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

[Simon David kelly]

Try microwaving it first which should kill off the bacteria on it that's causing the gusher.

[Martin Bridges]

I don't think it's the bacteria that causes the problem - more likely it's the hop particles creating nucleation sites for CO2 to break out of solution.

[MrC]

Personally, I'd avoid bottle hopping. Instead, I'd consider adding hop tea at bottling or maybe just hop it at consumption time like jt did recently.

[martin w]

i'm planning on 2 brews with some 1762 i have coming courtesy of joking,i've never brewed a belgian before and have little experience drinking them so after trolling t'interweb this is what i've come up with,

first is an enkel, i'm thinking

80% pils
15% vienna
5% carapils

hallertau aroma at 60 and 15 to about 25-30 ibu

mash at 60c

wash the yeast and brew a dubbel
Pilsner Malt - 92.5%
Belgian Aromatic Malt - 2.5%
Belgian Special B Malt - 5%

Mash @ 66 for 60 minutes or more if needed for conversion

Boil 60 minutes

Additions of Amber Candi Syrup 500g - 60 min
Tettnang 30g. - 60 min (approx 18 IBUs)
Hallertauer 15g - 5 min

i got the dubbel recipe from this thread http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/comments-my-1st-recipe-scratch-belg...
as he got some good advice with the ingredients,

any comments/suggestions appreciated

[Martin Bridges]

Just milled for tomorrow's brew. When Albrecht came to my birthday drinks he very kindly brought me some hops from his own garden. I've never brewed with whole hops before, and never with Smoothcone so this will be a bit of an experiment. I've kept the grist simple to let the hops shine on their own, and pushed them all to late additions.

90% Kolsch malt
10% medium Crystal

5g Southern Cross @ 60 mins
40g Smoothcone flowers @ 15, 10, 5
50g Smoothcone flowers @ 0

Will be dry-hopped with 30g Smoothcone. Yeast is US-05, again to keep things clean.

Aiming for 1.045-ish. No real idea on the IBUs, but I'm guessing 30-40.

To make sure I preserve the aroma I've finally got around to building my immersion chiller today, so that'll get it's first run out tomorrow.

I'm really interested to see how this turns out.

[denimglen]

So am I. Keep us updated bro.

I've got a few hundred grams in the freezer that I haven't touched haha.

[Martin Bridges]

Well, it was an interesting brewday. All went very smoothly, even my new chiller which brought the wort down to pitching temp inside 45 mins. The wort going into the fermenter was amazingly clear, no doubt helped by the huge filter bed of hop flowers at the bottom of the kettle! 170g of flowers certainly expand to fill up a heck of a lot of space! Quite a subtle flavour in the hydro sample. I hit 1.044 so that's good enough for me. Should hopefully be the first of the summer quaffers.

[MrC]

I'll be interested to know whether you think the chiller makes a difference to the final beer. I still chill my two pots in the bath and yesterday I got the temp from 100C down to 18C in around 45 mins also. It was down to approx 30C in 30 min.

I often entertain the idea of getting a bigger pot and a chiller but I'm not convinced it would improve my beers.

[Dougal]

I've had a chiller for a while, and usually get to 18C in 35-45 mins. I'm experimenting at the moment with the "budget" whirlpool chiller: stirring gently with a sanitised spoon (through a tiny gap between the pot and lid covered around with foil) just to keep the wort constantly moving over the surface of the chiller.
Results are dramatic. It gets down to 18C in 15 minutes.
Now I'm back into doing hoppy beers I'll see if I notice the difference.

[jt]

hey, good to hear Mr Cherry !

And I'm glad to see you continuing the Sharp ! them, good beer

[MrC]

Cheers jt. I haven't finished with the Sharp theme yet either, Next up could be Styrian & Simcoe, S-Sharp.

[jt]

I'm planning another low gravity clone of Stu's American Porter for this weekend.
The first attempt is still in the keg and it's a bit of a novelty having a 5% beer on tap, tastes good and I'm trying to make it last.

But I want to tinker with it. The 1.050 version was good, but at 70% or so IBU to OG, needed a bit more 60 minute grit to it, so I'm upping that.
Also going to go with the Styrian Goldings additions at 15 and power off.
There's nothing wrong with all that Cascade, but I'm picking that the SG's will add the other dimension that I remembered in the commercial release that wasn't in my LGC