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...

[Stu McKinlay]

Nudge nudge back Denim. Check yo' email for important developments!

[denimglen]

Cheers mate, just checked it, have replied.

[Mark]

lol no offense bro, just really unsure of a good ratio for sauvin and anything else. it's such a standout hop i wouldn't be sure how well it blends

[studio1]

i reckon you can blend it pretty well....

[Alasdair]

It's tasty 50:50 with NZ cascade in a pale ale.

[denimglen]

I've used a 1:5 ratio of NS:Columbus. Stunning I reckon, really helps bring out some fruitiness of the US hops, thanks to Stu for that tip.

To be honest I think it's a little too 'standout' for me, and because of that it needs to be blended to help it settle down.

[Dale]

Hey, did my first mini mash lager last night using WYeast 2007. What I did though was pitch my yeast as i always do once i had my 19L in fermenter and temp was around 22C. Put into garage thinking it would drop really fast in this cold weather and it took 24hours to get down to my target 8C.

So next time should I let the fermenter get down to right temp before pitching or does the lowering temp 22-8C for 24 hours not matter for the yeast and the final taste of the beer.

Thanks

[Martin Bridges]

Did you build up a starter from the smackpack or just pitch the contents of the pack? Amount of yeast is probably more important than temperature, I'd say. Significant volumes of liquid have a high thermal mass and hang on to heat better than you'd think, so I'd look to get it a bit cooler before pitching, but if you pitched a good healthy amount of yeast you should be fine.

[Dale]

Thanks Martin, I did make a starter 2 days before and had the white build up at bottom of starter before pitching. My starter's don't look like the photo's I've seen on here though with the amount of white on the bottom and the high foam head but i think that's down to less air as i use an airlock and sounds like i should just put tin foil over the lid instead.

Do you make all your starters at 20C or at the temp you are going to ferment at?

[Martin Bridges]

How big was your starter? I use the pitching rate calculator at MrMalty.com. For lagers the starters tend to need to be big as. I recently made a Bohemian Pilsner which the calculator said required a 6.5 litre starter. I didn't believe it and made a 3.5 litre one. The beer ended up with a ton of diacetyl, which I reckon was due to under-pitching.

There is some evidence that an airlock keeps the pressure a bit too high which restricts yeast growth, so I'd go with the tinfoil hat approach. I always make my starters at room temp. There's a really good episode of The Brewing Network's "Brew Strong" podcast on yeast starters - have a listen to that.

[Dale]

wow my starter was 1 litre of water and then boiled so would have ended up around 750ml. I worried that if the starter was too big it might change the flavour of the beer.

Thanks Martin i'll look at that podcast.

[Martin Bridges]

If you're doing a huge starter I'd make it a few days earlier then chill down so the yeast settles at the bottom and you can pour the liquid off.