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...

[JackoNZ]

I've read the same for English beers too Dougal. A method called dropping whereby you 'drop' the wort from one fermenter to another 12-24 hours after pitching the yeast to add another dose of oxygen.

[Kieran Haslett-Moore]

and get a nice bit of VDK in there to for good measure :-)

[MrC]

I'm planning on brewing a Mild and fermenting with Nottingham dried yeast.  

Has anyone brewed a Mild (or similar) with Nottingham?  Was it any good?

Any other thoughts on Nottingham in a Mild?

 

Cheers

[jt]

Plenty, mostly with O4 which is good but more estery than Notts.
Unless you like O4 I'd use Notts
Also tried Windsor and surprisingly wasn't that pleased with it, to my taste anyway

[FatD]

yer i did one with windsor. creamy with low carbonisation. need lots of biscuit or nutty malts to get some flavour though.. can be bland otherwise

[Ralph]

I tried Yeastie Boys Weemix the other evening and would like to have something similar on hand for drinking at home. When I first saw the tap label at the pub I thought the name was "Weetbix" and was wondering why anyone would call a beer "Weetbix" and it was not until I saw the tap closer that I realised that it was Weemix, which I assume is a play on it being a small remix of PKB.

 

So far I have only been using dry yeast (Danstar Nottingham most recently).  I suspect this brew could do with a decent english ale type yeast to give it another dimension. Any recommendations on what yeast would be of great help. I have not been able to figure out how to get hold of something like the London ESB yeast without the yeast costing way more than everything else in my brew! I do need to learn to propagate from a Wyeast pack.

 

Oh, and I figure there might be a dry hop component as well. I would probably put about the same as the zero minute additions into dry hop?

 

Anyway, I would love some comments as to whether I am heading in the right direction on this. Having only started brewing this year I am still wet behind the ears, but am loving learning all the new stuff!

 

Weetbix (Weemix clone)

Mild

Type: All Grain	Date: 22/09/2011
Batch Size (fermenter): 17.50 l	Brewer: Zane
Boil Time: 60 min	Equipment: Zane Pot and Cooler (10 Gal/37.8 L) - All Grain
Ingredients
Ingredients Amt Name Type # %/IBU 2.400 kg Pale Malt, Maris Otter (5.9 EBC) Grain 1 76.7 % 0.200 kg Munich II (24.0 EBC) Grain 3 6.4 % 0.300 kg Crystal Malt Medium - Brewshop (157.6 EBC) Grain 2 9.6 % 0.120 kg Chocolate Malt (1400.0 EBC) Grain 4 3.8 % 0.110 kg Black (Patent) Malt (985.0 EBC) Grain 5 3.5 % 10.50 g Styrian Goldings [6.40 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 6 11.0 IBUs 0.35 g Compac CG (Boil 10.0 mins) Fining 7 - 15.00 g NZ Cascade [8.30 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 8 7.4 IBUs 15.00 g Styrian Goldings [6.40 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 9 5.7 IBUs 6.00 g Nelson Sauvin [12.40 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 10 4.4 IBUs 10.00 g Nelson Sauvin [12.40 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 13 0.0 IBUs 25.00 g NZ Cascade [8.30 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 11 0.0 IBUs 25.00 g Styrian Goldings [6.40 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 12 0.0 IBUs
Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.038 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.011 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 3.6 %
Bitterness: 28.4 IBUs
Est Color: 58.6 EBC
Mash Profile
Mash Name: Single Infusion, Full Body, Batch Sparge	Total Grain Weight: 3.130 kg
Sparge Water: 18.29 l
Sparge Temperature: 75.6 C
Mash Steps Name Description Step Temperature Step Time Mash In Add 9.2 l of water at 74.9 C 68.9 C 45 min
Sparge Step: Batch sparge with 2 steps (6.03l, 12.26l) of 75.6 C water
Carbonation and Storage
Carbonation Type: Bottle	Volumes of CO2: 2.3

[jt]

Using liquid yeasts can work out cheaper than dried depending on how you use it, propogate and re-use it.

Closest dried yeast to London ESB ?
For my pick Windsor but Stu would probably give you a better pointer for that beer.
Other than that I'd use Nottingham ahead of SO4.
Isn't the regualar PKB brewed with an American Ale yeast - if that were the case then 05 wouldn't be out of the question either

[Andrew]

I can't think of one off the top of my head, but you could just buy a "commercial" English Ale from Countdown and prop from the sediment in the bottom of the bottle. Best off all, it pretty much free. Keep some wort from a brew to prop from and you also get to drink the beer.

[jt]

Hey I have the last of my base malts to use up and bought a tin of extract and was wondering what to do.
I was going to rebrew one of my favourite partial recipes, but I might give this a go instead, I've got everything except the Styrians, but I'll use some NZ Goldings instead.
Going a smidge more on the crystal and breaking up the choccies into regular and pale and a little less black, adjustment for my taste
Something like this
2.100 malteurop
0.600 medium cystal
0.150 pale chocolate
0.100 Chocolate
0.075 Black
1.500 Extract

Not sure what OG I'll get from a no sparge partial mash, usually get about 60% so I'm guessing I'll be in the same ballpark as you.
Ferment with a repitch of Windsor and I figure my FG might be a bit higher given the extract ?

I'll go with the same hopping, maybe tweak up the 60 minute hop for a more lingering bite

[Ralph]

looks good too. I currently only have standard choc in the cupboard, which is why it was in the recipe. From the notes on ratebeer it was pale choc in the Weemix http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/yeastie-boys-pkb-remix-2011-weemix/151...

 

I do not have any black, and have not used it in a recipe before... and so my recipe is a total guess at the moment. I am hoping Stu might comment on the ratios/hopping etc for me.

[jt]

Now that I look at it, i've got 3kg of grain, it's a small batch of 1033
Or should I add the tin of extract and bump it upto a bigger batch of  1040 ?

[Ralph]

If you were able to batch sparge your mash you would probably manage the 1038 I was aiming for?