AG - here we go - Recipe time - help!

[leigh1919]

now then -

well, looks like santa is gonna bring me a mash tun and so off i go after success in the extract world to AG.

I have some goldings (114g) ready to go, but no grain. I just want a plain, simple pale ale that is preferably single hop - just for simplicities sake -

was thinking of maris otter for the grain - or would plain old pale malt be good?

and was thinking of nottingham yeast as I have heard it's a fairly neutral yeast taste-wise.

Am i on the right tracks? It'll be a 20l batch as normal - but have no real idea about weights or measures for either the grain or hops!

in fact - resipe formulation is something that's new to me so if anyone has any advice or handy links to help me get my head around it that'd be great!

a hand, anyone?

[delboy]

What kind of beers do you like pales ales, strong dark ales, hoppy or malty? Once we know what you like the members of here will have a better idea of what recipe will suit you.

[leigh1919]

TBH i like all kinds of beers and hence am trying to make them all-

For this one Im after a plain, easy going pale ale.

[mysterio]

You can make a great beer with just Maris Otter pale ale malt and Goldings hops. First decide the strength, do you want an easy drinking beer at 4% abv or something stronger 5+?

Do you want any caramel flavour/colour from crystal malts? If you want to keep it blonde you could include 5% of caramalt, or light crystal malt if you want it more golden, or medium crystal to take you into a more copper colour. I would skip any other speciality malts if you're new so you get a feel for what pale ale malt tastes like but a bit of crystal is not a bad idea.

Then decide if you want the bitterness on the sweet, balanced, or bitter side. And then probably good to get some late Goldings in there for some hop flavour and aroma.

Personally I would go with Safale SO4 as a first yeast. It tastes good, is no-nonsense and leaves a little bit of body. Nottingham can be a bit bland IMO. It can tear through the wort and leave the beer a bit on the thin side especially if you're brewing at lower gravities.

Something like this would do the job, if you've got 100g of goldings you could use the remaining 10g to dry hop. This would be a balanced golden ale with an emphasis on hop flavour and aroma rather than bitterness, you could bump up the bitterness though

Type: All Grain
Batch Size: 6.00 gal
Boil Time: 90 min
Taste Rating(out of 50): 35.0 Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00
Taste Notes:

Ingredients

Amount Item Type % or IBU
4.50 kg Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (5.9 EBC) Grain 95.74 %
0.20 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (78.8 EBC) Grain 4.26 %
30.00 gm Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (60 min) Hops 15.2 IBU
30.00 gm Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (10 min) Hops 5.5 IBU
30.00 gm Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (0 min) Hops -

Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.043 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.011 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.16 %
Bitterness: 20.8 IBU Calories: 43 cal/pint
Est Color: 12.1 EBC Color: Color

Mash Profile

My Mash Step Time Name Description Step Temp
60 min Step Add 11.75 L of water at 73.8 C 67.0 C

[leigh1919]

Mysterio -

Once again you come to my aid - this looks perfect for what I was after. I will dry hop as you suggested. And I will keep it pale, not adding specialities - i have a lot to learn about the process itself this time around - if the beer is good then it's a bonus - although this does look idiotproof. Again, I have a packet of S04 ready to go, so that couldn't be better.

I'll be brewing 5 gallon though - any adjustments? And I was after about 4.5abv tops? again, any adjustments needed?


thanks mate - legend

[Parva]

I personally would leave the recipe as is and just drop to 5 gallons. Depending on your efficiency this should give you a brew between 4.5% and 5%. Having said that I would probably drop the 0 minute hops to 20Gms, might be a bit much with 30Gms in a 5G batch.

[mysterio]

Sorry I should have mentioned, that's for 6 US gallons, I do my recipes like that because i'll end up with 5 US gallons after loss to hops, trub in the fermenter etc. Why US gallons ? Cause 5 fit into a cornie keg.

So that's 23L roughly, to scale up to 25L, bump the base malt up to 5 kilos. I'm assuming 70% efficiency. If you get 75% then you should get 1.046.

So between 70% efficiency and 75% you'll get between 4.2% and 4.5% ABV. This is all from fiddling about in Beersmith btw, you can download a trial and plug in your own recipes.

Having said that I would probably drop the 0 minute hops to 20Gms, might be a bit much with 30Gms in a 5G batch.

Feel free to do whatever, I think there will be very little difference between 20g and 30g. Looking back at the recipe, if anything you can bump up the bittering hops, 20IBUs is balanced slightly towards the sweeter side. If you're doing a single hop brew with Goldings then, probably, you want to be able to really taste and smell them so you get a clear idea of what they bring to the beer, hence the two additions of 30g later on.

[leigh1919]

Wonderful stuff guys - Am making this in Jan and will be posting on brewdays.

Thanks again -

[mysterio]

Why wait until Jan? Brew it now and you could be popping open a bottle on new years

[leigh1919]

coupla reasons - one, time. Busy as hell at work.

secondly, im waiting for Santa to bring me a nice h&G mash tun!!!