What are you brewing?

[nzbrewer]

Since this is the most popular thread on the RealBeer.co.nz forum I thought I would start it here just to see what happens

[Reviled]

You can use the dregs of an orval, do a search on AHB there was a thread not too long ago about it..

[JoKing]

I'd mash closer to 65-66C. In my experience with gravities as high as your recipe, I find they don't dry out much: you could expect a 68C mash (OG 1080) to ferment down to around 1020 (7.88%abv) If you mash a bit lower you'll get a higher attenuation (maybe somewhere 1014-1016).

Also - if you plan on putting some brett in your bottles and your FG is 1020, your bottles will explode without a doubt!!! That's like bottling a summer ale half way through fermentation! The brett will attenuate the residual sugar to a total of approx 90-95% attenuation.

[Soren]

Thanks for the tips guys. I did in the end decide to mash at 67C for the same reasons you mention. I didnt go too low though, because I find many belgians are a bit thin. I do run the risk of ending up with a cloying beer, but oh well, let's see... May or may not try the brett at bottling, but will certainly keep an eye on the gravity, at least it will fix the potential cloyiness of the beer:)

[denimglen]

What about racking off 4L into one of those 5L flip top glass bottles that homebrew stores sell and souring that? No worries about sour beer everywhere then :-P

[Soren]

Yeah that's probably what I'll do, and stick an airlock in it if I think the gravity is too high to safely seal.

[MrC]

I don't have a lot of time to brew at the moment but I had a couple of pints of Hop Rocker on Friday and got inspired to whip up something similar.

Rock Hopper
2 Mac's Lager Kits

12g Nelson Sauvin 10min
12g NZ Cascade 10min
20g Nelson Sauvin 0min
20g NZ Cascade 0min

US05 - my house yeast :^)

Made up to 21L

This is also a test to see whether I've fixed my "Bad Fermenter" problem and will hopefully give me something drinkable over xmas. Fingers crossed.

[denimglen]

How did that CaraAmber come out as a biscuit/victory sub in that APA we were talking about before?

I made some victory type malt on Friday night, 15ish minutes at 170ishdegC. Gonna give that recipe a shot again using that and with Centennial instead of subbing Amarillo.

[JoKing]

I've got an idea Denim... you can sub both US variety's with something cheep like Super Alpha, and post the US hops down to me - I dont have enough...

[denimglen]

Or I could use them and you could sub Super Alpha :-P

Last time we talked you had kilo's of the stuff haha.

I've got 90g each of Centennial, Simcoe and Columbus from Aus. Centennial is pretty much accounted for, still deciding what to do with the other two.

[JoKing]

I have kilos of hops in my freezer! I could forsee a hop shortage and stocked up while it was cheep! Some would say over stocked - I would say you can never have enough hops! I even got a vaccuum packer.

Simcoe & Columbus are a great combination:sounds like a nice beer... bittered with super Alpha!!! 100IBU!!!

[denimglen]

I bought a vacuum sealer too. Bloody great investment.

[MrC]

The CaraAmber was good, I liked it. I'm think I've been adding too much Crystal to my beers.
I didn't taste overly biscuity but I think that's because I hopped the crap out of it. I halved the batch size at the last minute and forgot to half the late hop additions. No complaints though :^)

I'll try it again over xmas with more caraamber and less hops. I'm also gonna try toasting my own malt. I'll be keen to hear how yours comes out. Are you gonna rest it for a couple of weeks or use it straight away?