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...

[Jono Galuszka]

Alright, I haven't been able to brew in months (screw you, 28 degree weather!), but I have temperature control being sorted.

I want my first brew back to be super-crazy, so I'm going with a decocted barleywine with a bit of rye malt.

However, I do have a few worries:

*What are the best hops to use with something like a rye barleywine? Was thinking of keeping it simple - Southern Cross for bittering, Sauvin for aroma/flavour. Looking at a 10ish per cent beer with 90 IBU, most of it from 60 and 30min SC.

*Yeast - I'm tempted just to pitch a heap of US-05. I want to really taste the rye over the yeast. Anyone ever used it in high-gravity beers before?

*I'm looking at a heap of grain for it, so I'm thinking of making a small beer as well. Thinking the spice you get from rye might go well with a saison. Thoughts?

[Liam Callaghan]

Slightly off topic but the high temperatures are fantastic if your looking to brew a saison.  I use the  Farmhouse Saison.  Its a cracker and makes a primo saison at 26 degrees, 28-30 wouldn't give it any troubles either.  Not too phenolic, I thought it would be all cloves and bananas but it came out a treat.  Clean as a whisle and nice simple notes on the nose.

[Hillman]

Speaking of saisons, I'm planning to brew my all-sauvin saison again reusing the yeast from last time (as mentioned in the yeast generations thread). After that I'm thinking about using the saison yeast (White Labs Belgian Saison II) for a smoked porter using grain smoked with manuka. I would probably keep the fermentation relatively cool i.e. around 21 degrees, just to draw out a little of the cloves flavour without busting out the big fruity esthers. Am I mad? Do I want to drink 40L of this?

[Jess9]

Hi Liam.

Re Saison. Can you post a recipe / link for that one using Farm House yeast, would love to give this  a crack.

Cheers

J9

[Crusader-Rob]

I've got a half batch of IIPA planned as a partial mash, for speed of brew time mainly.

its as follows:

1.5kg amber LME (Late 15 Min Addition)

0.125kg Crystal Pale

0.25kg Melanoiden

0.3kg Dextrose

0.2kg Carapils

Along with 1kg of Pale Malt

Est OG 1.080

Hops:

25g Columbus @60

15g Centennial @ 30 @10

15g Cascade @15 @5

15g Zythos @10

8g Centennial @FO

7g Zythos @ FO

 

Dryhop: 10 Days: 8g Cascade, 7g Centennial 15g Zythos

              5 Days: 7g Cascade, 8g Zythos, 15g Centennial

Any tips and tricks for such a large beer? I'll be using a half teaspoon of Sulphate to help the hops, but thats debateable, good old CHCH water.

[Ralph]

Happy yeast is the key to getting a big beer up and running well. Pitch a bunch more yeast to make sure it gets up and running...

Personally I would be throwing a bunch more hops into the end of your recipe. Bigger beers have more alcohol and more malt flavour and can sustain more hops... They are usually able to be aged a while and so you can throw more hops in and leave it to mellow for a while.

You want to get a big beer to finish as dry as possible. Mash at a lower temp for more fermentables. Many people use sugar or dextrose to get the high alcohol without the extra malt sweetness. Also use a yeast that attenuates well (finishes dryer).

Dry hopping. Many people these days think that 3 days contact for dry hopping is long enough. Most flavour is pulled out in the first 24 hours. If left in too long you start to get grassy notes etc.

Good luck Rob!

[Matt Smith]

Aside from what Ralph said, make sure you have enough Calcium and Zinc, and make sure you aerate the hell out of it. I think it's all about keeping the yeast as happy and healthy as possible to keep that alcohol heat at bay and to keep things clean and clear so those hops can shine.

For Calcium, 50ppm is recommended and you should get close to that if your adding half a teaspoon of Calcium Sulphate. Not sure what your water is like down there, you may already have enough. In any case, a brewing water calculator can help you get in the ballpark. Zinc is lacking in malt, and really important for efficient conversion of acetaldehyde into alcohol. I use the Wyeast yeast nutrient which should give you enough at the recommended dosage. You can get it from Brewers Coop that I know of.

[Crusader-Rob]

It's just an 11 lt batch but I have some extra hops so ill chuck in some extras. Could throw some citra in the dry hop as well?! Fingers crossed my ingredients show up.

[David R]

I'm about to put down another batch of JoKings great Epic IPA recipe (this one: http://www.forum.realbeer.co.nz/forum/topics/newbies-1?commentId=15...) and because of a slight miscalculation I've only got 50g of US Cascade for the dry hopping, so I'm taking this as a perfect opportunity to experiment with some other US hops in the fermenter. Any suggestions on variety or quantity?

[Ralph]

Centennial always goes well with cascade...

[Hamish Jones]

Thinking about going big and using some hops I haven't really had the chance to play with and see how they interact with one another, any thoughts on this or any tweaks anyone can offer

Going for 23 Litres sort of along the style of imperial IPA but not exactly to style, also what yeast would one recomend to get his baby going?

 

Amt Name Type # %/IBU 3.800 kg GladField Pale Ale (6.0 SRM) Grain 1 45.5 % 3.500 kg Gladfiled 2 Row Pilsener (3.5 SRM) Grain 2 41.9 % 0.700 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 3 8.4 % 0.350 kg Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 4 4.2 % 20.000 g Southern Cross [13.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 5 21.7 IBUs 20.000 g Motueka [7.30 %] - Boil 45.0 min Hop 6 11.2 IBUs 20.000 g Southern Cross [13.00 %] - Boil 45.0 min Hop 7 19.9 IBUs 20.000 g Motueka [7.30 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop 8 9.4 IBUs 20.000 g Southern Cross [13.00 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop 9 16.7 IBUs 0.28 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 15.0 mins) Fining 10 - 50.000 g Cascade [6.70 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 11 13.9 IBUs 50.000 g Riwaka [5.25 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 12 10.9 IBUs 40.000 g Cascade [6.70 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 13 0.0 IBUs 40.000 g Riwaka [5.25 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 14 0.0 IBUs 1.0 pkg Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05) [50.28 ml] Yeast 15 - 50.000 g Cascade [6.70 %] - Dry Hop 0.0 Days Hop 16 0.0 IBUs 50.000 g Riwaka [5.25 %] - Dry Hop 0.0 Days Hop 17 0.0 IBUs 30.000 g Motueka [7.30 %] - Dry Hop 0.0 Days Hop 18 0.0 IBUs 30.000 g Southern Cross [13.00 %] - Dry Hop 0.0 Days Hop 19 0.0 IBUs
Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.074 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.019 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 7.3 %
Bitterness: 103.6 IBUs
Est Color: 10.9 SRM

[Chris P]

Where did you score Riwaka?