Please Comment On My Last Kit Recipe

[NRB]

Guys,

This is probably the last kit I'm going to do. I've decided after 2 kits that I wanted to do AG and have been building my equipment steadily for a couple of months.

I did my first brew in November 2004 (Brewcraft Mexican Cerveza) which was quite apalling. Next up was a "2 can screamer" using Coopers Bavarian Lager cans and nothing else - this was way overhopped. I only tried 2 bottles of it after 4 weeks and have decided to store it for a while. My third was a ginger beer based on Doc and GMK's recipes. It's been in the bottle for 3 weeks and I think will require a fair amount of time for the flavours to meld. It's not something I'm keen to drink right now.

I've experienced an AG APA (thanks Sosman) which I thoroughly enjoyed. I'm not sure if it was the cascade hops, the AG base or the yeast used, but it was delicious.

Seeing as I've got an unused kit lying around (present), I thought I'd use it up. I've decided on the following recipe:

1.7kg Coopers Australian Pale Ale can
1kg Brewcraft BrewBlend #20 "Malt Plus Booster"
500g Pilsner Malt mashed at 68C for an hour
25g Cascade hops pellets [5-6% AA] 5 mins (or at flameout?)
Either kit yeast made up in starter wort or rehydrated Safale S-04.

What are your thoughts? I've also got 500g Powell's Melanoidin Malt sitting around here somewhere...

Next brew will be my first AG APA. I can't wait!

 

[pint of lager]

Looks good.

I assume you are mini mashing the 500gms of malt, if you have any more, up this to at least 1kg. This will add more of that good flavour you are after. Your post doesn't go into details, but I assume you are going to boil the wort from the grain for an hour as you do for any mini mash to sanitise the wort.

Cascade are a nice hop when used ocaisionally, but it seems that everyone is jumping onto the cascade bandwagon. Make sure that you experience all the range of hops as your brewing schedule moves on. For a full cascade flavour, add half the hops at 5 minutes prior to flame out, and the rest at flameout.

Maybe have a crack at culturing some yeast out of a coopers bottle and use that instead of the packet yeast.

 

[NRB]

Thanks POL!

You are correct with your assumption - a mini mash and 60 min boil. Unfortunately I don't have any more Pilsner but have 500g uncracked Melanoidin (65EBC) in a sealed bag which was a bonus when buying my CFWC.

I'm simply hoping to have a beer reminiscent of LCPA which is why I've grabbed some cascade. Is 25g enough? Too much?

I considered culturing the yeast too, just forgot to mention it. :wacko:

 

[PostModern]

I've made some nice part-mashes on the Australian Ale kit. I generally go for about 2kg of base malt and some dextrose (about 250-500g). I find Hallertau goes well as a flavour/aroma with this kit as it's a little more understated than cascade, but if you're into cascade, I don't think they'd go badly. You might want to try WLP001 (or Wyeast equiv) if you like APA's.

 

[pint of lager]

A great grain resource is the Weyermann site.
http://www.weyermann.de/englisch/produkte_...adline=Products

I am not sure how much diastic power melanoidon has, which is whether it can convert itself or not. Have just checked 3 different sources here, they all say use up to 20% of the grain bill, but not if it can convert the starches in the grain into brewing sugars.

If it is low in diastic power, it must be mashed in conjunction with other base malts such as pilsner and pale ale and your 500gms pilsner may not be enough. Maybe someone else can chime in. Until someone else can clarify, do not use your melanoidon grain, save it for a full mash.

25 gms will be fine for a LCPA style ale.

 

[NRB]

I love you 'guys' . So much information yet to be tapped.

 

[NRB]

I put this down today.

Didn't end up as planned, but what does one expect playing around with grain for the first time! I ended up mashing at 64-65C, needed to heat up during mash as temp dropped but was 64C+ for 60 mins.

Sparged at 75C.

Boiled this wort with a little added water, total of approx 6L 60min. 12.5g Cascade (4-5%AA) at 5 and 0 mins.
Added extracts and booster.
Topped up fermenter to 23.5L and aerated.
OG 1042

Promash (if I'm using correctly) reported OG of 1044, so I was close. I originally thought it was 1053, but upon rechecking it was less. I think it was some concentrated wort left in the tap outlet that wasn't mixed when topping up.

Yeast pitched at 23C.

Was definitely a great learning experience.

