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...

[Reviled]

Thats an interesting read, cheers JT!

[jt]

Yes, could it be that less is more ?

[Matt Smith]

Hello all,
I'm Matt. Ive been brewing for about 18 months now, I got into it after a trip to the US a few years back where I was introduced to craft beer and found it quite fascinating. I brewed a couple kit and kilo beers to start with, which turned out extremely bad, then promptly moved on to all-grain with the help of various youtube videos. Ive since found this forum and found it very helpful.

I'm planning to do a Porter next, using Jamil's Robust Porter recipe. Just wondered if anybody has tried this and how it turned out ? Not sure if it's a robust porter but I'm looking for something along the lines of Fullers London Porter or Renaissance Elemental.

The recipe is:

OG 1.065
34.1 IBU

73% Maris Otter
9.5% Munich
9.5% Crystal 40L
4.8% Chocolate
3.2% Black Patent

34.1IBU EKG @ 60
21 grams EKG @ 0
US-05 yeast

Any suggestions would be muchly appreciated. Cheers !

[JoKing]

Just 2 comments from me - you'll struggle to find the "Crystal 40" but everything else is easy to get. A good substitute for it is Pale Crystal, or Global Dark caramel.

Secondly - it's the yeast that really makes the beer robust as there needs to be a solid body to the beer after it has hit the 6% mark. US-05 is okay - but liquid yeast would be better. I can recommend WLP002 (Wy1968) Wy1388, or any of the Thames Valley yeasts... WLP007 is pretty good for it as it Wy1098 and 1099. If you cant get your mits on liquid yeast, then SafAle S-04 is slightly less attenuative than US-05, but it's not as flexible. Probably best to ferment it at 18 degrees for this beer.

Cheers!

[Matt Smith]

Cheers for that !
I think I'll go the 1968, Ive never tried it but read good things. Ive only used liquid yeast a couple times, mainly because of price. I'm keen to have a go at re-using yeasts or growing it for two batches so could be a good time to start

[Patrick]

Please don't throw me out but... My father is a steinlager classic drinker, and I would like to have a crack at cloning it for his birthday which is coming up in a couple of months.

On the label, they say they use Green Bullet hops but I always thought they were bittering hops only. Does anyone know what late hop additions they use?

My garage is cool enough at the moment so I can maintain 16c with US05 for a couple of weeks.
Cheers!

[JR]

I don't think there are any late hop additions - if there are they are small ones.

[Reviled]

Yeah I wouldnt bother with a late addition, just a 60 min addition should be fine with just Pilsner malt and some sugaz to dry it out to about 1004 which is what id say Steinlager is

[Patrick]

Oh ok, it just seems to have a grassy aroma which I assumed came from a late dose of something. Do you think it needs any crystal or munich in there?

[Reviled]

Its been a while since I tried it but I dont recall it being very amberish or anything, rather straw like am I right? So id say it wouldnt need any crystal or maybe if you like add 1-200gms and use enough sugar to thin it back out...

[Patrick]

Sweet as, I will run it thru beersmith and see what I come up with. How bitter do you reckon it is? It has a bit of a bite to it, maybe 40IBU?

[Reviled]

I dunno, id start with maybe 75-80% OG:BU ratio, I dont imagine it would be any more bitter than that.