A special brew

[Jacko_NZ]

ok, so once Wassa's Honey Porter has completed fermenting I'll be onto brew number 10! I've mainly been doing kit+kilo type brews so far but substituting in enhancers rather than using dex. The last 2 brew have seen me use LME and DME for the first time and I think I will carry on down this road due to hearing from you guys that this is much better than dex.

So I am looking for a recipe for my tenth brew, I'd like to do some kind of real ale type recipe, possibly a red ale. I'd be keen to try out steeping some specialty grains on this next brew too, the short boil for the honey porter wasn't too tricky and smelled delicious! From what I have read the steeped grains would be a similar process.

So anyone have a good recipe for a beginner that I could give a go for number 10?

Cheers

[timmy]

Hi Jacko,

If you're looking for a real ale this one's a cracker:

http://www.homebrewandbeer.com/forum/vi ... hp?p=37156

Very easy to make too.

Cheers,

Tim

[Jacko_NZ]

Excellent stuff, cheers Tim.

I couldn't see in the thread which yeast you went for in the end, was it just the coopers kit one?

Now I just have to be brave enough to give that crystal stuff a go, another level up in the never ending home brew difficulty scale!

Cheers

[timmy]

Yep - it will be fine with the kit yeast.

[Jacko_NZ]

Well it's only been in the bottle for 2 weeks but the bottles had firmed up and couldn't resist trying to see what it was like.

Timmy, thanks heaps for the recommendation, this beer is freakin superb!!! Can not believe how good it tastes and at such an early age. I'd say it's a huge improvement on any of my brews so far, seems like steeping the grains really adds quite a bit to a beer. It's got tons of body, a lovely golden orangey/amber colour, nice head, caramel aroma and great mouthfeel. First thing that came to mind when I took a gulp was the caramel aroma/flavour, I believe this comes from the crystal? Reminded me of an Old Speckled Hen to be honest with that caramel/toffeeness.

Never tried a Hightail but I'm happy as with this brew, will def be making it again. Got to say though I'm not getting much aroma from the goldings hops I put in.

Cheers
Lee.

[timmy]

Glad to hear you're enjoying it.

I've got a batch of this in the secondary at the moment (slightly different - I'm using Cascade hops + American Ale yeast) and it should be great now it's cooling down a bit.

Cheers,

Tim

[Lachy]

Timmy, you'll probably find that what you get from your batch tastes somewhere in between Little Creatures Bright Ale and Mountain Goat Pale Ale. I've brewed more or less the same recipe (CPA + LDME + Crystal + Cascade + US-05) a number of times, and it's a great drop.

[timmy]

I don't think so Lachy.

The Hightail uses the same yeast and hops that I have done. If I hadn't based the brew on the Real Ale can it would be close, though.

[Lachy]

*rereads the above posts*

*slaps self in face with palm*

That will teach me to post when sleep deprived. And after a few beers. Of course, it's totally the sleep deprivation at fault.