Nice Summer Beer Recipe

[West Oz Mark]

Suggestions for a recipe for a nice light Summer beer for my wife. I prefer my porters and dark ales but I have been give the task to brew up a nice light beer with a citrus tone along the lines of her current beer of choice of XXXX Summer bright larger (Lime).

I have been looking online for some similar recipes but have not had any luck and currently have a Coopers sparkling ale in the fermenter ( 500g LDM & 1kg BE2) but after some early taste tests I think it is going to be to way to Malty for her.

I have not used any hops etc with any of my brews but definitely keen on experimenting with steeping or dry hopping to get some citrus flavors into this recipe.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. 

    

[Otto Von Blotto]

I'd try the Mexican cerveza kit with either 1kg BE3 or say 750g dry malt and 250g dextrose. Kit yeast at 18 degrees. Throw in a 30-40g dry hop of Cascade. Should turn out pretty well. 

Someone else could advise on the lime, I don't use fruit in my beer so I don't have any experience with it. 

[West Oz Mark]

Thanks Otto sounds good.

[The Captain!!]

I reckon Some of the lads that were brewing the cerveza cans while they were like $1 a can or something ridiculous could have a nice summer one for ya. 

[Norris!]

Otto suggestion sounds good but if you wanted to experiment a little more you could try a little steep.

So taking Otto's suggestion with cascade but citra, centennial, mosaic, galaxy, etc any fruity hop will boost this kit right up into a nice easy drinking beer, with a nice aroma and flavour.

Take the 300g and 3liters of water bring to a boil and let boil for 10 minutes with 25g of cascade and then turn off the flame and add 25g more of cascade and let sit for 15 minutes. During the 10 min boil you will boil a kettle a water and place the cerveza kit in a pot or whatever, unopened with the instructions torn off, and pour the hot water around the can to loosen up the liquid wort. After the flameout addition open up the can, drain the water first, and add that to the cooling wort stirring it in. Then take some left over boiling water and rinse out the can and add that also.

Then add some chilled water and ice to the fermenter and strain the boiled wort and hops into the fermenter and then add the rest of the ice and cold water and chill down to at least 18c if you can, and top up to 21 liters and ferment with the kit yeast, rehydrated, at 18c but up to 22c will be alright. 

On day 6 add 25g to 50g of cascade in a chux cloth wrapped loosely to let the hops expand a lot. On day 10 it should have a stable gravity reading for 3 days. You can bottle now or cold crash or let it sit for a few more days, but it is pretty ready. Carbonate to 2.8 to 3.0, I like the cerveza highly carbonated and with a nice aroma and flavour.

The hops, 100g, will add about $9 or so give or take to the beer but make it something you would be proud to share.

Cheers

Norris

[West Oz Mark]

1 hour ago, Norris! said:

Otto suggestion sounds good but if you wanted to experiment a little more you could try a little steep.

So taking Otto's suggestion with cascade but citra, centennial, mosaic, galaxy, etc any fruity hop will boost this kit right up into a nice easy drinking beer, with a nice aroma and flavour.

Take the 300g and 3liters of water bring to a boil and let boil for 10 minutes with 25g of cascade and then turn off the flame and add 25g more of cascade and let sit for 15 minutes. During the 10 min boil you will boil a kettle a water and place the cerveza kit in a pot or whatever, unopened with the instructions torn off, and pour the hot water around the can to loosen up the liquid wort. After the flameout addition open up the can, drain the water first, and add that to the cooling wort stirring it in. Then take some left over boiling water and rinse out the can and add that also.

Then add some chilled water and ice to the fermenter and strain the boiled wort and hops into the fermenter and then add the rest of the ice and cold water and chill down to at least 18c if you can, and top up to 21 liters and ferment with the kit yeast, rehydrated, at 18c but up to 22c will be alright. 

On day 6 add 25g to 50g of cascade in a chux cloth wrapped loosely to let the hops expand a lot. On day 10 it should have a stable gravity reading for 3 days. You can bottle now or cold crash or let it sit for a few more days, but it is pretty ready. Carbonate to 2.8 to 3.0, I like the cerveza highly carbonated and with a nice aroma and flavour.

The hops, 100g, will add about $9 or so give or take to the beer but make it something you would be proud to share.

Cheers

Norris

Thanks Norris. Sounds fantastic so I will give it a crack. As it's for the boss $9 is not an issue at all.

[Norris!]

It will make it more of a pale ale but should be really smashable and not too offensive or bitter. If you don't like a lot of bitterness then try just a dry hop or and just a flameout steep of the hops and skip the 10 min boil.

With that said the 10 min boil of cascade with 3liters of water and 300g of malt won't add a ton of extra bitterness but it will bring lastly flavour to beer.

Let's us know how it goes.

[West Oz Mark]

On 3/31/2019 at 7:10 PM, Norris! said:

It will make it more of a pale ale but should be really smashable and not too offensive or bitter. If you don't like a lot of bitterness then try just a dry hop or and just a flameout steep of the hops and skip the 10 min boil.

With that said the 10 min boil of cascade with 3liters of water and 300g of malt won't add a ton of extra bitterness but it will bring lastly flavour to beer.

