AG#2 - Hop Garden Gold clone

[simonranson]

After the success of AG#1, which is still bubbling away. This weekend I'm going to give a local Hogs Back beer a go. If I look out of my spare-room window, I can see the brewery, so I thought it right to give one of their beers a go as it was living close to them that got the tastebuds fully tuned in to a nice beer.

I got the recipe for this off here but added 100g of Crystal Malt to match the ABV of the original beer (not sure is that's the correct thing to do...)

AmountItemType% or IBU
4.60 kg Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (5.9 EBC)Grain93.88 %
0.20 kg Wheat, Torrified (3.3 EBC)Grain4.08 %
0.10 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L (19.7 EBC)Grain2.04 %
65.00 gm Fuggles [4.50 %] (90 min)Hops31.0 IBU
8.00 gm Fuggles [4.50 %] (Dry Hop 3 days)Hops-
35.00 gm Fuggles [4.50 %] (15 min)Hops8.6 IBU
1.00 items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 min)Misc
1 Pkgs SafAle English Ale (DCL Yeast #S-04)Yeast-Ale

Going to go for a 90 minute mash, and 90 minute boil. I marked my sight glass on AG#1 with the before and after boil volumes so will tweak my evaporation losses to see if I can get my 23 litres this time.

Cheers
Simon

 

[simonranson]

The mash is on :)

 

[dogchillibilly]

The mash is on :)

How did you get on.... Or is it a long mash? :hmm:

 

[simonranson]

hehe, no the mash finished yesterday

It went okay. it was the first time I'd done a 90 minute mash and boil and everything, equipment-wise, stood up okay apart from a little leak around the HLT valve, but that's nothing major.

As far as the brew, I was just shy of my 23 litre target, by only about 500ml, and was one point low with an OG of 1047.

One thing that has confused me a little is the colour. This was supposed to be a lightish beer, but its looking more like a good bitter. Beersmith said 9.3EBC and I'd adjusted the ingredients EBC values to match what I had.

Im sure it'll taste okay. The airlock is going potty already :)

Cheers
Simon

 

[mr_spin]

Hi Simon, be interested to hear how this one turns out when conditioned as I quite like Hop back beers myself

Did you rehydrate the S04 or pitch direct?

 

[simonranson]

I'll let you know how it goes. I need to find a hop bag as this will be my first dry-hop brew too :)

I just put the yeast in dry... I thought of doing a starter, but the packet said otherwise. Ive moved to the 4" (i think) screw-top FVs now, which are really easy to rock around hard to aerate, so all i did was shake, pitch, shake again. It was bubbling within an hour, and now its really going for it :)

... now the waiting game

Cheers
Simon

 

[snail59]

Simon I think adding a little sugar would have been a better way to up the ABV rather than adding the crystal malt. That may be the reason it has come out a little darker than expected. Im no expert but I think commercials use sugar to up ABV and I think it might add a little body as well but then I could be talking complete and utter balderdash :hmm:

 

[mr_spin]

great stuff - the home brew shop in aldershot sells small stockinette type bags which are ideal for this I think.

 

[mr_spin]

Simon I think adding a little sugar would have been a better way to up the ABV rather than adding the crystal malt. That may be the reason it has come out a little darker than expected. Im no expert but I think commercials use sugar to up ABV and I think it might add a little body as well but then I could be talking complete and utter balderdash :hmm:

rather than sugar I'd have increased the pale malt quantity.

 

[gurtpint]

Looking good! Fuggles is such a great hop and you got to use a whole 100g at one go. Here's to round numbers!

 

[luckyeddie]

Simon I think adding a little sugar would have been a better way to up the ABV rather than adding the crystal malt. That may be the reason it has come out a little darker than expected. Im no expert but I think commercials use sugar to up ABV and I think it might add a little body as well but then I could be talking complete and utter balderdash :hmm:

The sugar will up the ABV but it will actually lower the body of the beer. That's why the Belgians always use candi sugar in any style Dubbel and upwards. If they just used base malts and tried to hit suicide-level strengths, then wind up the speciality malts to hit the colour and flavour required, the beer would be so heavy and cloying that you'd struggle to drink it.

 

[snail59]

The sugar will up the ABV but it will actually lower the body of the beer.

Thanks Eddi I knew sugar effected the body of the beer what I was thinking of was commercials using sugar to up the ABV as it is cheaper than malt.......It's an age thing I get confuddled at times

 

[simonranson]

great stuff - the home brew shop in aldershot sells small stockinette type bags which are ideal for this I think.

Thats the the sort of think I need. I'll pop in there on Tuesday after work. :

 

[simonranson]

Simon I think adding a little sugar would have been a better way to up the ABV rather than adding the crystal malt. That may be the reason it has come out a little darker than expected.:

I'm still very much in the learning phase of all this, but playing with the ingredients is all part of the fun

One thing I've noticed already with the two AG brews I've done, is the speed that the yeast gets going. I guess this balmy April temperature is helping too...

 

[simonranson]

Looking good! Fuggles is such a great hop and you got to use a whole 100g at one go. Here's to round numbers!

... I need to open another packet for the dry-hopping. I'm not too sure on amounts, 8g seems very low?

 

[gurtpint]

Looking good! Fuggles is such a great hop and you got to use a whole 100g at one go. Here's to round numbers!

... I need to open another packet for the dry-hopping. I'm not too sure on amounts, 8g seems very low?

Doh! Somehow managed not to notice that dry-hopping bit. I've never done it but 8g doesn't seem like much.

 

[simonranson]

I think I'll stick with the 8g for this brew, and look at changing it for the next time I do it :)

 

[gurtpint]

I think I'll stick with the 8g for this brew, and look at changing it for the next time I do it :)

That's the way to do it - at least you won't be making it too bitter. If the results please your palate, great. If not, yes there's always this thing called " the next time"! :