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]

Shit howd you lose 5 degrees in an hour? :-/

[Mike Neilson]

Im putting it down to headspace in my 10 gal cooler, 3.8kg of grain didnt even touch its sides!! Next time I do this it will be a double batch or I will use my 5 gal cooler!!

[James P]

Did you preheat it? I find if I don't put in at least 10 litres of 70C water in the cooler that it looses 3 degrees.

I had to top up with 3 litres of boiling water this morning to get it back up to 66 when it should have been 68.... lesson learned, keep me head on the job instead of watching movies while brewing!

[Mike Neilson]

Yeah I boil my water first to get rid of the chlorine than I chuck it in the cooler to preheat it wait for it to get to strike temp than strike!! Do you use the 10 gal cooler?

[James P]

Yep, Rubbermaid like the morebeer ones. It's great when preheated, it holds the temperature within a degree or two over 60min.

When doing multi step mashes (30, 30, 10) it never dropped, 60 min mashes are a little different.

[Mike Neilson]

Yeah your right, mine drops .5 if that over an hour when I use around 7kg of grain which is a usual brew. I think I just pushed it to much at the bottom end of the scale!!

[jt]

Only 5 IBU for bittering ? I know you'll get lots of hop from the other additions, but I reckon you need at least 10-12 IBU to bitter even a seemingly tasteless New Zealand Draught

[Mike Neilson]

Yeah I got 15 Ibu from the last additions which makes it 25Ibu exactly where I wanted it to be Hopefully it will be Heavy malt from the M/O and Mel and citrusy and slightly cloying from the wack Cara's and Mel. Which I hope will aid in the big whack of hops!!

[jt]

Sorry, I wasn't very clear.
I reckon you need to get your 90 minute addition upto at least 10-12 IBU for a bit of balance & backbone.
When I've gone under 10 IBU for my 60 minute bittering addition the beers been lacking, regardless of how many IBU I've added later.
Too late I know.

Never used melanoidin, carared or the Amarillo, but I reckon it should be a tasty drop.

cheers, jt

[Mike Neilson]

Yeah you could be right? I find with the later additions the bitterness is their for the period I will be drinking it. If I bottle when I do this method the bitterness seems to disapear after 2 months!!

[jt]

If I bottle when I do this method the bitterness seems to disapear after 2 months!!

You're keeping your beer too long ! I've usually finished a batch in 6 weeks unless I lose the odd bottle and find it later on. At two months and later my ales are too different to what I remember the keg being like and sometimes a struggle to relate back to.

[Ally Mcg]

Putting the finishing touches to my Black Francis Mk 2 recipe for more cold weather brewing tomorrow

65% LME
11% Pils
11% Munich
4% Crystal
3% Pale Choc/Choc (ran out of pale choc so its 9/10ths pale)
2% Melanoiden
2% Carafa II
Columbus and Amarillo to 50IBU with lots of late additions
Good old S05

Variation on my CS2 brew, trying to add some more malt complexity in the mid palate and change the hopping to give more on the nose which i think is what the feedback said i should try. Looking forward to this, if its only 80% of the original I'll be pleased