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...

[Mark]

Jamil uses pilsner, some wheat and munich malt, and a small about of caramunich, as well as (I think!) about 10% cane sugar to dry it out. This beer is supposed to be light, dry and crisp, so not sure about using special B, although it might be a tasty brew.

[Matthew]

Thanks fellas, some good options to work with here.

[Nick T]

Oh, and the yeast makes a difference - I used the Belgian saison yeast, it went mad for a day (possibly gorging itself on the cane sugar) then dropped right off at 1030ish - after a couple of weeks I got impatient and added in some SO5 to finish it off (should finish well below 1010 to be authentic) - then found out that the belgian saison yeast can take 6 weeks to ferment out and you need to be patient!. You are supposed to start it at 20 degrees and ramp it up to 27 degrees fairly quickly (within a day or so I think) to keep it going at a reasonable rate. Finished product with the hybrid is nice though, my belgian-loving neighbour can't get enough!

Apparently the French saison yeast is less slothful, but I am not sure what sort of flavour it would impart.

[Nick T]

Ah good point - do you boil the sugars in water first to sanatise?

[Reviled]

Allrighty, got a craving for something dark, high ABV and cherry flavoured!! The diary down the road from me has started stocking cherry coke which got me thinking...

Now im tossing up between these two, for a 10 litre batch how much cherrys should I use? Im thinking 2kg or is that way too much?

Cherry Doppelbock

2.5kg Kolsch
1.5kg Munich
120g Carafa

Or this

Black Forrest Porter

3kg Golden Promise
0.5kg Munich
250g Choc
200g Dark Crystal
150g CaraMunich II
50g Carafa


Any thoughts, hints or suggestions? Cheers

[Stu McKinlay]

Not too much at all. You'll need a lot in there to get through the dark malts.

You need to think about whether you want to go with pitted or not. I used pitted Morello Cherries in a beer a few years back and it was delicious. It was a fairly lowly hopped pale ale, for Christmas drinking, and I let it age on (1kg I think) of pitted Morellos for about a month. Lots of nice cherry fruit flavour without really bringing through any of the almond lavour that you'll get from the stones. Thinking about it has me wanting to do it again. Perhaps I could age my Feijoa Amber on cherries... hmmmm.... yum!


1 vote for the Porter.

[Reviled]

Hmm, I didnt think about the pips, cheers Stu - I read a while back that Mike used cherrys that were pasturised in the jar so was definately going to try and go down that route, tho its probably more spensy doing it that way too... Dont really want any almond flavours tho so im thinking pitted is the way to go!

[Barbara Joppa]

Cherries are not in season right now, either. Can you find them frozen - like for pies (or is that too American?). I would suggest frozen fruit over bottled in terms of flavour because of the heat used.

Did you try that Coffee Stout I brought over? We drank one the other night and it was lovely. Really smoothed out from when it was young.

[Reviled]

Hmm, interesting take on the fruit thing Barbara - When I did my cranberry cream ale I used frozen cranberries, and sadly I dont think you can get frozen cherrys here or at least I havnt seen them.. Also im guessing frozen would not be pitted?

A bit of googling tells me Delmaine pitted cherrys are probably the best bet, $20ish for a shy over 2kg doesnt seem all that bad to me!! From memory I paid $30 for 1.5kg of cranberries


And sadly I never tried your coffee stout either :o(

[Mike Neilson]

I would make the beer as cloying as possible before adding those cherrys I reacon it will help harry the sourness more, I found that with all my fruit beers that the body was lacking which made the beer feel alittle thin and hollow

[James Lawson]

Going for a sort of NZ hopped red APA thing, but I need have some questions about Cara Red

Not sure about my efficiency - I'm using BIAB but I think it's probably about 65%

Stuff & Things Red Ale

4.2kg Maris Otter Pale Ale Malt
700g Weyermann CaraRed

Mash @ 66degC

20g NZ Hallertau @60min
20g Motueka, 20g NZ Cascade @20min
10g Motueka, 10g NZ Cascade @10min
15g Motueka, 15g NZ Cascade dry hop

2tsp Irish moss @10min

>> 23L

Ferment @20degC with Safale US-05

Re: the Cara Red, I've read in plenty of places that people routinely use megatons of it, and that if you want a nice red colour, you need about 15%. Apparently it's not nearly as sweet as regular crystal 20L. Has anyone used this stuff in any quantity and can confirm this? I'd rather not produce a dessert ale..

[JoKing]

I used 15% in an APA... it worked well. I think you'll need a few more hops in your beer though. What sort of IBU's are you targeting? I would recommend at least 30IBU if you want to use that much CaraRed.