# RecipeDB - Sheila



## jonocarroll (17/9/09)

Sheila  Ale - American Pale Ale  All Grain                      Brewer's Notes BJCP 6B. Blonde AleBrewing this for my brother's engagement party.Mash temp 65°C for 60mins.60 min boil.Kegged.Edit: Changed 60min addition from 15g to 20g, added mash temp   Malt & Fermentables    % KG Fermentable      3.5 kg JWM Traditional Ale Malt    0.3 kg TF Torrefied Wheat    0.1 kg JWM Amber Malt    0.1 kg Weyermann Melanoidin       Hops    Time Grams Variety Form AA      20 g Pride of Ringwood (Pellet, 9.0AA%, 60mins)    10 g Pride of Ringwood (Pellet, 9.0AA%, 10mins)       Yeast     11 g DCL Yeast US-05 - American Ale       Misc     1 tablet Whirfloc    1 tsp Yeast Nutrient         21L Batch Size    Brew Details   Original Gravity 1.045 (calc)   Final Gravity 1.011 (calc)   Bitterness 26.8 IBU   Efficiency 75%   Alcohol 4.42%   Colour 12 EBC   Batch Size 21L     Fermentation   Primary 7 days   Conditioning 4 days


----------



## jonocarroll (17/9/09)

My brother's getting engaged, and I've been commissioned to make the beer for the celebration. w00t!

He (and his mates) are not exactly quaffers of fine lagers, so I'm going for something simple, slightly familiar, but at the same time, a little different. I'm keen for any suggestions, but I'll be brewing this Saturday 19/9/9 so get in quick.

My thoughts;

A blonde ale: fairly non-threatening, should be nicely drinkable all night. Doesn't hurt that my local club is having this as an upcoming comp.
Hops: Pride of Ringwood - surely familiar. Not over the top hopefully.
Wheat: Head-retention and to mellow it out a little.
Amber: Hopefully a slight biscuit-ey taste, but we'll see. Previous threads have lead me to use this amount.
Melanoidin: Hopefully just a little malt sweetness, without caramel.

The name: Please, it's an Australian-hopped Blonde Ale; An Australian Blonde. It had to be named Sheila.

Any thoughts?


----------



## chappo1970 (17/9/09)

Looks like a nice girly (pun intended) quaffer QB. Purely personal I would up the biterness to a quidge under 30 IBU's and the late hopping another 10-20grs to taste. Also while still on the hops have you considered Galaxy for a late addition? Has nice flavour and aroma, a little bit POR-ish, but without the grassiness.

Chap Chap


----------



## Adamt (17/9/09)

Mash schedule? I'd mash it 63ish, the masses can't handle any malt sweetness.

"What is this shit, lolly water?!"

If you're going to leave it with some body, up the hops a little.


----------



## jonocarroll (17/9/09)

Chappo said:


> Looks like a nice girly (pun intended) quaffer QB. Purely personal I would up the biterness to a quidge under 30 IBU's and the late hopping another 10-20grs to taste. Also while still on the hops have you considered Galaxy for a late addition? Has nice flavour and aroma, a little bit POR-ish, but without the grassiness.


Girly? I wasn't going for that. Really? Quaffer, yes.

I'm keeping the bitterness low (still going for a comp entry, and BJCP is 15-28).

As for late-hopping, this is for a lot of megaswill drinkers (I'm not even telling them the style in fear of the phrase 'oh, it's a pure blonde?') so I'm keeping it subtle. That, and I don't think it's suited to the style (APA, yes, but this is really a 'blonde ale' - there just wasn't an option to select that in the DB).

Galaxy: I've got Katie's 'Planet of the Grapes' on tap now, which is full on Galaxy. While it's perfectly to my tastes, I don't think it's what I'm aiming for here.


Cheers for the opinions Chappo.


----------



## jonocarroll (17/9/09)

Adamt said:


> Mash schedule? I'd mash it 63ish, the masses can't handle any malt sweetness.
> 
> "What is this shit, lolly water?!"
> 
> If you're going to leave it with some body, up the hops a little.


