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...

[JoKing]

There aren't any style guidelines anyways - you could lead the way mate.

[Alelover]

I would like to make something close to the Classy Red from Harringtons for my next brew, without having to go the extra mile to find ingredients. Can anyone recomend a recipe AG ?

[Toot]

Gonna do an IPA tommorow and just wondering about this hop combination.

Super Alpha for 60 min (33 IBU)
Cascade at 30min
Cascade and Williamette at 10 min (or maybe flameout)

52 IBU total

Dry Hop with Cascade and Williamette

Other hops I could use are Stricklebract, Nelson Sauvin and styrian goldings

Any suggestions?

[Christian]

mmmm...Cascade. I'd probably just go with what you've got there - keep it simple.

[Ally Mcg]

Stick with the cascade and willamettes for my money

I'd move yr additions to 20 and then forward to half at 5 and half at FO if you want loads of aroma and flavour.

Dry hop for 5-7 days, get max value out yr hops, i'd go 2 or 3g per L

[Toot]

Is that 2 or 3g total hops per litre or 2 or 3g of each hop variety?

[Ally Mcg]

Up to you entirely - i'd go 2g of each if it was me - the more you use, the more you notice would be the rule.

[Reviled]

Are you using US or NZ cascade and williamette? If its the domestic variety, id personally go for Sauvin and Cascade as the NZ williamette is more like Fuggles

[Christian]

Inspired by Young's Double Chocolate Stout, I'm thinking about brewing a chocolate beer in the weekend and would be keen for any advice - particularly about chocolate additions.

I use kits + hop & grain additions.

My current thoughts using easily available ingredients are:

- Mac's 1.7Kg Triple Malt Dark kit
- Some Chocolate malt
- Some NZ Fuggle
- Some Chocolate essense
- Some dark Chocolate (probably Whittiker's)

US-05, 11 Litre batch.

Feel free to tell me I'm crazy and suggest this and that but I don't want to deviate too much from what is listed unless it's a big problem. As you can see - I would appreciate advice on the proportions for this half-batch.

Cheers.

[Soren]

the best way (according to my research) to add chocolate is cocoa nibs in the fermenter but they are very hard to come by. dark chocolate for eating will most likely have some dairy in it? not good for the beer. chocolate essence would work if you ahve a nice one. another way, which I havent tried is cocoa powder, which has the advantage that it has been de-fatted. for the best results put the chocolate in the secondary but be prepared that it wont drop out of suspension easily so you may want to filter the beer or make some sort of tea-bag for it... boiling the cocoa in the kettle wont hurt but will drive a lot of flavor and aroma of...

[Christian]

Thanks. I think the proper dark choc is dairy free but I was still wondering about the effects of cocoa fats and oils. Cocoa nibs sounds like a good way to go - I might hold off this weekend and try and track some down (a quick search a couple of NZ websites selling them).

[Soren]

I would also advice you to "bag" the nibs, in a mesh bag. They are a pain to get rid of otherwise. I've used 150 g in 22 L with pretty good results, think you can go from half to double of that depending on how chocolatey you want it. and leave them in there for no longer than 7 days, all the flavor will be extracted and only unwanted harshness reamins...