B.a.r. Brew Aug/sep

[Lecterfan]

Righto -

one of the next things I reckon we should do is to pick a brew - something suitable for the Ballarat winter - formulate/find a basic recipe and then all brew it BUT brew it with our own personal tweaks to suit our systems and personal preferences.

For e.g. we might choose a basic stout but I might use some English crystal, someone else might ferment with us05, someone might use oats etc etc.



OR we could pick a definite/specific recipe and all try and brew it blow for blow and then sample the differences?



Thoughts/ideas? My place is fine for hosting but my shed has no power and inside is not big enough for a brew day, so I thought something like this might be cool.

The idea is that we would be drinking it in Aug/Sep which gves us a bit of time to choose a style and/or recipe, brew it and bottle it. For you keggers that may need a few longnecks: ask and ye shall receive, I have more than I'll ever need. We only need to bring a few longnecks each for the day to be worthwhile...

(I'm more than happy to have this somewhere else, just thought I'd float the idea...)... :icon_chickcheers:

 

[wakkatoo]

Sounds good to me, afte recent experiences. I wouldn't mind going down the Belgian route...

 

[vic45]

Do we have time for a big Belgian?

What about a Belgian pale ale?

Or maybe another Porter :]

Could be very interesting having the same recipe brewed on different gear.

 

[Lecterfan]

Hmm - I like both suggestions.

Why don't we pre-empt a late spring event as well? We could do a porter to be drunk Aug/Sep, and a big bad-arse belgian (Got to be dark, no offence but if I'm going to attempt to brew 25L of a belgian ale its got to be a dark one - not a blonde fan - except for Uma Thurman, Daryl Hannah, Kirsten Dunst, ah the list goes on) to be drunk in November?

That gives it more time to mature, and we all know that November in our region isn't quite shorts and t-shirt weather haha...

Also, this gives less experienced AG brewers a chance to have a crack at a relatively easier recipe in the short term, and a bit of time to think about a more advanced Belgian style thing...

Still, lets see what others have to say...

 

[billygoat]

When I attended a North Hampshire Brewers meeting in March that is what they did. They picked a recipe and all of them used the same malts, hops etc. We tried about 8 different ones and they were all different.

 

[mesa99]

Sounds like a ripper. Whose recipes of a Porter or Belgian Ale should we do?

 

[vic45]

What about this

Fullers London Porter
OG 1054, FG 1014
IBU 30, SRM 46
ABV 5.4%

3.75kg pale malt
450g 75Lovi. crystal malt
680g brown malt
340g chocolate malt
37g Fuggles at 4.7% for 60 min
19g Fuggles at 4.7% for 15 min
wyeast 1968 at 17 c

 

[vic13]

This is a great idea. :super:

but for my 2c's worth if you want to see the differences in brews I beleive we should all use the same grain bill.

 

[Lecterfan]

I agree vic13...

So if we all like vic45's proposed recipe should we organise to all get the same spec grains from G+G and split them up or something (that way there would be better consistency in ingredients across the board rather than a mix of JW, Bairds etc etc)?

If we get a wriggle on we could order them in time for the 5th of June and could weight it out and split it up on the day.

Do we all have some maris otter to use as the base malt?

I have some 1968, I could build up to a 5L starter that could be split up on the 5th also... or am I rushing things here?

Thoughts?

 

[wakkatoo]

Do we all have some maris otter to use as the base malt?

Having just bought 125kg of grain I can confirm maris otter is not one I do have.

How about this suggestion: we follow the recipe using our own grains / methods (but stay true to the recipe). We can bring along our beers to the meet-up and taste them all and swap the recipes. That way it might be more a case of finding a recipe variation we prefer rather than a brew system we would prefer our beers brewed on...

I'm happy to brew what ever, but pretty keen to crack some of these sacks of grain I have here.

Sorry if this is the proverbial cat......looking forward to next week in Lal Lal too!

 

[herbo]

Having just bought 125kg of grain I can confirm maris otter is not one I do have.

How about this suggestion: we follow the recipe using our own grains / methods (but stay true to the recipe). We can bring along our beers to the meet-up and taste them all and swap the recipes. That way it might be more a case of finding a recipe variation we prefer rather than a brew system we would prefer our beers brewed on...

I'm happy to brew what ever, but pretty keen to crack some of these sacks of grain I have here.

Sorry if this is the proverbial cat......looking forward to next week in Lal Lal too!

