Aurora Golden Ale 11.01.09

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yashicamat
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Aurora Golden Ale 11.01.09

Post by yashicamat » Sun Jan 11, 2009 2:01 pm

Well, decided to do a single hop brew to use up the last of my pale malt, as well as give my new hopstopper a test. :)

3530g pale malt
395g wheat malt

57g Aurora 5.8% for 70 mins
33g Aurora 5.8% for 15 mins
10g Aurora 5.8% steeped

US-05

0.3ml/L CRS
1tsp gypsum in mash, 1 tsp in boil
1/2 protofloc tablet
1/2 campden tablet

I mashed for 90 minutes this time, starting at 66 and it fell to 63 over the course of the mash. I also have again employed the high water to grain ratio (4 litres per kg) with good results.

Anyhow, I'll tell the rest of it in pictures. :wink:

Grain bill:

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Mash underway:

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First runnings into the boiler:

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Fly sparging at 74 degrees:

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Preboil gravity was a few points more than expected:

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Coming to the boil:

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And now one of the very good reasons to use a big bucket for 5 gallon brews, the following pictures were taken over the course of a minute:

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Pretty high level considering the 29 litre liquid level! I switched off one element to allow the foam to collapse then restarted it and it didn't reappear. :)

Bittering hops in:

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A nice rolling boil on two elements:

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Cooling with plenty of break material visible:

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Quite a bit of break material bypassed the hopstopper, but no hop bits at all! :) OG of 1050 is a good 3 or 4 points more than expected though. :?

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Run off from the hopstopper is brilliant and allows for a very vigerous aeration!

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Boiler drained with about 2 litre total loss, which I'm pleased with as 100g of hops will hold back a fair bit. 8)

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An excellent brewday. I had better go and clear up now! :lol:
Rob

POTTER BREWERY (mothballed 2020)

Fermenting: nowt (sadly). Drinking: still a few bottles of my imperial stout knocking about . . . it's rather good now

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Jim
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Re: Aurora Golden Ale 11.01.09

Post by Jim » Sun Jan 11, 2009 2:39 pm

Looks like you had fun! 8)
NURSE!! He's out of bed again!

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stevezx7r

Re: Aurora Golden Ale 11.01.09

Post by stevezx7r » Sun Jan 11, 2009 2:55 pm

Excellent day, yashicamat, Aurora are one of the best hops I've used.

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yashicamat
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Re: Aurora Golden Ale 11.01.09

Post by yashicamat » Sun Jan 11, 2009 3:52 pm

stevezx7r wrote:Excellent day, yashicamat, Aurora are one of the best hops I've used.
Yes I've not tried these before or Styrian Goldings either which they're supposed to be similar to. I threw the whole 100g in to make it a borderline American pale ale styled beer, but the IBU / gravity balance caught me out as I was expecting something closer to 1046 so have the IBUs set to about 43.
Rob

POTTER BREWERY (mothballed 2020)

Fermenting: nowt (sadly). Drinking: still a few bottles of my imperial stout knocking about . . . it's rather good now

kevthebootboy

Re: Aurora Golden Ale 11.01.09

Post by kevthebootboy » Sun Jan 11, 2009 7:37 pm

Good work there duck, hope it turns out a gooden! =D> 8)

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yashicamat
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Re: Aurora Golden Ale 11.01.09

Post by yashicamat » Thu Jan 29, 2009 8:40 pm

Had a sneaky half pint this evening, it was the first out of the corny (just briefly swapped the disconnects over, sanitising first of course) so was a bit yeasty despite the secondary, but I'm very pleased with it so far. The aroma is very fruity and the taste is quite unusual, it's almost got a slightly tropical fruit taste to it. The bitterness is good, but I actually think it could do with being very slightly more bitter, maybe 2 or 3 IBUs. Otherwise it's extremely well balanced and very tasty. 8) And it's not even ready yet! :lol:
Rob

POTTER BREWERY (mothballed 2020)

Fermenting: nowt (sadly). Drinking: still a few bottles of my imperial stout knocking about . . . it's rather good now

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yashicamat
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Re: Aurora Golden Ale 11.01.09

Post by yashicamat » Sun Feb 15, 2009 12:17 am

This one is slipping down very nicely. 8) Turned out well balanced and smooth, plus the kieselsol finings have made the beer crystal clear too!

Piccy:

Image
Rob

POTTER BREWERY (mothballed 2020)

Fermenting: nowt (sadly). Drinking: still a few bottles of my imperial stout knocking about . . . it's rather good now

farmhousekeg

Re: Aurora Golden Ale 11.01.09

Post by farmhousekeg » Mon Feb 16, 2009 9:21 pm

Nice one Yashicamat, looks like a great pint! That was one hell of a boil - I'm glad I opted for a 10 gallon boiler!

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yashicamat
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Re: Aurora Golden Ale 11.01.09

Post by yashicamat » Wed Feb 18, 2009 8:41 pm

farmhousekeg wrote:Nice one Yashicamat, looks like a great pint! That was one hell of a boil - I'm glad I opted for a 10 gallon boiler!
To be honest, I did allow it to boil up like that deliberately to simulate what would happen if someone wasn't there. In reality, as soon as it starts to rise, I shut off one element, the foam head collapses, then switch the second element back on again. The head rarely reappears if I do this.
Rob

POTTER BREWERY (mothballed 2020)

Fermenting: nowt (sadly). Drinking: still a few bottles of my imperial stout knocking about . . . it's rather good now

ChrisG

Re: Aurora Golden Ale 11.01.09

Post by ChrisG » Thu Feb 19, 2009 2:17 pm

Good images and a great brew.

I used Aurora hops of a brew about a month ago, almost finished the barrel it was that good!

;)

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