BrewEveryday.com Recipe Suggestions

BigPerm, I would love to see any recipes that you have. A few others have suggested brewing beers now that require aging. How long is typical for a RIS? I've only brewed American and foreign export stouts so far.

Broham1 said:

Not sure if someone already mentioned this, but how about trying an experiment between different times of adding the sugars? Beginning of boil, mid boil, end of boil, primary, secondary? I have heard, especially with darker candi syrups, this changes the flavor profile.

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Once I have experimented with different sugars and syrups, this is exactly the type of series that I will do. The YoB is all about learning and my top two areas of interest are yeast and timing.

Hop additions, one at 60, fwh, 60&30, 60&30&5, dry hopping you could get thirty tests easily.



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Keithww said:

Hop additions, one at 60, fwh, 60&30, 60&30&5, dry hopping you could get thirty tests easily.



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That's coming up soon! I am especially interested in a hop bill that can make a great IPA with no dry hops. I don't think it's possible, but I'm going to try! Maybe making a dry hop tea in a French press to add, a homemade torpedo/hop rocket, huge flameout hops, etc. Dry hopping just sucks.

matthewmurray said:

That's coming up soon! I am especially interested in a hop bill that can make a great IPA with no dry hops. I don't think it's possible, but I'm going to try! Maybe making a dry hop tea in a French press to add, a homemade torpedo/hop rocket, huge flameout hops, etc. Dry hopping just sucks.

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I have been playing around with that concept. You really can't replace dryhops. Hop bursting and whirlpool help, but the end product is different. A good dryhopped IPA is the best.

sandyeggoxj said:

I have been playing around with that concept. You really can't replace dryhops. Hop bursting and whirlpool help, but the end product is different. A good dryhopped IPA is the best.

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I agree. I just don't enjoy doing it. And you lose so much beer!

matthewmurray said:

Thank you as always for the encouragement. I should plan a trip to Atlanta this year to come say hi!

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Absolutely! You just tell me when.

matthewmurray said:

Badlee and BigPerm, I have never used sugar in a beer (expect in an experiment that was made to test my system and not to produce good tasting beer). I need to do a lot of research before I design a series around different sugars and syrups. Are they generally used in place of Crystal malts? Mainly for color or flavor or clarity? I do know that beers brewed with sugar have great clarity!

I am really interested now! I will flip through my brewing literature and try to find some good knowledge on sugars.

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They can have a lot of different purposes. Cane sugars are used in tripels and IIPAs to increase fermentability and leave a drier beer (the extra alcohol is a bonus). Other sugars, like more unrefined sugars and candi syrups are used for their contributions to complexity.

I think an interesting experiment would be to select a base recipe of, say, pilsner malt and maybe a small (~5%) amount of wheat, to 1.060 gravity and then add 5-10% of the sugar (getting you to 1.070, ballpark). The simplicity will allow the sugar to come through in the flavor and the color contributions to be noted also. If you make them a little stronger, they'll hold up better to age and will be easy to compare across batches as they age.

If I were going to do this, I'd select a belgian strain. Wyeast Belgian Ardennes (A'chouffe) has a nice clean character for a belgian strain.

Good luck!

matthewmurray said:

BigPerm, I would love to see any recipes that you have. A few others have suggested brewing beers now that require aging. How long is typical for a RIS? I've only brewed American and foreign export stouts so far.

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A couple months is fine for a RIS. A fun thing to do with this could be to make a base recipe and progressively change the percentage of roasted barley:chocolate malt. You'd be able to (sorta) map the progression from porter to stout. Clean english yeast.

I was also thinking of incrementally changing one beer into another. I was thinking malty amber ale into IPA over a week or two, and I like the roast idea also.

Not sure where's best to comment, FB, here or your blog.

Trub experiments yay! Starsan shouldn't ruin it, but 8 oz in a gallon is pretty high concentration.

You should do a mash time experiment too if you have time. Start at 90, and decrease all the way down to the 20 minutes that RM-MN lives by. Note that the finer the crush, the quicker the conversion is supposed to be. If you have grain trub problems, consider using two bags if possible or throwing some rice hulls in maybe.

pricelessbrewing said:

Not sure where's best to comment, FB, here or your blog.

Trub experiments yay! Starsan shouldn't ruin it, but 8 oz in a gallon is pretty high concentration.

You should do a mash time experiment too if you have time. Start at 90, and decrease all the way down to the 20 minutes that RM-MN lives by. Note that the finer the crush, the quicker the conversion is supposed to be. If you have grain trub problems, consider using two bags if possible or throwing some rice hulls in maybe.

