What are you brewing?

[nzbrewer]

Since this is the most popular thread on the RealBeer.co.nz forum I thought I would start it here just to see what happens

[Edward Siddle]

actually i used to brew with those black rock kits a lot back in the early-mid90s when i was a student brewer (and, i like to think, a little better than some - at least i left my beer to mature for a month before drinking, used decent yeasts on occasion, and tweaked recipes with extra hops or extract or crushed speciality grains a la charlie papazian recipes) and they were usually the best of the lot i thought. muntons ones were well put together but sometimes a bit old in my view - the old homebrew 'tang' in full effect.

[Tony]

...and after you are still standing outside after the sun has gone down, freezing your arse off, with a warm beer, because it's still there...

[jt]

Well I popped it in a keg and after a week it still tastes pretty crap.
Just proves to me yet again that I shouldn't mess with kits

[MrC]

I brewed a couple of 11.5L Mac's kits recently as a way of testing my Coopers yeast. I wasn't prepared to spend hours brewing only to pitch crap yeast. As it turns out, it was a good plan 'coz they are both too estery for my liking. I think that they would have been ok if I'd added a decent yeast.

1st Brew was a Macs Lager kit ++
(AKA Whiteboard Pale Ale. Perfect for drinking while giving a whiteboard presentation in a small room)
Steeped crystal for 30min, added kit and brought to boil, threw in some hops, cooled, topped up to 11.5L and pitched harvested Coopers yeast. Fermented at around 19-20c for 2 weeks.

2nd Brew was a Macs Pale Ale kit ++
Steeped crystal & chocolate for 30min, added kit and brought to boil, threw in some Amarllo hops, cooled, topped up to 11.5L and pitched harvested Coopers yeast. Fermented at around 17-18c for 2 weeks.

The second Brew was a hell of a lot better than the first, a brown ale with that Coopers yeast flavour. I wouldn't say it's nice, but it's drinkable. I'll probably tip the first as soon as I need the bottles.

Overall it was good learning exercise as far as yeast is concerned, but I can't help but think maybe it was a waste of good hops.

[jt]

Mr C, maybe you should've used a Coopers real Ale Kit, half the price(ok, nearly) but very forgiving, an early maturer and quite nuetral, instead of the Mac's

Mite've been more synergistic with the yeast too

But anyhow, how much crystal went in the lager ?

[MrC]

Yeah I thought about the Coopers kit but opted for an all malt kit instead. The coopers kit would have needed extra fermentables to make 23L'ish batch to match the IBUs.

If I was to do it again I probably would go for a Coopers kit, some extract, a larger starter and ferment around 16c.

For the Lager kit I used:
90g Crystal Malt
90g CaraPils
10g NZ Hallertau hops

I thought the malt balance was good, maybe a little on the sweet side, but I don't mind sweet beer. I am a Kiwi after all.

[jt]

The coopers kit would have needed extra fermentables to make 23L'ish batch to match the IBUs.

They're both 1.5 or 1.7kg kits, does that mean you used two Macs kits ?

I reckon the carapils & crystal (presume it's mwedium ?) will be about right for a middle of the road NZ Lager / draught. I 've done similar and it turned out nicely balanced.

[jt]

I added a small mash of 1.5kg Aussie Pale, 500gm Vienna and 5gm Super Alpha @ 5min and another 5gm off the heat.
Boiled the kit yeast with the wort for the W2112 starter and it was blowing the water out of the airlock
Pitched it @ 16C yesterday and it was looking good this morning about 12C on the concrete floor in the garage.

What's anyone's experience with W2112 - Cali Common very low ?

[Rusty Chch]

Well, I finally got hold of a proper pot and my 3 ring burner so today I made my first partial. I'm a bit nervous that I went a bit hard on the hops though.

Bernadette's Bitter:
1kg Brewcraft Crystal steeped for 30mins
1,5kg LDME
5kg DDME

30minutes: 20g Fuggles 20g Goldings
15minutes 10g Fuggles 10g Goldings
Flameout 10g Fuggles 10g Goldings

Gonna ferment with s04 at the bottom of the temperature scale.

It promises to be interesting to say the least

[Edward Siddle]

if anything the hops might not counter that rather large amount of crystal malt that you've used. would suggest using your bittering hops at 60 mins before boil ends. i know if you're mainly using dried or liquid extracts it is tempting to shorten the boil but you won't get the hop bittering otherwise. fuggles are usually around 5% alpha acid so i think you will find that only 20g at 30 mins won't make it particularly bitter at all. it is good to begin conservatively but i am sure you'll find in future that you could easily double those quantities.

[Dan]

If you were to be hard on the hops, times it by 5! Thats getting hard!
I think your final outcome will be pretty good, although I would put at least a little hops at 60 - 90mins if thats possible.

[Rusty Chch]

Thanks Dan and Edward,

I've since read the recipe again and I now realise that I used way too much crystal. Hope it's not a waste of ingredients but I'll let it fly for a week and see how it tastes when I rack.

Edward,I did exactly as you guessed, shortened the boil to 30minutes.