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

[Andrew Dixon]

Had a great brew day today.  Took a bit more time and got my BIAB "dunk" sparging sorted and overshot my expected 65% efficiency and hit 72% (hopefully this or better will become the norm).  Also this was my first time making a started, since I used some fairly old yeast.  Turns out starters are pretty simple and I think I pitched a good healthy colony of yeast.

Brewed the Mild from "Brewing Classic Styles".  OG sample tasted pretty good, so I have high hopes for this one.  All round a good day.

 

16L batch:

Gladfield ale malt    2.6kg
Bairds Medium Crystal    0.185kg
Bairds Dark Crystal    0.14kg
Bairds Pale Chocolate    0.09kg
Bairds Black Malt    0.045kg

East Kent Golding    6.5%    20g  @60

Mashed at 68C for 60 mins and fermenting with S-04 at 20C.

 

Andy

[JackoNZ]

A quick 10L BIAB batch of English Best Bitter for me today. Decided I couldn't be bothered sparging so went with a full water volume up front and paid the price in efficiency. Oh well some sugar was added to get me back to where I wanted. I previously brewed this as a Booky clone and whilst I enjoyed it I didn't think it was quite there and a bit too sweet. The recipe has been tweaked with different and slightly more hops so it's moving further away from Booky but hopefully still a nice quaffer. Tried out the Windsor yeast too for the first time, I'll save you a bottle jt.

83.7% Pale

5.4% Pale Crystal

4.5% Caramalt

5.4% Sugar

Pacific Jade to 30 IBU at 60

About 1g/l of Mot/Styrian at 15 and 0

Windsor Yeast

Will be chucking in 2g/l of Motueka dry hop

[John H]

Hi all. I'm working on a dry stout and the recipe calls for a mash temp of 64Deg but they use the lower attenuating Irish ale yeast. If I'm going to use US05 what temp should I be mashing at to compensate. My random thought was around 65.5Deg C. Can anyone advise?

[Dougal]

I would have said 66-67C. Depends on the amount of specialties in your recipe and how much body they add. 

[John H]

Cheers mate - I'm currently mashing at 66Deg C. Pretty bog standard Dry stout - 10% roast barley, 20% flaked barley, 70% UK Pale.1050OG 50IBU

In hindsight 67Deg C may have been a bit better - but hey - should still be quite drinkable ...

[Liam Callaghan]

I usually brew everything at 67C but the two stouts I made would have been better at a slightly lower mash I reckon.  Not a lot of experience with the darker beers and all that malty goodness.

[Paul Dunlop]

1st AG; IPA

6 KG Maris Otter

300g Light Crystal Malt

 

Mash @ 67 deg C for 60 mins

lauter then sparge (batch) with 75 deg C H20

Boil for 60 mins with

 

50grams Nelson Sauvin @ 60

50grams Motueka           @15

25grams Fuggles            @5

 

Primary for 1 week

Secondary for 2 weeks dry hopped with 25grams leaf hallertau

Fermenting with Safale 04 (rehydrated) @ 24 deg C

OG 1.056

Sorry dont have a FG .....yet!

I made this beer a few times with extract and it came 2nd in a local comp. Cant wait to taste this AG badboy. Smells effin luverly out the airlock

Note to self. Always use a blow off tube :) otherwise you'll be more than smellin it!!

 And just to celebrate doing my 1st AG i went and done another on Saturday.........mental i know!

A recipe i trawled from 'homebrewtalk' adapted by the newbie i am

Robust Porter

 

6 KG Golden Promise 450grams Chocolate Malt
450grams Light Crystal Malt
113grams Black Patent
25grams Roasted Barley

225grams Flaked Barley

Mash @ 66 deg Celcius for 60 mins

Lauter then sparge (batch) @ 75 deg C

 

Boil for 60  mins

25grams Motueka @ 60 mins

25grams Cascade @ 60 mins

 

Fermenting with Safale 04 rehydrated @ 25 deg C

OG 1.060

Primary for 2 weeks then not to sure!? Advice more than welcome.

Blow off Tube is now a normal thing!!

High hopes :) cheers

 

[Richard Deeble]

Brewed my first 23 litre batch all grain brew yesterday.

NZ Amber Ale 

5kg Golden Promise

200 g Munich II

200 g Melanoidin

200 g Thomas h Pale Crystal

200 g Thomas Fawcett Medium Crystal 

200 g Thomas Fawcett Dark Crystal

Mashed at 66 deg C for 90 minutes. Slight Gypsum addition to add some calcium. Unfortunately realised I forgot to add a campden tablet to get rid of the chlorine. 

20 grams Pacific Jade at 20 minutes

30 grams Pacific Jade, 30 Grams NZ Cascade at 10 minutes

30 grams Motueka, 30 grams Cascade at 0 minutes

Fermenting at 18degrees with 2nd Generation 1275. Really enjoyed the balance of malt, hops and esters in an NZPA I did recently with this yeast. Planning to do dry hop at about 3 g/l with a mix of Pacific Jade and Cascade.

 

The recipe is a heavily modified version of Jamils Evil Twin without the roast malt, darker munich and a bigger range of crystal. I'm hoping for a rich, malty but hoppy amber ale that is still dry enough to be drinkable. Looking forward to kegging for the first time in a couple of weeks!

[Liam Callaghan]

You don't start with a simple mash on your first one eh mate!  Nice one!

[Grant R Baker]

Wow...  that is one hell of a grain bill for an amber ale. 

.

What was you OG for that and what is your FG target...?

.

I shouldn't worry too much about chlorine (unless its really bad in your area) .. the boil should release alot of it.

[Richard Deeble]

O.G ended up being slightly lower than I wanted-1.055, rather than 1065. I lost some efficiency after accidently tipping grain out my pot and I think some of my calculations in terms of wort loss and top up water were slightly out. I probably also should have run off slightly slower and split up my batch sparges. All stuff I can correct out next time.

I just checked the gravity last night and it was already down to 1.014 and still bubbling occasionally. Hoping to get down to about 1.010-1.012. Its beginning to slow down but I imagine I will get down to about 1.012 from here. I'm liking Thames Valley, it seems to ferment pretty rapidly, attenuate nicely and is clean enough to let the malt and hops shine through while also having some great English character. The sample tasted obviously like young beer (diacetyl, am currently ramping up the temp to get rid of it) but really rich and bready, with some nice spicy hop character. I probably should have added some roast for a little bit more of a red colour

[JackoNZ]

Another half size batch for me tonight and another go with Windsor. Looking forward to trying some liquid yeasts after this.

Southern Brown Bomb

58.2% Pale Malt

20.2% Munich

9.2% Medium Crystal

4.6% Caraaroma

4.4% Dark Cara

3.4% Pale Choc

23 IBU PJ at 60 and 1g/l NZ Styrian at flame out. Another 1g/l dry hop in a couple of days.