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

[Steve Popham]

Cheers. Love the Belgians, the cost of them was what got me into brewing.

I brew them at 18c and let it raise to 20-22c to control the fruity esters. Been using S-33 for over a year, 20+ brews from one pack and still going strong, love it but really excited to try the Wyeast Leuven that just arrived today on my Belgian recipes to see the difference. Am very happy with the Pale recipe but this is the 2nd Blonde, first was not right, not sure the 2nd will be either.

 

The Blonde and BoPils recipes are both from Jamil Zainasheff. The Pale was too but now it's my own mutant.

 

10c will have to do because using a stick on thermometer and that's the bottom of the range, one day will invest in temp controller but for now it is a timer with 15 minute increments and a glass thermometer next to the fermenter. I worry about it all day and night though.

[MrC]

20+ brews from one pack and still going strong

Wow!  That's impressive.  I'm too scared to go over 2 generations.

 

Wyeast will leave the S33 for dead.  You'll be wishing you did it 19 brews ago.  Wyeast 3522 starting at 18C makes a great Belgian Blonde.

 

10c will have to do... I worry about it all day and night though.

Don't worry too much.  I fermented a 'lager' with 34/70 at 14C and although it wasn't great, it wasn't crap either.

[jt]

It wasn't a coopers lager was it Mr Cherry :-)))

Which reminds me that I should scratch my yearly coopers itch sometime

[MrC]

No it wasn't Coopers.  It was the last two of the 24 macs kits I had.  Do they still make those?  Haven't seen them for a while.

 

All of my Coopers Pale/Sparkling Ale itches are officially scratched, for now at least.  Nostalgia will probably get the better of again one day though.

[Steve Popham]

I only go about 4 generations, as I make starters I get 3 reuses from each batch, so by gen3 I am throwing more away than keeping. As long as washed and kept in boiled water it seems to keep for 2-3 months, no problems (so far). Always starts very fast and ferments right down.

 

Any thoughts on Blonde recipe? I was trying to clone Leffe, the recipe was mostly pils with 10% wheat and 10%+ sugar, The taste is very close but no body or foam, I cut back the wheat and added munich to the 2nd go, but I think probably still too high a percentage of sugar. Really like to nail that recipe but after complex and malty Pales it seems boring.

 

Cheers,

[MrC]

Here's a link to the recipe for the Belgian Blonde that I brewed last year.  Got a gold medal for it at last years NHC so the recipe can't be too bad.  The only change I would consider making is to reduce the sugar down to around 350g.  At 8% ABV it was getting a little big for what I was after.

http://www.forum.realbeer.co.nz/forum/topics/1500433:Topic:8?commen...

[Steve Popham]

Thanks for that, how long would be the minimum age you'd put on this, and would that be cellar temp or fridge?

You got some great efficiency there. My first Blonde I only got 68% and added 680g sugar, inverted. Which is what the recipe called for. As I said it was a bit too thin and at that high abv... not crap but with lack of any retention, not great (yet).

 

My 2nd attempt, I went with 8% wheat, 8% munich1 & 50g special B (based on recipe in brewing classic styles). If I hadn't of over sparged by 3 litres my efficiency would have been 85%, couldn't wait to boil it down so upped the sugar (stupid)... don't have great hopes for this either. Is sitting at 1.011 after 4 weeks, bottle tomorrow.

 

I see you got yours down to the bottom of the scale there at 1.008, I not sure I want to go that low with the 3538 and am thinking that dropping the sugar altogether might suit my tastes more...am going to stick with what I know I can do and put down a BPA with the yeast this weekend and then try your recipe next up.

[MrC]

Mine was cellared at around 6C and tasted great at approx 3-4 months.  These Belgian's certainly benefit from some cold conditioning.

[jt]

So as night follows day, a darkie follows a pale and I'm going to ree-mix the tee-bix

Some changes though, some by choice and some by default
Golden promise in for the malteurop - that's what I have
15% Dark crystal this time - that's what I have
Motueka in for the Goldings - that's what I want
Keeping the weetbix in as a concession to no Munich, plus it's got to be good for me
Windsor as yeast du jour - that's what I like

[Ralph]

Hopefully I have time to bottle my weetbix reetmix tonight. I look forward to trying it, but I know I will want to do another brew of it sometime soon as there were a couple of stuffups in the brewing of this one (hence the reetmix). Was under on the OG, had to sub other hops in coz my inventory was wrong and the yeast had a much longer lag time than I like....

 

Oh so much to learn!

[Ralph]

Thanks but nah, I have plans for a rebrew of my Booky next, and sometime after that I will do a Weetbix rebrew. I think I have all the right ingredients now, and I will adjust the grain bill to give me something much closer to the OG I was aiming for and I will do a starter for the yeast so it gets up and running much quicker.

[jt]

The original with the weetbix has dried right out. Still quafable but dry
The second, with the weetbix still, and the motueka is tasting good from the hydrometer sample. Tastes like the motueka brown i used to do extracypt & grains but never cracked as a grain beer, could be good