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...

[Edmund Barker]

Are you pretty new to this too? I'm 3 brews down and loving it! I can't afford the gear yet as my fiance and I just bought our first house and are saving for the wedding! Am planning on setting up BIAB by the end of the year and hopefully throwing in the bag next year.

[Dougal]

I've used WB-06 once in a dunkelweizen, and a mate uses it in about half of his beers as he likes brewing wheat styles. I had a pretty nice result from following the traditional rule for fermenting German wheats: that the pitching and fermentation temperatures should add up to 30 degrees (i.e. pitch at 13C, ferment at 17C). 

I'm sure the liquid yeasts will give you better results (though you'll definitely need to make a starter), but that said, Tom has produced some stellar weizenbocks using WB-06. Definitely use a German wheat yeast though. You can make wheat beers with any yeast, but you'll only get the balanced banana/clove thing that characterises hefeweizens by using a German wheat strain. 

[Tilt]

I'd second what Dougal says re temps and WB06.  Pitched at 14-15 and fermented at 17 I got a reasonable American wheat with it.  I wouldn't say its outstanding though, but good enough for a convenient dry yeast option.  

I've also used Coopers yeast recultured from the bottle.  This also gave some banana fermented at 20 degrees but was a bit of mucking about and IMO not worth it considering the outcome.

The other option I haven't tried but have heard of is Danstar Munich - its pretty subtle on the esters apparently.

If you want the full banana and clove experience of a hefeweizen then liquid yeast is the way to go. 

[Chris P]

Hi all,

I am a fan of the few Indian Red Ales (or in some cases Imperial Indian Red ales) I have come across so far.

I am wondering about the Malt bill typical of these beers rather than the Irish Red that I have been coming across in my searches. I thought I had a few only to notice they were really darker Amber Malt bills rather than the bright red IPA I would like to replicate.

Any help would be much appreciated and I will give most of these a go until I hit a winner or two as I have a fair amount of US hops to throw at each one.

Also apart from US 05 any other suitable yeast recommendations would be appreciated.

(I make differing size batches so if people talk about batch size or %s I wont mind) 

Thanks for any help on this one guys

[Kelly Milligan]

Hey Chris, I to am a massive massive fan of IRA's or Strong American Ambers or Red IPA's or however you want to label them ;P I've put together a couple recipes which I'm yet to try, but the basis always seems to be a nice english pale ale malt (e.g. Golden Promise), and at least 2 shades of crystal. For my recipe I'm going for Crystal 75L and 150L (~150 and 290EBC). You'll often also see maybe some Munich or Pale Chocolate in there too, and the idea there is it adds a nice toasty note to it. Theres a couple of recipes you could check out depending on what you're after:

Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale - This is more like an amber IPA, simple recipe, google the CYBI recipe for it :)

Jamil's Evil Twin - This is more like an IRA, dark amber/brown and big on the crystal malts

If you were to brew both of these, I think you'd have a pretty good idea of where you want to take it next!

As for yeast, I'm planning on WLP007 Dry English ale, I love it! US-05/WLP001/Wyeast 1056 or WLP051/WYeast 1272 are all good options. Remember though that an IRA is all about big lucious maltiness, so either mash a bit higher or choose a strain which attenuates a bit less (like the 051/1272).

Would love to hear how you get on! :)

[Edmund Barker]

Hey Kelly, how's the brew pub coming along? My home town is Te Aroha, close to Hamiltron, so I'd love to pop in next time I'm up!

[Gareth]

Wrong Kelly? http://www.forum.realbeer.co.nz/profile/KellyRyan

[Edmund Barker]

Ha! Thanks. Sorry about that Kelly. Still learning sorry.

[Kelly Milligan]

Yea man wrong Kelly sorry, follow Kelly Ryan on Twitter for brewpub details!

[Chris P]

Thanks Kelly will give it a nudge have also heard melenoiden malt gives off a red color to it also but a few people say that despite the name carared is not as good at doing what the name suggests...

Have just started with liquid so may carry on exploring with those suggestions as US 05 hasnt always worked for me in terms of getting gravity to where I think it should be.

Thanks for the help with this. Great thing is that if I get it a bit wrong all I have to do is make more beer =) 

[Scarrfie]

I was reviewing my recipes recently and a couple of good ones had carared in common, so I did a bit of searching on it. A recommendation I did read was that to get the red you need to be approaching 20% of the grist with it. I might try that in a pale ale when the weather warms up.

Mind you it isn't exactly lager temperatures at the moment, I have four at various stages and they were at 16°C two days ago!

[Chris P]

20%? So I guess it's one of the cara-malts that isn't crazy sweet then?

Do you use other crystals to balance it out or other grains all together?

Cheers