Purple Budgie

[Mr. Dripping]

I've been very taken lately by Oakham's Scarlet Macaw. I found it in B&M recently when I called in for a few bottles of their Citra and I'm now buying it in preference to this. It's also available on cask, which I'd love to try but am highly unlikely to find it close by I reckon. I'd bet it's even better in a cask......

The beer is incredibly drinkable, extremely bitter and it has a very dry finish. Nice malt flavour on first drinking...pretty near perfect for me.

This is a bit of a leap in the dark really, as I can find very little information other than what is on the bottle.....ABV 4.8%, hopped with Summit and Amarillo. Hopefully I can get something close and tweek from there.

I degassed a small amount to get FG of 1009, so OG 1.046
For 40 litres:

Pale Malt 7.00kg
Caragold 0.40kg (possibly Caramalt or a 50/50 mix of the two)
Dark Wheat Malt 0.40kg
Mash 65 degrees for 90 mins, water treatment for pale ale. Sulphate to Chloride 4:1
Boil 90 minutes
Hopping Schedule (pellet)
Summit 15.5% 22g, 75 mins, 23.6 IBU
Amarillo 8.8% 22g, 75 mins, 13.4 IBU
Summit 15.5% 20g, 10 mins, 7.4 IBU
Amarillo 8.8% 20g, 10 mins, 4.2 IBU
48.7 IBU
Yeast - 3 litre starter of WLP007

I've gone with an 'even' hop schedule, as neither hop seems to dominate....the IBU is a stab in the dark, the beer is perceived to me as being quite a bit more bitter than Punk IPA, but it's not as in your face. True, Punk has a higher ABV of course. Hard to explain, but the Macaw has a deep, smooth bitterness and I don't think there is any dry hopping going on.
Anyway, we will see how we go this weekend as the starter is on

If anyone has any suggestions or info, please post up.
ATB

[CestrIan]

Is that a euphemism? A stab in the dark with your purple budgie!

[Cpt.Frederickson]

How'd this turn out in the end? Big fan of Scarlet Macaw too so if this is close it'll be on the 'to brew' list.

[Mr. Dripping]

Was reasonably close. I used caramalt in the end.
If anything it probably needed a little more bitterness, and contrary to my earlier post and based on a couple of recent brews some dry hopping with 1g per litre summit would have helped.
It was a good beer nevertheless.