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

[jt]

Just trying the second batch dry hopped with the 18gm Hallertau.
Admittedly it's only been in the keg two days, but there is slight grassiness there - but also very tasty
If it smooths out quickly I'll up the dry hops another notch next time

[MrC]

Once again you've inspired me jt.

I dry hopped yesterday with 15g NZ Hallertau cones. I'll be bottling it next saturday so it will have a week with the dry hops.

[jt]

About equivilent to 12gm pellets by the usual 15% estimate of pellets to whole
Be Interesting to hear how your tastes bottling compares to kegging

I had a bottle of the 12gm batch last week and at 9 weeks old it wasn't noticeable, but my appreciation and tastebuds are rather shabby anyway

[Adam Tristram]

How did the mead go as looking for a recipe?

[MrC]

Wow, a blast from the past.

The mead was really quite good.  It picked up a silver medal at the NHC that year. 

 

It's a bit lost on this thread so here's the recipe again:

Batch size 11.5L
5kg clover honey

0.75 tsp tannin powder

3.0 tsp yeast nutrient1.5 tsp Cinnamon

1.0 tsp Cloves

Gervin Wine Yeast GV4(26)

(You definitely need the tannin and acid blend because the honey alone doesn't have enough of those for a good fermentation)

Here are my notes around the procedure:

Brought water to boil.
Flame off.
Add honey & stir 'till dissolved.
Bring back to boil scraping off any white scum (not much in this case).
Added all other ingredients & stirred them in.
Cooled in bath to 25C.
Added to fermenter & topped up to 12L (only needed .75L),
Cooled to 20c & pitched the hydrated & proofed yeast (proofed with table sugar).

 

If I was to brew it again I would change the following:

- Reduce the amount of honey down to 4.0 or 4.5kg honey.  15.4% ABV was a bit on the high side.

- Increase the spicing (double?) as they were not really noticable.  Personal preference though I guess.

- Pitch two packs of yeast rather than one and ferment below 20C.  The mead was a tiny bit solventy in a kerosene kind of way.

 

Hope that helps.

[denimglen]

Amber Ale tomorrow night - grains crushed, hops weighed and mash in water measured out - all ready to go when I get home from after-work beers. Recipe from Brewing Classic Styles with a few adjustments for local ingredients.

20L

3.7kg AU Pale
0.4kg Munich
0.3kg CaraAmber
0.2kg Crystal 120
0.2kg Home (wet) toasted malt

15g Pacific Jade 60 mins
7.0g Amarillo + 7.0g NZCascade 10 mins
7.0g Amarillo + 7.0g NZCascade 0 mins

WLP008 EastCoast Ale

1.052, 32 IBU, 12 SRM, Mashing at 68C

Really looking forward to tasting this one.

[jt]

Seems to be a bit of white labs yeast about, are you buying from the us or aussie Glen ?

Good luck with brewing after work drinks, got an alco-meter on the mash tun incase you're over the limit ?

Have you aged the malt or are you using it fresh ? I've read opposing views on that.
What sort of malt were you aiming at with the toasting ?

[denimglen]

Yeast was from the US - morebeer.com, I was thinking it may be buggered by time it landed but I stepped it up and froze some and all seems well so far.

Don't need an alcometer because of the after-works - had to drive home ;-), might need one on the boil kettle though haha, but I'm a sensible brewer, using gas and boiling liquid inside + booze = trouble, so I keep it limited when brewing.

Malt has been aged, about four or five weeks now I think. Aging makes it smell better for sure. After toasting it smelt kinda 'rough' but after two-ish weeks it smelt like chocoloate chip cookies being baked, best smelling malt I've ever come across. Although when measuring it out last night it smelt kinda dampish so hopefully it all turns out ok.

I wasn't aiming for anything inparticular with it. In How To Brew it said that wet roasting at that temp gave a sweet, biscuit/toast flavour which is pretty spot on with the aroma of the malt.

[Alasdair]

I know it's a while ago, but any recollection of how this turned out?

I'm planning on brewing an amber ale this weekend. I was looking at the recipe in "brewing classic styles" and it's got a lot of crystal in it!

I was wondering about using less crystal 120, vienna in place of the munich, a touch of amber malt, and pale choc for colour. Hopping will be Riwaka + NZ Cascade.

[denimglen]

Haha, my very extensive notes say "ok beer, nothing amazing".

Buuuuuuuuuuut on reviewing the recipe and what I did -

East coast ale, not an appropriate yeast, doesn't accentuate hops, is a little too fruity and doesn't attenuate enough - 1056/001/05 would have been a better choice.

This was brewed before I knew CaraAmber is actually a biscuit-style malt, not caramel as the name suggests. So effectively I used twice the amount of biscuit malt. Which would account for the wierd malt character I remember.

So really I'm in no place to comment sorry.

It's funny you mention you're thinking of brewing one. I was thinking the next beer I brew should be an amber, good strong malt character with complementary US hops. I'm gonna brew the 'West Coast Blaster' recipe this time though. I don't think there's enough hops in the first recipe but that's just me I guess.

Also if you don't already, listening to the relevant podcast by JZ on the brewingnetwork.com website really supplements the recipe and gives a little more info. A choice-as way to get through those boring bits at work :-P

Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

[Alasdair]

No need to apologise - all helpful info. I was thinking of increasing the hops anyway, to 30g at 10 and then again at flame-out.

I'll find the podcast too. I've downloaded it, and I know it's around here somewhere! I overdosed on BN podcasts at work a year or two ago. :)

Cheers

[Stu McKinlay]

A little CaraMunich and CaraAmber on top of a solid pale malt will give you a great amber. Give it loads of good malt and hops and you can't go wrong. Forget the roast - there is no need.