Golden Sheep Clone

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Had a first attempt at doing a Golden Sheep (from the Black Sheep brewery at Masham). Description is :-

We use Maris Otter malt for all our beers. It's an old and very expensive variety that's distinguished for its taste and quality.

A mix of classic English hop varieties with masses of First Gold hop gives Golden Sheep its citrusy characteristics and light nose. We then enhance the citrus flavour with plenty of Challenger hops.

We use a touch of wheat which helps deliver the lovely creamy head and lacing down the glass - just what you would expect from a proper Yorkshire beer


So my recipe was :-

Recipe Specs
----------------
Batch Size (L): 9.5
Total Grain (kg): 2.062
Total Hops (g): 20.00
Original Gravity (OG): 1.048 (°P): 11.9
Final Gravity (FG): 1.012 (°P): 3.1
Alcohol by Volume (ABV): 4.72 %
Colour (SRM): 5.7 (EBC): 11.2
Bitterness (IBU): 20.9 (Average)
Brewhouse Efficiency (%): 70
Boil Time (Minutes): 60

Grain Bill
----------------
1.959 kg Maris Otter Malt (95%)
0.103 kg Torrified Wheat (5%)

Hop Bill
----------------
5.0 g First Gold Leaf (7% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil) (0.5 g/L)
5.0 g Fuggles Leaf (4% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil) (0.5 g/L)
10.0 g Challenger Leaf (7.4% Alpha) @ 10 Minutes (Boil) (1.1 g/L)

Misc Bill
----------------
0.8 g Baking Soda @ 0 Minutes (Mash)
0.4 g Chalk @ 0 Minutes (Mash)
0.3 g Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) @ 0 Minutes (Mash)

Single step Infusion at 66°C for 60 Minutes.
Fermented at 20°C with Mangrove Jacks - M07 British Ale


They say 'masses of First Gold' but I've used only 5g as it is quite a high alpha. What would masses be for a 9.5 litre brew ?
 
I suspect they don't use First Gold just for bittering. Probably use lots of First gold as a late addition, together with some Challenger. The beer's hop flavour and aroma will be influenced mostly by additions within the last 20 minutes of the boil. But I'm only guessing.
 
Yes. They say a mix of classic English hops and I've simply used fuggles so far. They say they use First Gold for citrusy characteristics and then enhance the citrus flavour with challenger so reading between the lines it does imply that first gold is used for both flavour and aroma. So you could be right that it is a late addition. They are specific about challenger for flavour.

So version 2 could be :-

Fuggles at 60
First Gold at 20
Challenger at 10 (as it says 'we then enhance with challenger')

Maybe put some East Kent Gold in with the Challenger.
 
I would use a mixture of First gold and Challenger for late additions, more FG than Challenger it would seem. Maybe 15 mins and 5 mins. But without a recipe it's pure guesswork.
 
I would use a mixture of First gold and Challenger for late additions, more FG than Challenger it would seem. Maybe 15 mins and 5 mins. But without a recipe it's pure guesswork.

True, but hopefully more like detective work than guesswork. I'm hoping that trying to emulate commercial brews that I like I will learn something.

Deuchars IPA is on my list :-P
 
Bottled my first attempt yesterday after two weeks in the FV. FG was 1020 :confused: so, another 'stuck at twenty' to report. I think they are common enough to give it its own acronym SAT.

Anyway tasted good (slight taste of rubber grommet which I used to put the airlock in the lid. It did have a strong smell, going to stop using them and use a proper bung). And an FG of 1020 means it's about 3.8% which is OK.

I'm wondering if there was too much trub which the yeast didn't like. Quite a bit of the break went into the FV. Wondering about racking in the future.
 
I don't understand the SATs, I'm afraid.
Sorry Clibit, wasn't clear was I - SAT = Stuck At Twenty.

It seems to be a common thing and doesn't seem to be related to starting gravity. It's almost like the yeast reaches a certain sugar concentration and can't get any further. I'm wondering if it is going to carbonate.
 
Are all your SATs with the same yeast?

Maybe you should try doing a brew with something like gervin (nottingham) or safale us-05 (apologies if you already tried this)
 
That recipe looks great TwoStage, Golden sheep is a lovely beer, saved this to give it a try at some point in the future when I'm confident enough to progress from kits (and I have the time).
 
I meant I don't understand why they are happening repeatedly for you. There's a danger of fermentation starting again and then highly carbonated bottles. Keep them in the shed or something. Stuck fermentation can happen more with certain yeast strains, with under pitching, and with under aeration.
 
That recipe looks great TwoStage, Golden sheep is a lovely beer, saved this to give it a try at some point in the future when I'm confident enough to progress from kits (and I have the time).

Just for info. The salt additions are to try and match the bottled water I was using (think it was morrisons) to be similar to the water in the area of the brewery. I realise they will probably treat it but I thought it might help.
 
I meant I don't understand why they are happening repeatedly for you. There's a danger of fermentation starting again and then highly carbonated bottles. Keep them in the shed or something. Stuck fermentation can happen more with certain yeast strains, with under pitching, and with under aeration.

My gut feeling is under aeration. I use a variety of yeasts. I do try and aerate (pour the wort from a height into the FV so it has a good splash) but maybe not enough.

Read an interesting article that compared the different mechanisms for aeration. The conclusion was to bubble in pure O2 was fastest (but you can overdo it), second quickest is shake the FV, then fish tank aerator with stone diffuser.

The next time I get an SAT I'm going to break some rules and aerate indirectly by adding a liquid that is sterile but aerated. I posted elsewhere that I'd noticed that when I top up a TC after two days of fermenting it goes off like a rocket. I now think this is because the juice is aerated and the yeast leaps on it.

I'm also going to aerate more before pitching the yeast. Probably using a fish tank thing as I can just see myself chucking 10 litres of wort all over.
 
I don't go overboard with aeration. Just pour the wort from boiler into the FV via a sive, then use a whisk until there's plenty of froth on top. Never get a problem with reaching expected FG. Just the once, with Safbrew S33, which is known for high finishes.
 
I don't go overboard with aeration. Just pour the wort from boiler into the FV via a sive, then use a whisk until there's plenty of froth on top. Never get a problem with reaching expected FG. Just the once, with Safbrew S33, which is known for high finishes.

Did the pour through a sieve with my latest batch. Didn't do the whisk though. We don't have one. I saw a huge one the other day in a farmers supply shop which is for mixing lamb drinks I think. I thought at the time that it must be useful for brewing.

The sieve I used was actually a garden riddle from Aldi. It has three interchangeable grids with varying hole sizes. I put all three in with the widest at the top and thinnest at the bottom. Worked a treat:-)
 
I don't go overboard with aeration. Just pour the wort from boiler into the FV via a sive, then use a whisk until there's plenty of froth on top. Never get a problem with reaching expected FG. Just the once, with Safbrew S33, which is known for high finishes.

I use a balloon whisk as well for aeration which seems to wrok, and my yeast of choice is gervin as it seems pretty robust, vigorous and imparts a pretty clean taste too
 

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