Next 3 brewdays ....

[leewink]

Oki, these are the 3 recipes (besides an ipa) that I plan to do within the month, for summer

they are all 19ltr length, just wanted ya opinion on them, I have a spare bag of oak chips too ? but havent delved into dried orange peel curacao / seeds etc yet ! I am open to suggestion though

here ya go, what do you reckon

(ignore the names, its just for seperation, titling purposes)


BISCUITS IN THE CORN ALE
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2250g Pale Malt (maris otter)
300g Flaked Maize
275g flaked wheat or torrefied wheat
250g Brupaks Belgium Biscuit Malt
250g Brupaks Carapils Malt

TOTAL MALT GRAIN BILL - 2750g - guesstimate ABV 3.6 - 3.8 %

25g Hallertauer Hersbrucker (60 min-start of boil)
25g Saaz (45 min-add with whirlfloc etc)

WLP 029 Kolsch

KOLSCH TRUE RECIPE
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2750 g Brupaks German Pilsner malt
125 g Wheat malt (max. percentage 70 of total bill, well under)
125 g Munich Malt (go with light if poss, more of a lagery colour)

TOTAL MALT GRAIN BILL - 3000g - guesstimate ABV 3.6 - 4.2 %

42.5 g Haller Mittlefruh hops or Spalt (60 min boil, add after 15 mins)

WLP 029 Kolsch

CORN CRAZY ALE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


2750g light colour maris otter
100g cara pils

200g coopers brew enhancer 1
500g flaked maize
300g flaked wheat or torrefied wheat

TOTAL MALT GRAIN BILL - 2850g - guesstimate ABV 3.8 - 4.2 %

57g Saaz hops (60 min boil - add after 15 mins)

WLP 008 East Coast Ale Yeast

[lancsSteve]

Spalt in the kolsch will be lovely!

All look like they have slightly strangely timed hop additions - why the 45 minute boil?
60 minute or 90 minute would more effectively utilise the bittering potential (use less, more bitterness) and a late addition near 15 or 10 minutes will keep flavour and aroma. A 45 min boil seems like a compromise that's not really making the best use or sense financially or flavour-wise... (or I've misunderstood and you;re doing 60 minute and then 15 minute additions)

Have you plugged them in to beer engine or similar to run the sums on Alpha Acids / OG / IBUs etc. - the balance will be important.

Early hersbrucker additions have a VERY low AAU and are usually an aroma hop - you could probably make all of these with a small amount of magnum or northern brewer as an early, clean, bittering hop and then use the low alpha acid noble hops later for aroma and flavour and save money/hops etc.

http://www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk/calculators.htm

[leewink]

sorry chap, yea to clarify - its a 60 minute boil in total yes

so if you were brewing these, what stages of the boil would you add the hops ?

so a zero would be at the start of boil and upto 60, thats how I work it, would you say add them late then ?

I must admit though, the few brews ive done have lacked a tad, nothing i cant handle and seems ok but if late additions are better then please suggest.

lee

[dave-o]

Yeah, it seems like you're putting all your hops in for 45 minutes on the last two, which is neither here nor there; it's too late for full utilisation as bittering and too early for flavour/aroma. For a simple schedule you could put the first addition in right at the start and a flavour/aroma addition in with 5 or 10 minutes remaining.

If it were me i'd probably use bittering hops to about 25 IBU and then chuck 20-30g in right at the end.

[leewink]

Yep, sounds like a plan, cheers

[lancsSteve]

so a zero would be at the start of boil and upto 60, thats how I work it, would you say add them late then ?

