Pale Ale [Greg Hughes page 122].

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Tony1951

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Thinking of brewing something like the Pale Ale recipe in the Greg Hughes book.

Extra Pale Malt 4.3kg
Light Crystal 0.95kg

Challenger 35g 60 mins
EKG 23g turn off
Styrian Golding turn off

I don't have the styrians or Challenger, and I don't have Extra pale malt so I was thinking of adapting the recipe a bit as follows:


Marris Otter 4.3kg
Light Crystal 0.95kg

Progress 35g 60 minutes
EKG 23 gm turn off

and possibly

progress 16g turn off

or

Citra 16g turn off.

I do favour the citrus type notes.

Another thing I might want to replicate is the lovely sweet effect I accidentally got in my first AG brew where I inadvertently had the mash temperature a bit high. I really liked that and people I gave the beer to also commented on it. It had a lovely mouth feel too. That beer didn't finish below about 1015 as I recall, but it was a winner on the flavour front.

I could possibly try and use adjuncts to get that effect.

Any suggestions on the above would be most appreciated.

Thanks
 
Looks like a very nice pale ale. I struggle to to extra pale ale malt too. There's one HBS 'near' me that sells it, but they're always out of stock! As far a the hops go, Progress is really nice with lots of mint late in the boil, so you might want to consider that, unless you like mint. Nice with EKG. Grab some Challenger when you can. It's a great hop :thumb:
 
Progress and EKG would be great. Do you have any other English or European hops to consider?
 
Looks like a very nice pale ale. I struggle to to extra pale ale malt too. There's one HBS 'near' me that sells it, but they're always out of stock! As far a the hops go, Progress is really nice with lots of mint late in the boil, so you might want to consider that, unless you like mint. Nice with EKG. Grab some Challenger when you can. It's a great hop :thumb:

Thanks for the input. I used Progress and EKG in my Hughes Summer Ale which is carbing up in the keg right now. I think it tastes pretty good, but obviously, I only drank the trial jar as I kegged it after a fortnight in the FV, so can't say for sure yet.

I just noticed when I was looking over my invoice from The Homebrew Company that I have Summit which the invoice describes as 'Super Styrians' so that might go along with the EKG as the turn off hop contribution. It has a much higher alpha acid, but as it will be going in at flame out, that isn't an issue I don't think.
 
Progress and EKG would be great. Do you have any other English or European hops to consider?

I just got the following list last week:

Aurora (Super Styrians (9.3AA)
Summit (16.3)
Admiral (14.5)
EKG (5.7)

I also have Fuggles in my drawer and Goldings plus some American hops.
 
I'd go with some Aurora. Bitter with Admiral or Progress, perhaps, or Aurora, and use EKG and Aurora at flame out. Aurora are really nice. Often subbed for Styrian Goldings, but are different. Grown in the Styrian hop region.

Yeah I would just use Aurora and EKG.
 
I just got the following list last week:

Aurora (Super Styrians (9.3AA)
Summit (16.3)
Admiral (14.5)
EKG (5.7)

I also have Fuggles in my drawer and Goldings plus some American hops.

Aurora is really nice. Been playing with it recently and it's now found a place in my hop inventory :thumb:
 
I'd go with some Aurora. Bitter with Admiral or Progress, perhaps, or Aurora, and use EKG and Aurora at flame out. Aurora are really nice. Often subbed for Styrian Goldings, but are different. Grown in the Styrian hop region.

OK so what kind of amounts?

so

Admiral 20g 60 minutes (it has about twice the ibu of the recommended challenger).

ekg 23g flame out
`
Aurora 16gm flame out.
 
I'll need to bang it into Brewmate tomorrow to check. You could use Aurora for bittering. Or Admiral or Progress.
 
I'd go with some Aurora. Bitter with Admiral or Progress, perhaps, or Aurora, and use EKG and Aurora at flame out. Aurora are really nice. Often subbed for Styrian Goldings, but are different. Grown in the Styrian hop region.

Yeah I would just use Aurora and EKG.


Right. Time to get this charabanc moving. I am going with EKG and Aurora.

