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...

[David Wood]

Hi guys, random question here. If I add a minced up beetroot to the mash, do you think it'll impart a big beetroot flavour? I'm mainly wanting to do it for the colour and (maybe) a bit of fermentables, beetroot flavour would be weird in an IPA.

[MrC]

I've wondered about colouring beer with beetroot juice once too. If you're just doing it for colour, I'd say add small amounts at the end of the boil until you get the colour you're after. I'd also start off with a small amount and if it works out OK I'd increase it next time.

The other option would be to make up a little beetroot tea (boiled) and prepare a small sample at bottling/kegging time. If it tastes & looks OK you could then apply the same ratio to the rest of the batch.

[David Wood]

I added a lot of beetroot juice pre boil last time, it didn't seem to have much of an effect. I'll save some to add near the end of the boil this time, cheers.

[denimglen]

Red food colouring? ;-)

[Llew Bardecki]

I'd meant to mention this to you earlier... I read something about brewing with beetroot a couple weeks ago (not the foggiest idea where anymore though.)

They noted that boiling breaks down the compounds that produce the red colour, so if you just want it for colour you're best off adding a tea to the secondary.

(That said, when I make my borscht the beetroot boils for a long time and it still stays very red. Though the borscht includes an awful lot of it.)

[studio1]

I'm brewing my Brown Ale for next Saturday's comp (yes a bit late...but nonetheless).

OG should be around 1.036

I mashed in a little low - hit around 65/66. I had to dash out for 30min and when I got back the mash was down to about 60/61. I freaked out that my beer will be too thin so I quickly crushed and added 220gm of Cara-Pils (42L batch).

Was this a wise thing to do?

[Reviled]

Hmm, I dont think it was a bad thing to do, like you say the mash temp got pretty low and esp for a small beer it could have easily finished too thin, so hopefully the carapils will add that extra body youre after...

Also, I feel alot better about only kegging my WBC brown this coming weekend now :o) lol

[studio1]

I do have another small beer though not quite too style that has been in the keg for a month or so......

[Reviled]

My ones totally not to style, its got US hops all the way through it ;o)

[denimglen]

Did you give it some time to convert? Either way the worst that will happen is a bit of starch haze.

I recently cheated on an over attenuated pale ale, just boiled up some maltodextrin in some water and added to the keg - gave me the equivalent of an extra 0.002 points - and worked bloody well.

[studio1]

had 30min or so, so should have converted ok. don't usually test with iodine though

[Simon David kelly]

Sweet Baby Jesus, how do you guys get a beer done in a week ... I'm looking at 2 just for fermenting ....