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...

[Andrew]

I,m not sure if you have the book, but in brewing classic styles there is a lite american lager (I think... from memory) that was concieved for a situation like this. Fairly basic, fairly easy but you could maybe just bump it up 10BU. I'll see if I can find it and post it later, dont have the book at work.

[Druid]

What about Steam Beer - wasn't that the result of not being able to lager in combination with only having lager yeasts?

 

Or a Blonde Ale done with Pilsener malt and a clean American Ale yeast like S-05.  I just did one and it came pretty close to a classic NZ lager - fuller bodied and about 27 IBU but pretty good quaffing.  Not sure how clean the S-05 would be at higher temps though...

[JoKing]

Michael.I'd recommend a Blonde Ale. You have access to WyEast 1056 or WLP001 over there really easy... and it really is a clean fermenting neutral yeast strain. For 19L of beer, go for something like:

 

10lb 2-row Pale (around 1.050)

15IBU of Magnum Hops for 60min

1/2oz Amarillo at 15min

1/2oz Amarllo at Flameout

and 1/2oz dry hop for 5 days.

 

Should come out nice and fruity with floral accents. You could use  Hallertau or Tettnang instead... but I'd be tempted to lure your friends over to the dark side by slowly giving them tasters of lovely modern hops. In the end, you'll be brewing them imperial IPAs - and that's never a bad thing.

[Michael]

Thank you everyone for your advice!

 

Joking: that looks like a winner. I am vacillating between the Amarillo or Motueka hops. Certainly the amarillo should give me the flowery bit though. :) Do you reckon a 68C mash?

 

Druid: US-05 is my good ol' stanby. I love that yeast. HOwever, I have never tried these others that Joking mentioned, so I will give them a go. The fermenting temps should not be as bad I I left everyone to believe. I will keep it downstairs, which hovers around 19 - 20C.

[JoKing]

Actually a 66 degree mash would be a bit more like what your friends would expect (texture-wise) 68 will be OK, but maybe a bit chewy.

 

US-05 is fine for this beer too - so don't go spending extra money where you don't need to... I have done some fairly extensive experiments that have shown very little (if any) difference between US-05, WLP001 and Wy1056. I only suggested liquid yeast because it is so readily available where you are.

 

Good luck... happy brewing!

[Andrew Dixon]

I'm looking at making the Mild from Brewing Classic Styles.  The recipe calls for some Crystal 120L (about 5% of the grain bill) and I'm trying to decide on a substitution from malts available to me (basically malts from Liberty).  I've narrowed it down to:

Bairds Dark Crystal (250EBC) - I think this is about 95 Lovibond

Weyermann Caraaroma - which is about 130 Lovibond on average according to the spec sheet

 

Can anyone comment on which of these (or something else available from Liberty) would be my better option?

 

Thanks

Andy

[Martin Bridges]

I usually use the Bairds Dark Crystal when a recipe calls for C120. This may not be bank on, but it does the job for me.

[JoKing]

Martin is on the money - basically whatever the Lovibond factor is, multiply it by 2 and you have EBC.

 

Dark crystal is the closest to 120L.

[Andrew Dixon]

Thanks guys.  I was under the impression that Lovibond = 0.375 x EBC, although every website I read seems to have a different formula.

Anyway Dark Crystal was the way I was leaning, as I'm going to need some for some other beers too.

 

Thanks

Andy

[JoKing]

I know wiki isn't supposed to be trusted.... however - here is a good link:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_Reference_Method

[Andrew Dixon]

Thanks for that.  Assuming it's correct then we get

EBC = 1.97 SRM    or     SRM = EBC/2

EBC = 2.67 Lovibond -1.5  or  Lovibond =  (EBC + 1.5) * 0.375

 

Which makes Bairds Dark Crystal about 95L.  A little on the low side, but I think it's close enough to sub for Crystal 120 (for me anyway).

 

Andy

[JR]

Just out of curiosity, how do caraaroma and special b compare - they are in the same ballpark colour wise, what about flavour?