Recipe Advice Thread

[denimglen]

Thought it might be handy to have a thread for some of the more advanced brewers to give some advice on recipes.

Let's see how it goes eh...

[MrC]

Craftbrewer has Amarillo & Simcoe.  Make sure you order them early, be prepared to wait and check that they haven't lost your order if you don't hear back from them smartly though.

 

Amarillo:

http://www.craftbrewer.com.au/shop/details.asp?PID=559

 

Simcoe:

http://www.craftbrewer.com.au/shop/details.asp?PID=615

 

 

 

[Chris Scott]

That's awesome man, thank you. Bloody expensive though, and only 1 pack per order.

[MrC]

Simcoe would be a difficult hop to find a substitute for.  I'll go out on a limb and say Nelson Sauvin as long as it's mixed with other hops.

 

[the room goes silent as he waits for the responses]

[Mike Neilson]

Galaxy!! I seemed to forget about this hop but I have come across it again in the last couple days and I can havnt rubbed a sticker more oilier hop its pretty bad boy, my hands were supper sticky!!

[Michael]

IDK Mr. Cherry. I reckon Sauvin is like no other hop. I also think you need to be careful with this hop, as it can easily overpower.

[RopenutS]

Sweet as cheers for the advice. I'll look around for these hops, but im not overly worried if they are not exactly the ones I need. Im pretty sure if I used a fruity NZ or something in there It would still be a nice tasting beverage! haha

[Michael]

What do you think? The thing is my brewhouse efficiency is only about 55% though. SO, I need to figure out how beersmith works to make this better.

Do you think there is something else I should be doing with this recipe? Maybe a more aromatic hop at 0, instead of Motueka. Having said this, the yeast will probably give off enough banana aroma.

 

Recipe:

Boil Size: 7.77 gal

Post Boil Volume: 5.98 gal

Batch Size (fermenter): 5.00 gal   

Estimated OG: 1.069 SG

Estimated Color: 4.3 SRM

Estimated IBU: 25.9 IBUs

Brewhouse Efficiency: 68.00 %Est

Mash Efficiency: 78.2 %

Boil Time: 60 Minutes
Ingredients:

------------

12 lbs                Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)

 1 lbs                 Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM)

 1 lbs                 Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM)

 

0.50 oz              Motueka [7.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min         Hop           4        11.4 IBUs     

0.50 oz               Motueka [7.00 %] - Boil 30.0 min         Hop           5        8.8 IBUs

0.50 oz              Motueka [7.00 %] - Boil 15.0 min         Hop           6        5.7 IBUs

1.00 oz             Motueka [7.00 %] - Boil 0.0 min          Hop           7        0.0 IBUs      

 

1.0 pkg               Belgian Ale Yeast (Wyeast Labs #1214)          

Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Full Body, Batch Sparge

Total Grain Weight: 14 lbs

----------------------------

Mash @ 154F

 

[jt]

Low efficiency ?

I think you probably need some good North Welly Engineering, how about a nice new sparge arm ?

But hey I remember you made a batch with oats & a Belgian yeast while you were here, how do the recipes compare ?

Cheers, jt

[Michael]

Before doing anything like a sparge arm, I would like to get a pump. I nay buy one here in the states as I found a vendor with a 240v model. I can run it on the hot water circuit here, and it should work in NZ as well.

 

The previous belgian did have oats and crystal, but somewhere down at 230 grams. This will be closer to 450 grams each. I am hoping for a little more mouth feel. Something I forgot to list there is that I do plan to use Belgian Candy Syrup, but add it in the fermenter after 3 days. The only thing I do not like about doing this, as I really do not know what my OG is then. However, I recall a couple years back someone here mentioning it is better to add the simple sugars after a couple days, so that the yeast do not get lazy.

 

Mr. Cherry is right, I am pushing it on the hops. This is coming out at about 29 IBU.

 

The yeast brings an interesting question to me. After making a starter, I am wondering how much of the slurry to put in there.

[MrC]

When adding sugars during fermentation you can determine your overall OG by leaving the sugars/syrups out of the recipe and determining your mash efficiency based on the OG of your wort on brewday.  You can then enter your efficiency into your brewing software (play with the efficiency value to obtain the correct OG) and then add the sugars/syrups to the recipe.  Because the sugars are not affected by the mash efficiency, they will directly increase the overall OG to correct value.

 

For yeast slurry I'd use MrMalty's calc to determine how much yeast slurry to pitch:

http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html

[Michael]

Awesome. Thanks!

 

[MrC]

I've brewed a couple of Belgian Blondes with Motueka as the only hop and the flavours work well together.  I used Wy3522 as the yeast and apart from bittering the only other hops I added was 15g at 15min.  It scored well at last years NHC and the judges comments were along the lines of "a little hoppy for style but it works well".

 

Your recipe looks quite hoppy in comparison but I guess it comes down to what you're trying to achieve and what you like to drink.  It looks good to me, I'd maybe be a little nervous with the hop flavour & aroma competing with the yeast but I'd probably brew it anyway. If you're worried about efficiency, 200-250g of table sugar would work well in that beer.

 

As far as fermentation goes, I'd recommend starting your ferment at around 18C and letting it rise up to 22C'ish over the first 5 or so days.

 

Disclaimer: I haven't brewed with Wy1214...   yet.