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

[MrC]

Hey Denim, is that one of those wine kits from your LHBS?
I brewed one of those about 10 years ago, a Cabernet Sauvignon. It was absolute shite! Worse than a cask red.

[Reviled]

Surely something would have changed with the kit in 10 years?? Just like the kits now are apparantly better than what you could ever get back in the day??

[MrC]

Maybe I'll brew one for the next case swap and find out :-)

[jt]

Surely something would have changed with the kit in 10 years

The price ?

[denimglen]

The price ?

Nah, it's not milk bro :-P

[denimglen]

Yeah, it is.

I've heard a lot of bad stuff about about kit wines - but apparently they've stepped up their game a bit in the last few years - improved their concentration methods and use something like 70 - 100% of the stated variety, it used to be something like 50% or lower in some kits.

Brew Your Own's sister magazine Winemaker rates some of these kits and say they're pretty good. I've been reading through the MoreWine/Winemakingtalk/Winemaker stuff - I have to assume they know their stuff like their beer brewing counterparts. They still recommend using 'unconcentrated' juice kits or crushing/juicing/whatever grapes yourself, no different than extract vs all grain I guess. Pretty much summed up you get what you pay for in a kit, and the quality of the wine is something close to that of a 15 - 20 dollar bottle.

It was 115 bucks for the kit, but it works out like 4 bucks a bottle or something, so even if it's not that flash I won't be too emo about it. I'll have a lot of cooking wine and I could turn some to vinegar haha. It seems that this is a pretty mid range, with the NZ SavBlanc at like $245 and the Chai Mason kits at about $60.

[denimglen]

Well after doing all the wine stuff it made me feel real dirty.

So I kegged my American wheat, feeling a little more normal now.

[John]

Thanks for all the comments on my last attempt. I've taken some of the advice and also started using BeerSmith (works sweet on Linux which is great). One thing I'm not sure about is whether the infusion process is correct, any additional comments or thoughts would be great. : )
--------------------------------------------------------------
Recipe: Good intentions lager
(Mark II)
Brewer: John
Style: Munich Helles
TYPE: All Grain

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 20.00 L
Boil Size: 25.18 L
Estimated OG: 1.050 SG
Estimated Color: 4.5 SRM
Estimated IBU: 21.1 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
3.75 kg ADM Pilsner Grain 88.24 %
0.50 kg Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 11.77 %
30.00 gm Pacifica [5.00 %] (60 min) Hops 18.7 IBU
20.00 gm Pacifica [5.00 %] (5 min) Hops 2.5 IBU
0.26 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs Saflager yeast W34/70

Mash Schedule: Double Infusion, Medium Body
Total Grain Weight: 4.25 kg
----------------------------
Double Infusion, Medium Body

30 min Protein Rest Add 7.98 L of water at 55.6 C 50.0 C
30 min Saccrification Add 7.09 L of water at 91.8 C 67.8 C
10 min Mash Out Add 6.21 L of water at 96.5 C 75.6 C

[denimglen]

Hey mate, recipe looks good, will be a great summer beer.

Personally I wouldn't worry about a multiple infusion mash. Our grain is modified enough that you don't need the protein rest, and it can can also be detrimental with well modified malt. Also multiple infusions are a pain in the arse, to me any way.

I'm not even mashing out any more, just sparging with water hot enough to hit 76C or so, and then firing the burner on my kettle to get the first runnings up to temp to stop any more conversion happening.

I'd also go with Weyermann pils if you can get it, it's a great malt, but ADM would be fine if that's what you'd prefer to use.

[John]

Cool, thanks for the advice on the multiple infusion mash. I would like to try it with both ADM and Weyermann.

[Ron]

Hi
This is my first post in this forum.
Yesterday in brewed a Porter. My 3rd full all grain mash.
Cheers
Ron

[Barry]

Great stuff, got a recipe Ron? What methods are you using, batch sparge/biab? What were the other 2? They were obviously worth the effort.