35g EKG @ 60

20g EKG @ Turn off
20g Aurora @ Turn off

Sound reasonable?

Heading down to the shed to fire up the boiler and weigh out some malt.
 
Sounds good. The bittering hop choice won't make a massive difference. As long as the IBUs are similar. Does 35g ekg match the recipe IBUs?
 
Sounds good. The bittering hop choice won't make a massive difference. As long as the IBUs are similar. Does 35g ekg match the recipe IBUs?

No.... :wha:

Good thinking Batman.

Changed it out.

Now using

20g Admiral @60

23g EKG @ Flame Out
20g Aurora @ Flame Out.

Admiral has twice the Alpha Acid of the Challenger which was the original recipe recommendation so I have more or less halved its amount.

Thanks Clibit. Good to have your advice.

Mashing is 20 minutes in now at 66C. This recipe has quite a bit of malt in it. It's the biggest I've done yet at 4.2kg. Came quite close on the strike temperature. I was hoping for 69C to try and get a bit of sweetness, but reckon 66C will have to do. I don't like to apply heat from the bottom with a nylon bag sitting on the base so it will have to do as is.

Cheers.
 
If you constantly stir the mash whilst you apply heat it's fine. Done it loads of times


I'll remember that next time Myqul. Ten minutes into the boil right now. I sparged in my FV this time, Boiled up about a eight or so kettles and got 12l of 80c water to dunk the bag in. After about ten minutes it was as coloured as you like.

20150726_130457.jpg
 
Nice Tony. :thumb:

Next time, open up the bag and get your mash paddle/big wooden spoon and 'jab' the hell out of the grains for about two - three mins. I've found this really helps ups the efficiency. You can stir but being a lazy git I've found that jabbing is just as effective and much less knackering
 
Yes - I did do that. I just pulled the draw string so the grain didn't topple out when I was taking the picture. I got every drop of goodness out of that bag believe me. By the end, it was begging me to stop. :)

I actually wonder if this recipe has a mistake in it. It asks for 4.2kg of pale malt an suggests it will produce a finished beer of 3.8% ABV. My bet is it will come out nearer 5%. I got 4.2% out of 3.2kg two weeks ago. Of course it lists Extra Pale Malt and I've substituted Marris Otter, so maybe the yield is different than the Extra Pale. Actually, I bet it will be 5.8% - just a hunch - I'm not experienced enough to know that.
 
Points well noted gentlemen. All done now. I'll wait until it cools and see what gravity I have, but I won't dilute it, I don't think.

End of boil photo -

20150726_140730.jpg



Now will wrap it up and leave it until tomorrow when it will be cool enough to pitch.

Job done. :) Thanks for the help gents.


EDIT:

Looks like the OG is 1044 - 1046, so it might come in 4.8% to 5% ABV.
 
Yes - I did do that. I just pulled the draw string so the grain didn't topple out when I was taking the picture. I got every drop of goodness out of that bag believe me. By the end, it was begging me to stop. :)

I actually wonder if this recipe has a mistake in it. It asks for 4.2kg of pale malt an suggests it will produce a finished beer of 3.8% ABV. My bet is it will come out nearer 5%. I got 4.2% out of 3.2kg two weeks ago. Of course it lists Extra Pale Malt and I've substituted Marris Otter, so maybe the yield is different than the Extra Pale. Actually, I bet it will be 5.8% - just a hunch - I'm not experienced enough to know that.

I thought that too, initially. The suggested mashing temp is 65C (for 1 hour), so around 60% might be a bit conservative. Then I checked the attenuation of WLP005 English Ale yeast and at the lower end of the suggested range, at 67%, 3.8% might be not too far off? I put this into BrewMate and 60% efficiency and 67% attenuation gives an OG of 1043 and ABV 3.86% without priming sugar. The attenuation estimate is here:

http://www.whitelabs.com/beer/homebrew/listings

I sort of agree with Tony here, in that it looks like a typo, and 4.8% seems more likely, except that the blurb at the top of the page makes reference to its low alcohol level.
 
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