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...

[Crusader-Rob]

Nice work guys. Great notes, its still in primary, been in 2 weeks tomorrow., but still seems relatively cloudy, and plenty of yeast still in suspension by the looks of it.

what sort of fermenting results/times have you had with this particular yeast? feedback online suggests, a 2-3weeks primary, followed by a week to 2 weeks lagering time. Not sure how to proceed, do I leave it on the yeast for another few days then cold crash or will it be ok to crash on saturday? Final Gravity reading will probably dictate this as well. But does it need a bit more time to clean up after itself?

[Liam Callaghan]

Personally I'd start reducing the temperature and take it down to 1 degree and leave it at that for a week then keg it and keep it at 1 degree to condition for a few weeks.  Draw off any yeast from the bottom of the keg and then carbonate.

Not sure if its best to drop it over a few days or crash it, personally I tend to take my time and let the yeast do as much cleaning as it can without stressing it out (at a guess).

I prefer to cold condition in the keg, I have more kegs than fermenters and they are more forgiving if you forget about it and leave it for a month or two :)

Not sure if I do it right or not but I only use the FG to make sure the primary fermentation is ok and that I don't have a thick sweet beer when I wanted something super dry.  You can use the FG figures to help calculate the carbonation though I think - I just do that by eye mostly and frankly it shows haha

 

[Crusader-Rob]

Nice work. Will drop temp back after my check to make sure ferm has finished.
Sound advice not shocking the yeast too much. I'll ramp down over a few days and then lager for a week and bottle

[Liam Callaghan]

I enjoy brewing at ambient temps, quite nice to have seasonal beers but with my beer making time frames being sp reduced the past few years it been nice to have some control.  Really nice to get to know a specific yeast too and get some understanding of the flavours and aromas it can produce at high/low temps.  Amazing difference from such a simple change.

Can't help with the ph and malt side mate but interested to see what you reckon after your testing.  I only started using ph 5.2 this year and not sure I can tell any difference.  I have a very limited sense of smell though which probably means I have a limited sense of taste too.  People could be polite when they come over for a beer :p

[David R]

Sorry for the double-post from my other thread, but I'd like to get a bit of an opinion on this recipe/idea. Basically I'm looking to use up some of the big bag of Citra hops I have and make my first venture into brewing Saison at the same time. I'd like to do two identical batches and ferment one with Danstar Belle Saison yests (somewhere around mid-20's) and the other with US05 to [hopefully] brew an easy drinking pale ale for summer, and get an idea of the different flavours from the two very different yeasts. (part of the reason I'm still doing smaller 12L batches is to get more experience/experimentation vs. consumption).

12L batch, 65% efficiency (sometimes a little more, better to underestimate IMO!)

2.4kg 2-row

450g Munich 10L

200g Wheat

100g Carapils

4g Pacific Jade @60 min

5g Citra @15

12g Citra @10

12g Citra @5

OG 1.052

FG 1.009 Saison, 5.6% ABV

FG 1.016 US05, 4.8% ABV

35 IBU, 5SRM

[Crusader-Rob]

Making a NZ Bitter, along the vein of Bookbinder etc. wondering if pacifica would fit into the mix?

[Ralph]

Should do? I have used pacifica quite a bit in lower alcohol pale ales and like the flavour... but find it can take a few weeks to mellow? 

[Hamish Jones]

I've got a 4% Alt going at the moment 100% Pacifica hopping with nearly 95% Munich malt that I'm quite looking forward to having a crack at that should be ready to keg this weekend, this is my first go at Pacifica what sort of amount were you using as I've thrown nearly 100grams in it but its only 31IBU?

[Ralph]

31 ibus is probably ok for a 4% ale?

[jt]

Yea, it can taste a bit thin to start with

[Crusader-Rob]

I'll be pairing it with Riwaka. So hopefully, it'll turn out OK. got my APA this weekend, using the last of my Amarillo.

Then it's onto a couple of session-able NZ Bitters, both using 100% NZ Hops.

[Ralph]

Yep... that is what I need to brew is some sessionable NZ hopped brews. There is a recipe floating around here for a Bookbinder clone somewhere. I think it is Riwaka and Goldings and about 3.7% - I might brew something along those lines myself.