Jaggery and Saffron Belgian Triple - Update

This beer has been in the fermenter for about 6 days now.  A bit concerned that fermentation has stopped or slowed too much.  I've got a current gravity reading of 1020 last night, so I pitched an aditional sachet of S-04 Yeast.  Will see how that comes out.  In future I'll be using whirlfloc with these belgian style triples.

Flavour isn't impressing me at the moment but I'll wait till it's in the bottle before I decide.

Edit 27/05/11:
I'm happy to report that this beer still seems to be fermenting.  Now at 1017, so I'll leave it alone for another two weeks before getting it in the bottle.

Edit 30/05/11
Looks like I might have been too quick to be excited.  I think this beer might be stuck at 1017.  Will give it time to clear up, treat with gelatine and bottle in two weeks time.  But I think this might be another failure.
I don't think the Jaggery was as fermentable as I was expecting and I think I should have used whirlfloc in the boil.  Will be using whirlfloc in all future brews.

Jaggery and Saffron Belgian Triple

Edit:  This looks like a failure at this point.  I do not encourage anyone to replicate this.

I got the idea for this beer from Randy Mosher's Radical Brewing and combining that with DKershner's Triple Blonde as the base.

For those who haven't seen these spices before:
Saffron
Jaggery
If you are looking to copy this recipe, please use cane sugar based version of Jaggery, not the palm sugar variant.  My original recipe had the Jaggery at 500grams but I decided to roll it back a bit as I was brewing.

Now to the recipe

Jaggery and Saffron Belgian Triple - aka "The Darjeeling Limited"

1.4Kg Sorghum Syrup @ 60 minutes
250g Jaggery @ 60 min
250g Glucose Syrup (corn based) @ 60 min
21g Pearle Hops @ 60 min
7g Pearle Hops @ 30 min
30g Saaz Hops @ 15 min
1tsp Yeast Nutrient @ 15 min
1g Saffron (that has been soaking) @ 15 min
1.4Kg Sorghum Syrup @ 60 min
*** Cold Crash ***
Top up in fermenter to 21L
1 x S-33 Fermentis Belgian Yeast

OG:  1050
FG:
Est ABV:  5 - 5.5%


IPA update:
Yesterday I dry hopped the Centennial IPA with 10g of Centennial Hops.  Very much looking forward to this beer.

Honey Ale update:
I tried one of the Honey Ale bottles yesterday.  Still has more carbonation to happen but the initial taste on this is great.  It is sweet with a strong flavour of honey, but I expect both of these features to reduce as the bottle fermentation takes place.

Centennial Hopped IPA - Brewing

Busy day today, bottled the Honey Beer which required pasteurised honey and brewed a Centennial Hopped IPA.  The original recipe for the Centennial hopped ale is pulled from page 50 of the "250 Clone Brews" magazine.
The recipe is

Centennial Hopped IPA aka "The Ex"

1.4Kg Sorghum Syrup @ 60 minutes
14g Centennial Hops @ 60 minutes
14g Centennial Hops @ 45 minutes
14g Centennial Hops @ 30 minutes
14g Centennial Hops @ 15 minutes
1 x whirlfloc tablet @ 15 minutes
10g Centennial Hops @ 0 minutes
1.4Kg Sorghum syrup @ 0 minutes

*** Cold Crash ***

1 x packet of Yeast nutrient
2 x packets of US-05 yeast

Dry hopping with 10g Centennial Hops @ 7 days

OG: 1041 - Total volume 21L

The original recipe has this beer finishing at 5%, I think this will finish around 4%.  This is my first heavily hopped beer and will be my first dry hopped beer.  The Centennial Hops are 9.2% AA.

Big thanks to my wife for helping me clean up the malt extract I managed to get it all over the kitchen.

APA - Drinking

The Australian Pale Ale (APA) is going down very easily.  I was hoping the extra hops and more sugar would take away some of that sweet wine like flavours that were coming through before.  The beer is definitely dryer which is just great. If I was to re-brew this, I'd probably add green tea (to add complexity) and maybe dry hop with the Australian Cluster hops.

Will update with a picture once I get around to taking one.

Edit:  As promised, here is a picture.  Sorry the flash didn't go off, but as you can see it is still quite clear.

Honey Beer - Brewday

Starting to get quicker and little better organised with the brewing.  Also making slightly less mess now, which the wife loves.  The honey beer recipe I'm using is very simple, I used Iron Bark honey.  Iron Bark honey is not as sweet as the regular Australian honey and has hints of cinnamon.

The recipe is originally posted here http://gfhomebrewing.com.au/ but at the time of writing their website is down.   I'll update with credit to the brewer who made the recipe when it is restored.

Stingless Honey Beer

1Kg Sorghum Syrup @ 60 mins
14g Magnum Hops @ 60 mins
7g Saaz Hops @ 15 mins
1 x whirlfloc tablet @ 15 mins
7g Saaz Hops @ 0 mins
650g Honey @ 0 mins
1.8Kg Sorghum Syrup @ 0 mins

*** Cold Crash ***

1 packet of Yeast nutrient
2 packets of US-05 yeast

The original gravity was 1049

APA - Bottling

I ran into an issue with the APA, the yeast was sticking around on top.  I put in some gelatin from the local home brew store to clear it up. It took about 2 to 3 days for it to mostly clear up, some debris was still stuck on the top.

The beer is now sitting there carbing up.

Australian Pale Ale - Brew day

Yesterday I spent a few hours putting together another Australian Pale Ale.  The base recipe I used is from here Oz Pale Ale plus an extra 5 grams of Cluster @ 15 minutes and 375 grams of demerara sugar @ 15 minutes.  I'm hoping a little extra sugar should dry it out a bit more (was a little sweet the first time) and bump up the ABV a bit as well.  O.G. was 1047.

The blonde belgian triple is carbing up very quickly, hoping to try it at the end of this week.

N.B. I don't have authority to repost the Brewers Choice recipe for Oz Pale Ale, hence why I've linked to it.
Also the cluster hops I use are the Australian variety.