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Thanks for commenting! I probably check HBTalk more than anything, so comments here are great.

I'm excited for the trub series, too. I just need to get my head in the game! The re-brew of last night is half way through the boil right now.

I don't think that Starsan will ruin the beer, but it will change it a lot!! If it still comes out well, no one will ever need dear the foam again.

I like the mash series idea. Forgive my ignorance, who or what is RM-MN? I'm all about a 20 min mash if it will work, but my experience so far is that, at least with my full volume mashes, 90 minutes yields more than 60. I can't remember how many points, but I will try to remember to measure tomorrow. I have also read that just because the sugars are all converted doesn't mean that the mash is through doing its job. I need to research that more.

Ultimately I need to find an easy and consistent way to mash with as little hands on as possible. I love my paper thin kettle for many reasons (if it was any thinner, it would be a stainless steel bag), but the major drawback is losing heat during mashing. I use the oven, but with different techniques depending on how much attention I can give it that day. Some days I start the mash and leave the house for a few hours. Other days I stir every 15 minutes adding heat each time. Tonight I put a 149 degree mash into a cold oven and turned it to 179 for 45 minutes. It was at 154.2, and I stirred and turned the oven off for 45 more minutes. It ended at 153.5. I might try 30 minutes of heat next time. I look forward to finding a process that works well for my equiptment.

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Will continue to comment here then. You should link to this thread on your blog maybe?

No doubt starsan will impact it in some fashion. I'd be interested in how it affects lag time, and pitching rate esters. For some reason i want to say it's going to hamper both yeast growth and/or pitching rate so I expect it to be a bit fruitier than intended. Also thinner due to the dilution of the wort.

RM-MN is a BIAB guy on these forums. He crushes super fine, almost to flour, and reports complete mashes at 20 minutes with about 80% efficiency and no FG problems. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/mash-conversion-experiment-475391/ Unforunately it seems he hasn't been able to brew for awhile, I think he said he's pretty busy till october but will continue the mash experiments with some more data once he returns.

As far as the mashing temp I would recommend doing either of the following.
1) Oven mashing. Turn it on the lowest setting possible, preferably around 150. Let it preheat for about 10 minutes while you bring the strike water to temp. Once you dough in, put the lid on the pot and turn the oven off. Place pot in oven. I wouldn't expect any heat loss greater than 3 degrees. Maybe 4.

2) Blanket mashing. Get a dining chair ready as your mashing platform. Dough in as usual, and put a sleeping bag on the chair with the open end up. Put pot in sleeping bag, zip shut, fold the excess over the top. Put another blanket over the top with the excess in the other direction, or wrapped around horizontally. I do this with my 30 qt, 2 sleeping bags and I only lose 2 degress in an hourish mash. I don't really time it, I just go for at least 45 minutes then end if whenever I'm done with my current task/tvshow/netflix.

I've found that you really do need to stir the CRAP out of it before covering, then DO NOT OPEN IT. Think stovetop rice. You open it and it's ruined. Trust me here, you don't need to stir or check the temp. Check it after your mash is done and report your temp differential.

Unfortunately my oven's lowest setting is 170, so I usually preheat, turn off, and then add heat every 25-20 minutes. I'm hoping to find a technique that involves as little hands on as possible. I've tried reprogramming my oven to have a lower warming setting, but it didn't make a difference. I know a lot of brewers use sleeping bags, blankets, and other types of insulation, but I'm weary to add any complication to my brew day. My kids would probably pull a sleeping bag off anyway.

I will keep experimenting with oven timing. I think I can find a timing that involves only one transaction.

A quick update on the trub series!

https://www.facebook.com/breweveryday/posts/595730733878383

Good stuff! I have a request for testing: same beer recipe but different "boils." Interested to see how the beers compare when a very violent (leaping it off the pot) boil is maintained vs a gentle wort turnover vs a simmer or something that doesn't even look like it's boiling.

brettwasbtd said:

Good stuff! I have a request for testing: same beer recipe but different "boils." Interested to see how the beers compare when a very violent (leaping it off the pot) boil is maintained vs a gentle wort turnover vs a simmer or something that doesn't even look like it's boiling.

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I like that. I was already planning on a boil time series- 120, 90, 60, 30, and 15! On the 60 I will use two different heats, although I may need a few free passes as I guess on boil off rate. That's why the project is called BrewEveryday, not BrewGreatBeerEverytime.

this is cool - glad I found this thread, your in Matthews, we're neighbors- small world.

bpnc9702 said:

this is cool - glad I found this thread, your in Matthews, we're neighbors- small world.

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Thanks for connecting. Send me a message if you want to meet up sometime!