AG: Ghostly Pale Ale (Adnams yeast)

[OvenHiker]

Grew up some more yeast from another Adnams mini-cask and brewed a pale ale as a best guess at the current re-released version of Adnams Ghost Ship.

The following recipe is based on all the info I could glean from threads on here and the rest of the interweb.
- A degassed sample of mini-cask Ghost Ship came out at ~1.010
- Grist from Kegman and Orlando
- Hints from Fergus at Adnams
- Thatchers Beer Blog post as to hop schedule
- Beervana blog post as to boiling


Ghostly Pale Ale

OG: 1.045
FG: 1.010
ABV: 4.5%
IBU : 36
EBC: 16

MO Pale malt 90%
UK Caramalt 5% (some sources say Carapils)
UK Crystal Rye malt 5%

Chinook @60mins for 23 IBUs
Amarillo @10mins for 10 IBUs (Adnams use NZ Motueka (a.k.a "B Saaz"))
Citra @1min for 3 IBUs
Citra ~2g/litre dry hop

Adnams yeast

--

The brewday went smoothly for a change! Managed to hit my numbers, which is always nice.

Fermentation got off to a great start. I started cooling early to carry a few gravity points over to the cask.

[Monkeybrew]

I love Ghostship.

Let us know how it turns out

MB

[DeGarre]

I like Ghostship a lot too. OvenHiker, truly an excellent approach to getting this beer "correct".

I am very surprised to see rye in the grist. Following up the links and posts is making me very thirsty...

[orlando]

I am very surprised to see rye in the grist. Following up the links and posts is making me very thirsty...

Fergus, the brewer, mentions it in the video on the website.

So far the cask versions I have had have disappointed largely, whereas the beer in cans is something of an eye opener, best canned beer I've ever drunk.

I have this scheduled for next week, I too considered Amarillo but Seymour put me off when he said that Citra and Amarillo are not particularly compatible. If he sees this maybe he will confirm, I'm currently using Cascade instead along with Citra and a little Summit for bittering, no Motueka for me either. Don't have Carapils so have decided to combine a bit of Munich and a bit of torry, gives me a Ghostly EBC of 8.3.

[orlando]

Ovenhiker, what do you think the Adnam's yeast would have got down to if you had left it to ferment right out? I want to put a spec for it into BeerSmith is it a low medium or high attenuator?

[OvenHiker]

Ovenhiker, what do you think the Adnam's yeast would have got down to if you had left it to ferment right out? I want to put a spec for it into BeerSmith is it a low medium or high attenuator?

I am aiming at 1.010, but it is a complete guess as I've not performed a force ferment on this.

The Broadside I did was way too attenuative but that was due to a mash temp that was way lower than my target 68C. My balls up entirely!

I did better this time. I hit just over 68C and maintained it for the whole mash, so hopefully this will finish higher.

[orlando]

Thought I would update you on the plating of the Adnams yeast and how it looks. Apart from the obvious "furry" problem between 3 and 4 o'clock (which is probably down more to my aseptic technique than the yeast) it is looking fine. I have made some slants as well, which do not show any problems at all. My next job is to pick a really small colony and have a look at it under the microscope. Meantime I have stepped up the rest for the brew tomorrow, which of course is the key moment.

[OvenHiker]

Excellent work orlando!

I pitched the rest of the yeast from the same skim into my "2nd Salvo" Broadside clone. It was very lively when I revitalised it with a little wort on brewday, producing an inch thick krausen in the flask. FV bubbling away when I checked this morning!

[orlando]

Brewed with the Adnams yeast today and thought you might appreciate how it looked stepped up. I pitched it at Noon and it was already bubbling through the airlock at 4.00pm . That's a little quicker than I would really like as a decent lag phase helps the yeast build itself and daughter buds to arrive at the right numbers to ferment the whole bunch, my concern then is it might attenuate a little early. Hopefully I've pitched enough that it doesn't matter. I have decide to ferment at Adnams temps (18c) to see how it reacts under "domestic" environments.

I've also added a post mash party shot too

[OvenHiker]

Looks good orlando! The yeast took off quickly when I brewed mine too. Although, my most recent brew was a tad slower.

Some happy chickens, there!

[orlando]

Looks good orlando! The yeast took off quickly when I brewed mine too. Although, my most recent brew was a tad slower.

Some happy chickens, there!

The chickens go at the grain like a chicken possessed. They know it's a race against the wild birds, the lot of it is gone in very short time, nice to think your eggs have a bit of your "beer" in them .

[OvenHiker]

Well, I just had to check how this was getting on, now that it's had a little while in the cask. This is very, very Ghost Ship-y. Pretty pleased with how similar it is.

[orlando]

I have brewed about 4 times with the Adnams yeast now and thought I would update you with what I've found using it. The most surprising thing is what an amazing attenuator it is. My current brew, which is another attempt at Ghost Ship and this time it is really close, has just finished and got down from 1.040 to 1.007 (82.5%). The krausen just hangs on for ever, it was still covering the entire brew today and this was on day 11. I suspect this is a yeast that could be used in open fermentors, which will no doubt please Ditch et al.

[OvenHiker]

I'm glad the Adnams yeast is producing good results for you.

I was surprised at the attenuation too. I does seem to keep on going! The krausen does eventually drop.

What recipe did you go with for the Ghost Ship rebrew?

[orlando]

What recipe did you go with for the Ghost Ship rebrew?

This one. It's not strictly their recipe as I suspect my use of Rye is excessive but I wanted a heavy rye presence as most people brewing it say just a little doesn't give you the spice edge. I haven't brewed with it before so went with it. It goes into the cornie tomorrow for a couple of weeks conditioning and then I will force carb. Taste of it at the moment does have a spicy edge and a little drier than Ghost Ship but I think I'm going to like it.

3.750 kg Maris Otter (Crisp) (4.9 EBC) Grain 1 79.8 %
0.500 kg Crystal Rye Malt (150.0 EBC) Grain 2 10.6 %
0.250 kg Caramalt (30.0 EBC) Grain 3 5.3 %
0.200 kg Munich Malt (15.0 EBC) Grain 4 4.3 %

10.00 g Chinook [14.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 5 13.7 IBUs
0.50 tsp Protafloc (Boil 15.0 mins) Fining 6 -
25.00 g Citra Pellets [12.70 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 7 11.9 IBUs
25.00 g Citra Pellets [12.70 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 8 6.6 IBUs
15.00 g Citra [13.70 %] - Aroma Steep 0.0 min Hop 9 0.0 IBUs
1.0 pkg Adnams [124.21 ml] Yeast 10 -
20.00 g Citra Pellets [12.70 %] - Dry Hop 3.0 Days Hop 11 0.0 IBUs