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...

[Scarrfie]

I am thinking of going much higher with the choc & roast with my next one JT as I mine are nice but lacking that roast punch I like. I have been using oats and flaked barley but may have reduce those right down so I still have enough base malt. I have been using K-97 for everything and it seems okay. One bizarre result I have had is using up a bunch of old hops as I didn't think it would matter much in a stout. So 14g of two year old GB, 6g of year old PG and 7g of six months old PJ. I think it is the PJ coming through with quite obvious citrus notes.

[jt]

The crystal really knocks the roast back Scarfie, but it's adding a nice big body to the beer. Nowhere near the dry stout I started think about, but enjoying it.

Planning on one more, more like the NZ Hops Dry Stout recipe, uses less of everything so be intersting to compare

Interesting to hear about the hops, I could cope with a bit of citrus.

Cheers, jt

[jt]

Keg on tap last night, no hint of citrus from the Pacific Jade Scarfie, would have gone nicely with all that chocolate, maybe a bit more or even late next time eh.

[Scarrfie]

That is interesting jt, was it exclusively Pacific Jade & how long did you boil? Perhaps it is the blend that brings it out. On these pages somewhere I talk about the Porter I did where I drew inspiration from the NZHops recipe. A dose of Hallertau at 5 mins was very prominent and made it almost like eating a jaffa. It was very similar to the Renaissance version although they would have some in the middle as well. The PJ is more lemon/lime in comparison.

[jt]

It was about 22gm or 37IBU as a 60 minute addition in 1041

really enjoying having a stout on tap so I've just brewed another.

22gm PJ again but dropped the gravity to 1036

Not really expecting any PJ character to come through, bonus if it does

[jt]

Just kegged this months stouty.

4% Roast

6% dark Crystal

8% pale chocolate

1.040 and 25IBU.

Bittered with cascade & Sauvin and a 25gm drop of each at 1 minute.

I pulled the specialties back to the NZ Hops dry stout recipe, which was where I started looking. Dropped the IBU right back, but added more aromatics

Initial tasting when flat & warm last night that I was heading down a hoppy porter track. Tasted good, hops came through nicely, might jig it about a bit and head further down that track.

[Josh C]

I am also planning a robust winter porter. The thing is I am not really a fan of overly burnt/ash/roasty flavour or the high level of bitterness of some stouts/porters. I was thinking of using just chocolate malt (~700EBC) with no roast. Does anyone have experience with doing this?

So far I have planned:

OG 1.061

Maris Otter 72%

Brown Malt 13%

Chocolate Malt 8%

Crystal 60L 2.2%

Crystal 80L 2.2%

Crystal 120L 2.2%

Goldings and Pacific Gem hops to ~36IBU

Thames Valley ale yeast (wyeast 1275)

 

This will be my third all grain. If anyone has tips/feedback on improving the recipe I would be grateful

[Scarrfie]

I did a schwartzbier with just choc and pale choc and that came out nice, so that is style you can look to for an indication of flavour.

[Crusader-Rob]

I'm With Scarrfie on this, Base and 1 Specialty, these can be quite tasty. If you went 10% Pale Chocolate, on its own, it'd come out quite good I reckon?

[Josh C]

what if I drop the brown malt but leave the crystal? I was hoping for some toffee in the mix. Perhaps I am still thinking too complex though

[Scarrfie]

Just the dark crystal or Caraaroma would be enough to give you some toffee notes. Alternative is to take a few litres of the wort and boil that down separately to bugger all for the toffee effect. 

[Josh C]

Ok. So just crystal 120L? How much would you say? 5%? That would give 85% Maris, 10% chocolate, 5% crystal 120L. How does that sound?