I've been challenged to clone Orkney Corncrake

[Zephyr259]

A friend of mine got a Young's AIPA kit for Christmas with no kit so I loaned him an FV and we mixed it up, turned out pretty well and I got a message yesterday saying he'd found a recipe for Orkney Raven Ale but it didn't make sense, it was an AG recipe on the Jim's beer kit forum. I asked why he was looking that up and apparently Corncrake is his favourite beer but Raven was the only recipe he could find.

Should be straightforward enough, Orkney brewery's website says it's made with maris otter, crystal and wheat with columbus and styrian goldings and descriptions say straw gold, 4.1% and a 4 on the 1 - 10 scale of bitter to sweet.

I'll get a bottle to try and see what I think, but it's close in ABV to my usual bitter, base malt and a flaked adjunct, I usually use barley instead of wheat and it probably needs a paler crystal than the medium 150 ebc stuff. 30 - 35 IBUs is my guess before trying. Just have to work out where I think the hops are best used, citrus flavours would imply the columbus is in the later additions.

Yeast is a tricky one, I have West Yorkshire which is probably wrong, and Scottish Ale which is at least the right country and neutral.

Any advice on cloning a beer like this, anything I'm missing?

 

[Zephyr259]

Had the beer last night and it's actually a very nice pint. Golden yellow so the crystal has a bit of colour influence. Hops are floral not citrus so I think they use Columbus for bittering and Styrian Golding's for flavour, the bitterness assertive but balanced and is very long lasting so maybe a higher sulfate ratio would help. Wondering if it's worth getting Columbus or if my usual admiral would do if it's just for bittering. I think the SG flavour was the star of the show.

 

[Slid]

I have a Raven recipe , from the book by Marc Ollossen. From the hints above, I would try something like:
Pale 4kg
Crystal 175g
Wheat 175g
Columbus 20g @60m
Styrian Goldings @ 15m and 0mins - how many depends on what you have and how big a SG presence you want, I suppose.

 

[Zephyr259]

Thanks @Slid that's kinda where I was leaning too, just about 5% crystal and wheat.

Seems like a lot of Columbus as 20g comes out to 35 IBUs. I was looking at the Greg Hughes book, his English IPA uses 35g Goldings at 15 / 0 mins, or go similar to the EKG single hop with 25g at 15 and 5 mins then 75g at flame out. Figure that SG should behave similarly to the English hops.

My only experience is my bitter which has 15g first gold at 15m and 20g at 0min and my pale ale with 15g EKG at 15m and 30g mix of EKG and saaz at 0m. They're hoppy but don't have the strong flavour of Corncrake.