A good recipe of english golden ale

The Homebrew Forum

Help Support The Homebrew Forum:

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

daniele

Active Member
Joined
May 7, 2019
Messages
26
Reaction score
5
Hi,
I'd like to brew my first golden ale but i don't know very well this stile!
Can you tell me a good recipe?
Thanks
D.
 
I'm going to brew my second attempt at a Golden Ale this weekend. First one turned out well but have tweaked a bit. I was pleased my approach isn't too different to Foxy's article.

84% Golden Promise
8% Caragold
8% Torrified Wheat

Aiming for an OG of 1046

Challenger to 30 IBUs at 60m
EKG to add another 6-7 IBUs at 10m
A similar dose of EKG is at flameout

MJ Liberty Bell yeast

Final result should be light in colour, hoppy and about 4.6%
 
I'd like to brew my first golden ale but i don't know very well this stile!

It's difficult, because there's many different kinds of beer that call themselves golden ale, and the idea of gold coloured beer goes back centuries, all you need is sun- or wind-dried malt and some hops. And most early pale ales were just pale malt with a bit of sugar. There have been beers named golden ales in the UK since at least 1842, and the name seems to have proliferated after Queen Victoria's golden jubilee in 1887, with beers such as Bentley's Golden Bitter Ale (1.049 OG, 5.5%, 42 IBU) being typical - the 1893 recipe was pale malt, 4.6% invert sugar, 2.6g/l of mixed British hops in the copper and 1g/l dry hop.

Bentley's were based in Leeds and this kind of pale beer persisted in northern England throughout the 20th century - Boddington's in 1901 at 5.5%, 51 IBU is very similar to the Bentley's recipe above, with just a little more sugar and aside from the reduction in strength that happened to all British beers over the 20th century, Boddington's 1987 at 3.8%, 22 IBU is similarly simple.

However the history of beer in England has been written by people in the south, where crystal malt started going into pale ales after World War I and became common after World War II. So they think that Exmoor Gold and Hop Back Summer Lightning represented something completely new and original when they appeared in the 1980s. So when you mention "British golden ale" to most people outside the UK, they think of those 1980s beers as the template - stronger than most British beers at 5%, pale malt, hopped with Goldings or possibly something like Challenger and around 30-40 IBU. But really they're not very different from what Bentley's were brewing in the 19th century.

However, golden ales have continued to evolve and increasingly have become a way to showcase modern New World hops - in the 2000's it was particularly New Zealand hops and tending to be around best bitter strength (4-4.5%), more recently it's been tropical hops in a beer at the bottom of the ABV scale at 3.8% or so, with hazy influences from NEIPAs and perhaps the addition of some oats. The ones with more "modern" hops tend to have less malt character because they use a proportion of pilsner or British extra pale malt to thin it out a bit, but personally I don't like it when they go too far in that direction.

There's plenty of recipes available for Exmoor Gold and Summer Lightning clones, they'll look something like this for 20 litres :
Water: >100ppm calcium, 130ppm chloride, 200ppm sulphate
Grist : 1.050 British pale malt, eg 5kg in 20 litres at 70% efficiency. Use Maris Otter or Golden Promise if you want
Hops : 30 IBU Goldings (eg 25g of 5.5% alpha at 60 minutes)
1.5g/l Goldings at 10 minutes
2g/l Goldings dry hop

For a more modern take
Water: >100ppm calcium, 130ppm chloride, 130ppm sulphate
Grist : 1.038 British pale malt with up to 25% pilsner or extra pale, eg 3kg pale, 800g extra pale in 20 litres at 70% efficiency. Use Maris Otter or Golden Promise if you want, optionally replace 10% with oats if using a tropical hop
Hops : 30 IBU bittering (doesn't have to be British, use Magnum or whatever)
1.5g/l New World hop at 10 minutes
2g/l New World hop whirlpool
2g/l New World hop as dry hop

You want a British yeast that has a nice drinkability, something like WLP041 works well, or harvest from a bottle of Proper Job. For dry use Lallemand Verdant or MJ Liberty Bell.
Aim for around 1.8-1.9vol of CO2, preferably using natural carbonation in bottle/cask rather than kegging.
Serve around 10-12°C
 
Waw! Ok thanks a lot at all!
I've search the recipe of exmoor gold but i have not found it...can you have some link?
Thanks!
 
Hi,
I'd like to brew my first golden ale but i don't know very well this stile!
Can you tell me a good recipe?
Thanks
D.
Hi Danièle. As mentioned above, Exmoor Gold and Hopback Summer Lightning are the two that first spring to mind. I've made more Summer Lightning like beers than any other. The SMaSH recipe for 20 litres is 4 kg Maris Otter, EKGs for bittering and late hops to 40IBUs, OG 1050. Hopback themselves have tweaked the recipe from time to time, substituting up to 5% of the Malt with medium crystal malt and using Challenger for bittering and EKGs as late hops.
It's a lovely beer. I'd give it a go.
 
I brewed one on Saturday

3 kg Maris otter
1kg pilsner
200g wheat
200g golden syrup

10g each of challenger and admiral first wort
20 g challenger 10 mins
20g East Kent goldings 5 mins
20g slovenian goldings flame out.

liberty bell yeast
 
Hi at all, thanks for your suggest...what do you think of this recipe?

OG 1.045
FG 1.008
Vol: 23lt

GRAIN
4.59 kg (94.8%) — Simpsons Pale Ale Finest Maris Otter — Grani — 5 EBC
250 g (5.2%) — Rice Hulls — Grani — 0 EBC

HOPS
42 g (32 IBU) — Challenger 7.5% — Boil— 60 min

18 g (8 IBU) — East Kent Goldings (EKG) 6.3% — Boil — 20 min

12 g (1 IBU) — Styrian Goldings 5.4% — Aroma — 15 min hopstand @ 80 °C

YEAST
Fermentis S-04 SafAle English

MASH
66°C x 60 min / 78°C x 10 min

What do you think?

What about temperature fermentation?
What about water?
 

Latest posts

Back
Top