What Are You Brewing - 2014

[mje1980]

First BIAB today.

Apricot blonde

71.4% wey pils
28.6% bb wheat

Challenger 60 mins

1.038
16ibu

WY 1007 German ale.

I'll be adding some apricot flavouring from craftbrewer to the keg. It's for my wife but I'll drink most of it probably.


So far the BIAB has gone really easy. I've done 2 steps so far by holding the bag off the bottom with one hand and stirring with the other. I'd like a hook but this isn't that hard.

Not ready to give the esky and HLT away yet but so far impressed with the ease of brewday, a lot less work I'm finding.

 

[mkstalen]

SMaSH
100% Vienna malt
Glacier Hops to about 28 IBU with additions at 60 & 10 minutes, and dry hop at 5 days.
Whitelabs East Midlands Ale Yeast. (Think it's the same as Nottingham)

Currently crash chilling waiting for a keg to empty.

Plan on entering it in a competition if it's any good.

 

[Kiwifirst]

SMaSH
100% Vienna malt
Glacier Hops to about 28 IBU with additions at 60 & 10 minutes, and dry hop at 5 days.
Whitelabs East Midlands Ale Yeast. (Think it's the same as Nottingham)

Currently crash chilling waiting for a keg to empty.

Plan on entering it in a competition if it's any good.

I'd like to hear how you go with this. I am sitting here staring at my incredibly complex Imperial pale ale recipe and I look at your simple recipe and thinking "I like the sound of that".

 

[lukencode]

Brewing V2 of my esb. Tasting a few of v1 last night makes me think I may have over corrected.

4.10 kg Golden Promise
200.0 g Caraaroma
200.0 g Wheat, Torrified
50.0 g Carafa Special II

35.0 g East Kent Goldings - Boil 60 min
30.0 g Styrian Goldings - Cube Hop Hops
20.0 g East Kent Goldings - Cube Hop Hops

West Yorkshire Ale (Wyeast Labs #1469) Yeast 8

 

[mkstalen]

I'd like to hear how you go with this. I am sitting here staring at my incredibly complex Imperial pale ale recipe and I look at your simple recipe and thinking "I like the sound of that".

Will report back once it's in drinking mode

 

[Dan Pratt]

I'd like to hear how you go with this. I am sitting here staring at my incredibly complex Imperial pale ale recipe and I look at your simple recipe and thinking "I like the sound of that".

Whats the recipe you have ?

 

[mkstalen]

Whats the recipe you have ?

Exact recipe was:

SMaSHing Foxy - 20L Batch

5kg Vienna Malt
30g Glacier 60 min
30g Glacier 10 min
15g Glacier Dry Hop 5 day
East Midlands Ale (Whitelabs WLP039) - Split the vial and then built up a 1L starter on the DIY stirplate.

Single infusion Mash 65.5 deg 60 min
Batch sparge
90 min boil
No chill
OG = 1.055
Pitched at 17 deg, fermented at 18.5.
Got down to 1.014 in 2 days (Holy crap)
Ramped it up to 22 at day 5 for Diecytal(?) rest and left for another 3 days. Then racked to a cube for crash chill, now waiting for an empty keg.
FG = 1.010

Looks a bit darker than the 5.2 SRM that Beersmith is telling me it should be. But tasted pretty decent from the hydro readings I was taking.

 

[mkstalen]

Oh wait, you meant lukencode's recipe. Duh. :wacko:

 

[Dan Pratt]

i was asking Kiwifirst...lol.

he said he had a complex IPA recipe and thought the smash was a simpler way to make beer. Yes smash is simple, one malt and one hop, a great way to learn your malts and hops and what they bring to the beer. Interested to know whay Kiwi thought was complex with his recipe.

Kiwifirst, what is your IPA recipe that you feel is too complex?

 

[Kiwifirst]

I don't think that making a smash means I will get a better beer, I am hoping it would teach me to understand what the malt additions add to the beer.

This recipe is complex only in the fact there is a lot in it. The problem that I am finding is that I am adding stuff to my grain bill because it sounds and looks cool, but I have no concept of what it will add to the taste.

I would like to be more disciplined and learn what each actually does to the beer. Which is hard without comparison tests. I have done that with hops, so quite confident with my american additions on what it will give me flavour wise, but malts? I am pretty clueless. I kind of understand what each does technically, but cannot pick what each does when tasting.

So my standard APA is pale ale, some munich, carapils and crystal. If I was to throw in 500g of wheat I need a better way of understanding what that did to the flavour. What does a 1kg munich addition taste like? I don't know because i haven't tried a smash pale ale.

I keg normally, but thinking that I should start putting a couple of bottles away marked with the recipe and then when I do a new one, do a comparison, but that will be comparing a 1 week old beer to a 2 month old beer. But it should give me a better understanding. I am finding the more I delve into this hobby the more I need and want to learn

Anyway, enough of my frustrations of lack of knowledge, here is my recipe. Has a SG of about 1.074 and a abv of 7.5% which is waaaaay bigger than anything I have done before. Using a WPL001 yeast with a starter.

5.9 kg American - Pale Ale 37 3.5 81.4%
0.35 kg German - Carapils 35 1.3 4.8%
0.35 kg American - Caramel / Crystal 10L 35 10 4.8%
0.35 kg German - Munich Light 37 6 4.8%
0.15 kg American - White Wheat 40 2.8 2.1%
0.15 kg German - Melanoidin 37 25 2.1%
7.25 kg Total

Hops
Amount Variety Type AA Use Time IBU
20 g Nugget Pellet 14 Boil 60 min 34.2
20 g Citra Pellet 11 Boil 30 min 20.65
20 g Citra Pellet 11 Boil 15 min 13.33
20 g Citra Pellet 11 Aroma 10 min 9.74 20 g
Citra Pellet 11 Aroma 5 min 5.36 30 g
Citra Pellet 11 Dry Hop 12 days
16 g Amarillo Pellet 8.4 Dry Hop 12 days
20 g Citra Pellet 11 Dry Hop 9 days
24 g Amarillo Pellet 8.4 Dry Hop 6 days
30 g Citra Pellet 11 Dry Hop 3 days

edited: crap formatting

 

[Liam_snorkel]

looks like it will turn out fine to me except you're wasting your time (IMO) with such a small amount of munich, it's a base malt, use it as one.

if you have time have a listen to this talk:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sSKHzmhrzY

 

[Dan Pratt]

Kiwi,

I like that recipe, it would make a good beer, lots of malt and lots of hops. I get where your at with understanding what each malt brings to the table and smash is a great way to explore and learn.

You could go ahead with the same learning technique (smash) for making an IPA using those hops, truth is though, with that level of hops & bitteness your malt will be fighting for a seat at the palate show.

What I would recommend is to make the IPA and build it each time with the malts and try keeping the hops schedule the same ( that will be the hard part :icon_drool2: )

Try a 95% Ale with 5% Crystal 10L. Then on the next one add 5% or 10% wheat to the recipe. Then make another with those 3 malts (ale, crystal & wheat) adding the munich or melanioden and you will see how these come through in the final beer.

For me a IPA has a very basic malt profile, generally just 90+ % of base malt and some crystal malt, letting the hops be the show. I more lean towards Amber Ale's or darker beers to explore more complex malt profiles but there is no reason why an IPA cant be both. :beerbang:

 

[Donske]

looks like it will turn out fine to me except you're wasting your time (IMO) with such a small amount of munich, it's a base malt, use it as one.

if you have time have a listen to this talk:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sSKHzmhrzY

I have completely changed the way I design recipes since watching that about a year ago, it was just one of those "well duh, that the issue" moments.

 

[Liam_snorkel]

^ same, it really struck a chord with me at the time as I'd just brewed a robust porter with 7 types of grain, and it came out "brown" tasting.

(nb I don't mean it tasted like a brown porter, I mean brown in the sense he used in the talk)

it also had a pinch of peated malt in it :unsure:

 

[Kiwifirst]

looks like it will turn out fine to me except you're wasting your time (IMO) with such a small amount of munich, it's a base malt, use it as one.

if you have time have a listen to this talk:

LOL perfect for the topic. It was everything I was saying above. Thanks for that link. Now I just need to develop the patience to run comparison beers.

 

[sponge]

US Wheat

50/50 pils/wheat

20IBU's amarilo @ cube

1.045

1272

Finally got around to brewing this over the weekend.. weekends just came and went far too quickly the last few weeks.

Ended up using a mix of cascade and citra instead of amarillo, and have a starter of 1469 instead of using the 1272 for something a little more interesting.

Step mash of 55/63/68/72/76 for 10/40/20/10/10. Efficiency (~85%) ended up a little higher than the usual so have ended up at 1.048.

Hopefully the 40min @ 63'C will dry it out enough.

 

[mosto]

Haven't been able to brew for ages but managed to knock this one out last weekend, currently in the fermenter.

Plan C Ale (Australian Pale Ale)

Original Gravity (OG): 1.047 (°P): 11.7
Final Gravity (FG): 1.012 (°P): 3.1
Alcohol (ABV): 4.62 %
Colour (SRM): 7.7 (EBC): 15.2
Bitterness (IBU): 30.0 (Average - No Chill Adjusted)

95.24% Maris Otter Malt
4.76% Caramunich I

0.8 g/L Pride of Ringwood (8.3% Alpha) @ 40 Minutes (Boil)
1.5 g/L Cascade (7.8% Alpha) @ 0 Minutes (Boil)
1.5 g/L Cascade (7.8% Alpha) @ 0 Days (Dry Hop)


Single step Infusion at 67°C for 60 Minutes. Boil for 60 Minutes

Fermented at 18°C with Coopers


Recipe Generated with BrewMate

Weekend just gone I decided to brew at night now that I have a few AG's under my belt, have got to now my system and streamlined my process at bit. Probably the smoothest brew session I've had so Sat night will be brew night from now. Have this sitting in the cube waiting for the starter to be ready, probably tonight.


Parkes Road Porter (Brown Porter)

Original Gravity (OG): 1.049 (°P): 12.1
Final Gravity (FG): 1.012 (°P): 3.1
Alcohol (ABV): 4.81 %
Colour (SRM): 27.7 (EBC): 54.5
Bitterness (IBU): 26.6 (Average - No Chill Adjusted)

76.09% Maris Otter Malt
10.87% Brown Malt
6.52% Caramunich I
6.52% Chocolate

0.8 g/L Northdown (8.1% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil)
1 g/L Northdown (8.1% Alpha) @ 0 Minutes (Boil)

10.0 g/L Whirlfloc Tablet @ 15 Minutes (Boil)

Single step Infusion at 68°C for 60 Minutes. Boil for 60 Minutes

Fermented at 18°C with Wyeast 1275 - Thames Valley Ale


Recipe Generated with BrewMate

 

[spryzie]

Got this on the stove now. Overshot first rest (aiming for 60 hit 63).

Aim was Mash in at 50 then resting for 1 hour at 60 and 1 hour at 70.

Is a bigger version of my last stout which I thought was great. This has some more hops (another 10 IBUs), more munich and more sugar (and the sugar was a failed attempt at making candi sugar from raw sugar - think it needs to be white sugar to work properly). Sugar is sugar in something as big as this I figure.

Going to throw a vanilla bean in primary to make it even more interesting. :kooi:

The power of the Big W pot is awesome! Can get a carton of 10% beer from it

---------------

Big Vanilla Stout

Recipe Specs
----------------
Batch Size (L): 12.0
Total Grain (kg): 5.375
Total Hops (g): 80.00
Original Gravity (OG): 1.100 (°P): 23.8
Final Gravity (FG): 1.024 (°P): 6.1
Alcohol by Volume (ABV): 10.02 %
Colour (SRM): 42.8 (EBC): 84.2
Bitterness (IBU): 71.5 (Average - No Chill Adjusted)
Brewhouse Efficiency (%): 67
Boil Time (Minutes): 60

Grain Bill
----------------
3.500 kg Pale Ale Malt (65.12%)
0.500 kg Munich I (9.3%)
0.500 kg Raw Sugar (9.3%)
0.250 kg Flaked Barley (4.65%)
0.250 kg Roasted Barley (4.65%)
0.125 kg Chocolate (2.33%)
0.125 kg Crystal 120 (2.33%)
0.125 kg Wheat Malt (2.33%)

Hop Bill
----------------
80.0 g Fuggles Pellet (5% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil) (6.7 g/L)

Misc Bill
----------------
6.0 g Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) @ 0 Minutes (Mash)
1 Vanilla Pod @ 0 Days (Primary)

Fermented at 20°C with Safale S-04

Notes
----------------
6g gypsum = 1.5 teaspoon

 

[jefin]

Using up some leftovers decided on a 10 + 5 Min IPA

BIAB with a sparge to up the batch size.

Should be interesting

Triple C & G 10min IPA (American IPA)

Original Gravity (OG): 1.073 (°P): 17.7
Final Gravity (FG): 1.018 (°P): 4.6
Alcohol (ABV): 7.17 %
Colour (SRM): 11.0 (EBC): 21.7
Bitterness (IBU): 85.8 (Average)

45.54% American 2-Row
27.68% Maris Otter Malt
8.93% Amber Malt
8.93% Rye Malt
4.46% Flaked Oats
4.46% Wheat Malt

3.6 g/L Cascade (7.4% Alpha) @ 10 Minutes (Boil)
3.6 g/L Centennial (10.2% Alpha) @ 10 Minutes (Boil)
1.8 g/L Columbus (16.3% Alpha) @ 10 Minutes (Boil)
3.6 g/L Galaxy (14.3% Alpha) @ 5 Minutes (Boil)

0.3 g/L Calcium Chloride @ 0 Minutes (Mash)
0.3 g/L Epsom Salt (MgSO4) @ 0 Minutes (Mash)
0.3 g/L Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) @ 0 Minutes (Mash)
0.0 g/L Whirlfloc Tablet @ 10 Minutes (Boil)

Single step Infusion at 68°C for 60 Minutes. Boil for 90 Minutes

Fermented at 18°C with Safale S-04

 

[mje1980]

So time this week I'm planning my first Scottish 70 shilling ale. Got some Scottish ale yeast which is very nice so far ( only samples drank yet but tasting great ) so I thought I'd try a Scottish ale. I understand it doesn't need peated malt but what the hell.

50.8% wey pils ( no MO at the moment )
44.4% wey Vienna
3.2% peated malt
1.6% roasted barley ( mash out )

Challenger 60

1.037
17 IBU

Wlp 028 Edinburgh ale @ 16-18 c.

I'll put a porter on the yeast cake.