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...

[jt]

multiple short dry hoppings

The Bunny does those Mr C !

But I've reverted to just chucking them in, less fuss and you get the added bonus of floaties. And they've been usefully employed tieing up the tomatoes and sunflowers

[Chris Banks]

"The Bunny does those But I've reverted to just chucking them in, less fuss and you get the added bonus of floaties" lol!!
We are talking about dry Humulus Luppulus i hope!!!!!

[jt]

The ones the Bunny leaves ?

Not sure if they float, but I've threatened to string them together like a necklace

[Patrick]

Sounds good - should I give it a swirl after adding or will the aroma steep thru the beer without it?

[MrC]

JackoNZ - Plum IPA you say? Everything I have ever read suggests that fruit aroma & flavour doesn't go well with hop aroma & flavour. I've always steered clear of anything other than bittering hops in my fruit beers but I guess there's only one way to find out.

You could meet in the middle and brew an IPA but replace the late hops with fruit. You'd still have all of the other aspects of the IPA just not the late/dry hops.

If It was me, I would either:
1. Brew an IPA and then rack 5L onto fruit for a small experiment.
2. Go balls out and brew the full Plum IPA with the intention of palming it off in the case swap if it's no good ;-)
3. Brew an IPA, then brew a Plum Fruit beer and pour yourself a 50:50 blend.

Have you tried Three Boys Plum? Could be a way to find out if you like plum beers before you launch into it.

[Reviled]

Agree with mr Cherry I would be more inclined to just have a bittering hop, but then you could maybe still dry hop it? Some of the american dry hop characteristics could go quite nice with a plum aroma, but theres only one way to find out!!

[Tony]

Yes I agree. fruit and a lot of hops, sort of cancel each other out. You are either doing a fruit beer or a hoppy beer. It would be an interesting experiment, but be prepared to be disappointed. I would admire anyone who can find that perfect mix of a certain hop with fruit?

Anyway, think of a framboise? Sometimes bitter- yup; sometimes just a touch of fruitinesss-yup; sometimes both-yup. Work on that balance. I would add the fruit to the fermenter, not the boil or you'll probably end up with something OTT? Crush the fruit up, put it in a hop bag and throw it in. How long? is a piece of string. Depends how much you put in, the yeast, the type of fruit. Thats going to be the art. Give a crack mate ;)

[JackoNZ]

Cheers Mr Cherry, I haven't tried the Three Boys Plum yet but I do plan to, just need to pop down Regional's and pick a bottle up. I should at least get an idea from that if plums actually work and how much comes through in the beer.

I thought I might pull right back on the late hops as you say, if I split the batch which I most probably will I can always dry hop the non fruit batch to get that back to what an IPA really ought to be.

Any advice on preparing the fruit? Should I be quickly pastuerizing at 70c or can I stew the fruit up to break it down some first and get the stronger flavours coming through? Skins on or off?

[Reviled]

When I did my cranberry cream ale, I used frozen fruit, and thawed and refroze it several times to damage any bugs that might have been hanging out there, then just blended it, skin and all and threw them into a fermenter lined with an old BIAB bag, left the fruit in for about 8 days then pulled it out...

Skin on or off? Your call mate, I would be inclined to throw it all in first off, or maybe split the batch, do 10litres with skin and 10 without?? Its hard to say really...

[Mark Kessell]

would it be an idea to think about plums as grapes in this manner?
i mean, with grapes, flavour is in the mushy juicy center, and the skin adds tartyness and colour (in the case of reds). preparing them for fermenting the same way.

you'd want to know what the skins qualities are like. is it tarty or sweet, etc.
also, if your after some colour from the plums, then adding the skins might be needed.

i think MrCherrys idea of racking into secondaries is a good place to start.
you can brew a nice big IPA in one, and a plum side experiment in the other.



p.s. you never tried it, but remember the plum wine bills mate was handing out at the beer fete in nelson? 1 word.... EVIL...

[Reviled]

My dad used to make Plum wine and threw the skins in, was just chatting to him about it and he never noticed tannins, not that he would probably know...

But also interesting what you say about the colour Mark - and might explain why Three Boys Plum ale has almost zero colour from the plums, I was expecting a purple reddish beer only to be greeted by a paleish beer...

[MrC]

[Sorry, IE6 still won't let me reply directly to comments.]

I wouldn't bother with the whole freeze, non-freeze thing. I would pastuerise for 20min at 80c with just enough water to cover the fruit. Works for me and still gives that fresh fruit flavour. It does give the beer a haze but I'd rather have that than a drain pour. I added pectic enzyme (pectinase) to my last fruit beer and it still came out hazy, although it was a wheat beer base. I reckon the pectinase massively increased the fruit flavour though.

Stewing? If you stew the fruit first you will end up with a stewed fruit flavour. If that's what you want then go for it. If you want more of a fresh fuit flavour & aroma then don't stew them.

Skins? I'd leave them on. Tannins maybe? Try chewing some plum skins for a minute and see how they taste. If they are bitter a tannic then you may want to consider peeling them first. Your call.