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]

Just getting started on this now - Maris Summer/Cream Ale
OG - 1044, IBU - 29

2.65kg Maris Otter
850g Flaked Maize
150g Weyermann Vienna
150g Global Caralight
200g Cane Sugar

FWH - 5g Columbus 14.2%
20 - 15g Amarillo 8.6%, 10g Simcoe 12.2%
0 - 12g Amarillo, 12g Simcoe
Dry - 12g Amarillo, 8g Simcoe, 8g Columbus

US-05

[JoKing]

Looks tasty. How did you get on with the extraction from your flaked maize in terms of hitting your SG? And... where did you end up picking up your flaked maize from? Did you gelatinise the maize before you added it to the mash, or did you just check them in as is?

[Reviled]

It was the last lot of maize that I scored from Leigh Sawmill, so now I have none left which I am quite gutted about as its a great adjunct imo!! I just threw the maize in the hopper with the grain and milled it all together, even tho it doesnt look like it needs it, I just do it to ensure it mixes through evenly... I think this stuff is pre-gelatinised tho??

Extraction wise probably about 70 odd% from the Maize, all up I got about 77% eff which is on the higher side of what I normally get...

[denimglen]

Brewer's Coop have got flaked maize at the moment.

[Soren]

Smoke fest at my house today:
1) Beer:
was gonna brew a peated imperial stout this weekend but I had a stunning Stone Smoked Porter a few days ago and it made me remember how fast the last keg of smoked porter evaporated, tasty tasty stuff! So smoked porter it is instead. Last time I used smoked bamberg for the entire base, this time I'm going the Stone way of just a little peated:

Gladfield
Barids medium crystal
Bairds chocolate
Weyermann aromomatic
Peated distilling malt

Southern cross for bittering, NZ willamette @15

1.070 and US-05.

2) Hot sauce:
200 grams of dried asian chillies have been rehydrating in the dregs of the last keg of smoked porter for a few days. I'm gonna (manuka) smoke the holy shit out of them on the Weber along with a capsicum, onion and mabe a carrot or 2. boil and blend it up with malt vinegar, spices, smoked porter and some wort from todays brew.


God I love smoke! Almost make me wonder why I don't smoke cigarettes!:)

[JoKing]

Beef mate. Smoke some rib eye in the weber after the vegies with full flame. See if you can catch the fat on fire.

Ooohh yeeeeahh.

[Dale Cooper]

APA-ish

Double batch ~ 35L

5kg Baird pale malt
2.5kg ADM Pils
2.5kg Munich (light)
300g Aromatic

20g Columbus & 20g Simcoe 60 mins
15g Columbus & 15g Simcoe 30 mins
15g Columbus & 15g Simcoe & 15g Amarillo 15 mins
20g Simcoe & 20g Amarillo & 30g Cascade 0 mins
In a few days:
30g Simcoe & 30gms Cascade

12g US05
OG = 1.056

I learned something today. I batch sparge and I took a pre boil gravity reading with a refractometer just as the last dribbles were getting into the kettle, it meaured 1.035 :-( I was expecting something alot higher, so I was trying to figure out where I went wrong and how to adjust my hop additons. I couldn't believe it was so low I took another reading and it was 1.050, so I figure the thinner final running of wort must float about on top of the thicker stuff until the current from the heat mixes it all up. Anyway something I need to remember when getting hasty with the refractometer (which are awesome by the way).

[denimglen]

Ah, I know the feeling bud.

Have been wondering why I wasn't hitting my pre-boil gravities but always hitting my post-boil targets. I was stirring the shit out of my wort before taking a sample for the refractometer and thought that was all good, but realised last brewday that it's better to take the reading after the wort has come to a boil a the boil seems to do a pretty good job of mixing it up.

Also I've noticed that when you pull a sample it's best to take a biggish one and cool it a bit before taking a refrac reading - even a little bit of evaporation can throw the reading off quite a bit.

[denimglen]

Got this pencilled in for this weekend - basically just a bigger version of an amber ale I've brewed a couple of times.

ImperialRed

Batch Size: 20.00 L
Boil Size: 30.02 L
Estimated OG: 1.085 SG
Estimated Color: 16.2 SRM
Estimated IBU: 94.5 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 69.30 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

6.70 kg Pale Malt (Bairds) 85.02 %
0.39 kg Crystal, Pale (Bairds) 4.95 %
0.39 kg Munich II (Global Malt) 4.95 %
0.20 kg Caraamber (Weyermann) 2.54 %
0.20 kg Crystal, Dark (Bairds) 2.54 %

66C Mash

25.00 gm Warrior (80 min)

40.00 gm Simcoe (10 min)
40.00 gm Columbus (10 min)
40.00 gm Amarillo (10 min)

1.00 gm Koppafloc (Boil 10.0 min)
2.30 gm WYeast Nutrient (Boil 10.0 min)

40.00 gm Amarillo (0 min)
40.00 gm Columbus (0 min)
40.00 gm Simcoe (0 min)

20.00 gm Simcoe (Dry Hop 7 days)
20.00 gm Amarillo (Dry Hop 7 days)
20.00 gm Columbus (Dry Hop 7 days)

19g Safale US-05

[denimglen]

Just mashed in, filled my 10 gallon rubbermaid cooler like 50mm from the top, think I'd have hard time mashing much more than this.

[denimglen]

Chilled and settling in the kettle at the moment, wort smells good, I want to say I have a good feeling about this but don't wanna jinx it!

[denimglen]

Ah mental brew day.

Was using a new pot and wanted to test it before I went crazy with the hole saw - so had to siphon into the fermenter. Turns out my siphoning skills have gone down the gurgler + 265g of hops = clogged siphon and destroying the trub cone. So restirred and let it settle again. Three tries at pulling a siphon I get one going.

Down 5 points on my OG :-( oh well, all good.

Only got about 16L into the fermenter with 7L of trub/hops left in the kettle. So chucked that in the freezer and will add it back tomorrow once all the crap settles out, hopefully it hasn't picked up anything funky, but with all that gravity and hops I'm hoping I'll be sweet.

Overall I'm happy, haven't had a 'challenging' brew day in a while.