Let's us know how it goes.

Started this brew last weekend with Mexican Cheviza with 333g LDM. Only could find very expensive 12g bags of hop pellets locally but by chance I went to a field day and stumbled across a stall selling local grown hop flowers. Did the 25g Cascade hop boil for 10 minutes followed by 25g steeped for 15min as instructed. Today I have put my 25g hops into chux cloth and into the fermenter. Had a taste test when testing Sg and very satisfied with the taste so far. Nice lingering fruity aroma as you stated Norris.

I didn't add any dextrose to the recipe and my OG was only 1.030 and todays SG is 1.012. Abv online calculates at 2.36%. Should I have added some dextrose or is my calculations out? My wife would be happy with a mid strength but 2.36% is a bit light on

When dry hopping I soaked my Chux cloth and some marbles(weigh it down a bit) in some "No rinse sterilizer (Sodium Percarbonate)". Should I have done that and will I get any slight taste in my brew from it?

[Norris!]

25 minutes ago, West Oz Mark said:

Started this brew last weekend with Mexican Cheviza with 333g LDM. Only could find very expensive 12g bags of hop pellets locally but by chance I went to a field day and stumbled across a stall selling local grown hop flowers. Did the 25g Cascade hop boil for 10 minutes followed by 25g steeped for 15min as instructed. Today I have put my 25g hops into chux cloth and into the fermenter. Had a taste test when testing Sg and very satisfied with the taste so far. Nice lingering fruity aroma as you stated Norris.

I didn't add any dextrose to the recipe and my OG was only 1.030 and todays SG is 1.012. Abv online calculates at 2.36%. Should I have added some dextrose or is my calculations out? My wife would be happy with a mid strength but 2.36% is a bit light on

When dry hopping I soaked my Chux cloth and some marbles(weigh it down a bit) in some "No rinse sterilizer (Sodium Percarbonate)". Should I have done that and will I get any slight taste in my brew from it?

With the kit 1.7kg and 333g of malt it will only be a mid. Adding more dextrose now or malt SHOULD/MAYBE be fine, most people add the additional malt or dextrose a little earlier, for the yeast to eat through it and restart fermentation, but it might affect the flavour you like now, later. Add this to your knowledge stash, a kit and kilo of malt will get you about 1.040 OG which is ~4% alcohol. Anything less will be, well less alcohol. I would probably just let this finish up since you already dry hopped.

As the for the no rinse sanitiser it should be ok, but honestly I always rinse sodium percorbonate off with hot water, but from my understanding it should convert to oxygen after a while anyways....someone will correct me if I am wrong. Either way, you have done it and I guess we trust the label and see.

Glad your are getting good aroma and flavour! Hope it bottles well and tastes good in! Well done Mark.

Cheers

Norris

 

[Norris!]

Ah I see why you only did 300g of malt or whatever as that was the boil size. I failed to mention to add more malt to the fermenter with boiled hops and malt and the kit, sorry Mark.  Even if I do just a 300g boil I always add the remaining malt to get me to the alcohol level I want. Google Ian's spreadsheet which will help you make recipes and tell you what to kind of expect.

[MitchellScott]

Sodium Perc will convert to Oxygen, sodium carbonate and water.

The Sodium Carbonate will generally stay in the brew and therefore most people will recommend to rinse after using Sodium Perc.

The most popular no-rise sanitiser is Starsan or Stellasan (acid based sanitisers).

Cheers.

[Otto Von Blotto]

It might drop further than 1.012 given there's not much malt in it, but you also have to factor in the 0.4% ABV contribution from the priming sugar in the bottles. 

Ideally you should have rinsed the percarbonate off. You don't want to be introducing oxygen to the brew at this point. It may not be enough to cause issues but some known off flavours from it are wet cardboard and sherry. 

[West Oz Mark]

20 hours ago, Norris! said:

Ah I see why you only did 300g of malt or whatever as that was the boil size. I failed to mention to add more malt to the fermenter with boiled hops and malt and the kit, sorry Mark.  Even if I do just a 300g boil I always add the remaining malt to get me to the alcohol level I want. Google Ian's spreadsheet which will help you make recipes and tell you what to kind of expect.

Haha ok not a problem Norris. Next time I will do the full Kg. 

I will give it a couple more days, check Sg and if all good I will do a cold crash for a week.

[West Oz Mark]

18 hours ago, MitchellScott said:

Sodium Perc will convert to Oxygen, sodium carbonate and water.

The Sodium Carbonate will generally stay in the brew and therefore most people will recommend to rinse after using Sodium Perc.

The most popular no-rise sanitiser is Starsan or Stellasan (acid based sanitisers).

Cheers.

Thanks MitchellScott. When I sanitize all my equipment can I rinse all my equipment with water after the Sodium Perc? Bit confused as I thought that could possibly re-introduce bacteria. I would prefer to rinse with water if I can 

[The Captain!!]

46 minutes ago, West Oz Mark said:

I thought that could possibly re-introduce bacteria. I would prefer to rinse with water if I can 

The problem with using water to rinse is the it’s not exactly sanitised. 

