Recipe Query

[FarsideOfCrazy]

Hi All,

I've been reading lots of info on this site as I'm just starting to get into HB.
I tried a customers HB one day and was quite impressed. He gave me the recipe and I want to try it out.

I'd like to point out at this time that I did not come up with this recipe or technique, this is what he does and it was a pretty good beer.

What I'd like to know is, can I get some input from you experienced Hber's out there on the method?

1. Add sugar to boiling water and disolve
2. Add liquid malt & stir till disolved
3. Strain through cheese/mouslin cloth into fermenter
4. Add water to pot bring to the boil and add hops
5. Boil for 2 min
6. Simmer for 1 hour
7. Strain through cloth into fermenter
8. Top up with water to desired level (about 25 liters)
9. Cover top with cloth allow to cool to 28c
10. Add yeast
11. Leave till hydro reads 009-008
12. Add small amount of tartaric acid
13. Add parisian essence
14. Leave for 10-12 hrs
15. Add 1 teaspoon of sugar to each 750ml bottle and 250mls of water
16. Leave for 8-10 weeks to mature.

The amount of sugar is 2kgs, 1.75kgs of brown liquid malt.

Now from what i've read here alot of these things could cause problems. For instance:-

*Boiling the hops for 2 mins then simmering for an hour. I read a post here about about length of time boiling hops and what it does to aroma/bitterness (but I can't find it), so will simmering have the same effect as boiling?

*Straining through a cloth. Would it be easier to place the hops in bag or a ball to do this?

*The adding of water to the bottle before bottling. Would this increase the chance of infection or would the alcohol be enough of a sterilizer at this point? He uses straight water from the tap. Would you be better off using boiled (then cooled water)? The reason he does this is because it's a rather potent beer if you don't do it.

*What's the purpose of the tartaric acid? Even he doesn't know why this is added, it was in the recipe that he got from the old neighbour.

Feel free to comment as I just want to see what you all think.

Thanks.

 

[Fourstar]

just doign some uick searching, tartic acid has a sour flavour, might be used to give it a sharpness? also in winemaking its naturally occuring in grapes and high amounts help with aging.

as for parisian essence, strange. just use crystal/choc malt for colour.

 

[FarsideOfCrazy]

Thanks Fourstar,
Yeah the parisian essence is just for colouring. I also searched round the web and saw that about the tartaric acid. Initially I thought it was some sort of preservative. :huh:

 

[Bribie G]

Sounds like some of the really old recipes that were knocking around in the days before home brew shops started up, and would certainly make a drinkable drop but nothing like commercial beer. I bet you anything that this recipe would originally have used Saunders Malt extract from the supermarket and Tandaco yeast!! The use of the Parisian Essence is interesting, and would have been used in NSW to mimic the colour of 'old' in the days before crystal malt from the home brew shop.

Not sure what the tartaric acid was for. There's a danger that the large amount of white sugar could give a thin, cidery taste to the beer.

As a farmhouse brew you could get used to it, depending on the hops and yeast used, but personally I think that in the new millenium a newbie would be better advised to start off with a trusty beer kit like Morgans and use malt extract instead of sugar.

My 2c.

 

[buttersd70]

wow. just wow. :unsure:
If you replaced the malt with brown sugar, and used baking yeast instead of brewing yeast, and instead of bottling drank it straight after ferment from a wooden keg, then you have a typical West Riding farmhouse beer from the early part of the century. Last century, that is. Parisian essence and all. It's the kind of thing the wife would knock up whilst farmer was out looking after the beasts.
I have a few recipes like this in old, old, cookery books. I didn't know anyone actually brewed this stuff anymore.

Edit: I think the tartaric acid was added post ferment as a crude attempt to delay staling.

 

[FarsideOfCrazy]

Thanks for the replys guys.

BribieG, the hops is 100gm of POR and the yeast is Muntons gold. It's funny that you mention the beer might tatse 'cidery' but my recolection of it was not like that at all but with what i've read here it sounds like it should taste 'cidery'.

I'll just have to make a batch up and see how it goes

 

[Bribie G]

In the late 70s I managed a home brew shop in Maryborough QLD for my mate who had the shop in Bundaberg and we very quickly set up the shop during the Queensland Beer Strike (When XXXX were forced to properly lager the beer they had in their holding tanks for three months and it turned out as a memorable and never to be repeated nectar..... I digress )

Lots of people would bring in their beloved home recipe brews that they had sworn by for the last twenty years and a lot of them were actually quite drinkable despite not being brewing-politically-correct formulations.

Give it a go and let us know how it turns out. The hops and yeast sound spot on for any Aus-style home brew and, given a good period in the bottle, should well turn out very flavoursome.


Edit: although more pricey, you could substitute dextrose for the cane sugar. It's flavour neutral but the yeast can start attacking it straight away and it's an insurance policy against possible 'cider taste'

 

[browndog]

OK, according to Brewing_God the beer tastes good. I am surprised at 100g of POR boiled for 2 mins and simmered for 60 mins though. It would seem you would have some pretty good IBUs there considering 30g for a 60min boil will give you around 36IBUs or so.

cheers

Browndog