AG #54 El Dorado Pale Ale

[BrewerBen]

This is the second beer to use the Gales yeast which will be collected from the slurry of AG #53. I'm keeping the gravity the same but increasing the hopping rate. Hopefully it will be a good comparison of a malty beer dark beer and a hoppy pale beer for the same yeast at the same gravity. Although the pitching rates will probably be different. I've been meaning to give El Dorado hops a go for a while, i did put them in a wheat beer but had fermentation problems and didn't get to drink it. They don't seem as punchy as other US hops. The Spalt Select hops are there just because i had them to use up and wanted to keep as many of the El Dorado hops for flavour and aroma additions.

Target Gravity is 1.042 for 28L

4600g Maris Otter 90.64 %
475g Crystal Malt 9.36 %

27.30 gm Spalt Select [5.00 %] (90 min) Hops 12.3 IBU
35.00 gm Eldorado [15.80 %] (15 min) Hops 23.1 IBU
25.00 gm Eldorado [15.80 %] (0 min)
40.00 gm Eldorado [15.80 %] (Dry Hop 3 days)

36ml crs for 41L liqour.
14.56g DLS.

Mash in 30L at 38C
Step 1: 75 Mins @ 64C
Step 2: 10 Mins @ 78C
Sparge 11L @ 78C

Grain shot, bit simpler grain bill than the 7 malts used in the last one:


Mash in:


Water begins to circulate:


Hops:


Crystal clear wort:


I've noticed the wort was quite turbulent inside the chiller coil with the pumps on so i stuck bag of aroma hops in there to keep them moving around:


Gravity Reading, looks like the target 1.042


Yeast slurry from the last brew. It was quite thin as i disturbed it a fair bit which meant annoyingly a quite a bit of yeast got in the keg and bottles. I poured the top layer off and pitched 250ml:


Running off into fermenter:


Leftovers:


Hopefully i aerated enough. I filled up the fermenter a little more so fingers crossed i wont make too much of a mess:

[Rhodesy]

Looks great. I recently done a brew with 100g late El Dorado additions which tasted immense.

[seymour]

Lots of new hops taste very "samey" in my opinion, but El Dorado really is unique. I look forward to hearing what you think of this beautiful brew. Nice work.

[liamtmt7]

Interested to hear how this turns out as well - not a hop I've used before

[snowbeast]

What brew system are you using?
Beer looks great

[BrewerBen]

Its a Braumeister 50L

[snowbeast]

Very nice! I'm jealous

[AnthonyD]

How did this one turn out? I've got 200g of El Dorado and I'm considering a pale ale or a red ale to showcase them - maybe bittered with a tiny bit of Admiral or Mosaic for complexity.

[seymour]

I'm sure I've already said so on other threads, but it bears repeating:

I find El Dorado to have a really delicious apricot kinda fruitiness which works great in hops-forward APAs and IPAs with 5-10% caramelly-sweet crystal malt in the grainbill, but the most remarkable thing to me is that (and I have no idea why this is, but it has borne true in multiple brews) unlike every other hop variety, El Dorado's aroma and flavour do not dissipate or decay. If you use tons of it late in the boil or dry-hopped, the resulting beer tastes exactly as hoppy even 6 months later! Bizarre, right?

[BrewerBen]

It's a little bland and i feel with the el-dorado hops, decent amount of crystal and the Gales yeast it should not be bland. I have tried a local mico brewery's ale with the El-Dorado hops and loved it which is why i wanted to brew with them and was really looking forward to this beer.
Its an ok pint and certainly drinkable and enjoyable but i think i have screwed up the water treatment (again). Its not as bad as the last time i messed up the treatment as that was undrinkable but something is definitely not right.
Looking back at my notes i forgot the camden tablet but i've done that before without having this effect. The CRS and DLS additions are calculated right as per the liquor analysis using the Bitter/Pale Ale profile so may have just messed up the measurement on the day.
The other potential factor is the only hops i could find were heavily discounted and from 2012 but if they had lost their flavour/aroma due to age i would have expected the yeast/malt flavour to be alot more prominent.

