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

[Mike Neilson]

Just added 50g Chinook Mash Hop

[Mike Neilson]

And another during sparge

[jt]

Nothing today and somehow it seems wrong not to be brewing on a Sunday morning

I have a lightweight pale in primary, plan on reusing the S05 next weekend for a lightweight hoppy brown.
Looks like 12% mix of caramalt and crystals like the pale but adding 3 or 4% pale and regular chocolate and maybe a handful of black
Change to Sauvin for bittering then the same hopping as the pale, Motueka, Cascade and Hallertau.
About 1.035 and 30 IBU

[jt]

Been drinking and enjoying this and looking at another batch with a tweak
The Sauvin is noticeable, but not dominant, the hops are there, flavoursome but not too bitter.
Maybe more of a New Zealand Draught the way it should be

But for the next batch I was going to drop the gravity and looking at 1.033 or so and make it a really easy to drink, good to go for an afternoon at the bbq on Christmas day maybe
I was considering just dropping the weight of base grain down - is that a go ?
It'd mean the %age of the specialties increases slightly and so will the bitterness but I thought that would help keep some character in there
Any tips or tricks out there for a beer at the very low end ?

[Mark]

Brewed this behemoth yesterday:

Batch Size: 5.00 L

5.00 kg Pilsner Malteurop (2.0 SRM) 53.4 %
1.00 kg Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) 10.7 %
0.50 kg Aromatic Malt (26.0 SRM) 5.3 %
0.50 kg Special B Malt (180.0 SRM) 5.3 %
0.50 kg Wheat Malt, Ger (2.0 SRM) 5.3 %
0.25 kg Melanoiden Malt (20.0 SRM) 2.7 %
0.20 kg Caramunich type 2 (45.0 SRM) 2.1 %
0.08 kg Home Roasted Malteurop Pils Dark (300.0 SRM?) 0.9 %
0.08 kg Roast Barley (Stout) (500.0 SRM) 0.8 %
0.50 kg Oats, Flaked and Toasted (25.0 SRM?) 5.3 %
0.50 kg Homemade Candi Syrup, Dark (20.0 SRM) Sugar 5.3 %

Belgian Ardennes Wyeast Labs #3522

22.00 gm Southern Cross [13.80%] (60 min) Hops 33.2 IBU

0.25 tsp Allspice (Boil 5.0 min) Misc
0.25 tsp Cloves, Ground (Boil 5.0 min) Misc
0.25 tsp Nutmeg (Boil 5.0 min) Misc
0.50 tsp Cinnamon Ground (Boil 5.0 min) Misc
5.00 gm Orange & Mandirin Peel, Sweet (Boil 5.0 min) Misc
12.00 gm Coriander Seed (Boil 5.0 min) Misc


Measured Original Gravity: 1.092 SG
Measured Final Gravity: 1.016 SG ??
Actual Alcohol by Vol: 10.0 %

Bitterness: 33.2 IBU
Est Color: 27.4 SRM


Brewday was a bit of a nightmare, but the wort tastes amazing

[Llew Bardecki]

That sounds like a heck of a beer... I'm really not a fan of dubbels (which this sounds like a close cousin of) but my mouth is watering just reading that description.

I can imagine it was a bit of a tough brew with a grain bill that size! That wasn't really all for a 5L batch, was it?

[Mark]

Haha no that was a typo, was a 25L batch. It's an attempt an a Pannepot clone, a Belgian strong dark ale with a few spices thrown in. The fun part was roasting malts and oats, and making the candi syrup (which smelled and tasted freakin awesome). My setup can handle a large brew, but I did have to boil some excess runnings on the stove. Just had one of those days where everything seemed hard and took ages. Being distracted by Magnum PI didn't help

[Barbara Joppa]

Can you explain how you made the candi syrup? I would be really interested in trying this myself
I would also be really interested to hear how this beer turns out. The spices sound like a lot but I do not have much experience with them as an ingredient, either.

[martin w]

http://kotmf.com/articles/candisugar.php

i'm making some tonight for a dubbel i'm brewing next week, i was going to bre it today but had a hangover and couldn't be bothered!

[Mark]

I've tried a few different ways, but the best tasting I've found is this:

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/20-lb-sugar-jar-yeast-nutrient-114837/

It uses Di-Ammonium Phosphate which cause a maillard reaction at lower temperatures than normal caramelisation. The flavours are better than anything I've got from normal invert sugar/syrup, and it's more fermentable.

I used Vintner's Harvest yeast nutrient as a source of Di-Ammonium Phosphate and followed the amounts and procedures outlined pretty much exactly (the guy's done loads of research and experimenting). An electronic or candi thermometer helps, but you can just stop when you like the look of the colour if you want. It's surprisingly easy to make, just remember to watch the stuff all the time, once the water boils off it changes colour quickly and can burn easily!

I've not used spices before either, so I erred on the side of caution, only using a fraction of a teaspoon for most of them. I'll keep you updated on the beer.

[Llew Bardecki]

Doing a batch of my basic blonde ale today:

20L batch

3.00kg Malteurop Pils
0.25kg Caramalt 30EBC
0.25kg Weyermann Wheat Malt
0.20kg Crystal 90EBC

Mash 75 mins @ 66C

15g Nelson Sauvin @ 60
15g Pacifica @ 10

25IBU
O.G. 1.040, F.G. ~1.009, 4.0%ABV

I've made this a bunch of times as a base beer to play around and add other flavours to.

5L of this batch will have 50ml of lavender infused vodka added to it at bottling time, making it batch 3 of Lavender Blonde. The rest might be bottled as is, or maybe have a secondary fermentation with some fruit. Kiwifruit maybe?

[Patrick]

On saturday I brewed one in a series of easy summer quaffers (need to get the stocks up for xmas etc)

22L batch

4kg Bohemian Pils
1kg munich
50 min mash, 90 min boil

40g green bullet at 60
25g NZ cascade at 30

US05 yeast
OG 1050

I also mixed up a blackrock cider kit with an extra 3L of applejuice added, 23L @ OG 1042.