Thanks for the comments all, I'm not sure that the pictures are going to be much different from my IPA brew, as the grist is a similar qty, and the hop charge is around Half of the IPA. Still it will be interesting to see how I boil 99L in a nominal 100L copper
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Mix wrote:The alpha % on the Styrians looks high compared to what is available at the moment, my batch from Vossy/Farams are only 3%. I think 5.25% was the default when i installed Promash.
Yeah, those are the default values for the styrians, as I haven't any in I've had to order them and I'll plug the values (~3%) in when I know what they are. I have already had a play around reducing the tine to 60 and 0 minutes, of course it meant increasing the (hopefully) NZ Saaz addition slightly.
DaaB wrote:Have you got a date set?
Well I'm awaiting supplies from Hop and Grape, I was hoping for this weekend weather permitting. I only ordered this evening and knowing how busy Patsy and John are its unlikely that they will arrive in time, so It looks like another day of work to brew sometime next week.
DaaB wrote:Obviously Saaz tends to be more often linked with lagers, it's interesting to see you are going to use it in an ale. I ask as I have been wondering about the suitability of using a lager kit as a base for an ale if there were some specialty grains and english hops added ? (it's something I could add to our FAQs/Newsletter so it would be interesting to hear what you think?)
I think that home/craft brewers as a whole get too caught up in the "that hops an ale hop", and "that hops a lager hop syndrome", that often we should look at the characteristics that a hop provides when its added as a bittering/flavour/aroma addition and forget about what it may have traditionally been used for. I have been told (By NZ Hop Marketeers) that there are a lot of ale breweries in the UK that use NZ Saaz in their ales, and I believe (It was implied NOT not confirmed), that C@rlsB3rg / T3tl3y use a large qty. San Miguel use a large qty of Fuggles IIRC. The NZ Saaz are a cracking hop and as a bittering addition in an ale would be hard to beat, as any residual flavour contribution would be so clean it would not mask the finishing hops, so although traditionally, a 'lager' hop I have no worries about using them for bittering an ale. I think it was Graham who mentioned that commercial breweries are far more pragmatic than home brewers when it comes to hop choice. Which often comes down to using whatever hop is available for bittering and then choose your flavour / aroma hops to provide your character. As home/craft brewers we are spoiled as to the choice of hops we have available.
Personally I find most of the kits I've made (Munton's Gold Pilsner was the last) have been lacking in the hop department, they are fine for bittering but there is no real flavour or aroma characteristic coming through. I think if I was to enhance a kit using specialty grains and hops then I would start with a lager kit, the flavour profile of the malt would be happy to accept additional flavours from the specialty malts, and the kit hop providing a clean if indistinguishable bitterness, would allow the additional hops to reveal their own characteristics.