I'm going to do this one again. I've spotted 2014 El-Dorado Pellets on the Malt Millers site so i can rule out potential hop freshness issues. I've just bottled a ale that i used Falconers Flight in and had used the same water treatment so i'll have a taste of that tonight and if that is ok then i may have just messed up the measurement on the brew day. If not then i have some figuring out to do and may go back to basics and use my water as is with just a camden tablet and a teaspoon of gypsum in the mash and boil just to get back how i used to do it and start from there again.
I also cant ignore the fact that my best beers since starting water treatment are the darker ones (the recent bitter/mild is up there as one of my best) that i used different additions for with far less CRS and Calcium Chloride flakes and salt rather than DLS.

Looks nice though:

[Monkeybrew]

What Alkalinity figure are you using to calculate your CRS additions.

Water company or a Salifert kit?

Now that I have a proper analysis (from Wallybrew) of my water, I have starter to use Calcium Chloride flakes and Gypsum as apposed to DLS. This made a big difference in a recent Blonde Ale.

I have also seen advice on leaving out common salt additions, as 'it's for chips not beer'.

I've also read advice against Magnesium additions, as sufficient amounts come from the mashing process.

Also, what does the Gales yeast add to a hoppy beer, it seems as though some English ale yeasts can cover up hops flavours?

Cheers

MB

[seymour]

Also, what does the Gales yeast add to a hoppy beer, it seems as though some English ale yeasts can cover up hops flavours?

If you've tasted Marble Dobber, than you know for yourself how Gales yeast tastes in a hoppy beer...which is to say, delicious!

[BrewerBen]

What Alkalinity figure are you using to calculate your CRS additions.

Water company or a Salifert kit?

Now that I have a proper analysis (from Wallybrew) of my water, I have starter to use Calcium Chloride flakes and Gypsum as apposed to DLS. This made a big difference in a recent Blonde Ale.

I have also seen advice on leaving out common salt additions, as 'it's for chips not beer'.

I've also read advice against Magnesium additions, as sufficient amounts come from the mashing process.

Also, what does the Gales yeast add to a hoppy beer, it seems as though some English ale yeasts can cover up hops flavours?

Cheers

MB

I had water analysis done by Murphys and Sons used the Pale Ale/Bitter profile recoomendations.
Using the recommendations i calculated i needed 36ml CRS/AMS for 41L liqour and 14.56g DLS/DWB.

Also attatched is the Stout/Porter/Mild profile which for the previous beer worked great although it was darker with crystal/Dark Crystal/chocolate and black malt. I may use this water treatment for this beer when i do it again.

I did initially try measuring with the salifert kit but I measured the alkalinity at 256 and added 50ml or so of CRS. It turned out after getting the water report i had measured too high and ruined the beer.

This was only the second time i used this yeast but i'm hoping to use it for most ales i do. I don't live too far from the old brewery site so thought it would be fun to use it as my main yeast. I suspect you are right about it covering up some of the hoppiness but i'm hoping as i get used to using it i will learn to compensate by using more hops.

[Clibit]

I've been a bit underwhelemed with El Dorado myself. I reckon maybe they need to be paired with something to get the best from them. Perhaps you need a sturdier bittering hop than Spalt too? Maybe someone has found a hop that complements El Dorado well for flavour? Maybe it works best in a blend? I'm not sure it's ideal as a single hop, based on my limited experience. Could be wrong.

[seymour]

I've been a bit underwhelemed with El Dorado myself. I reckon maybe they need to be paired with something to get the best from them. Perhaps you need a sturdier bittering hop than Spalt too? Maybe someone has found a hop that complements El Dorado well for flavour? Maybe it works best in a blend? I'm not sure it's ideal as a single hop, based on my limited experience. Could be wrong.

I like El Dorado + Crystal hops to amplify citrusy flavours or El Dorado + Northern Brewer to amplify earthy/minty flavours. I haven't done it yet, but I've been wanting to try combining El Dorado with an over-the-top Australian or New Zealand hop to amplify tropical fruit flavours (maybe Ella, Vic Secret, Rakau, Enigma...something like that).