Cameron's Strongarm, malt suggestions?

[Bribie]

Wherever ye gan yeer'e sure to meet a Geordie, but I must admit to a fondness for Camerons of Hartlepool Strongarm.

I just brewed a version from GW's new edition with the Challenger and some Styrians at 10 mins and S-04.

Wondering about the Malt. I used a combination of Thomas Fawcett floor Malted MO and Halcyon but, due to GW's rather coy suggestions for malt I'm wondering what might be an appropriate malt? For example Timothy Taylor's LL uses Golden Promise from the Scottish Lowlands so I'm wondering if anyone can suggest where North Eastern brewers would traditonally source their malts from? or is it just Euro mega market thing nowadays?

Horden me bonny lad, your territory, your'e on

Michael

Ex West Denton

[Horden Hillbilly]

Sorry, I can't give a definite answer on this one. Saying that, I made a Strongarm clone myself with Maris Otter & it turned out great.

[J_P]

Hi Bribie,

Any pale malt should be fine for the Strongarm, there are a couple of points worth noting when attempting to brew a beer with the the distinctive taste of Strongarm, one is the yeast.

Camerons yeast has a very distinctive flavour so much so that anything you brew with it will have a "Camerons" taste, apparently they've been using the same yeast for 80+ years (they acid wash it periodiacally) or so I'm told. Given your location the chances of you being able to get some fresh yeast is next to zero - sorry

The other factor is the use of caramel to get that ruby red colour, I'm not sure what colour caramel it is or how much they add but they definately use caramel to adjust the colour, experimenting with brewers caramel rather than the dark grains would be a good place to start IMHO.

[Dennis King]

I`ve brewed this one with maris otter and it came out fine. Drank a few pints of the real thing in north yorks a few mounts later. A lovely pint very distinctive colour, thought my one was a decent clone if not as red.

[Bribie]

Thanks for the hints, I'll stick to Maris Otter for the next batch. I used a black malt (Carafa T3) plus Crystal Malt and the colour looks about right but the Carafa may give a bit of a smoky taste. So I'll try the caramel next time. Cheers.
Michael

[Bribie]

Just bumping this thread, I think I've found my new house beer !!! Instead of the SO4 I actually ended up using Wyeast 1768 English Special Bitter that has made the beer as smooth as a baby's bum. Also the use of 100g the Carafa 3 made it a tad dark, I'll cut back on it in future brews. The Halcyon and Maris Otter turned out great. Won't bother with the Golden Promise in the future.

Definitely a unique beer, not quite a Yorkie, not quite a Geordie. yum.

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