South Dublin collaborative brewday

[Shanna]

So Molc & I have been mulling over doing a brewday together for a while now. One of the things we have not decided on is a recipe.

Molc i would like to try something like an Irish red ale, Scottish ale, altbier or a British golden ale. Something reasonably  drinkable would be my preference & ideally something I have done I frequently or not all. Anyway just some ideas to start the ball rolling. Be interested to hear your thoughts.


Shanna

[molc]

Never made any if those styles so all sound good to me!

I was going to say not an Irish red, but then the thought of getting Conor to drink one made me think it's a great idea! I really like the O Haras red, a lovely caramel flavour with a hint of chocolate makes it very drinkable.

Altbier is pretty similar to a cal common, but doesn't it need lagering to really shine?

I've never had a Scottish ale that I liked, so would need to try a good commercial example first before picking that.

I know nothing about golden ales. Educate me!

Also where do we want to do it and do we want to have people around and make it a social day? Don't mind having everyone around to mine,  but I'm Northside, which might scare some people away...

[Shanna]

Never made any if those styles so all sound good to me!

I was going to say not an Irish red, but then the thought of getting Conor to drink one made me think it's a great idea! I really like the O Haras red, a lovely caramel flavour with a hint of chocolate makes it very drinkable.

Altbier is pretty similar to a cal common, but doesn't it need lagering to really shine?

I've never had a Scottish ale that I liked, so would need to try a good commercial example first before picking that.

I know nothing about golden ales. Educate me!

Also where do we want to do it and do we want to have people around and make it a social day? Don't mind having everyone around to mine,  but I'm Northside, which might scare some people away...

Can do South side, yes to social but for me social has to wait till wort is in fermenter & yeast pitched Have trouble keeping everything correct without adding drink into selection of things that can mess things up. Yes to having people over & can do a grill fired menu (gas ) afterwards. If you don't mind doing it over here so I don't have kids/wife issues to deal with. Plenty space in back garden & shed. Just have to figure out numbers for logistics etc. First up is the recipe. Drawn to the idea of altbier, golden ale (was bcjp guidelines lucky dip). Will we get away with one set of gear further day. I would hope so.

Shanna

[molc]

Your place is cool with me if it makes it easier for you.

Yeah we can go with one set of gear I think and just split the batch into 2 kegs or whatever. That will still be easily 15L each assuming we only got 30L post boil and I'd say we'll get more. Plus this way we can dial in your process etc better, rather than spending half the day messing with setup and teardown.

Let's say golden ale then? Can reuse the yeast easier than with the altbier and it's a total unknown to me, which always appeals

I'll start looking at a recipe over the weekend and come up with something and you can see what you think/like/hate

Edit: not much separated a golden ale from an American pale ale. Might even be straight wlp001 for the yeast!

[Shanna]

Your place is cool with me if it makes it easier for you.

Yeah we can go with one set of gear I think and just split the batch into 2 kegs or whatever. That will still be easily 15L each assuming we only got 30L post boil and I'd say we'll get more. Plus this way we can dial in your process etc better, rather than spending half the day messing with setup and teardown.

Let's say golden ale then? Can reuse the yeast easier than with the altbier and it's a total unknown to me, which always appeals

I'll start looking at a recipe over the weekend and come up with something and you can see what you think/like/hate

Edit: not much separated a golden ale from an American pale ale. Might even be straight wlp001 for the yeast!

OK say golden ale then. Time to cleanup the garage & the shed & fix my boiler.

Shanna

[Shanna]

Edit: not much separated a golden ale from an American pale ale. Might even be straight wlp001 for the yeast!

From what I have read yeast health is very important as this style is so light. WLP001 is a good choice do we need to Buy some liquid yeast or can you make a pair of starters? I was thinking about 90% marris otter, 5% very light crystal & 5% Vienna or Munich malt. Preference is for Noble Czech or English hops but would be interested in hearing if you want to "yank" it up.

Shawna

[Bubbles]

I was going to say not an Irish red, but then the thought of getting Conor to drink one made me think it's a great idea!

I actually quite like like irish reds, if they're done well. Try Dungarvan copper coast next time you see it. It's the best example on the market imo. Bru do a pretty good one too.

[molc]

Edit: not much separated a golden ale from an American pale ale. Might even be straight wlp001 for the yeast!

From what I have read yeast health is very important as this style is so light. WLP001 is a good choice do we need to Buy some liquid yeast or can you make a pair of starters? I was thinking about 90% marris otter, 5% very light crystal & 5% Vienna or Munich malt. Preference is for Noble Czech or English hops but would be interested in hearing if you want to "yank" it up.

Shawna

This is what I love about people trying a new style together. So many ideas.

Looking at the style guides, crystal isn't meant to feature in the flavour. They suggest bread and sometimes a little biscuity. Also had a look at Graham Wheelers recipe for fullers lightening as well. He goes more towards the crystal 120 range, with a bunch of wheat for the bready notes.

So I was thinking 80% English pale,15% wheat and 5% biscuit, aiming for 1045. Bittering to 20-25IBU with a high AA hop, maybe magnum, then flameout steep of 10 minutes to get the most out of the flavour and aroma of what we pick. I'd say maybe 30g at flameout.

For hops, was thinking classic citrus of cascade and centennial or maybe go tropical fruits with Galaxy. If we're staying British, then fuggles and ekg maybe? Or Saaz and Liberty could be nice too!

Finally yeast, esb could be nice to give a bit more malt presence. I can buy and make a starter for that, as I'll use it anyway for a few beers after.

For using both light crystal and Munich/Vienna, my only concern would it being too malty and sweet, especially with a low crystal




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[molc]

I was going to say not an Irish red, but then the thought of getting Conor to drink one made me think it's a great idea!

