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...

[Dougal]

Hi Jared,
Here's one I did on Friday using similar hops.

NZ PA

40 litres, 1.048, 34 IBU, 5 SRM

Gladfield Pilsner malt 61.4%
Munich 18.8%
Wheat 13.9%
Bairds Caramalt 5.9%

26 g of Green Bullet @ 60
15 g of NZ Cascade @ 10
15 g of Motueka @ 10
18 g of Motueka @ 5 Min 
10 g of Sauvin @ 5 Min
19 g of NZ Cascade @ flame out
18 g of Motueka @ flame out
10 g of NZ Nelson Sauvin @ flame out

US-05

IMHO, layering smaller additions of multiple hops seems to add something, especially in flavour and aroma additions. Using something like that Hop Hammer schedule you could bitter with Green Bullet and Sauvin, use more Sauvin at 45, then start layering?

[Jared Phipps]

Perfect, thanks for the input! Very much the APA noob, I think I'll use my hallertau aroma dry as its fresh hops, thought it might not be as messy.

So I assume you can't really overhop, it just adds more depth to the hoppiness?

Thanks alot Dougal

[Dougal]

I think you can overhop: when flavours start getting muddled or diferent hop flavours clash, or the malt gets completely obliterated.

Most recipes I've seen use either complementary hops mixed together, or different hops at different stages of the boil so you get bitterness from one, flavour from another etc. That said, lots of late boil, flame out, and dry hop additions can pack in a heap of hop character.

Experiment, but have a look at some other recipes, and calculate your IBUs first: the bitterness on that beer I posted is a little too high as we had to guesstimate the alpha acid levels of the Green Bullet. Must have been higher than our guess.

I'm still learning the different hops flavours myself, but brewing lots is the only way to start getting the knack.
Cheers

[JR]

You can over-hop with Rikau - it just gets far too resinous (well it did for me) but with the usual AIPA favorites you should be fine to go hard with, esp if you are adding them in the last few minutes of the boil.

[Jared Phipps]

Thanks again,

I think I'll sleep on it and have a trial of my nz pa at bottling before jumping straight into the hop hammer... I don't know if I could handle 57g green bullet@90 on top of pac jade 57g @ 90. Then again I'm up for a challenge...

Will let you know how it turns out

cheers

[Pilgrim]

I was chatting to someone the other night when we discovered that we were both into brewing. He does kit beers but wants to move on and is currently growing his own hops. He isn't ready for AG yet but would like to give a mini mash a go. I've offered to loan him a 20ltr pot and grind some grain for him. He'll probably get a bag made up so he can do a mini BIAB partial mash.
So recipe required. Possibly an IPA but if you have any good tried and true recipe I'd love to hear about it so we can get him started.
Cheers.

[Dan Filihiahekava]

Hey pilgrim im also in the "same boat" currently doing the beer kit thing (and loving it) and also growing my own hops , Im also keen to get into the AG scene but i don't think im ready (dont have the balls Hahaha) even after watching 50 000 hrs of youtube stuff . Im also a little stuck when it comes to brewing equip brew kettle or kegs , burners or on the kitchen stove or BBQ etc etc . Im def keen to give BIAB a shot.

[Pilgrim]

Hopefully we'll get a recipe or two posted. Don't sweat over AG, just get into it :-)

Reviled is the BIAB man. He wrote the book on it. I did quite a few BIAB brews and they all turned out great but have now gone to conventional brewing using a gravity 3 tier sytem for 50 litre batches. Get into it, you won't regret it.

[Richard Jack]

I watched Reviled do a BIAB the other day. He's certainly got the process down. It seemed very... worry free :) Maybe it was the drink...

 

That being said, you can pry my mash tun from my cold dead hands.

[Reviled]

"Im def keen to give BIAB a shot."

 

Dont be scared mate, it really isnt as hard as alot of the literature makes it out to be, yeh sure it can get really technical if you want it to, but it can alsop be simplified and you can still make a really good beer! Check out my page, i've done a couple of blogs on BIAB and some easy ways to do it, you dont need alot of equipment, just a pot, a burner and a bag - If you ask Jo at Liberty Brewing he may even be able to make you up a package for the lot?

 

Feel free to PM me with any questions, more than happy to help!

 

And Pilgrim, your mate should really just go the full hog, IMO there is just as much work involved with a mini-mash, but the final product is not as good, so if hes going to all the effort why not just do a 10litre AG if thats all his equipment will allow? My 2 cents, id try and convince him, when hes drinking that delicious AG beer im sure he'd thank you for it ;o)

[denimglen]

Don't worry about AG, don't even worry about BIAB or mini mashing.

 

Read Howtobrew.com.  Don't worry about youtube, I think it complicates things because everyone has their own slight variation on technique, you're better off reading howtobrew and then winging it a bit to find your own style and process.

 

Buy yourself a couple cans of malt extract, a handful of cascade hops and some SO5.  You'll be done and dusted in about 2 hours.

 

One step at a time with that shit I reckon.  I did one all extract beer, two steeping grains then into AG.

 

Even though BIAB is pretty simple I still reckon you're better off easing into it.  Get your boil and cooling down with a couple all extract beers. Then get an idea of how grain works, steeping and the flavours you get from it.  Then when you go BIAB or MLT all grain all you really need to worry about is the conversion, which isn't much to worry about.

 

I mean you can go into it balls and all with a full mash but when an all extract beer with good yeast and fresh hops will be ten fold better than a kit might as well take the easier route.

 

"IMO there is just as much work involved with a mini-mash"

 

Agreed to a point, they are good if you need to mash some rye or wheat or something but they are a bit of a prick.  I never bothered with them because it was overwhelming for me to convert recipes to match my theoretical mini-mash system.

[Reviled]

"I mean you can go into it balls and all with a full mash but when an all extract beer with good yeast and fresh hops will be ten fold better than a kit might as well take the easier route."

 

This is why I disagree with you, the two extract with hops beers I did weren't 10 fold better than the kits, they still tasted average as IMO, and still had that annoying lingering kit taste to it.. When I brewed my first AG, now that was another story, easily 10 fold better!