BIAB4 and BIAB5: Australo-German Wedding Ales

[IainM]

So, brewed this last night with a buddy who is getting married in August, and wants a couple of beers for the wedding. He is Tasmanian, she is German, and so the idea was to use German and Ozzy ingredients, and get two beers to put in King Kegs, which will sit in the walk-in catering fridge at the venue for at least a week before the wedding. The idea was to go for something pale, not too bitter, not too alcoholic, suitable for the wedding demographic.

4kg pilsner
250g carapils
250g flaked barley
60 minute mash with 23L @ 66C, mash-out and sparge with 4L

60 minute boil
60 min additions: 5g Nugget (15.4% AA, 8.3 IBUs), 10g Summer (8.3% AA, 9.0 IBUs), 10g Hallertau Hersbrucker (2% AA, 2.0 IBUs)
5 min addition: 20g Summer (3.6 IBUs), 10g Hallertau Hersbrucker (0.4 IBUs), 0.5 Whirlfloc

Chilled to 22C, then added 1 pack Danstar Nottingham and 1 Coopers standard yeast, rehydrated.
Got 21L into the fermentor, with SG of 1.042. Should end up just shy of 5%, SRM ~ 3.0, IBU ~ 25. It is now sitting at 16C.

We will dry hop with 40g Summer and 10g Hallertau Hersbruckers, add finings and prime with honey.

Is it an ale? Is it a pseudo-lager? I don't know, but hopefully it will be a pleasant drink which showcases the Tasmanian Summer hops, which apparently have the aroma of apricot and melon. Just got the next one to do now, which will be Maris Otter, Munich, and lots of Galaxy. I'll post it here when it is done.

 

[Covrich]

Dunno , looks like you're going down the pseudo lager route.. The summer hops might overpower the hallertau..???

Are you going to try and lager it?

 

[IainM]

Dunno , looks like you're going down the pseudo lager route.. The summer hops might overpower the hallertau..???

Are you going to try and lager it?

I guess I could try to bulk lager it first, but I don't have access to a fridge, so unless from that week in a fridge before serving counts as a mini-lager, no I won't.

 

[IainM]

So, the first one is kegged. It got to 1.006, and was dry hopped with 40g Summer. It will need a few weeks conditioning, but the trial jar did have the apricot / melon taste that was in the hop description, but it was quite subtle. Should be around 5% ABV, and apart from losing a bit more than expected to fv losses, which I guess was due to slow draining and whole leaf hop absorption, we were both pretty happy with it. Should make for a nice light summery drink. Nevertheless, I think the better beer will be …

 

[IainM]

… BIAB#5 Wedding Ale II
This was loosely based on Greg Hughes Spring Ale, but adapted to fit the German / Australian theme. We brewed this tonight.

22L (15L Ashbeck, and 7L tap), heated to 73C (grain was at 18C)
4kg Maris Otter
0.5kg Munich
Hit strike temp of 66C. Stirred 3 times during the 75min mash, and finished at 63C.
Sparged with 6L Ashbeck at 80C
23.5L into the boil:
10g nugget (15.4%AA) and 5g Hersbrucker Hallertau (2.0%AA) 60 min
35g Galaxy pellets (14.5%AA) and 0.5 protofloc 5 min
Chilled, did the last few degrees by adding 4L chilled Ashbeck.
Pitched a 1.5L starter (3 days in 150g extra light DME) of Wyeast American Ale II, at 21C
Got 24L into the fv, at 1.044. Was aiming for 1.046, so pretty happy with that.

This is the first time I've used Maris Otter, or Munich for that matter, and the difference from Pilsner malt was remarkable. Maltier and more flavorful. The trial jar tasted good, and I think this will turn out to be a decent sessionable beer suitable for my brew-buddies wedding!

 

[IainM]

So, the wedding was yesterday. We had some keg problems with the first beer, re-primed it 3 times, and it ended up leaking everywhere when I was on holiday so most of it was lost and the rest was bottled. Oh well, it was a bit bland anyway.

The second was a big hit though. It was nice standing near the keg and overhearing people comment on it, usually with the words "mmmm..." and "fruity". It went down pretty quickly! We punted down the Cam earlier in the day, passing near to where the research fields of the Plant Breeding Institute used to be, off Maris Lane, where Maris Otter was developed (and Maris Piper for that matter), so the ingredients reflected not just the bride and groom, but also the location. It was the perfect light summer ale for drinking as the sun beamed down.

 

[Slid]

So, the wedding was yesterday. We had some keg problems with the first beer, re-primed it 3 times, and it ended up leaking everywhere when I was on holiday so most of it was lost and the rest was bottled. Oh well, it was a bit bland anyway.

The second was a big hit though. It was nice standing near the keg and overhearing people comment on it, usually with the words "mmmm..." and "fruity". It went down pretty quickly! We punted down the Cam earlier in the day, passing near to where the research fields of the Plant Breeding Institute used to be, off Maris Lane, where Maris Otter was developed (and Maris Piper for that matter), so the ingredients reflected not just the bride and groom, but also the location. It was the perfect light summer ale for drinking as the sun beamed down.

Maris Lane, eh? Now that is something I did not know.

Nice to have your beer appreciated, especially by people who are far enough removed to be objective. :thumb: