Interesting recipe for boring yeast

Hi all,

I have a conical fermentor and I'd like to brew something a bit special that I can leave for around 6 weeks undisturbed (as in, I only have access for the first two weeks and then after 6 weeks).

I was thinking Dubbel / Belgian strong ale, but I'm brewing on Friday and have no liquid yeast, so no yeast starter, so that plan is out. I was wondering if anyone had any ideas for stronger beers (i.e. that would benefit from the longer time in the fermentor - I can always drop the trub and yeast after a week or two if needed) that still work well with regular dry yeast. Something beyond an IIPA...

I have access to US-05, S-04, Nottingham, Abbey Ale (dried), German wheat (dried).

Cheers,
Matt

 

Look in the recipe section for RIS's. They could use some longer primary times and could work with your 05 or 04 yeasts.

 

Weizenbock with the german wheat yeast?

 

Published today:

http://barclayperkins.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/lets-brew-wednesday-1850-truman-kxxx.html?m=1

 

I like the look of all those three. Am also looking at doing an old ale with treacle (molasses) in it. Can anyone suggest whether the following sounds reasonable for an old ale:

84.1% (9.5kg) Maris Otter
8.84% (1.0kg) Crystal 60
4.42% (0.5kg) Flaked barley
0.88% (0.1kg) Roasted barley
1.77% (200g) Treacle (added at end of boil)

30 AAU (75g @ 60 min) Challenger
6 AAU (30g @ 30 min) Fuggle

Probably use either the Nottingham or S-04 yeast. Brewtoad (I need to invest in BeerSmith) gets this as 1.076 OG assuming 75% efficiency, finishing around 8%.

Things I'm unsure about are the amount of crystal (and I'd like a decent head retention on this, will flaked barley help with that or should I look at some wheat in there?) and whether the FG if I use S-04 might be a little high. Also, is 75% efficiency reasonable with beers at this starting level?

 

Should mention, the reason for going along these lines rather than the others is I also have a limited time to brew tomorrow. Both the old ale and weizenbock seem to need longer / more involved mashes (also had bad experience making a hefe with dry yeast before). Meanwhile a RIS I guess wouldn't be ready until Summer...

 

Swap most of the crystal for more pale malt. About 1/3kg of crystal should be enough. With that strength and amount of malt you won't really need any crystal malt. The roast barley is good for colour and cutting through a bit.

As a side note, I think you are underestimating the bitterness! Challenger / Fuggle + S04 is all good. I'd move the Fuggles addition from 30m to 20m to leave some more earthy flavour.

 

Do you mean underestimating the bitterness of the beer, or of what I should be aiming for?

As for the crystal, it did seem like a lot (the basis of the recipe was stolen from one on beersmith). Other ones seem to use some special B / aromatic, anything to be gained from adding that in?

 

The abbey yeast is good for a dubbel