 

[pint of lager]

That is great.

It is much easier to sort out grain issues on mini mashes, then move up in size.

One thing that is worrying me, how much water did you rinse the grain with? You say you ended up with 6 litres in the boiler, is this all rinsings from the grain?

Next time, aim for, a ratio of 1:2.5 of grain to water, that is, 1 kg grain, 2.5 l water.

Then, with the water to sparge with, aim for 1:3, so for every kg of grain mashed, rinse with another 3 litres water.

Over rinsing leads to extraction of tannins, which are not wanted in your beer. But, with only 500gms of grain being mashed, this will not contribute overwhelmingly to the overall flavour.

 

[NRB]

PoL, I added water from the tap to my boil... I figured at least boiling more would mean less unboiled water from the tap.

I added approximately 2L or water to the grain initially, then probably another 500mL when the temp was incorrect. After lautering I then added about 2.5L of sparge water. I let this sit for about 10 mins then strained the grains. I then added a little more to the boil - an amount that wasn't measured as I hadn't measured how much wort I achieved from the minimash anyway...

I boiled this for 55 mins, added my first half-sachet of pellets, then the rest at flameout. The other ingredients were dissolved without heating further. I then whirlpooled, but this had little effect on such a small volume and most rubbish ended up flowing through the CFWC into the fermenter, but I'm not overly concerned with that. Ended up with chiller being blocked once, but nothing a little suction on the end didn't fix.

I'm not certain how much flavour will be added by the minimash. I don't expect a lot and am not fussed anyway - for me it was a learning experience for when I actually hit a full grain bill in the coming months. If I'd had more grain, I would've used my mash tun, but with a measly 500g I ended up using a 6 can esky and transferring then straining into my boil pot.

Perhaps for my next brew I could use a full grain bill but partial volume boil with a top up at the end - until I get my kegs converted I'm limited to a 20L stockpot for boiling.

 

[NRB]

I racked this to secondary today after 12 days in the primary. It tastes quite pleasant, but still has that green beer "funky" odour.

My concern is the cloudiness of the brew. I wasn't able to vorlauf as I was using a strainer to strain the wort off the grains - would this be the reason for such a cloudy beer? I forgot to add the irish moss to the boil also. I know it will clear more, but I think this will remain quite cloudy for the long-term.

If I were to do this brew again, I would use more hops as the flavour imparted doesn't seem to be enough. Definitely nice, but not enough.

 

[NRB]

I tasted this one last night after 2 weeks bottle conditioning. Taste is very pleasant, nice citrusy aroma with the right balance of malt:hops.

I take back my comment about not enough flavour/aroma - any more and it'd be too overpowering IMO. It's not as sharp tasting as a LCPA, but very refreshing and a good quaffing drop. If I was to put together another kit as a quick brew, this would be one I'd consider.

 

[joecast]

great stuff NRB. good to hear it came out well.

ive added hops to a couple of kits with mixed results. one was a coopers pilsner with some bittering and flavor hops. not the best idea. ended up with just a bit too much on the bitterness end. another was a coopers sparkling with some goldings/fuggle for flavor and aroma. that was deffinitely a winner. dont know why i havent tried that one again. now ive got a coopers ipa with some cascade for flavoring and dry hops in secondary. we'll see how that one turns out.

looks like you've got a nice session beer to enjoy while you take on the chalenges of AG.
joe

 

[SJW]

I agree with POL with the Cascade Hops. They smell great prior to using them but are very unforgiving if used in excess. Anyway congrats on your final kit NRB.
And no i am not really blushing at your"loving us guy's".coment.

 

[NRB]

Stephen, the comment was aimed at addressing the fact PoL is female

I'm hopefully going to brew up a nice wit this weekend - I've cultured some Hoegaarden yeast which is going well now (did it as a challenge) so I might as well use it up! I think it's a Wyeast 3944 Belgian Witbier Yeast.

 

[wee stu]

Stephen, the comment was aimed at addressing the fact PoL is female

[post="52454"][/post]​

I am becoming confused.
At the time of posting, NRB is credited with the status of "partial man".
One shudders to think what the bottom half of NRB's avatar might reveal :blink:

 

[warrenlw63]

Perhaps a bouncing racking hose? :lol: :lol:

Warren -

 

[NRB]

You guys... *shakes head*

:beer: