Summer ale

[bigdave]

How does this sound for a summer ale?




The pale malt addition is more of a 'user-upper' than anything else and I've intentionally gone for a high crystal content to bring out the sweetness of the grain. Hop wise, Stella is something I've used in combination with other hops with great success but never really as a stand alone hop so figured it'd be worth a blast. I don't want this to be too much about a hop punch but a balanced, malty sweet beer to help while away the long summer nights.

Yeast wise, I'm not really sure, I have S05 in stock but I'd rather use a yeast that might add a bit of something! I don't really have the time to split a liquid vial (hoping to brew over the bank holiday) so any dry yeast suggestions are more than welcome.

Thoughts and opinions always welcome

[timbo41]

Looks nice Dave. What does Stella bring to party? Not used this hop

[Manx Guy]

Hi
Looks fine to me, not sure what to suggest yeast wise..

Not used Stella either but should be a nice summer beer!

Did you brew the Kolsch?

Cheers!

Guy

[bigdave]

Yeah kolsch is fermenting away!

Stella (or Ella as its now known) offers floral spice with tropical notes (or so the Internet says).

[critch]

stella is a vicious, incredibly bitter hop, quite tasty though! i put 500g and1.5kg in an 11bbl batch(@10+0 respectively) and its almost too bitter(i dry hop with the other3.5kg) it seemed much more than 16%aa imo!(i also added 500 g of saaz @ 90 to stop the bugger boiling over, but thatd do bugger all ibu wise.....)

[bigdave]

stella is a vicious, incredibly bitter hop, quite tasty though! i put 500g and1.5kg in an 11bbl batch(@10+0 respectively) and its almost too bitter(i dry hop with the other3.5kg) it seemed much more than 16%aa imo!(i also added 500 g of saaz @ 90 to stop the bugger boiling over, but thatd do bugger all ibu wise.....)

Thanks, Think I might move the 60min addition to 45min.

[DeGarre]

With that amount of crystal it'll be cloying rather than sweet.

[keith1664]

With that amount of crystal it'll be cloying rather than sweet.

I agree, for a pale summer beer I'd also use a lighter crystal instead. Say 10% (at the most) caramalt.

[bigdave]

I've read a lot about crystal and cloying. It seems to be a rather subjective as half the info I've read says more than 500g will cause issues whilst the other half says anything up to 1300g is fine?..much of the information I've read was from American forums so the 3lb crystal bills were probably offset by huge hop profiles? As I'm not really sure on the results, I think I should perhaps play it safe and reduce the crystal to 8-10%?

Whilst colour isn't my primary concern, with an ebc of 51 (srm 26) I'm not really aiming for a pale ale.

[Barley Water]

I agree, that is a hell of a lot of crystal malt. Because the sugars are not fermentable not only will the beer end up very sweet but also heavy with a high terminal gravity. When you add to that oats, the beer will also be what I guess I would call "chewy". Because you entitled this thread "Summer Ale", I am making the assumption that "thirst quenching" is one of the attributes you are striving for. Ask yourself, on a warm day, do you crave toffee/caramel? Generally, a dryer product works better in that role. Citrus flavors also do well in hot weather, think lemonaide for instance. If you were making a "winter warmer" on the other hand I would think that Chewy would work well (think heavy fruit cake here). Naturally, this is homebrewing so at the end of the day, do whatever floats your boat.

[bigdave]

Tweaked the recipe slightly.