Mandarina Elderflower Pale

Hop_on_the_good_foot · May 15, 2019

Hi there.

Looking for some thoughts on this recipe. I've got a bag of mandarina hops and the elderflowers are just right on the trees over the road so naturally I thought the two might go well together in a brew.

Here's my recipe for target FV of 23l
Mash @65 for 60 mins
Original Gravity: 1.044 Final Gravity: 1.007
ABV (standard): 4.85% IBU (tinseth): 32.02

4 kg - Maris Otter Pale
250 g - Carapils
250 g - Wheat Malt

(all pellet)
10 g - Mandarina Bavaria, First Wort, IBU: 11.01
20 g - Mandarina Bavaria, 15 min, IBU: 9.23
20 g - Mandarina Bavaria, 10 min, IBU: 6.75
20 g - Mandarina Bavaria, 5 min, IBU: 3.71
40 g - Mandarina Bavaria, Whirlpool for 30 min at 75 °C, IBU: 1.32

75 g - fresh elderflowers - Flameout

US-05 (or maybe some voss from a slurry i've got in the fridge)

I haven't played with either Mandarina or Elderflowers in beer before. So its all a bit of a guess. All the recipes I have read/posts I've seen call for dried elderflowers but brew day is tomorrow.

My thinking is chuck the flowers in at flameout or maybe at 1 min to deal with any wild beasties. I want to keg this beast in a couple of weeks so no wild yeasts or surprises wanted.

Thoughts on the elderflowers or anything else would be great

Thanks in advance!

Slid · May 15, 2019

I did a couple of elderflower beers a few years back. They are very intrusive and a little goes a very long way. My choice for a beer style to add them to would NOT be a single hop pale ale like this, with a slightly modestly presenting hop like this one is meant to be.

Just looked up my records - 120 wet weight of elderflowers produced something optimistically described as "interesting" (i.e. a bit horrid) 4 months later.

Hop_on_the_good_foot · May 15, 2019

Slid said:
I did a couple of elderflower beers a few years back. They are very intrusive and a little goes a very long way. My choice for a beer style to add them to would NOT be a single hop pale ale like this, with a slightly modestly presenting hop like this one is meant to be.

Just looked up my records - 120 wet weight of elderflowers produced something optimistically described as "interesting" (i.e. a bit horrid) 4 months later.

I see. I'm not after that kind of interesting...do you recall how you added them by chance?

I just keep saying every year I'm going to do something with these bloody elderflowers but never get round to it....some kind of mead was the other option.

Want to get to know the hop a bit so don't really want to mask it completely!

Nicks90 · May 15, 2019

A little goes a loooooong way

I used 1 litre jug of flowers for a 5l batch of elderflower champagne and it was waaaaaaaaaaaay too strong

F00b4r · May 16, 2019

James Morton has an elderflower pale ale recipe in his 'Brew' book.
Some hints from there:

“If you want an ‘in your face’ elderflower flavour, wait until after your primary fermentation and add an elderflower ‘tea’ made with dried or fresh elderflower, steeped in boiling water until it hits the level of flavour you like. If you add bare elderflower to cool beer, you’ll infect it with wild yeast. This isn’t a bad thing, necessarily.”

He uses an aroma steep (75-79C) of 1 litre jug of fresh flowers, stalks removed.

Hop_on_the_good_foot · May 16, 2019

F00b4r said:
James Morton has an elderflower pale ale recipe in his 'Brew' book.
Some hints from there:

“If you want an ‘in your face’ elderflower flavour, wait until after your primary fermentation and add an elderflower ‘tea’ made with dried or fresh elderflower, steeped in boiling water until it hits the level of flavour you like. If you add bare elderflower to cool beer, you’ll infect it with wild yeast. This isn’t a bad thing, necessarily.”

He uses an aroma steep (75-79C) of 1 litre jug of fresh flowers, stalks removed.

Thanks for that. I went picking this morning and got about 100g and funnily enough ive got them steeping right now. Im chickening out of putting them in the beer now but will use the elderflower tea for something, maybe a mead or add a bit to a low abv ginger beer this weekend. cheers!

Nicks90 · May 16, 2019

You could make the tea and put some in an ice cube tray.
They you could put a cube in a pint of pale ale as a tester to see if you like it.

Slid · May 16, 2019

Nicks90 said:
You could make the tea and put some in an ice cube tray.
They you could put a cube in a pint of pale ale as a tester to see if you like it.

That is an interesting plan!

Mandarina Elderflower Pale

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