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McEwans No 1 Champion (With Pics)

Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2012 4:37 pm
by DC
Hi all, I have decided to have a go at brewing a McEwans No 1 Champion clone after recently becoming quite found of this beer. I Got the Golden Promise pale malt for the base malt from a local brewery and ordered the speciality grains & hops from the Malt Miller (Cheers Rob). I was hoping to hit the OG gravity of 1079 which should work out as 7.3% [-o< but I only ended up with an OG of 1070 so it won’t be as strong as I was hoping it to turn out. :cry:
Recipe:
6.6 Kg Golden Promise (Pale Malt)
283 g Torrified Wheat
226 g Crystal Malt
57 g Roasted Barley
28 g Peated Malt
226 g Lyles’ Golden Syrup

35 g East Kent Goldings 5.85% AA (90 mins boil)
7 g Styrian Goldings (Bobek) 5.1% AA (Last 15 mins)
7 g German Hallertau Hersbrucker 4.13% AA (Last 15 mins)
1 Protafloc Tablet

White Labs Edinburgh Ale Yeast WLP028

Grain shot
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1st Time using a White Labs Yeast
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Doughed in
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1st Runnings
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Getting to the boil
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Late Hop addition standing by
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Cooling water ready to use
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Ended up with OG 1070 should have been 1079
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Tucked up for fermenting at 23°
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Cheers DC :wink:

Re: McEwans No 1 Champion (With Pics)

Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2012 6:44 pm
by fordpopular
Looks great, I plan to do this myself once all my equipment is sorted
will be interested to find out how it turns out

Re: McEwans No 1 Champion (With Pics)

Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2012 7:11 pm
by jimp2003
Looks good. I really like this beer so it will be interesting to see how it turns out.

It appears from the pics that you did not make a starter of the yeast - if you didn't you might have to keep an eye on the fermentation...

Jim

Re: McEwans No 1 Champion (With Pics)

Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2012 7:45 pm
by StrangeBrew
Very nice colour in the sample jar and loving the levitating orange sieve! 8)

Re: McEwans No 1 Champion (With Pics)

Posted: Mon Jul 23, 2012 8:57 pm
by DC
@Jimp2003 Your right I didnt make a starter as I didnt get around too it, and the instructions said you can pitch straight into the wort without making a starter :wink: so it just went into the wort after a good stir. Came home from work today and was greeted by this below :shock:

Who needs a starter
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Best get cleaning, the wort has escaped the FV (yet again) :shock:
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Cheers DC :wink:

Re: McEwans No 1 Champion (With Pics)

Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2012 8:23 am
by jimp2003
Now that's the kind of mess I don't mind clearing up. :D

Re: McEwans No 1 Champion (With Pics)

Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2012 11:33 am
by borischarlton
Your lower than expected efficiency could have come from the crush of the pale malt. Most brewery's use a much courser crush than home brewers need, just put extra in next brew.

Rob

Re: McEwans No 1 Champion (With Pics)

Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2012 8:52 pm
by alfie09
were is the water coming from under ground or is that a sewer?

Re: McEwans No 1 Champion (With Pics)

Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2012 7:03 am
by DC
@ Alfie09, The water is coming from a pit in my garage (used for fixing cars) but there is a brook/stream which runs underground down the back of our street and the water seeps into the pit from there :evil: I used to pump it out every so often to get rid of the water but then thought I can use that large supply of very cold water to cool my wort on brew days :wink:

Cheers DC :wink:

Re: McEwans No 1 Champion (With Pics)

Posted: Wed Sep 14, 2016 12:09 pm
by DC
BUMP

Hey all, I was searching in my garage last weekend for something and came across this :shock: it will be 4 years old on the 8th December ! Totally forgot it was there I am going to Crack it open at the weekend and see if its Drinkable [-o< got a few small bottles so might share it out with a few of my Beer Tasters (providing its drinkable). Will post on how it tastes once ive opened it ! Fingers crossed

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Cheers DC :wink:

Re: McEwans No 1 Champion (With Pics)

Posted: Wed Sep 14, 2016 2:28 pm
by Hanglow
Well good luck with drinking it :) Might still be fine

sadly Champion has gone down hill since Charlie Wells started brewing it.

Re: McEwans No 1 Champion (With Pics)

Posted: Sat Jan 16, 2021 11:05 pm
by Phoenix
Resurrecting an old thread.
Next up is a McEwans Champion my first attempt at this.
Anyone brewed this recently?
My recipe is pretty much same as DC's but with 100g smoked malt, is this too much?
I'll mash at 68C for this full bodied beer.
Any ideas on water profile given that originally it was brewed in Edinburgh.
Although sadly I think it is all brewed in Bedford now under Marstons.