James Morton English Pale Ale ( Smash)

[Braufather]

Has anyone done this from his book, originally I was thinking of doing a TT landlord clone but saw that his recipe uses their yeast so thought it would be interesting to do this instead.

His recipe is a smash and uses golden promise and challenger, but on a whim i also ordered some EK goldings.

Normally if i am trying a recipe i tend to try to keep exactly to it, because if i make changes and it doesnt come out great i never if its because of those changes. However i have a feeling he may just be using the one hop as he wanted to include a smash recipe in his book. Maybe it can be improved with adding goldings for flavour and aroma? Or maybe that will ruin the balance he has created.

Thoughts anyone?

I have ordered 5kg instead of 4kg of malt so am thinking of dialing it up a bit with that too.

 

[MagnusTS]

I’m the same as you. I follow the recipe to the letter the first time. Even if I think I am doing it wrong/making it too strong.

It’s just if you change it, you will never know how it could have turned out following the recipe.

Sorry, don’t want to drop my borderline OCD on you.

 

[Braufather]

Agree totally, but this time as I ended up with more grain so I made what is likely to be a 5% pale ale as opposed to a 4% one. I also used the exact hop schedule from the ESB recipe. Just golden promise though, so I think have a malt bill that lies somewhere between a pale ale and IPA, and it’s hopped like an ESB.

The other recipe from his book I did was extra ipa, but lhbs didn’t have simcoe so had to leave that out.

Next one is the tropical pale ale, which I am all set for. Only change there is that I am using regular Maris otter instead of extra pale Maris otter, so not perfect either. Hindsight I should have gone for Pilsner maybe.

Essentially I am going to have to make all three again, exactly as recipe very soon just for peace of mind! A touch of the ocd myself.

 

[MagnusTS]

Agree totally, but this time as I ended up with more grain so I made what is likely to be a 5% pale ale as opposed to a 4% one. I also used the exact hop schedule from the ESB recipe. Just golden promise though, so I think have a malt bill that lies somewhere between a pale ale and IPA, and it’s hopped like an ESB.

The other recipe from his book I did was extra ipa, but lhbs didn’t have simcoe so had to leave that out.

Next one is the tropical pale ale, which I am all set for. Only change there is that I am using regular Maris otter instead of extra pale Maris otter, so not perfect either. Hindsight I should have gone for Pilsner maybe.

Essentially I am going to have to make all three again, exactly as recipe very soon just for peace of mind! A touch of the ocd myself.

The Tropical Pale, the Smashed It English Pale, and the Extra, Extra Special Bitter, are all on my to do list as well, so I'm interested to hear how your modified and un-modified versions turn out.

 

[Bigcol49]

Essentially I am going to have to make all three again

Oh dear, how sad, never mind.

 

[Bigcol49]

Essentially I am going to have to make all three again

 

[Braufather]

It’s a dirty job, but someone got to do it!

 

[Brew_DD2]

Great book. His recipes are superb.

 

[MagnusTS]

Essentially I am going to have to make all three again, exactly as recipe very soon just for peace of mind! A touch of the ocd myself.

I have just brewed the Extra, ESB, and I managed to mess up my first wort hop addition. So I guess I’ll have to do this one again - for peace of mind.

 

[Spapro]

Planning to brew the Totally Tropical Pale Ale over the weekend.

I will be dialling the strength back by not adding the Sugar and am increasing the bitterness to 40 IBU's - so deviating quite a way from his original recipe actually !

It is a great book, the oatmeal pale inspired me to my best ever beer.

 

[Stephenj]

Planning to brew the Totally Tropical Pale Ale over the weekend.

I will be dialling the strength back by not adding the Sugar and am increasing the bitterness to 40 IBU's - so deviating quite a way from his original recipe actually !

It is a great book, the oatmeal pale inspired me to my best ever beer.

Defo on my list for the next month's brewing. Let me know how it goes with dialling back as I was thinking the same.

 

[Spapro]

Defo on my list for the next month's brewing. Let me know how it goes with dialling back as I was thinking the same.

Will do, I will post my adjusted recipe - aiming for 5% ABV, and using San Diego Superyeast (which is a Chico strain yeast like WLP001 California Ale yeast or safale US05)

 

[Braufather]

will be doing the totally tropical tomorrow. keeping this one to the letter, apart from using regular MO instead of Extra pale.

 

[JonPB]

I'm bottling my first batch of the totally tropical tomorrow, having stuck to the recipe completely. It already smells and taste amazing, can't wait to see what it's like after conditioning for a few weeks.

 

[Braufather]

Just bottled and kegged extra ipa this evening. It’s ok but think it will miss the simcoe!

Looking forward to brewing tropical tomorrow.

 

[Braufather]

Defo on my list for the next month's brewing. Let me know how it goes with dialling back as I was thinking the same.

I should have also considered that as I am going to end up having about 60 litres of various 7 per cent sippers!

Bottled and kegged the extra ipa yesterday at 7.35%. Tropical hitting all figures so far. Tempted to not add sugar but it’s obviously there to deliver so will persevere this time.

Next brew may need to be the disproportionally hopped session beer.

 

[Spapro]

Brewing this today, just doing the 30 mins flamout steep now - smells divine !!!

Inspired by the Totally Tropical Pale Ale recipe but adjusted to dial the ABV down to 4.8% and up the bitterness to 43 IBU's - also used Centennial instead of Citra as had that to hand in my stocks.

Anyway, here is the recipe:

23l brewlength
SG = 1.048, FG = 1.011, ABV = 4.8%
Bitterness: 43 IBU's

1 hour mash at 65°C

4.5kg Crisp Pale Ale Malt
300g Munich Malt 25EBC
200g Rolled Oats (used quick porridge oats from Morrisons)

60 mins: 20g Columbia 8.5% AA
15 mins: 20g Centennial 8.7% AA
10 mins: 20g Centennial
5 mins: 30g Centennial
0 mins: chilled to 77°C then steeped 30g Centennial and 100g Mosaic 11.5% AA for 30 minutes

Dry Hop: 50g Amarillo

Yeast: San Diego Superyeast (Chico strain like WLP001 Californian, or safale US05)

EDIT: got 22.5l at 1.054 - added a litre of water to bring SG down to 1.052 - this is the first time I have crushed all my grain and my efficiency has jumped to circa 78%.

 

[Braufather]

So I brewdvthis too and unsure what I’ve produced.

First time i used a new supplier and not sure what setting the grain was milled at and only second time I used oats so not sure if eithervmay be the cause but after the hot break there was a hell of a lot of **** floating around. This was after hop break before any hops. Initially it looked like really fine grain, and some gluey bits. Not sure how it will turn out.

 

[Braufather]

Totally tropical ale has finished at fg 1002! (Original gravity 1060)

Used wyeast 1056x2

1002 seems super low! Interested in others results.

 

[Braufather]

I'm bottling my first batch of the totally tropical tomorrow, having stuck to the recipe completely. It already smells and taste amazing, can't wait to see what it's like after conditioning for a few weeks.

how did it turn out? was it cloudy?