Brewday 14/08/2008 - Belfast Ale Clone

[Jymbo]

After my last disasterous brewday I've decided to have another bash at formulating my own recipe. This time it's a Belfast Ale Clone. Here's the recipe:

Brewlength: 19L
Target OG:1043
Efficiency: 70%
Bittering: 34IBUs
Mash Duration: 90 mins

Grain

Maris Otter: 3450g
Crystal Malt: 300g
Chocolate Malt: 65g
Torrefied Wheat: 120g

Hops - Bittering

EKG(5.4%): 13g
Northdown(7.9%): 9g
Challenger(7.1%): 10g

Hops - Flavour and Aroma

15 mins - Fuggles(3.7%): 20g
5 mins - Fuggles(3.7%): 10g
0 mins - Fuggles(3.7%): 30g

10g Irish Moss @ 10 mins

Yeast: Safale-04

Started the mash about an hour ago at 67C. I've added plenty of Fuggles to the recipe for flavour and aroma as the cask version of this ale has lots of hop character. Hope it turns out OK - I did a Clotworthy Dobbin clone a few months back (also from whitewater brewery) and it turned out excellent.

[Jymbo]

Pretty straightforward brewday. The calculations were fairly good - I planned for 19 litres @ 1043 and got 19.5 litres @ 1042. Still got the cleaning up to do

[Jim]

Nice one, Jymbo. Is the chocolate malt a typical part of the Belfast Ale style?

[Jymbo]

Yes, Jim - I got some info on the grist from oblivious. Apparently the "Beer & Cider in Ireland: The Complete Guide" states:

Belfast Ale grist is pale, crystal, chocolate and some malted wheat for head retention.

Hops are challenger, North down and Goldings for bittering and some Fuggles at the end of boil. It is susposed to be bitter that an Irish red but less an a best bitter

I based the recipe on this - not sure how it'll turn out but I based my Clotworth Dobbin recipe on info from the same source and it turned out very well.

You can taste the chocolate in Belfast ale - although it's much less pronounced than in the Clotworthy which is essentially an Irish red. So hopefully 65g is about right - it didn't seem too pronounced when i tasted the wort.

[roger the dog]

I like the look of this one Jymbo, I think I'll have a crack at it for my next brew

[Jymbo]

Good man, Roger. I'll keep you posted on how it goes.

[roger the dog]

Nice one

[Jymbo]

Down to 1016 this morning - had a bit of a sip too. This one is going to be good.

[roger the dog]

Any more tasters yet Jymbo ? I'm brewing this tomorrow

[Jymbo]

Roger, not sure if you've done this brew yet, but you won't be disappointed. It's been in the keg for a week and a half now and it tastes superb. The fuggles and the malt are very well balanced and the bitterness is just right. It could probably have done with a bit more chocolate to get closer to the Belfast Ale taste, but it's turned out very nice in it's own right.

[roger the dog]

Good to hear Jymbo, I brewed this on Tuesday & can't wait to try it. My only concern is that fact that it's fermenting at about 23°C if the strip thermo. on the FV is to be believed

[Jymbo]

I fermented at about 18-19 C with Safale-04 - took about a week to finish.

[roger the dog]

Just bottled / kegged mine after 9 days in the FV, it finished at 1.012 so about 4.4 % ABV, tastes good already - even SWMBO liked it

[Jymbo]

Mine finished a few points lower than that, Roger - what yeast did you use?

[roger the dog]

Good old S-04