Bland 6x

Get advice on making beer from raw ingredients (malt, hops, water and yeast)
Post Reply
sills

Bland 6x

Post by sills » Fri Apr 11, 2008 5:20 pm

I brewed a 6x clone about 4 weeks ago and is now in my cornie. Now I have just sampled it and I can only describe it as bland, it tastes ok but no real hoppy flavour, more like beer flavoured water. Any suggestions as to how to add some flavour. ie can I depressurise the cornie and add some hops and which to add, or should I leave it and see if it will improve with age. The recipe I used was from Graham Wheelers BYORAAH.
Pale malt 3900g
Crystal malt 130g
Invert cane sugar 350g
Fuggle hops 61g
Golding hops 4g dry hops
The goldings were in the cask for 5 days in a muslin bag and I used golden syrup as sugar.
Mash time 60min Boil time 90min.
Any advise on what to do or were I went wrong will be greatly appreciated.
Yes I know beer is beer flavoured water before you all pick on me :D

fivetide

Post by fivetide » Fri Apr 11, 2008 6:16 pm

Golding hops 4g
Really? Just 4g? That's got to be a printing mistake surely?

sills

Post by sills » Fri Apr 11, 2008 6:21 pm

as I was typing this out I thought the same. Although looking at Norms almanac that only state 10g during the boil.

booldawg

Post by booldawg » Fri Apr 11, 2008 7:46 pm

How much did you add in the way of hops?

sills

Post by sills » Fri Apr 11, 2008 7:53 pm

61g of fuggles in the boil and 4g of goldings in a holding barrel before transfer to the cornie.

User avatar
Jim
Site Admin
Posts: 10305
Joined: Sun Aug 22, 2004 1:00 pm
Location: Washington, UK

Post by Jim » Fri Apr 11, 2008 8:04 pm

4g of dry hops is reasonable. I've used just a little more than that and the effect was quite noticable.

Hop monsters may disagree, however. :wink:
NURSE!! He's out of bed again!

JBK on Facebook
JBK on Twitter

Scooby

Post by Scooby » Fri Apr 11, 2008 9:27 pm

From the same book a 'few cones' are added to dry hop Hook Norton beers.

Matt

Post by Matt » Fri Apr 11, 2008 9:35 pm

61g Fuggles is mid 30s IBUs, so it should have a bit of a kick. Just wondering if you used old or loose-packed hops and so got a much lower bitterness?

SiHoltye

Post by SiHoltye » Fri Apr 11, 2008 9:39 pm

I think I've had lower IBU's lately due to age and storage of hops. :(

prolix

Post by prolix » Fri Apr 11, 2008 10:15 pm

I have brewed that exact reciepe before and it was great, my fuggles were 4.5% and I keep them in the freezer in airtight boxes.

was it a 24l length or 20 ?

User avatar
Stonechat
Under the Table
Posts: 1428
Joined: Tue Feb 05, 2008 6:33 pm

Post by Stonechat » Fri Apr 11, 2008 10:26 pm

Hi Sills, from reading your post it looks as though you used the earlier GW book. The later one amended the hop quantities for a 25l brew to 65g of Fuggles at start of boil and 15g of Goldings for the last 15 mins of boil.

The other ingredients change as well:
Halcyon Pale Malt....4050g
Crystal Malt............90g
Black Malt..............46g
White Sugar...........175g

This produces a much better beer. I've done it bottled and barreled and whilst it will never be a favourite is quaffable.

Hope this is worth your while doing to make up for the disappointing first edition recipe.

sills

Post by sills » Sat Apr 12, 2008 7:53 am

thanks for your replys. This is the second time I have made this the first being an extract version from the same book which was great.
As for the hops I used the Goldings have are vac pack with an AA of 6.1% and the fuggles are also vac packed with an AA of 5.5%. I will give the new revised version a go next.
Just as a foot note I took another 3 samples last night :wink: and its not as bad as I first thought just nothing like 6x

Post Reply