I must admit though, the few brews ive done have lacked a tad, nothing i cant handle and seems ok but if late additions are better then please suggest.

calculations are t'other way round - additions are timed by how long the hops are in the boil for:

FIRST WORT HOPS: when you run wort onto them (pre-boil and then for the whole of the boil - enhances flavour)

BITTERING ADDITIONS - depends on length of boil - these mostly add bitterness (but leave some flavour)
EITHER:
90 min (from end) = added once it's up to boiling and boiled for 90 minutes (bittering)

60 minute (from end) = added once up to boiling and boiled for 60 minute (bittering)

MID-POINT ADDITIONS:
30 minute (from end) = used in some european recipes, some flavour, little aroma

AROMA AND FLAVOUR ADDITIONS:
15 minute (from end) = most usual addition of aroma hops for flavour and aroma with some bittering

10 minute (from end) = more aroma, less bittering or flavour

AROMA ADDITIONS:
0 minutes / knockout = added at end of boil after switching off heating, lots of aroma, very little bitterness

Steeping hops = added after cooling to 80c and steeped

Dry hopping = Added in secondary/cask for aroma


So a 45 minute boil falls in the middle of all of the above and misses the target. .

Good article at: http://www.mrmalty.com/late_hopping.htm on getting maximum aroma and flavour.

SOME IDEAS AND SUGGESTIONS ON RECIPES AND FORMULATION:
If you're formulating your own recipes you really need to crunch the numbers. Either take a recipe and follow it for additions, time, quantity etc. and you'll get great beer, or adapt it slightly for equivalent ingredients you have to hand but not changing things like alpha acid units too much. AND/OR formulate your own, but if you're going to do this you really need something to help you get the numbers right so your gravities are worked out (and results recorded so you can get future palns more accurate) and additions and alpha acids etc. are calculated. ABV's should be easily worked out in theory and in practice. With a bit of brewing software it's not that hard at all - either the freebies linked above

You also can't beat reading a good book like Graham Wheeler's 'Home Brewing' or John Palmers 'How to Brew' to get a good set of techniques and ideas and tips in a more easily digestible and comprehensive form than the more haphazzard format of forums.

[leewink]

Hi Steve,

MY calculations or timings are how I work it, I'm awkward at times, and dont generally follow the "politically" correct, so my boil starts at zero on my stop watch, and finishes at 60.

Whats the 45 minute boil, I dont understand there ?

Over books, I like "guesstimates" though, makes my beer my own then, it seems a mid / later addition may be better and i thank you for explaining that to me, although ive never followed books 100% etc, as they arent my ideas or experiments then, I simply would be following someone else, and then all my trial / error and more importantly FUN, would to me be gone.

I had Aleman explain to me the use of CRS a while back to, using that in my 3 I mentioned, and I do seemingly ask some dull questions, but were all not technically minded, I dont choose to be in beer anyway, I just want a nice beer which im 99.999% at, ive took the kolsch recipe off the net, the other 2 are my own, the biscuit one ive brewed before and is very nice.

And lastly, I like "haphazard" at times too, because then I know its mine

[lancsSteve]

Hi Steve,

MY calculations or timings are how I work it, I'm awkward at times, and dont generally follow the "politically" correct, so my boil starts at zero on my stop watch, and finishes at 60.

Whats the 45 minute boil, I dont understand there ?

45 minute boil ADDITION

Personally i don't see 'politics' coming into it at all - conventions and terminology allow people to share information and advice and know they're talking about the same thing. So calculating when you add hops has a clear and set way of describing it which allows info to be shared, compared and understood. You're welcome to calculate everything completely differently and use your own terminology but it will mean asking questions like "what are your opinion of these recipes" pretty redundant as people just won't understand what you mean.

Don't follow what you mean by "not being in beer" and experimentation is great fun but keeping some records and running a few calculations can help repeat a brew which you really like. I find having easy-to-use calculations gives me a lot more freedom to make something my own, and have a nope of repeating it if I choose. And then let serendipidy intervene to shape whether it's great, merely good or poor. Haphazard is always there with home brewing as there's so much less control of times, temps and pitching rates etc. I'm not a slave to the maths but find some easy to use apps make my brewing more easy to be my own - just ideas and suggestions from experience but each to their own.