Hobgoblin - advice wanted

[Rubbery]

My AG3 will be a Wychwood Hobgoblin clone.

I have taken input from a number of recipes and adjusted to my requirements - I want 23L at about 5%abv. I would like a sanity check on the recipe before I start - I am still a newbie to AG.

4400g Pale Malt
165g Flaked Barley
165g Torrefied Wheat
55g Chocolate Malt
200g Crystal Malt
10g Black Malt

39g Progress @ 90min
20g Styrian Goldings @ 15min
15g Styrian Goldings @ 0min

Wyeast 1275 Thames Valley

Final Volume: 23 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.052
Final Gravity: 1.013
Alcohol Content: 5% ABV
Total Liquor: 34.6 Litres
Mash Liquor: 12.5 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 80%
Bitterness: 31 EBU
Colour: 42 EBC

I intend to mash at a slightly higher temperature to add a little sweetness to the finished beer. My last batch started at 67C and finished at 66C after 100 mins, so I am confident I can keep the temperature up. How high should I go with the temperature?

Are the bitterness and colour reasonable values?

I am planning to recover the Wyeast 1275 (Thames Valley) from a bottled extract brew I made last October - that brew was sitting in the fermentation vessel for 4 weeks as it is very cold in the brewery at that time of year. Will it be ok? If not, I have a saved Wyeast 1004 (Irish Ale) that I am quite keen on.

[nobby]

I would drop the Flake Barley and Torrified Wheat and use Fuggles instead of Progress.


This is the recipe I use for 25 Ltrs



Pale Malt 4500 grams
Crystal Malt 250 grams
Caramalt 250 grams
Chocolate Malt 160 grams



Fuggl 90 mins 26 grams
Styrian Goldings 90 mins 25 grams
Fuggle 30 mins 21 grams
Styrian Goldings 30 mins 20 grams

[floydmeddler]

+1. The brewery use Fuggles, not progress. Have made Hobgoblin in the past and it turned out nearly identical to the original. It was a while ago now though. I keep promising myself I'll brew it again.

If you can get your hands on a bottle, take a gravity reading of the beer and then you'll know what to aim for. When brewing clones, It is difficult to get a FG bang on if the gravity is above 1010 -1012. Some breweries will stop the fermentation when it reaches a desired gravity by filtering out the yeast. With regards to temp, higher mash temp doesn't automatically lead to higher FG in my experience. However, I have only experimented with a handful of yeasts.

I brewed Orfy's Hobgoblin clone. Google it and you'll find it. Delicious pint!

[Rubbery]

I had a look on the wychwood website and found it uses "styrians, goldings and fuggles". Progress is a fuggles replacement hop and only being used for bittering, so I may leave it. I think I will replace some of the late styrians with goldings though.

nobby, I calculated your bitterness as 38 EBU and Orfys as 25 EBU, so mine at 31 EBU is about in the middle.

any reason you say "drop the Flake Barley and Torrified Wheat"? Just not required?

I am going to change the yeast too - the Wyeast 1275 Thames Valley had an off TCP taste. I am going to use Wyeast 1004 (Irish Ale) - I have had success with this in the past.

[Barley Water]

I did a Hobgoblin clone about 6 months ago and it came out pretty well. I picked the recipe off these forums but I really can't remember exactly what I did and since I'm at work I can't look at my notes. I put three bottles into a very large contest over here so I will know in about 3 weeks what the judges thought. In my opinion, it was a nice pint, very interesting tobacco flavor along with the chocolate. I really need to make brown ales more often, I always enjoy them but I also have a great love of porter which often times wins out over brown ale. You made the right choice not using old yeast from a 6 month old bottle. Why not spend the $5 or so and get good fresh stuff? The chance of infection goes way up when you start pulling yeast out of homebrew bottles which would really piss me off by the way. If memory serves me correctly, I think I used Ringwood yeast on that brew but I've slept a few times since I made it so who knows?

[Rubbery]

I am brewing and have added some pictures on my Brewday

[stee41]

+1 on Orfys recipe, its spot on

[Normski]

+1 Orfys recipe for me too. Very close.