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...

[Daron]

Hi, suplhur after 2 weeks + of conditioning is starting to become a regular feature of my German Wheat beers. After several weeks the beers are opening and releasing the sediment and leaving a head in the bottle. I use Citrox exclusively so maybe an infection in my fermenters?

Please....any ideas.....

[Mark]

Recently I made a wit in an old fermenter that i hadn't used in ages, which had some unusual post fermentation smells and has now developed a pellicle. The fermenter is a plastic bucket style and has scratches on the bottom, which was the reason I stopped using it in the first place! Upshot is it possibly is your fermenter, so either buy a new one or use glass / metal. Unfortunately the plastic bucket style fermenters do require periodic changing.

[Tilt]

Time and $$ are pressing lately so I'm playing about with a Kits and Bits with 2 Coopers lager tins and steeped specialty grains to use what I've got in stock.
Options for playing with what I've got in the meagre stores are more of each of the crystal malts plus some dark Crystal, a small amount (30g) of Styrian Goldings and either Nottingham or S05 yeast.
The hopping schedule will probably look familiar to a few fellas here as I've shamelessly borrowed from previous JT and Joking posts
I'm guessing its something like an American Amber with NZ hops (A NZ Amber?) (but not so sure if I use Nottingham instead of S05).
IBUs are calculated from Coopers estimation that I'd get 21 Isohop IBUs from each lager can in a 23L brew
What do ya reckon?

Dipper Amber Ale (referring to the current recessionary dip)
Type: Kits and Bits
Batch Size: 23.00 L

Kits
1 x 1.70 kg Coopers Lager extract kit at start boil with steeped grain liquor
1 x 1.70 kg Coopers Lager extract kit at 1 minute to pasteurise
Steeped Grains
0.30 kg Carared (Weyermann) (24.0 SRM) Grain 7.50 %
0.20 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain 5.00 %
0.10 kg Caraaroma (130.0 SRM) Grain 2.50 %
Hops
20: 5.00 gm Motueka 10.00 gm NZ Cascade 5.00 gm Pacifica
15: 5.00 gm Pacifica 10.00 gm NZ Cascade 5.00 gm Motueka
10: 15.00 gm NZ Cascade 7.00 gm Motueka 7.00 gm Pacifica
5: 7.00 gm Pacifica 15.00 gm NZ Cascade 7.00 gm Motueka
1: 20.00 gm NZ Cascade 10.00 gm Motueka 10.00 gm Pacifica

0.30 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs Nottingham (Danstar) Yeast-Ale

Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.051
Est Final Gravity: 1.012
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.03 %
Bitterness: 56.4 IBU
Est Color: 11.1 SRM Color

[jt]

I love that hop combo but I've swung it slightly in favour of the Motueka lately - personal preference
And then dry hopped with the same amounts as the 1minute addition.

I've used Nottingham a couple of times and not got it right (though lots of people do)
If I had the choice, I'd use S05 - or get some pointers from successful Nottingham brewers

cheers, jt

[Tilt]

Thanks JT - yeah I'm keen to try NZ hops more regularly and get to know them well. As good a place to start as any was the combo you and Joking discussed a while ago.

Good point about the Nottingham - I've not used it before so keen to learn more.
My reasoning was that it would leave more of the hops to shine through than the S05 - but I'm probably more interested in getting the FG low than leaving the hops behind.
I'll post on the Newbs thread to see if I can pick up some Nottingham users tips
Cheers

[vdog]

I'd go with the US-05 - it'll attenuate well, and IMO it does a good job of letting the hops through (definitely better than I've had with the couple of times I've used Nottingham). If it was me I'd also drop the 20min addition and use those hops as a dry hop instead. The bitterness will still be sufficient to carry the OG, but you'll get some extra aromatic goodness.

