English and US versions

[Whorst]

As some of you may have read, I brewed a beer with 100% lager malt, some carapils, and some Munich. I hopped with EKG and Styrians. I'm going to brew it again, but with 50/50 Maris Otter/Lager Malt, Amarillo/Centennial hops and with US-05 yeast. I think this will give me the best of both worlds. Both of these beers should be outstanding and go well with smoked meats. I'll post my recipe once I get it sorted.

[adm]

I'm going to do a similar thing tomorrow:

Crossbreed

Size: 23.0 L
Efficiency: 75.0%
Attenuation: 75.0%

Original Gravity: 1.054
Terminal Gravity: 1.014
Color: 13.9
Alcohol: 5.32%
Bitterness: 49.89

Ingredients:
2.5 kg Lager Malt
2.5 kg Maris Otter Pale Ale Malt
0.15 kg Torrified Wheat
0.5 kg Munich Malt
25 g First Gold (8.3%) - added during boil, boiled 90 min
25 g Perle (6.9%) - added during boil, boiled 90 min
10 g First Gold (8.3%) - added during boil, boiled 15 min
10 g Perle (6.9%) - added during boil, boiled 15 min
10 g Perle (6.9%) - added during boil, boiled 1 min
10 g First Gold (8.3%) - added during boil, boiled 1 min
1.0 ea Whirlfloc Tablets (Irish moss) - added during boil, boiled 15 min
1 ea Lallemand Nottingham
25 g Perle (6.9%) - added dry to primary fermenter

Although I'm not sure about the hops yet. I might use some Northdowns instead of the Perle or First Gold....can't make my mind up. Hmm.... or maybe Bobek and Northdown....bugger....

I'm also in two minds about the yeast - S04 or the Nottingham. I've never tried the Nottingham, so might give it a shot.

I'm planning ten days in FV, then straight to corny.

[Whorst]

Nice. I notice many English brewers like to add the majority of their bittering hops at the start of the boil. I like to add some half way through as well. Really brings out hop flavor, without too much bitterness. With mine I will add Amarillo at 45 and Centennial at 30, with another good addition at 15. I do 60 minute boils. Adding Perle at 45 would be interesting. Let me know how it turns out.

[mysterio]

Good luck with it Whorst.

Perle are a really distinctive hop... kind of woody and almost minty. They also go off pretty quickly in my experience, so once you've opened them don't leave them hanging around.

[adm]

The reason I add lots of hops at the beginning is because I only started AG brewing the week before last, and that's the way the two recipes I first used said to do it!

I haven't got the experience to know what difference it makes to add at different times, so maybe I'll experiment a bit tomorrow. Although it's probably best to change as little as possible in terms of method early in the game, so I can learn what the different ingredients do before I mess with the process.

On the other hand....

[adm]

By the way Whorst - I notice you mention smoked meats to accompany these beers. Do you mean low'n'slow smoked ribs, pork butts, brisket etc.....? In other words proper BBQ?

If so, we share two hobbies! I've got 6 racks of ribs in the fridge waiting to go on the smoker this weekend - and of course to be accompanied by lots of beer!

[Whorst]

Holy shit!! Yeah, I'm totally into it. I smoked a pork butt last weekend. I'm not sure what they call them in England. It's basically a pork shoulder or a picnic roast. Killer for pulled pork sandwiches. I even smoke chili's. I make poppers which consist of cutting the tops off of jalapeno's and filling them with either pork sausage(charizo) or various cheeses. I will probably smoke some ribs as well this weekend. We have a holiday called Independence Day coming up Friday. For me it's just another excuse to eat and drink too much.
I just might smoke a brisket Friday.

What kind of smoker do you have?? Have a favorite rub?

[adm]

Holy shit!! Yeah, I'm totally into it. I smoked a pork butt last weekend. I'm not sure what they call them in England. It's basically a pork shoulder or a picnic roast. Killer for pulled pork sandwiches. I even smoke chili's. I make poppers which consist of cutting the tops off of jalapeno's and filling them with either pork sausage(charizo) or various cheeses. I will probably smoke some ribs as well this weekend. We have a holiday called Independence Day coming up Friday. For me it's just another excuse to eat and drink too much.
I just might smoke a brisket Friday.

What kind of smoker do you have?? Have a favorite rub?

Oh yeah.....

Pork butts are just called Pork Shoulder over here.

I love the sound of the poppers with chorizo - I normally just do them with a mix of cheese myself, but there'll definitely be chorizo in the next lot.

I use a Weber Smoky Mountain bullet type smoker - you can't really get any of the big offset types here, but the Weber puts out world class Q anyway. I've got a small orchard in my garden, so I get a lot of apple and cherry wood for flavour as well.

To be honest, if you say BBQ in the UK, what most people think you mean is grilling - the low'n'slow ethos isn't widespread here, but I'm trying to change that in my area! I've been smoking for years now - eating and drinking are about my two favourite things, and the combination of beer and BBQ is pretty much unbeatable!

I've heard of that holiday - isn't it to commemorate kicking some foreign oppressors out of your country - I can't remember who they were though. Maybe something to do with tea and red coats?

For rubs, I just make them up as I go along - depending on what mood I'm in and what's int he cupboard. Mainly based around fresh ground pepper, sea salt, garlic, paprika, cayenne etc. I try and keep my rubs fairly simple and also stay away from sauce while cooking - I might use a bit of sauce to glaze right at the end, but normally just serve it on the side.

Mmmm......ribs, pulled pork, brisket......

[Scooby]

I've got a Brinkmann smoke'N grill Not in the same class as the Weber but was on sale for $19 so brought it, carried it around with us on our hols then checked it in on the flight home. I have two Weber kettles for grilling, one I brought in 1980 and is still useable and the other came back with us from another trip to the States. Done picnic pork shoulder, pork pecan roll with maple syrup and a few more from 'Where there's smoke there's flavor' quite a good book by R Langer

[adm]

Fatastic.....sounds like tonight is hobbies night. I've discovered there's a few other astronomers on this forum, now we've got BBQers too!

I've also got two Weber kettles for grilling. One that I've had for about 7 years, and the other that I just bought last week as I needed more grill space quite regularly, IMHO, you can't beat them.

(I've also got the Weber Smoky Mountain, plus a little Cobb cooker for picnics......and a very understanding wife who lets me indulge myself)

I'll have a look at that book. In return, another good one is "Smoke and Spice". I can't remember the author off hand, but Amazon will do...

[mysterio]

One of you should start a thread about this whole smoking business, sounds fascinating... how/where do I get started?

[Vossy1]

One of you should start a thread about this whole smoking business, sounds fascinating... how/where do I get started

Ditto

[adm]

Here you go:

http://www.eaglequest.com/~bbq/faq2/3.html

This is a pretty good place to start...the whole table of contents bit is here:

http://www.eaglequest.com/~bbq/faq2/toc.html

The bottom line is to cook over wood or charcoal in a closed cooker at lowish temperatures for an extended period of time, which lets the full flavour of the meat come out - kind of like home brewing in a way.....

Beer & BBQ. Can't be beat.

[mysterio]

Looks interesting. I still think one of you should start a thread with pictures though

[adm]

Fair enough.....


I'll do one in the Tap Room next time I fire up the smoker. Might dig up some old photos and do it tomorrow while I wait for my mash to...well....mash.