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]

I find the Brown a bit of an acquired taste, not always keen on it.
Keen on adding a bit of Amber but thinking I may need a bit of crystal too, do you think?

[Edmund Barker]

I've only tried one, which was a past its use by date for half price! I quite liked it, big malt. Almost reminded me of some of the malt beers I had in Japan, except a bit sweeter. Any recommendations for a good example of a brown. I'm guessing double brown is a no-no? :P 15 year old me would be disgusted in my mocking of the cheap staple!

[Tilt]

Sam Smiths Nut Brown is my reference point after spending a few pleasant evenings in Yorkshire pubs enjoying its complex biscuitiness.  Not sure if its available in NZ though.

[Mark]

I normally can't stand Amber malt, but recently tried a bottle of St Peters Ruby beer which has almost convinced me otherwise. It's brewed with Styrian Goldings which kick in as soon as the amber malt flavour threatens to take over, it's quite a feat of skillful brewing! It tastes like it's got crystal in it, personally I'd add some to counter the slightly harsh dry flavour of the amber.

[Tilt]

Agree with you there Mark.  Crystal: Amber ratios of 1-2:1 seems to work well.  I haven't tried dark crystal but Carared, Pale and Medium Crystals seem to work well to counter the "sucking on wood shavings" affect of the Amber. 

[jt]

Thanks guys, heading down the amber with some crystal road. Maybe more something like this http://www.grainandgrape.com.au/BeerOTMonth/riggers_entire.htm

[Tilt]

Correction to the above post - the stout I tried was 3 shades with brown malt and WY1084,  not 4.  Too dry for my tastes. 

That porter recipe looks good JT.  It seems to balance the amber nicely with other specs for an exploratory foray into the amber malt darks.

[jt]

I brewed the bitter he wrote in that series when I started extract and grains and thought one day I'd give the porter a go.
I've mixed amber and crystal a bt in the past. After the first few bog standard extract with some crystal, the addition of some amber was a nice change.
So, all a bit of a muddle and nowhere closer to a Cascade stout!

[Tilt]

Yeah - back to the issue at hand - Cascade stout

From my experience of the three shades, along with memory and your description of Cascade I'd go with a smaller version of the four shades recipe. Include some crystal at a 1:1 ratio with the amber and a cooler fermented english yeast.  Its probably pride of ringwood bittered so anything neutral or a bit sharp in the hop department would be OK too.

[jt]

I wouldn't have complained if it had a bit more hop character and I was thinking of just doing a 1:3 Sauvin:cascade bittering addition.

[MrC]

If it helps, I tasted a beer with the following grain bill  a few months back and really liked it.  I'm planning on brewing something similar at some stage:

Maris Otter
6% Crystal 60L
2% Amber
2% Dark Crystal 120L
1.5% Choc

Yeast: 1968

[jt]

Cheers Mr C, thanks for that. What was the beer?