Good point - I forgot the mash altogether... whoops. First time putting a recipe in IIRC.

Yeah, 63 sounds good. Hopefully the melanoidin provides some malt sweetness without too much sugary sweetness. My main sticking point is that I haven't experimented with PoR myself, so I'm not sure how far to push the hops in this case while somewhat keeping to style.

Another 10g at flameout?


----------



## buttersd70 (17/9/09)

I tend to agree that the bittering addition should be upped....I would say about 25-27 -ish would still be fairly non-threatening. Given that it's for non beer drinkers (in a craft sense), I'd disagree with chappo about the late hopping. I would be leaving the late addition about where it is. Should still give a present hop flavour without scaring them off.

Kind of agree with Adam, but I don't think I'd go that low. Maybe 65.


----------



## Adamt (17/9/09)

I guess bitterness is pretty subjective though, if your beer is all they're drinking, halfway through their first pint they'll adjust to it.


----------



## jonocarroll (17/9/09)

buttersd70 said:


> I tend to agree that the bittering addition should be upped....I would say about 25-27 -ish would still be fairly non-threatening. Given that it's for non beer drinkers (in a craft sense), I'd disagree with chappo about the late hopping. I would be leaving the late addition about where it is. Should still give a present hop flavour without scaring them off.
> 
> Kind of agree with Adam, but I don't think I'd go that low. Maybe 65.





Adamt said:


> I guess bitterness is pretty subjective though, if your beer is all they're drinking, halfway through their first pint they'll adjust to it.


Cool. I mean, warm. Ah. I'll go with 65.

20g @ 60min & 10g @ 10min will give me the 27 IBUs. Sounds good. I'll update the recipe to reflect changes.

Cheers Adamt & buttersd70.

I'll be brewing a fair bit these next few months, so I'll be able to give my brother a taste early, and if he doesn't like it he can choose a different keg.


----------



## drsmurto (18/9/09)

QB - I've been tasked with providing the beer for a camping trip next weekend so i brewed 2 kegs of my golden ale and 2 kegs of an aussie pale ale.

The aussie pale was very similar to your blonde ale and it appears the thinking the same too. A quaffer without too much to offend people.

Sub crystal for melanoidin.

Sub coopers for US05

Only had a 60 min addition of POR so as little hop flavour as possible!

Will be interesting to see which kegs get hit the hardest!


----------



## jonocarroll (18/9/09)

DrSmurto said:


> QB - I've been tasked with providing the beer for a camping trip next weekend so i brewed 2 kegs of my golden ale and 2 kegs of an aussie pale ale.
> 
> The aussie pale was very similar to your blonde ale and it appears the thinking the same too. A quaffer without too much to offend people.
> 
> ...


Cheers DrSmurto - but are you sure about the crystal? As much as I'm brewing this for a party, it's also for the club comp, and BJCP suggests low malt sweetness with no caramel. I _would_ try out the coopers yeast on this one, but since I haven't tried that yet I reckon I'll stick with the US-05. I'll brew up a second batch sometime with both the crystal and the coopers yeast for comparison.

Sounds like you've got all you need for a great camping trip!


----------



## drsmurto (18/9/09)

Mashed at 64 from memory, maybe 65 so don't think that amount of crystal will do much other than add a bit of colour!

And if you are brewing it for a BJCP comp as a blonde ale then no, stick to what you have.


----------



## jonocarroll (18/9/09)

DrSmurto said:


> Mashed at 64 from memory, maybe 65 so don't think that amount of crystal will do much other than add a bit of colour!
> 
> And if you are brewing it for a BJCP comp as a blonde ale then no, stick to what you have.


Yeah, as it stands I'm already at the upper bound for colour using BJCP, and I reckon the amber I've calculated with is a much lower EBC than what BeerBelly have, so I'll leave it as stands.

