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

[Peter Smith]

Another Timothy Taylor's this weekend   

100% Golden Promise with a 2L reduction towards toffee,  

100% UK Goldings hops to about 30IBU

1469 is spinning in a flask

 

[jt]

Nothing brewing this weekend, but I need to get an extra keg sorted for the festive season.
Not sure if I'll go the Mild or maybe something with a Bookie weight/balance . Picked one up this morning, first for awhile, might help sway the decision

[Darren Wood]

Hi you lot!

Going to give a single hop beer a go. I used Kohatu on a NE IPA, but I want to see what it _actually_ tastes like. Thoughts on this recipe (also giving Supernova a crack)

Recipe: Kohatu V1
Style: American Pale Ale

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size (fermenter): 23.00 l
Estimated OG: 1.054 SG
Estimated Color: 12.3 SRM
Estimated IBU: 34.6 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 73.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 80.9 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
4.5 kg Gladfield American Ale Malt (2.5 SRM)
1 kg Gladfield Supernova Malt (58.4 SRM)
0.15 kg Gladfield Sour Grapes Malt (2.0 SRM)
8.5 g Kohatu [6.50 %] - Boil 75.0 min
25 g Kohatu [6.50 %] - Boil 30.0 min
60 g Kohatu [6.50 %] - Boil 10.0 min
40 g Kohatu [6.50 %] - Boil 0.0 min
40 g Kohatu [6.50 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 15.0
60 g Kohatu [6.50 %] - Dry Hop 5.0 Days
60 g Kohatu [6.50 %] - Dry Hop 5.0 Days
2 pkg Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05)

Mash Schedule: Grainfather Default
Total Grain Weight: 5.64 kg
----------------------------
Saccharification 67C 60 min
Mash Out 76C 10 min

[Cain Harland]

Second Pliney the elder in a row

First one was the kind of standard recipe that's been floating around the net with a but load of hop extract

Todays was based on this very different recipe http://www.bertusbrewery.com/2015/10/pliny-elder-40.html

Would be real keen to try the 2 side by side but I think the 1st will probably end up in the garden due to fermentation issues, pitched huge starter of WLP051 California Ale V but still but still got stuck ferment and some gross flavour, possibly chlrophenols (the council did briefly chlorinate the reservoir around that time due to an e-coli scare ) it subsided after rousing yeast at 14 days and leaving for another week to finish I'm hoping will cold condition out but will probably end in the garden. So I thought I better get another one in the fermenter too look forward to before I have to tip the first. So a bit of camden to de chlorinate the water and back to trusty old US-05.

[Sam DT]

Nice, was just reading up on that recipe for some tips on my NZIIPA a couple of weeks ago - his mash temp seems surprisingly high - I ended up going for 64 and still fell three points short of my 1.010 target with four re-hydrated US05 packs pitched.

Think I need to get more O2 in and maybe some nutrient - also starting suspect my thermometer is reading a touch low which probably didn't help... I've also taken a leaf out of the LoDO guys book by giving my mash water a quick 5-10 minute boil to drive off any oxygen/chlorine and reduce oxidation in the mash - not sure if it's actually working but for all the hops I reckon it's worth a punt to reduce oxidation.

Let us know how it comes out.

[Kevin Sharp]

"Think I need to get more O2 in   ...  I've also taken a leaf out of the LoDO guys book"

There's a bit of a contradiction there. LoDO requires that you keep oxygen out of the brewing and packaging process at all stages, and the results are only as good as the weakest step. I believe oxygen is usually used for yeast cultivation though.

Interestingly, in British breweries during the late 1800s and early 1900s Potassium Metabisulphate was used liberally in the mash and the cask. This would have been as a preservative, but it also had a significant anti-oxidative effect.

[Sam DT]

Yeah I've got come K-meta from cider making but haven't taken the plunge just yet, Chch water is oxygenated tho so I figure a quick boil to knock it out of solution wouldn't be a bad idea.

Oxygenation good, oxidation bad. You still need oxygen for the yeast to multiply - less important if you do a heavy pitch but still helpful. The LoDO guys recommend pitching then oxygenating as the yeast should use up the dissolved oxygen within an hour or so. I'm not completely sold on LoDO although more from a can't be bothered perspective - most of their science seems reasonably sound if not a little fanatical to me - de-oxygenating prior to mashing just appeared to be the best bang for effort over the top of what I already do.

The oxidation impact is a two step process and varies according to temperature and time. The biggest short term risk is mash time as you've already got O2 in solution and you're holding your mash warm hence existing O2 + warmth = rapid oxidation. O2 uptake at lower temps is much more rapid but the oxidation process its-self is much slower below 25C hence DO for an hour or so at pitch temperatures isn't such an issue. Longer term if stored warm or even cold it becomes an issue because of the sheer amount of time that goes by so even at a slow reaction rate with relatively little DO it'll still cause issues.

[Kevin Sharp]

I thought that this was the original paper that talked about applying commercial LoDO techniques to home brewing - specifically German Helles.  They advocate avoiding oxygen at all stages of the brewing process including not oxygenating wort before pitching yeast.

Yeast do not need oxygen to multiply. They need oxygen to synthesize sterols and unsaturated fatty acids for healthy cell membranes. When you're cultivating yeast you can either supply them with oxygen or you can supply them directly with the nutrients they would otherwise synthesize. In either case there's no need for dissolved oxygen to be present when the yeast is pitched. Yeast that are saturated with sterol and UFA will pass a portion of those nutrients to daughter cells. There will be enough nutrient for four generations (i.e three cell division cycles).

From what I've read LoDO is aimed more at ultra-clean beers and long shelf life filtered beer, so it's not something I would want to do ... even if I could be bothered.

BTW. Don't use Potassium Metabisulphite in beer. I said it used to be used in the 19th and early 20th century. It's now known that potassium is bad for yeast health. Sodium Metabisulphite is better and ascorbic acid might be better still if you're going to leave any in the beer.

[Sam DT]

Yep that's the one - they still recommend oxygenation just after yeast pitch to the standard 8ppm (bottom of page 7). In theory if you have a large enough yeast pitch you shouldn't need to oxygenate but at standard commercial or home-brew levels the generic recommendation is to oxygenate to 8ppm.

Agreed regarding ultra-clean beers and longer shelf life - personally I usually brew west coast style ales, was just keen to see if I could apply some of the same methodology as  the key downfall IMO of west coast styles is short shelf life due to loss of hop aroma and oxidation flavours impacting the light malt base.

Good call on the K-meta, now that you mention it I had read that somewhere but promptly forgot, cheers.

[Kevin Sharp]

Doh! I missed that. I focussed on the statement at the bottom of 2.6 that says "do not aerate", but that's talking about pre-pitch.

[Crusader-Rob]

did you bring to boil for 5 mins knock out and let cool normally then mash to required temp?

i would've thought this would extend your process extensively.

the easy option i guess would be to boil the night before

[Sam DT]

I bring it up to the boil, boil for five and then throw in my immersion chiller to bring it down to strike temp - with stirring the temp drop takes less than five minutes. I haven't actually noticed a difference - will have do do a side by side at some stage - I do notice a reduction in foaming on top of the mash tho. The LoDO guys argue you want to cool ASAP as oxygen will start going into solution as soon as you stop boiling. My system takes ages to heat up so I generally just put it on, do other stuff and then start the timer when I notice it's boiling.