I actually quite like like irish reds, if they're done well. Try Dungarvan copper coast next time you see it. It's the best example on the market imo. Bru do a pretty good one too.

Yeah totally agreed. When done well, it's very drinkable. Beautiful on nitro as well.

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[craiclad]

When you say a communal brew day, what does that entail? Everyone from SDB getting together and making a batch of beer?

[molc]

When you say a communal brew day, what does that entail? Everyone from SDB getting together and making a batch of beer?

As far as I know, the idea was that Shanna and myself were going to have a brewday to go over processes etc and have a good chinwag over all things brewing while liquids boil, ending up with 2 kegs of beer that we would then ferment seperately in our setups. That way you get to separate hot side from cold side, while also hopefully helping us both with issues we have on brewdays.

I think Shanna has some larger plans for the day, but he's best placed to answer that. I'm not putting words in anyone's mouth or I'll get shot

@Shanna, what direction will we go with the recipe? We've different ideas on both malt bills and hops - what's your gut saying on the final composition? Also, when do you want to do this? June bank holiday?

[Shanna]

When you say a communal brew day, what does that entail? Everyone from SDB getting together and making a batch of beer?

As far as I know, the idea was that Shanna and myself were going to have a brewday to go over processes etc and have a good chinwag over all things brewing while liquids boil, ending up with 2 kegs of beer that we would then ferment seperately in our setups. That way you get to separate hot side from cold side, while also hopefully helping us both with issues we have on brewdays.

I think Shanna has some larger plans for the day, but he's best placed to answer that. I'm not putting words in anyone's mouth or I'll get shot

@Shanna, what direction will we go with the recipe? We've different ideas on both malt bills and hops - what's your gut saying on the final composition? Also, when do you want to do this? June bank holiday?

Happy to give your head with the recipe so post your suggestion & we can work off that. Communal brewday is just that. Have a few friends and or fellow brewers around from earlier in the day. I normally crush the grain and fill the water the day before. I would hope to have strike water & herms water ready to mash in around 14:00.in the afternoon. My herms then takes over for about and hour and then sparge around 15:15 for about another half an hour and drain into the boiler. Get the boiler going for an hour taking us up to about 17:00..Chill over half an hour & into the fermenter aerated by 18:00. Spend about half an hour cleaning up. Get a barbeque + food going then. Generally I don't drink when brewing as I make enough mistakes when I am sober, but what everybody else does is up to themselves. I will invite a few non brewing friends over later in the day unless they be an to to see the brewing themselves. It will be low key & all SD brewers are welcome.

I would plan to do it on the Sunday of the bank holiday as I have Monday off. This gives me sufficient time on Saturday to get anything I need for the barbeque etc. If your interested in this please me know. It.might not be for everyone but I found that when I had Conor + CH pay me a visit in the past that they gave me loads of practical tips. Only thing that can go wrong is the weather but even with that we can always cook indoors. My wife is willing to help out with the food so that will help enormously.

Having even one or two other brewers over will make light work of things as many hands make light work. Let me know if this sounds like a plan.

Shanna

[molc]

Happy to give your head with the recipe so post your suggestion & we can work off that.

Cool I'll dust off Beersmith and come up with a few suggestions. You get to pick the final one Do you have a water profile by any chance? Also, what size batch will I set as the target?

[Shanna]

Happy to give your head with the recipe so post your suggestion & we can work off that.

Cool I'll dust off Beersmith and come up with a few suggestions. You get to pick the final one Do you have a water profile by any chance? Also, what size batch will I set as the target?

No water profile, water is generally soft from Ballymore Eustace as far as I know. I generally add a Camden tablet in to water in the boil kettle. Mashtun holds 50 litres & so does my boil kettle but probably want to target about 40 litres in to the boil kettle to begin with.

Shanna

[molc]

Ok, here's a recipe from all of that, with the beersmith recipe as well. I've assumed 72% mash effeciency, aiming for under 4% ABV and used hallertau and saaz to keep with your original hopping idea.

Kept hopping to the low side of the style and also used round figures, so it's a single bag of each.
Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 41.04 l
Post Boil Volume: 37.44 l
Batch Size (fermenter): 34.00 l   
Bottling Volume: 33.00 l
Estimated OG: 1.042 SG
Estimated Color: 5.4 SRM
Estimated IBU: 23.4 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 68.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 72.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt                   Name                                     Type          #        %/IBU         
5.500 kg              Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (3.0 SRM)           Grain         1        80.3 %       
1.000 kg              CHÂTEAU WHEAT BLANC (2.8 SRM)            Grain         2        14.6 %       
0.350 kg              CHÂTEAU BISCUIT® (25.4 SRM)              Grain         3        5.1 %         
50.00 g               Hallertauer Mittelfrueh [4.30 %] - Boil  Hop           4        19.6 IBUs     
25.00 g               Saaz [3.60 %] - Boil 10.0 min            Hop           5        1.6 IBUs     
25.00 g               Saaz [3.60 %] - Steep/Whirlpool  20.0 mi Hop           6        2.2 IBUs     
1.0 pkg               English Ale (White Labs #WLP002) [35.49  Yeast         7        -             
50.00 g               Saaz [3.60 %] - Dry Hop 5.0 Days         Hop           8        0.0 IBUs     


Mash Schedule: Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 6.850 kg
----------------------------
Name              Description                             Step Temperature   Step Time     
Mash In           Add 27.35 l of water at 70.9 C          66.0 C             45 min       

Sparge: Batch sparge with 2 steps (Drain mash tun , 21.55l) of 76.0 C water