Greg Hughes Summer Ale Recipe done in shed

The Homebrew Forum

Help Support The Homebrew Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Tony1951

Bungling Amateur
Joined
Mar 31, 2015
Messages
1,084
Reaction score
552
Location
Under a stone @55N
Been thinking a little while about doing a Golden Ale from a recipe in the Hughes book. I was going to do it on Sunday when the lady is in York with her friends so as not to be in the way in the kitchen, then today, I thought about making a little bit of space in a corner of the shed. In fact it is quite big enough to make a decent little brewery in there if I could be bothered to clean it out and get rid of loads of old bikes and junk from when my sons were lads.

20150710_150243.jpg

Given the working model sub on the wall behind the boiler, maybe I'll call this 'Unterseeboot Bier'.


So I put the ACE boiler in there and plugged it in, using the garden hose for water supply and the already wired up mains. Worked pretty well and went without any problems. Quite a nice afternoon too and seems almost rural at the bottom of the garden and no scowls either when wort got sloshed about... :)

I filled the boiler more than the last time (first boil then) and I boiled with about 24 litres, BUT... at a couple of points there was a near boil over condition. Right at the start and at about 45 minutes and again a moment later when the wirfloc went in.... I had to switch off for a moment then to control the rising froth which I am sure would have come over and made a mess.

I also topped up a couple of times with kettles of boiling water to keep the liquor level right for my recipe.

20150710_174214.jpg


I slightly misjudged the amount as I only had 22l rather than 23l by the end, but this isn't a problem. The wort achieved an OG of 1040sg so it should come out about 4% ABV when the recipe aims at 3.8%. I also messed about slightly with the amount of crystal malt, the recipe calling for 300grms while I put in the whole 450 grams I had from the local brew shop. I compensated with slightly less pale malt to the same degree as the extra crystal, so the beer may be slightly darker than Hughes' recipe. I used the last two packets of Cooper's Ale yeast I had in stock which is another departure.

I'm really glad I was encouraged by Clibit's thread to start on what he calls, 'the dark side'. :) Lots of fun to be had mucking about with different balance of hops and malt and speciality grains. A jolly afternoon in the sunshine.

Recipe as carried out with Hughes' recommendations in square brackets:

Pale Malt (MO) 3.160KG [Hughes recipe 3.4kg]
Crystal Malt 0.450KG [Hughes recipe 0.3kg]

Goldings 20g 60 mins [Hughes EKG 60mins]
Progress 15g 60 mins [Hughes 60 mins]

Goldings 15g 10 mins [Hughes EKG 30 mins]
Progress 10g 10 mins [Hughes 30 mins]

Goldings 15g 0 mins [Hughes EKG 1min]

Hop addition times altered because I have an extended chill which takes about two hours because I don't have a chiller and I chilled it in 11 litre lots in my old stove top pan in the sink..... A bit weird I know, but you have to use what kit you have as best you can. I added the late additions later than the recipe said to try and counteract the long cool down effect of my naff chilling arrangements.

Those who can subtract better than me will notice that I was 100g light on the total grain bill, but my OG comes out almost exactly where it should have done.

Actual OG 1040. Wort tastes quite good - nice bitterness.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
You might live to regret drinking my output Steve ::lol:

It might be 'Unterseeboot Bier', but it won't be 'Unter' the table bier at maybe 4%...

If its **** Tony i will just ban you:rofl:

Edit joke for all you people not living in the north east
 
Time is not my Friend guys, work and family issues,i will happily drop you guys a crate of beer off though , i will pm you guys when i have some spare time:-D
 
Time is not my Friend guys, work and family issues,i will happily drop you guys a crate of beer off though , i will pm you guys when i have some spare time:-D


Don't worry - I was only kidding. I need to drink less beer, not more :lol:.

This brew is going to be darker than I expected. Put in about 450grms crystal where recipe asked for 300g. Just seemed a daft little bit to leave in the 1 pound packet that the local brew shop sells. They sell it in pounds ----- obviously they have never heard of the people who get prosecuted by trading standards vigilantes for using imperial measures. Looks pretty dark in the FV and bubbling nicely. Hope I can keep it cool enough. It is already at 23C even though the room is 20C.
 
450g is 50% more than 300g. :ugeek:

Yes - maybe I was a bit cavalier there. It didn't look a lot - barely a pocket full. We shall see what comes out after the next few weeks. The wort tastes ok, just a bit darker than the design, or am I kidding myself?
 
This brew looks like it is going to be a winner. Jut kegged it after a fortnight in the FV and it has come down to 1008 from 1040 which works out at about 4.2 ABV before the carbonation sugars have been converted. In the keg it will come in at about 4.4ABV which is a touch stronger than the designed 3.8abv.

I don't think there has been any problem with my over use of the crystal by 150G. It tastes bloody gorgeous even pre-conditioned. I WILL make this again, only next time I will use US05 yeast instead of Cooper's generic Ale Yeast and I will also stick to the correct balance between light malt and crystal.

Very pleased so far with this. It's called Summer Ale by the way, not Golden Ale. One of those senior moments again, or had I been sampling my wares when I typed the thread title.

The recipe is on page 142 of the Greg Hughes book.

20150724_112101.jpg
 
Yeah the extra crystal is not enough to spoil it, that would take a lot more, just change it. I made a similar Progress and Challenger ale last year that was great, Challenger and EKG are quite similar. I used Gervin yeast, would do again with US05 or a liquid yeast.
 
This Greg Hughes Summer Ale recipe has turned out very nicely. As was said earlier, I diverted from the recipe slightly by adding 455gms of Crystal instead of 300 and of course, my no cool method will alter the hop balance slightly, but it is a very nice beer. Great mouth-feel - a really rich tasting beer and I like the hoppy taste of it. It came out at 4.2% rather than the 3.8% suggested in the recipe, but it's a good beer nonetheless.



20150810_182757.jpg


I will do this again, but I will knock back the crystal contribution to the malt bill next time, and I will use US05 to compare with the random old bag of Cooper's Ale yeast that I threw into this one. I want to compare the finish of the two yeasts.
 
Beer looks very good indeed, nice photo to with the sun creating a great 'lens flare'.
 
Thanks for the kind words chaps - if anyone is looking for the recipe, I messed up on the thread title. It isn't called Golden Ale at all. Don't know how that happened - it's called Summer Ale and is on page 142.
 
Thanks for the kind words chaps - if anyone is looking for the recipe, I messed up on the thread title. It isn't called Golden Ale at all. Don't know how that happened - it's called Summer Ale and is on page 142.

Sorted. :thumb:
 
Back
Top