[Tilt]

Thanks vdog - US05 is definitely a yeast where I feel on more familiar ground - I'd heard it scrubs out aroma more than the English yeasts - but happy to be informed otherwise. I'm more keen on a well attentated clean flavour so 05 is probably the go.
I wondered a little about those 20 min hops - they up the bitterness (which I have calc'd as a baseline will be 42IBU from the kits) but my thoughts were they also add to the flavour.
The question is where am I likely to get best use of these.
Its a good challenge playing around with timing to see where I can get bang for buck with a limited hops stash. Thanks for adding to the conv.
Cheers

[Toot]

Any comments on the following? Too much?

Fortune 500 AIIPA

Style: Imperial IPA

Batch Size: 23.00 L


Ingredients Amount Item Type % or IBU

8.00 kg Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (3.0 SRM) Grain 84.2 %
0.50 kg Biscuit Malt (23.0 SRM) Grain 5.3 %
0.50 kg Carared (20.0 SRM) Grain 5.3 %
0.50 kg Melanoiden Malt (20.0 SRM) Grain 5.3 %

SG 1.078

20.00 gm Amarillo Gold [7.50%] (60 min) Hops 14.2 IBU
20.00 gm Simcoe [10.20%] (60 min) Hops 19.4 IBU

30.00 gm Amarillo Gold [7.50%] (30 min) Hops 16.4 IBU
30.00 gm Simcoe [10.20%] (30 min) Hops 22.3 IBU

40.00 gm Amarillo Gold [7.50%] (10 min) Hops 10.3 IBU
40.00 gm Simcoe [10.20%] (10 min) Hops 14.0 IBU

50.00 gm Amarillo Gold [7.50%] (0 min) Hops -
50.00 gm Simcoe [10.20%] (0 min) Hops -

110.00 gm Simcoe [10.20%] (Dry Hop 3 days) Hops -
110.00 gm Armarillo Gold [7.50%] (Dry Hop 3 days) Hops -


5.00 gm Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Boil 10.0 min) Misc

US-05 MAsh for medium to fullish body

[Llew Bardecki]

I suppose you know what kind of efficiency you get out of your system better than me, but that seems like a lot of grain for 23L at 1.078. Though I guess you will lose a lot to all those hops!

Beyond that the grain bill looks reasonable to me. Maybe a bit heavy on the Melanoiden?
The hop schedule looks pretty good.

Personally I like an IIPA to be a bit drier. I'd mash for low-medium body (maybe 66-67?) There'll be so much malt in there you should still have reasonable sweetness to balance the hops.

[Paul Harrison]

Been trolling for a while and just started BIABing. Put together this recipe. keen to have some feedback especially amounts.

Pale ale (23l batch)
Boil time 60mins

Malt
Maris Otter 5kg
Carapils .3kg

Hops
25gm Amarillo @ 45mins
25gm Amarillo @ 30mins
25gm Amarillo @ 15mins
1gm of Kopperfloc @ 15mins
25gm Amarillo @ 5mins
50gm Amarillo dry hop after 5 days

US-05 Yeast

Thoughts on the hop schedule? Is the amount of malt right? I want the beer to have a backbone but I don't want to chewing it if you know what I mean.
Cheers

[vdog]

What you put in totally depends on what you want to get out of it, so to answer your questions it'd help to know what you're trying to achieve. You'll get a feel for what works for you over time, and also what works best for your system.

In saying that, here's what I think:
- The hopping looks good. Amarillo is tasty.
- For my taste, I'd add some medium crystal into the grist (say 250g) and drop the carapils back to 250g. Carapils gives a bit of sweetness and IMO needs some crystal to add depth and balance that.

Good luck with the first brew, regardless of how it goes it'll taste good because you made it yourself.

[Paul Harrison]

What am I trying to achieve? a simple, well rounded pale ale so I can see what things taste like. The plan is to use as few ingredients as possible so I can see what gives off what flavours/aromas etc. I had the good fortune to try the Mikkeller single hop beers tasting at Hashigo Zake a while ago which help to show what various hops bring to a beer (amarillo and warrior were my favourites although Nelson Sauvin was also very tasty)

Thanks, I'm sick of that "homebrew" taste I get with kit beers that turns astringent after a month in the bottle.