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

[Chris Banks]

Yip thats the one
Thanks for sharing your thoughts
What was it that led you to suggest dropping the 10min additions ?
Dont suppose anyone has seen a Hop Rocker clone recipe?
Cheers Chris

[MrC]

I thought the hop aroma was nice but that the flavour was a bit strong and out of balance with the rest of the beer. I would either drop it or halve it.

I've been doing a lot of 60, 10, 0 min hopping schedules and I thinking of either reducing the 10 min amounts on all my beers or moving them from 10 min to 20 or 30 min. On my next beer I'll be trying 60, 30, 0 min to see what I think.

[jt]

Hmm, no porter, rye or Belgians here, I must be heading in the wrong direction
In general, I'm heading lighter in my ales. Less crystal and chocolate and dropping munich completely.
'Less is more' can be pretty tasty in what I've tried so far

[MrC]

I agree jt. I'm getting towards the end of my 3rd & 4th SMaSH brews and I'm now gonna start slowly adding munich, crystals, etc back in untill I find my perfect pale ale. Then I'll probably change my mind and start again.

[JoKing]

I totally agree. Lately, one in four of my beers is a blonde - I love them... I try to always have one on tap. It's fun to play around with the base, as well as the different hops. West Coast Blonde was awesome with the Simcoe. Experiwheat - master of the Nugget and Cascade... Very crisp.

Infact - I'd say all of the US and Citrussy hops (including Riwaka and Sauvin) are perfect with these beers. Mind you... I haven't tried making one with Noble or English hops... would be a good experiment, JT... Blande Mark VI: EKG, Fuggle, Styrian.

[jt]

um, er, Saturday I think .. 2.5% wheat, 2.5% caramalt and about 1.040 20 maybe 22 IBU of Styrians. I think I've been loading up the styrian ales too far, time to come back a bit, I think I need balance more than hops

[MrC]

S04?

[jt]

Oh Five

I never liked O4, but I'll give it a go in a brown beer in a few weeks.
I'm not so sure about 05 in a light brown .. 05 goes well in the lite pales though.

[denimglen]

Agree as well.

As homebrewers we seem to have too much of 'bigger is better' kind of attitude (which it may be sometimes). I think it's kinda cool to take a step back from the extremes and go simple.

Lighter styles are also a bit of a challenge as there's less 'big' flavours to hide faults behind I recks.

[JoKing]

I like making big beers heaps. But I cant drink big beer all the time. I find that when I walk up to the keggorator of death, I reach for the thirst quenching tap first, then twice... then I'll consider the "big" tap. Generally, there are 2 / 3 lighter beers (including blondes, wheat, Pale Ale, Pilsner) and 1... Maybe 2 big beers... like a Dubbel, IPA, Weizenbock ect.

I find it an important challenge with the setup (4 kegs in the fridge) to have a wide assortment of beer styles available. I always turn to these Blonde style beers when the stocks are low.

[denimglen]

I know what you mean.

I can really only have one on at a time so I have to make the toss up between a long lasting 'big' beer or a quickly disappearing smaller beer.

I need more kegs....hmmm....


.....fuck you realbeer members.

[jt]

(4 kegs in the fridge) to have a wide assortment of beer

I tweak my way through four recipes through the year - always four different beers on tap.Then I run out of hops and it's all change again

If I was adventurous enough I'd fill the fifth keg with something completely different