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...

[Tim]

Thanks. That sounds like a pretty good idea.

I am really not sure about the tea. Especially quantity and how to infuse it. Has anyone brewed with tea before?

[MrC]

I haven't brewed with tea before but here's my 2c:

I would brew the beer without tea and then make up some tea at bottling time and add controlled amounts to a target number of bottles. This will help determine whether it's a goer and help define a good ratio. I did a similar thing with coffee the last time brewed a Robust Porter and it worked well.

[Tim]

Thats an awesome idea. I think thats going to be the way to go, short of someone saying they have done it already. Thanks Mr Cherry.

[Soren]

I havent brewed with tea but I have thought about it a few times. The first time I would do as Mr C suggest, when I dial in the amounts needed I would add it at flameout. Please keep us posted on how you get along with this, saves me some experimenting:)

[Dougal]

I'm bottling my Epic Pale Ale clone tonight. I know lots of people have brewed this since it was on the Can You Brew It podcast. Any idea about carbonation level? I was thinking 2 volumes of CO2?

[JackoNZ]

Just thinking ahead a few brews, I want to do another Blonde ale soon so it's ready in time for Xmas period. I'm currently on a sack of Global Cologne. Has anybody done a fairly light beer with this, is it too big for such a beer?

Just noticed I have a kilo of pilsner left over too so could sub in that for a kilo of the cologne. Looking at a 5kg grain bill, 20L, 1.048.

[JoKing]

Nah - Colonge Malt is perfect for these types of beers. It's malted for the brewers in Cologne for making their Koelsch beers, which are basically the German version of a Blonde Ale. Just do a step mash of 52 - 62 - 72 as they would in Cologne and your Ale will be crisp clear and delicious.

[JackoNZ]

Cheers guys, I do BIAB so no ability to do the step mash unfortunately. I did inherit a mash tun cooler bin from a friend recently so I may give that a go in the future. I'll follow my recipe as last time but with the Cologne and Pils. Since moving to kegs I've noticed a huge difference in S-05 beers clarity once they've had a month or so in the kegerator, some gelatine always works well too.

[warra48]

I've never brewed a Belgian of any sort previously, but I have a donated starter of WY3787.

I'm thinking of an ale in the style of a Dubbel, although the colour is probably darker than style (I'm not concerned about this).

Any thoughts or suggestions on my first recipe design would be welcome.

Belgian Dubbel 23.00 L

4500.00 gm Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (5.9 EBC) Grain 75.00 %
500.00 gm Munich I (Weyermann) (14.0 EBC) Grain 8.33 %
200.00 gm Caraaroma (390.0 EBC) Grain 3.33 %
200.00 gm Caramunich II (Weyermann) (124.1 EBC) Grain 3.33 %
100.00 gm Amber Malt (85.0 EBC) Grain 1.67 %
25.00 gm Hallertau NZ [8.10 %] (60 min) Hops 19.0 IBU
10.00 gm Hallertauer Tradition [5.70 %] (5 min) Hops 1.1 IBU
1.00 items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 10.0 min) Misc
1.00 tsp Yeast Nutrient (Boil 10.0 min) Misc
500.00 gm Candi Sugar, Dark (541.8 EBC) Sugar 8.33 %
1 Pkgs Trappist High Gravity (Wyeast Labs #3787) Yeast-Wheat

Mash at 65ºC for 60 minutes.

[Mark]

Personally I'm not a fan of amber malt, in any beer, but the rest looks nice. I'm going to brew something like this soon too, maybe try out the fermentis dry Belgian strain (T-58).

[Martin Bridges]

I did a Rochefort 10 clone with T-58 recently and it seems to have done fine. Not hugely characterful but certainly cleanly fermented, and that was with just one sachet in 20 litres of 1.100 wort!

[Mark]

Wow that's impressive! I was thinking along the lines of leffe clones (blonde and bruin), session type Belgian ales for kegging