Stellasan/starsan breaks down to yeast food. It’s about the ph of the solution that kills most things. 

So rinse off with water then stellarsan it. 

[West Oz Mark]

1 hour ago, The Captain!! said:

The problem with using water to rinse is the it’s not exactly sanitised. 

Stellasan/starsan breaks down to yeast food. It’s about the ph of the solution that kills most things. 

So rinse off with water then stellarsan it. 

Exellent. Thank you 

[Otto Von Blotto]

Actually, the water is pretty much bug free due to the disinfection processes and the chlorine/chloramines used to treat it. Nobody bothers to "sanitise" the 20 odd litres of water used to make the batch, which is a lot more than what would be left after rinsing some cleaner off. 

I still use acid based sanitiser in the fermenter after rinsing anyway, just as a bit of extra insurance. With kegs I sometimes do and sometimes don't. I figure the lower pH of beer compared to wort plus the presence of alcohol will inhibit any nasties. Today's one I simply cleaned with perc and rinsed, then filled it with beer. I've done this a number of times without issue, and I never bothered at all with bottles. Once they're dry, nothing will grow on the surface anyway.

[The Captain!!]

Agree to what Otto has said, the only reason I say water isn’t exactly sanitised is I don’t know what your water source is. 

[West Oz Mark]

On 3/31/2019 at 5:03 PM, Norris! said:

Otto suggestion sounds good but if you wanted to experiment a little more you could try a little steep.

So taking Otto's suggestion with cascade but citra, centennial, mosaic, galaxy, etc any fruity hop will boost this kit right up into a nice easy drinking beer, with a nice aroma and flavour.

Take the 300g and 3liters of water bring to a boil and let boil for 10 minutes with 25g of cascade and then turn off the flame and add 25g more of cascade and let sit for 15 minutes. During the 10 min boil you will boil a kettle a water and place the cerveza kit in a pot or whatever, unopened with the instructions torn off, and pour the hot water around the can to loosen up the liquid wort. After the flameout addition open up the can, drain the water first, and add that to the cooling wort stirring it in. Then take some left over boiling water and rinse out the can and add that also.

Then add some chilled water and ice to the fermenter and strain the boiled wort and hops into the fermenter and then add the rest of the ice and cold water and chill down to at least 18c if you can, and top up to 21 liters and ferment with the kit yeast, rehydrated, at 18c but up to 22c will be alright. 

On day 6 add 25g to 50g of cascade in a chux cloth wrapped loosely to let the hops expand a lot. On day 10 it should have a stable gravity reading for 3 days. You can bottle now or cold crash or let it sit for a few more days, but it is pretty ready. Carbonate to 2.8 to 3.0, I like the cerveza highly carbonated and with a nice aroma and flavour.

The hops, 100g, will add about $9 or so give or take to the beer but make it something you would be proud to share.

Cheers

Norris

After been away for a while my first hops brew is done and couple night ago we cracked open a few and it's a big thumbs up from the Missus Norris (Bit partial to it myself). We both love the fruity hop aroma and great taste. Bit light on for the ABV but it's exactly what she wanted. Thanks for everyone's input. Now that's done I have put my own Stout in the fermenter tonight with my first try at using malt grains.  

[West Oz Mark]

On 4/14/2019 at 5:15 AM, The Captain!! said:

Agree to what Otto has said, the only reason I say water isn’t exactly sanitised is I don’t know what your water source is. 

Captain I only have tank rain water. Should I be treating my water at all? I have purchased some Starsan and used it for my brew today but 20l+ was water straight out of the tank. Haven't had any issues up to date with failures etc.

Mark  

[The Captain!!]

20 minutes ago, West Oz Mark said:

Captain I only have tank rain water. Should I be treating my water at all? I have purchased some Starsan and used it for my brew today but 20l+ was water straight out of the tank. Haven't had any issues up to date with failures etc.

Mark  

Your water should be fine. I would be more concerned if you were running bore/well water. 

Do you run a filter system from your tank at all? 

I was going to go off grid for a while there and I was going to run a three stage filter system for a rainwater tank. Sediment, fine sediment then UV treatment. 

 

[The Captain!!]

Where abouts are ya @West Oz Mark

Edited May 19, 2019 by The Captain!!

[West Oz Mark]

5 minutes ago, The Captain!! said:

Where abouts are ya @West Oz Mark

South West W.A Bridgetown

[West Oz Mark]

7 minutes ago, The Captain!! said:

Your water should be fine. I would be more concerned if you were running bore/well water. 

Do you run a filter system from your tank at all? 

I was going to go off grid for a while there and I was going to run a three stage filter system for a rainwater tank. Sediment, fine sediment then UV treatment. 

 

I will have exactly that setup soon with twin filters and a UV but currently no filter system

[The Captain!!]

9 hours ago, West Oz Mark said:

South West W.A Bridgetown

Nice!!!! Ozilizard is from there too. I’m originally from pemby but now live just outta Bunbury area. 

your water will be fine mate as long as there is no dead rats or possum crap in there. 

I’d get the filters as soon as I could though. Just to be on the safe side.