have a few other beers on the to do list, but will try something when i can rely on temperatures being a bit warmer. Your one sounds nice.

[Tilt]

I'll post the results of my guava experiments then - hopefully they work out.  If they don't then at least they could help you with knowing what not to do when the temps warm up a bit.

[Richard Jack]

Mine's come off the fruit now. I'm wishing that I had taken them out when you tried it, Tilt, the extra 2 days didn't do it any favours. The tanins came up significantly, I think we're now past "dry" and into "punishingly dry" :(

There's some bugs in there from the fruit, but, meh, who cares?

Still, it's certainly unique... next time I'd do a max of 4 days on the fruit and I'd try to get them in just before the end of primary. another idea is to limit the amount of skin that went in - I think that's where the tanin came from.

I'm looking forward to the next guava experiment, which is going to be an NZIPAwG.

[Tilt]

Here's the base recipe for interests sake.

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 30.00 L
Boil Size: 42.22 L
Estimated OG: 1.051 SG
Estimated Color: 5.1 SRM
Estimated IBU: 17.9 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 80.00 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
50% Wheat Malt
45% Gladfields Ale
5% Carared 

90min (FWH) 14.00 gm Nelson Sauvin
15min 10 gm Pacifica
5min 20 gm Pacifica
0min 10 gm Nelson Sauvin + 20gm Pacifica

Yeast: Kolsch fermented at 17-19 ramped over 4 days

I'm racking half onto the guavas and keeping the other half as a comparison

[Tilt]

Thats a shame Richard - but there's definite promise with these.  If its just a matter getting to know the fruit and timing then there's always next season.  IPA and guava - now thats gonna hold some promise!

Re the bugs - I'm hoping theres a few viable ones still left on the frozen berries - I've got a small cider experiment sitting on a couple of handfuls at the moment too.

[Tilt]

On tasting the beer tonight there was a touch of tannin starting to show through so I  racked off to let it finish off fermenting without picking up any more flavour or tannin.  This lot was 12L beer on 1.6 kg fruit for 3 days at 19degrees with a current SG of 1017.  The other half of the base beer is sitting at 1013 so I figure this one has a few points to go.

The flavour is fresh sour fruit with a smidge of almost metallic tannin - not unpleasant but I wouldn't want any more.  I think it needs some sweetness so I'm considering a touch of lactose before carbing  I'll now leave it another few days at ferment temps before chilling, fining and kegging. 

[Richard Jack]

Hey Tilt - Have you heard of removing tanin with egg white? Think I'm going to have a lash with a sample.