Cheers for the suggestions - I'll try to tap off a bottle or two for comparison later.


----------



## buttersd70 (18/9/09)

DrSmurto said:


> QB - I've been tasked with providing the beer for a camping trip next weekend so i brewed 2 kegs of my golden ale and 2 kegs of an aussie pale ale.



I didn't drink the dregs off the yeast from your pale ale, that you gave me. I _swear _I didn't. No photos were taken, so it can't be proved. :unsure:


----------



## drsmurto (18/9/09)

buttersd70 said:


> I didn't drink the dregs off the yeast from your pale ale, that you gave me. I _swear _I didn't. No photos were taken, so it can't be proved. :unsure:



:lol: 

I like to provide a free sample with each yeastcake........


----------



## jonocarroll (18/9/09)

Any other opinions? Otherwise I'm gonna order the grains.

Cheers all for the helpful suggestions. :beer:


----------



## marksfish (18/9/09)

recipe looks good should please the masses.
BUT will one keg be enough


----------



## Katherine (18/9/09)

QuantumBrewer said:


> Any other opinions? Otherwise I'm gonna order the grains.
> 
> Cheers all for the helpful suggestions. :beer:




Maybe a name change... I find it so offensive


----------



## jonocarroll (18/9/09)

Katie said:


> Maybe a name change... I find it so offensive


It's a name, not a statement. Feel free to call your next beer Bruce.  

@marksfish: that's something I'm not sure about... perhaps I'll have time to brew DrSmurto's above suggestion as well and have it on hand for swapping out.


----------



## Katherine (18/9/09)

I was joking


----------



## jonocarroll (15/10/09)

This one's kegged and tasted. My brother approves.

I reckon the bitterness is a little high - maybe Sheila's an ex wife?  

Still a decent aussie pale though, I reckon. The PoR certainly didn't overpower, and there's no grassiness there as far as I can tell. All in all, I'm happy with the result.


Cheers all!


----------



## Effect (15/10/09)

QuantumBrewer said:


> This one's kegged and tasted. My brother approves.
> 
> I reckon the bitterness is a little high - maybe Sheila's an ex wife?
> 
> ...



How is the melanoiden in there? Malty buy not sweet?

I like the looks of the recipe and am glad to hear that it gets the thumbs up from your brother.

As far as the bitterness goes, as stated earlier in this thread, they will adjust about half way through their first pint.

Hope it all goes well. Oh, BTW how much did you brew? Just one keg?

Cheers
Phil


----------



## jonocarroll (16/10/09)

Phillip said:


> How is the melanoiden in there? Malty buy not sweet?


I'm not sure I'm experienced enough to pick it too precisely. There's definitely some smooth malt flavour though.



Phillip said:


> Oh, BTW how much did you brew? Just one keg?


Yeah, just the one for now. I might have to re-brew it for the summer to drink myself.

Cheers!


----------



## MitchDudarko (23/6/10)

Did you ever end up brewing this one again? Did you sub any ingredients? How did it go at the party?


----------



## jonocarroll (24/6/10)

MitchDudarko said:


> Did you ever end up brewing this one again? Did you sub any ingredients? How did it go at the party?


With so many styles to try, I've done very few repeats. I would brew this one again though.

It was very well received - I told my brother that I would provide the beer for the party, and that as such he wouldn't need to buy any. Nonetheless, he had a carton of crap on hand.

I noticed some people drinking the crap at some stage and pointed out that there was beer on tap (perhaps the Porta-Keg wasn't located obviously enough) and they hesitantly said 'I'll give it a go in a minute, but I've tried home brew'. I later saw them pour a pint, then another, then another. After a while, the crap beer wasn't being touched at all. Very happy with that result. The only problem was that the keg got emptied rather quickly, and the backup I brought was the only other beer I had in a keg... my delicate, carefully crafted Boh-Pils, which got down to dregs by the end of the party.

The report from various people at the end of the night was that they preferred the Shiela over the pils. I should have just made more of that one.


----------

