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

[Tilt]

Well its got there.  This one has reached 1013 and its mighty roasty verging on ashy/acrid with an alcohol warmth (about 8%) and some clovey phenols making themselves known.  Its a bit medicinal as it sits cleaning itself up but I'll give it some time to come together before I judge it.

[Martin Bridges]

Yeah, mine was really acrid early on. There's a huge amount of roast barley in there, and because it's really friable you get lots of microscopic particles floating around which taste really ashy. Over time they drop out and it smooths out.

I'd be interested to try this beer using the cold-steeping technique (grinding up the dark malts really fine, steeping in cold water and adding the liquid to the boil).

[Patrick]

Bottled James' Blonde Ale part deux this evening. Tasted great out of the fermenter, and I got 27 bottles out of it, good result. What shall I brew next? I have been wanting to try adding honey to an amber ale or similar, want to try to hit a relatively high OG. How much can US05 handle? I want to make a strongish one, maybe 6%ABV? When you add honey, do you actually end up with any honey flavour in the beer or does it all get fermented out? Any suggestions?

[Reviled]

US05 will easy go past 10% abv, but if youre going above 1060 use 2 packets..

As for the honey, ive tried it in a few beers and reckon its average at the best of times, ive only added it to the boil tho, never straight into the fermenter which I hear retains more of the honey flavour tho...

If you want to brew a 6% beer, what about an IPA with NZ or US hops?

[Patrick]

Sounds like a plan - I will try and make up a recipe and post it in the recipe advice thread for comments. Cheers!

[Reviled]

Base the recipe around what hops you will be using... What do you have available at the mo?

[Patrick]

Nothing! Well, 20g of imp fuggles. What NZ hops do you recommend? Motueka? Riwaka?

[Reviled]

If youre going to buy then I would highly reccommend going US, Amarillo, Simcoe, Columbus etc...

If you really want to go NZ, then my pick would be probably sauvin and riwaka

[vdog]

I can thoroughly recommend Cascade and Nelson Sauvin, which are fairly easily obtainable - and Riwaka, if you can get it (I can't, and I've tried). Motueka's good too.

[James P]

Liberty still have riwaka? If not import it from Craftbrewer! :)

Cascade and Sauvin rock my house.

[Patrick]

Might go NZ cascade and Nelson Sauvin - can get both from my local store. I don't have a credit card so I son't tend to shop online much.

[Reviled]

Cant use a credit card on liberty so thats no excuse Patrick :oP

Unless your local store is Brewers coop I would seriously suggest you start going to Liberty instead, its probably cheaper!