Recipe Suggestion/help

[Brownie]

Hi,

Am looking at expanding that standard Kit type brew and explore different flavours, and looking for options.

Lately been brewing Dark Ale's and Lager styles.

Was thinking of the following Dark Ale recipe.

1.7KG Can Tooheys DarK Ale (already have can)
Coopers Brew Enhancer 2
250g DDME
300 to 500g Honey
11g Safale S-04 Yeast


Note: Want to keep think simple to start with and not start throwing 400 different ingredients in etc.

Also now that Winter is upon us was thinking of doing an interesting Lager Brew ready for summer, any good tasty suggestions, again simple to start with.

Cheers
Brownie

 

[Trough Lolly]

G'day Brownie,
That's a lot of fermentables there - I'd definitely get some additional hops for bittering / flavouring otherwise you may find that dark ale to be rather unbalanced with relatively high malt sweetness and low hop bitterness.

I'd grab the Enhancer, DDME and 300g (500g is a bit high) of Honey, put it into a stockpot 3/4 full of water and bring to the boil - toss in 15g of hop pellets (you choose - but I'd go for a good bittering and flavouring hop such as Goldings, Hallertauer, or Northern Brewer) and boil for 30 minutes. Chill in a sink full of iced water and add to the fermenter along with the kit and enhancer. Pitch yeast and let the S-04 get to work once the fermenter contents reach 20C.

If you use Goldings, you'll end up with a nice English Brown Ale - Hallertauer will give you a reasonable German Dark Ale...have fun, experiment and think about steeping some grains (eg Dark Crystal or Caramunich) instead of using the DDME next time...

Cheers,
TL

 

[PistolPatch]

Good on you Brownie for exploring but also keeping things simple. Trough Lolly has given you, as usual, excellent advice. 3 things...

Firstly, I've heard honey improves the lacing in the glass although I'm not sure of the truth in this - hopefully you'll let us know.

Secondly, I have had better luck with the darker styles (e.g. Morgan's Bock or adding Morgan's Chocmalt) in kits than the lager styles. I seem to get less of any sour taste with the darker styles.

Re your lager style question. I have no kit suggestions apart from finding the freshest kit you can and maybe use Saflager yeast rather than the yeast that comes with the tin. Often they label the tin yeasts as lager yeasts when they are, in fact, ale yeasts that should not be fermented at 9-10 degrees. Strange, eh? Using Saflager at 9-10 will get you closer to a lager style for sure.

Cheers PP

 

[sah]

Also now that Winter is upon us was thinking of doing an interesting Lager Brew ready for summer, any good tasty suggestions, again simple to start with.

[post="117936"][/post]​

I've brewed Malt Shovel's Two Row Lager cans with ale yeast and nothing else. I can tell you that this is a quality kit. I think it would be very nice with a lager yeast at the right temperature and time.

regards
Scott

 

[Brownie]

TL and Pistol,

Thanks for the advice will give that a go soon and let you know how I fair.

As for yeast, I have been using SAFLager and SAFAle for some time now and rarely use the provided yeast.

Recently brewed a Lager style using the following:

Coopers Draught Can (used this cause local shop getting rid of em for half price, due to best before date passing)
BE2
200g Dextrose
SAFLager
Cluster Hops Tea Bag
Fermented at ~ 9-10 Degrees
Then CC'd for 2 weeks
Bottled and now a month later tastes very nice. Clear, dark in colour probably due to the can being just poast BB4 date


Anyways thanks for the advice, no doubt I will have more questions soon.

Brownie.

 

[Piste]

I have made up Coopers Dark Ale with 1.5kg of LME (liquid) and added 15g Fuggles pellets, never tried pellets before and HBS told me to add the pellets to the fermenter, never again, clogged in the valve when attempting to bottle.
Came out fairly well, nice soft, mellow with a hint of bitterness from the fuggles.
I used the propietry yeast as the HBS does not stock the others, I must make a trip to the wrong side of town to pick some up one day.
Overall I was p[leased with the result and will try it again with Safale and straining the pellets through a sieve after immersion in hot water.
The only major problem I have with this brew is that SWMBO likes it too, so may have to invest in a 60 litre fermenter.
One problem I have is distinguishing hop pellets from Ratsak, we have a lot of rats and mice around and use heaps of it (horse property, lots of feed=lots of rodents) although kept well apart I have this underlying fear that one day.............

 

[Steve]

Piste - hops in the house freezer, ratsack in the shed - you'll be right.
Cheers
Steve

P.S. Sieving the pellets will work ok. Or you could buy another fermenter and rack to secondary leaving the yeast trub and hops sludge behind. :beer:

 

[Piste]

Thanks Steve, I plan on racking, a few other priorities at the moment but I know it will give a cleaner brew.
I am also looking at kegging but will have to do some serious research first as I have never tried it before.
Iain.