Loved your posts above nosco ,

We are really good on numbers, education and terminology on this site but mind-sets like yours, "making up recipes is fun," are extremely valuable and you ca learn and discover with that mind-set really fast. Coupled with using the BIABacus so as your recipes don't get distorted, is a unique combo. For nearly all other brewers (myself included when I was starting out) I would advise copying high integrity recipes first but for those with a spirit of adventure, go for it!

As for recipes, go LlyoydieP's Krispy Koplsch. Your mates will like that. It's a very good, dry, crisp beer. Also your mates might, surprisingly, like NRB's All Amarillo Pale Ale as it is not too bitter, interesting and quaffable if the amarillo is of a good year.


PP

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I had a great weekend. My very pregnant wife who just went on maternity leave got heaps of flowers and chocolates for Valentines Day and I got to brew a beer! and I learned a bit too.

The demo at the G&G did actually include tomato, basil, oregano and thyme. I thought it was maybe some kind of joke but they where making pasata as well so makes sense. I had thought that Joe White malt was cheaper because it is made in Australia but apparently their malting process is a little lacklustre. Its a case of chuck it in the kiln, roast it and if it doesn't meet the requirements then they blend it with something else. Gladfields pale malt is a English winter 2 row (Maris Otter variety like I guess) and is roasted/steamed/kilned/whatever to a higher standard. Likewise with thier other malts. Obviously this is part sales pitch and part fact but I reckon I shouldn't skimp on the ingredients on my first house beer so Gladfield malts might be a good choice for V.2. Plus Gladfields sounds like the latest trend in malts this brewing season not my words I heard someone else say it as a joke. I really wouldn't know

PLUS I got a bottle of Heritic-Evil Twin! Thanks cwier. I wouldn't even have known it was there if I hadn't happen to see it written on the "new" wall and if you hadn't mentioned it. I bought one for research of course. It was a red beer. A very feckn red beer! Hammer Horror fake blood red. Hoppy and malty at the same time and with a heavyish body. I really like British beers but this was a bit too cloying at the time but it was 34c outside where I was drinking it . A good winter beer for hop heads I thinks.

It did help me to make a few decisions about V.2. Pat you'll be happy to know I have forgotten about colour. Ill be happy with a darkish amber I think what I was really looking to brew was a darker American caramel/amber/pale ale Ill stick with a mash temp of 66-67c

I brewed the American Amber from BCS today and all went pretty well by my standards. After a sniff test I gave the ball vlalve a quick clean in Oxyper. I totality forgot to put in any water/mash adjustments. Shouldn't matter with a darker beer? or at all. I also forgot to measure VFO and between talking about my favourite politician, Tony Abbot, and solar hot water services with my father in law, 23 Lt went into the fermenter instead of 20 Lt. Out of 9 or 10 brews I have only ever managed to get all the reading for 4 brews. Ill get there one day.

The recipe has Maris Otter so I'll be keen to see what its like. I probably wont be ablt to tell with all those caramalts in there. I over shot the mash temp 68c by 1 deg but 10 mins of stiring fixed that. I expect it will be very malty

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Shame on the All Amarillo. If it didn't have the passion-fruity and citrus notes in it, you may have been using the crappy crop of it which I think was 2013. If you did have those notes, change your friends .

Krispy Kolsch is always good!

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In case anyone hasn't noticed, this isn't a post about my first recipe. Its my beer blog

I can understand where my mates are coming from Pat. I never really understood or properly appreciated beer until I started making my own. I have tried heaps of different beers and I think I have maybe had some really good beers that I just chugged down and didn't know what I was drinking. I remember drinking a Stone & Wood Pacific Ale that I didn't like because I thought it had mango in it When I read the ingredients on the bottle I couldn't work out how it got its flavour


Its ironic but one of my mates who was born in Germany and only drinks (generic) European lagers and (some nice) wheat beers was the one who got me into my beer journey. He hasn't really liked any of my beers to date but I cant blame him really. My first 3 extract beers where really bad. My first beer was supposed to be a Coopers lager but turned out to be a Coopers Gueuze. My AG beers are either not to his taste or not conditioned enough. Plus I think that some people just don't trust home brew and dont understand the process.

I have a "brew on site" place really close to me which gives home brew a bad name. They say come and brew your own beer that tastes like Becks and they end up with a Cream Ale! They don't even educate people enough to know the difference between lager and ale yeast. And they filter the beer! Some people just want a beer like they can get in the shops.

Another mate in the same drinking circle is Czech but came to Australia in his teens and went back and forth in his twenties. His beer of choice back then when he was in Czech was Gambrinus. I think its like the Czech version of VB, Tooheys, Millers Lite, Corona, etc but 100 times better. Its next door to the Pilsner Urquell brewery. I only just learned about it since the G&G are selling the Wyeast version of it again. So he has drank and had access to some of the worlds best beers but at home he likes to drink Heineken and Miller Chill. Each to his own I guess but I am very jealous. I gave him a bottle of my BCS pale ale and he said he couldn't finish it. I didnt think it was great either but it wasnt a bad beer. I might have to take a bottle of my brew to the Grain and Grape and get some one to taste it just in case my beer is really shit. I dont think so though.

Anyway. On a side note and back on topic Max the Red V.1 has mellowed into a very nice beer. The bitterness has smoothed out and there is still a nice bit of aroma. I don't know if that's from the dry hopping or from the late hops. I wont dry hop the next version as Pat suggested and see what happens. I like the body of this beer but its needs a bit more malt flavour.

The amber is fermenting away nicely too.

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Note to self "dont enter ingredients into the Biabicus after work when its late and you are tired...and dont order the grains until you have double checked your file".

I brewed the American Amber from BCS as "research" for Max the Red. Its only just carbed up. In my first sample I can taste chocolate malt. Without really knowing Im gonna guess and say its chocolate malt. So I go and check the malt bill in the book against my Biabicus file but the BCS AAA there is no chocolate malt Then I realise that I have used the grain bill from the red ale on pg 139 but I have used the amber hop bill on pg 138 I have 35 IBU's in a 66 IBU beer The choc malt will condition out but then all the hop flavour will be gone by that time.

I am tempted to dry hop in the keg with some of my left over hops. Live and learn.

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First recipe creation (started as Hop Theif 6 clone)

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So I went with a hop tea for the hell of it. I already had a "french"? coffee press that I hav'nt used in years and borrowed another. I had a bit of all the hops from the amber brew, Horizon for bittering and Cascade and Centenial which I have heard is like a super Cascade? I did'nt want to dilute the beer so I boiled up 1.lt of the beer and poured that into a coffee press with 45g of Cascade and Centenial. Then I boiled 1.lt of beer for 30min with 35g of Horizon, roughly the same amount that I used to make the under hopped beer.

The first lot went well because it had time to cool and the hops settled out nicely. The 30min batch was a little trickier. Its not easy trying to "boil" 1.lt of beer with 35g of hops in it. I lost about half the liquid so I added a bit of boiling water to the sauce pan to rinse it out and topped up the coffee press. If I was more patient I would have let this one settle too.

I poured them both into the keg and had a little sample. I have now identified another flavour that Ive heard people use about hops. "Grassy". Grassy and resiny. Not suprising but I was tasting grassy for a few hours after that . I think it picked the bitterness up a bit which I wanted but hard to tell with so much grassy going on. Ill let it settle out for a few days and see how it goes but will take a bit longer I think.

Sounds like a really tasty beer does'nt it!

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