Help with recipe

[Grahame]

Hi guys,

I want to attempt to emulate one of my favourite beers (Cockerhoop, by Jennings). I found the ingredient details in Les Howarth's Home Brewer's Recipe Database (which, with details of over 2000 beers and priced at about £3, is amazing) as follows:

ABV: 4.8%
Malt bill: Pale malt, Torrefied wheat
Hops: Challenger, Goldings
IBU/(EBC): 35

I think I can work out the hops myself (use the challenger as bittering and the goldings as the aroma) but I am not sure about the grain, does anyone have a good ballpark figure for the % of torrefied wheat in a typical grist?

Thanks!!

G.

Incidentally, if anyone wants me to look in my copy of the database for any beers they want to try and make, let me know (quite a lot of them give %'s for the grist)

[Garth]

I don't think you want to go more than about 10% on the torrified, most recipes I've seen are around the 5% mark.

4.75kg of pale and 250g of torrified looks good, comes out at about OG 1048

[Grahame]

fantastic Garth, thanks. will get my recipe sorted and post it for critical appraisal

G.

[Garth]

not sure what exactly the aa content of your hops would be, but this hop schedule looks canny, gives about 34 IBU

Challenger 33g 90mins
Goldings 25g 15mins
Goldings 25g 0mins

[Grahame]

OK I have come up with the following in beersmith according to my setup and hops:
90 minute mash @ 65C:
MO 4.75Kg
Torrified Wheat 250g

90 Min boil:
31g Challenger 90mins (8.6% AA)
24g Goldings 15mins (4.6% AA)
25g Goldings 0mins (4.6% AA)

Gives me an estimated OG of 1.050 @ 70% efficiency and an IBU of just over 35 - spot on Garth!!

Final decision is on the yeast. I only have dried yeast available just now: S04, Nottingham, & US05. What are peoples opinion on which to use? I have used S04 in my previous AG's and am happy with it but wondered if nottingham or US05 might bring something else to such a light brew??

Thanks guys

G.

[Garth]

well, it looks good to me, I like Challenger, it's a good verstaile hop

Any of your listed yeasts would do, all have slightly different characteristics. I've used them all a good few times.

Nottingham is very neutral, I think it was DaaB who described it as 'two dimensional' but it does it's job well and lets hops/speciality malts come through.

S-04, I used this for ages but I got bored of the taste, can leave brews a little sweeter as it's not as attentive, can give beers the a 'samey' taste, still a very good reliable yeast.

US-05 is supposedly a famous American strain, I found it similar to Nottingham, quite neutral, left my beer very crisp, let the hops come through, but can take an age to clear, mine always dropped clear but took a while, made very good beer.

I am sure others have their favourites and will advise you further.

[Grahame]

Fantastic reply, thanks Garth! I agree with S04 giving a "samey" taste - all my beers I have made so far taste similar, despite widly different hops and grains used. I am gonna give the Nottingham a bash, hopefully it will allow the hop addition at 0 mins a chance to shine through.

Incidentally, when adding hops at 0 mins, do you wait a while before starting to cool, or just start cooling as normal? I have never did a 0 min addition so not quite so sure!

G.

[Garth]

I used to turn the boiler off, then chuck the 0 mins in straight away, after reading a bit of advice from the forum I believe it's now better practice to turn the boiler off, wait till the temp drops to 80C then bung them in, it dosen't boil off the delicate aroma. It's up to you which you do.

My local brewery told me they drop the 0 mins in straightaway at turn-off, and he makes some cracking brews with massive aromas. His Amarillo brew is quality. I dare say it's one of my desert island brews, along with Youngs Special London.