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

[Bambule]

Having recently received my cache of American Hops from liberty I'm ready for some brewing tomorrow. When you have Simcoe & amarillo what else can you brew but Yakima monster. I have tweaked it slightly throwing in some bittering nelson sauvin and carahelle in place of caramalt so I name thee bambule monster. Saving the chinook up for something else, maybe Bambule bastard, but that is another story.

[Reviled]

Just had a chew on some carabohemian, mega nutty, super malty, the biggest malt flavour ive ever got from chewing on grains!!

Im thinking Rye Dubbel with carabohemian!! Maybe a mild after that?? Im thinking its a malt that will work really well with maris otter!

[Michael]

Sounds like an awesome grain!

Where did you get it?

[Reviled]

Liberty brewing of course :o) I was discussing it with Jo as I noticed the aussies were using it as it is a fairly new malt, and Jo was nice enough to get some in for everyone to try! Awesome stuff...

[Brett Mason]

My first all grain batch, based on a recipe in How to Brew. Calling it a NZ Amber. Its a bit of a trade off brew, I want to try Nelson Sauvin but it is for my engagement party so I don't want to scare people.

Batch Size: 18.93 L Boil Size: 24.28 L Estimated OG: 1.048 SG
Estimated Color: 23.3 EBC Estimated IBU: 30.1 IBU Boil Time: 60 Minutes

2.75 kg Pale Malt, Maris Otter (5.9 EBC) Grain 68.75 %
0.75 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt - light (45.0 EBC) Grain 18.75 %
0.25 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt (150.0 EBC) Grain 6.25 %
0.25 kg Wheat Malt (16.0 EBC) Grain 6.25 %
10.00 gm Nelson Sauvin [12.50 %] (60 min) Hops 14.8 IBU
15.00 gm Nelson Sauvin [12.50 %] (15 min) Hops 11.0 IBU
15.00 gm Nelson Sauvin [12.50 %] (5 min) Hops 4.4 IBU
0.25 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs SafAle American Ale (Fermentis #US-05 (US-Yeast-Ale

Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body
Step Time Name Description Step Temp
60 min Mash In Add 10.43 L of water at 77.1 C 67.8 C
10 min Mash Out Add 5.85 L of water at 92.8 C 75.6 C

(Sorry about the terrible formatting - not sure how to do fixed width and it eats extra whitespace)

[denimglen]

You can use < code > tags for fixed width but takes up mega space on the page.

I've brewed that recipe aaaaaaaaaages ago, it was my first extract and grains recipe. I can say that 1kg of crystal is a bit OTT, it comes out very sweet and caramel-y. It's not bad, just comes out a bit like a NZ Draught if I remember correctly.

[warra48]

You need to be careful in using the amount of Crystal malts specified in USA recipes.
Their Crystal seems to be less sweet than the ones we usually have access to, so you really need to use less.
I wouldn't use more than about 500 gr all up, meaning about 6.25% total, rather than 12.5%, which is very high.

I don't know your system, but allowing only a little over 5 litres for loss to evaporation and trub etc seems on the low side for me. I need to do a 31 to 32 litre boil for a 23 litres batch, meaning I lose about 8 to 9 litres during my brewing process. A smaller batch doesn't necessarily translate to smaller losses if your equipement is the same as used for larger batches. Just a thought.

[Brett Mason]

Thanks guys. Just dropped off the order. Backed off to 500g (50/50 light/dark) and bumped the IBUs up to 34 balance the sweetness.

I'm using a converted 50l keg with a 30cm opening so I'll see how it goes for evaporation. Have added a litre to the boil volume and will keep some water to top up just in case.

The panic and disorganisation starts at 9am (ish) tomorrow. Hopefully wont be as bad as the first mini-mash.

[denimglen]

Sounds good mate, just make sure you up your base malt to hit your og.

I'd expect at least a litre loss to trub and about 4L/hr boil off. But your method of continually topping up will work until you get your evap rate nailed.

[Brett Mason]

All done. The new equipment meant most of it went smoothly. Only had one big problem - I didn't think to measure how much wort went into the boil. I'm guessing it was around 28 litres based on what went into the sparge.

So now I have 25 litres with OG 1.042, ~30 IBUs fermenting. Trying to decide if it is worth trying to add some malt extract to raise the gravity or live with a watery beer.

On the up side Beer Smith tells me my efficiency came out higher than expected at 78%.

[Reviled]

OG 1042 wont be watery? Why do you say that?? I allways brew small beers and depending on the grist and the mash some of them come out very full bodied!

[Brett Mason]

Yeah you're right. I've done some great beers in that range too. Just concerned the original recipe didn't have a lot of body to start with. But I am going to leave it as it.