Yep, perhaps choosing a theme and going with that is the way to go. I'm sure between all of our grain supplies we can swap or barter grains to make up whatever we need.

I have the brew for next Sunday almost ready just need to add the large amounts of home grown dry hops for that extra aroma. Should be good I reckon :beerbang:

 

[Lecterfan]

Nice one Herbo, looking forward to it!

Well, rather than being in a big rush to get this Aug/Sept thing sorted out, howsabout we discuss it this Sunday and work out what we are doing.

I have regular contact with a mate who lives near G+G so he can pick stuff up for us any time, no big rush.

If we were aiming for September we could feasibly do both, i.e. have one general "theme" beer to make, and also a specific recipe to follow for a second beer to see the differences betwixt brewers.

Anyway, I'm glad you all like the idea at least...to be continued...

 

[mesa99]

Bump, So where did we get to with this? We all doing an oat stout or something?

 

[wakkatoo]

Yup, we are doing an oatmeal stout. I'll stick the basic recipe up here in the next couple of days.

 

[wakkatoo]

Here is the recipe:

Taken from page 169 of "Brewing Classic Styles" - McQuakers Oatmeal Stout

OG 1055
FG 1016

4.26kg British Pale ale malt
450g Flaked oats (1 Lovibond)
340g Choc Malt (350 Lovibond)
340g Victory (28 Lovibond)
227g Crystal (80 lOVIBOND)
227g Black roasted barley (500 lovibond)

Kent Goldings (5% AA) (60 min)

wyeast 1968 London ESB

60 min boil.


Going from discussion on sunday, you choose the brand of grain, just stay true to the amounts and type and colour (as near as possible anyway).

Make sure you bring recipes to swap, or stick them here.

edit - was just thinking, are we going to get together and all taste the same beers at the same time, or is it a mini swap?

 

[herbo]

How about we all use the grains as per the brackets, up for negotiation of course:

4.26kg British Pale ale malt (JW Ale)
450g Flaked oats (1 Lovibond)
340g Choc Malt (350 Lovibond) (JW Choc)
340g Victory (28 Lovibond) (not sure - can get Briess Victory from Grain and Grape, maybe JW cara is about the right colour)
227g Crystal (80 lOVIBOND) (JW crystal)
227g Black roasted barley (500 lovibond) (JW Roast Barley)

Open for further input. I guess the other alternative is that we go for imported grains like Simpsons.

Never used oats before do they need to be cooked or is mashing them good enough?

 

[vic13]

http://www.howtobrew.com/section2/chapter12-2.html

Herbo, Check out this link for answer to oats question.

It maybe that we use grain we have, or trade what we have with others etc;

Personnally I could make this using 90 percent of grains I already have, so minimal outlay for me, I am sure others would be in same boat.

A swap of all bottles would be good, not sure I could taste the difference between Stouts after tasting 3 or 4, may be we could swap a bottle each and take away and rate them 1 to 10 or however many we end up with.
We could put all scores together and come up with the Number one liked, and then swap recipes. :icon_cheers:

 

[Beastie]

What is the quantity of hops? Or is that up to us?

 

[Lecterfan]

What is the quantity of hops? Or is that up to us?

Nah - Wakkatoo will see this thread eventually and give us an IBU range and possibly hopping schedule.

Vic13 - I reckon we swap a heap of bottles each, but not the entire batch. That way we can still have a fair amount of our own batch to ourself for later. Also - as per the other day, I can sort you out with some bottles and maybe you can sort me out with a bit of grain? Hmm?

 

[wakkatoo]

Nah - Wakkatoo will see this thread eventually and give us an IBU range and possibly hopping schedule.

Ha, ha, yep, sorry bout that


Here is REAL the recipe: (ignore the previous one!)

Taken from page 169 of "Brewing Classic Styles" - McQuakers Oatmeal Stout

OG 1055
FG 1016

4.26kg British Pale ale malt
450g Flaked oats (1 Lovibond)
340g Choc Malt (350 Lovibond)
340g Victory (28 Lovibond)
227g Crystal (80 lOVIBOND)
227g Black roasted barley (500 lovibond)

Kent Goldings (5% AA) (60 min)
51 grams (36.1 IBU's)

wyeast 1968 London ESB

Ferment @ 20^oC

60 min boil.




Seeing as the consensus is to have some tatsting but generally to swap, add you name to the list below so we get an idea of numbers.

1. 2 bottles for tasting on the day
2.Wakkatoo
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.