Home Brew Forum

Finally got around to brewing this last night...another late finish but all in all a much easier brewday than some others recently! The recipe is from Marc O, scaled to 25l and with a few more late addition hops based on comments on this site and comments i got from Jubby when we met for a few beers in ther pub the other night!

4.45kg Pale
235g Wheat Malt

Challenger 90mins (24.6 IBU, 30g @7.5%)
Mount Hood 15mins (7.8 IBU, 35g @ 4.4%)
Mount Hood 1min (0.5 IBU, 25g @ 4.4%)
Also has a little "Ad-hop" moment and chucked in a handfull to steep!

Mashed at 66 for 90min, US-05 yeast used.

I actually hit 1042°, collecting 24l. Left it at that...

Photos a bit of an afterthought: but i did snap the break in the boiler as it seemed better than some previous brews. Possibly the quicker chill down as the water was so cold last night!




I am hoping i will be posting another brew soon, but using my new 3 tier stand based up in the shed. That should save my back a bit, and i will finally be using a seperate HLT and boiler - AT LAST!

Looks good Shane. Mines still not ready, nice and clear but still waiting for the Mount Hood to come through.

Sampled a few pints in the Kingston last night. All in the name of research of course.

Did this one work out for you Shane? I assume you're drinking it by now. Planning to try my first All-Grain with this brew and the simplified stovetop mash method from HomeBrewTalk.com. I'm in the US so I substituted the Challenger for Northern Brewer and tweaked for a 5gallon batch. I'm also planning on using Wyeast #1098 since I can't get US-05 and I have some jars of the #1098 I harvested from my Nut Brown last month. Any thoughts on flavor, IBU, carbonation, etc. greatly appreciated since I've never tasted the original.

Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Boil Size: 6.02 gal
Boil Time: 90 min

Ingredients
Amount Item Type % or IBU
7 lbs 8.0 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (2.5 SRM) Grain 95.18 %
6.1 oz Wheat Malt, Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain 4.82 %
0.75 oz Northern Brewer [8.50 %] (90 min) Hops 26.8 IBU
0.75 oz Mt. Hood [5.30 %] (15 min) Hops 7.0 IBU
0.50 oz Mt. Hood [5.30 %] (1 min) Hops 0.4 IBU
0.76 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 30.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs British Ale (Wyeast Labs #1098) [Starter 125 ml] Yeast-Ale

Est Original Gravity: 1.043 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.011 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.14 %
Bitterness: 34.2 IBU
Est Color: 3.8 SRM

Mash Profile
Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge
60 min Mash In Add 9.85 qt of water at 165.9 F 154.0 F

Carbonation and Storage
Carbonation Type: Corn Sugar Volumes of CO2: 2.4

Hi GP,

This beer has turned out very well and was a big hit with family. I also took a bottle to the pub the other night and a couple of the other guys on here were complimentary about it.

Shame you can't get the Challenger, i don't know what you could replace it with to be honest? Northdown or Boadicea would be the suggestion to someone in the UK, but i guess you may not have those either?

To recap it's 34 IBU, i force carbonated in a corny and didn't prime it. Can you get WLP001? That would work well i imagine.

A lovely pint, especially in the sunshine. I agree - Boadicea is the natural replacement, but the lack of Challenger is a pain.

smp465 wrote

I also took a bottle to the pub the other night and a couple of the other guys on here were complimentary about it.

I was one of those 'guys' and I can confirm that it was a blummin fine beer. I agree with shane, the WLP 001 works very well with this type of ale. It is neutral and allows the hop aroma to come through. Don't be shy with the mount hood though. I used 1oz at 15 min and 1oz at flameout and the hop aroma was very subtle and dissapeared after about 7 weeks. This may be due to water composition, but my advice is; loads of late hop and drink it quick! (25 litres, 6.5 us gallons)

Had some of this last saturday and wondered what went in it as it was damn fine. May have to put this on my wish list for next year when I put my next hop order in. So thanks for the reciepe.

Brewed the JHB yesterday. My LHBS was out of the Northern Brewer but it turned out they actually had Challenger so I used 1oz of that as my first hop addition. I used a stovetop AG method, mashing in an aluminum stockpot and got 78% efficiency, hitting 1.045 OG after the boil with 5 gallons. For some reason I had a brain fart and decided not to use my harvested #1098 but used Nottingham instead. I think I had in my head you'd used Nottingham and not the 05. Oh well, should be fine. What carbonation level did you go for?

Great GP, hope you like it. It's certainly one that i will do again. I just force carbonated mine in a corny to15-30psi.

It's one that's best drunk fresh, after 6-8 weeks it definitely loses some of its aroma/taste and takes on more of a lager characteristic.

Lager? Yuck! Wouldn't want that now would we.

Just checked the gravity today, 5 days after brewing, and it's down at 1.010. The beer smells really funky though. Tastes alright, nothing bad, but it has a real odd smell, hard to describe. The smell of the off-gasses through the airlock hole were really harsh too but that's just yeast farts I assume. Being a Scotsman relocated to California i haven't had much exposure to English bitters, so maybe it's all normal. Maybe the Nottingham yeast is messing with it too.

The fermentation temperature did jump up to 69F (20.5C) at the height of fermentation before I noticed. I got it down fairly sharpish after that and it's been between 63F and 65F (17-18C) since then. Don't get any noticable fruitiness or spice flavors though so I doubt the temperature was an issue. Hope my first AG isn't infected!!!!!!!!

I'll rack to secondary on Sunday and see where it goes from there.

JHB is really pale, isn't it? Is that the wheat malt? I assumed it was made with lager malt or something.

Invalid Stout wrote:JHB is really pale, isn't it? Is that the wheat malt? I assumed it was made with lager malt or something.

I have a feeling that the "real" JHB might be made partially (or entirely) with either low colour maris otter or lager malt. Oakham do use LCMO in some of their other beers so I wouldn't be suprised if it's found in JHB too, especially given the maltiness of this beer is minimal.

I have a feeling that the "real" JHB might be made partially (or entirely) with either low colour maris otter or lager malt.

Yes, It's made with 95% low colour Maris Otter and 5% wheat malt. In fact, the 5th edition of the Real Ale Almanac lists all of the Oakham Ales beers as using low colour malt, even the darker beers.