2 Beers 1 Brew - Differing Cube Hops

[argon]

Something i've been wanting to do for a while now is split a double batch of generic wort into 2 cubes, chuck american hops in one and english in the other to create 2 beers from 1 brew (... now i have 2 girls 1 cup stuck in my head :icon_vomit: ). So i'll document here to see how close i go to hitting 2 styles with one brew session.

Somewhat inspired by a SE QLD brewer who sneaks English grainbills into American beers, i thought i'd go for the 2 close cousins of the Brown Ale variety... American Brown Ale and Northern English Brown Ale.

From the guidelines, it's suggested that ABAs are an American evolution of an NEBA;

Can be considered a bigger, maltier, hoppier interpretation of Northern English brown ale

So what i want to do is make a reasonably malty/nutty/biscuty wort with only a hint of caramel and chocoalte using a relatively smooth and neutral bittering hop... in my case i have a bunch of EKG which i've had good results using a as a bittering addition. Then add to each cube a big hit of american 'C' hops to one, for some big hoppiness and a more subtle addition of EKG to the other in order to sit somewhere in the guidelines for each style.

Furthermore, and somewhat obviously, i'll ferment each with a different yeast. US05 and WY1469 for the American and English respectively.

Now coming up to comp season, both BABBs (NEBA only as ABA has been and gone) and QABC i'll enter each into the appropriate section and see how i go.

Here's the recipe i'm thinking of going with, and wouldn't mind any advice on tweaking things;

BeerSmith Recipe Printout - http://www.beersmith.com
Recipe: Little Fella's Brown Ale(s)
Brewer: Argon
Asst Brewer:
Style: American Brown Ale / Northern English Brown Ale
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (35.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 43.00 L
Boil Size: 52.70 L
Estimated OG: 1.056 SG
Estimated Color: 18.2 SRM
Estimated IBU: 39.8 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
7.00 kg Ale Malt, Golden Promise (Thomas Fawcett) Grain 68.29 %
2.00 kg Munich I Malt (Weyermann) (7.1 SRM) Grain 19.51 %
0.75 kg Victory Malt (biscuit) (Briess) (28.0 SRM)Grain 7.32 %
0.20 kg Chocolate Malt - Pale (Thomas Fawcett) (33Grain 1.95 %
0.20 kg Crystal Malt Dark (Thomas Fawcett) (121.8 Grain 1.95 %
0.10 kg Chocolate Malt (Thomas Fawcett) (508.0 SRMGrain 0.98 %

Kettle Hops
100.00 gm East Kent Goldings [4.70 %] (60 min) Hops 26.2 IBU

Cube Hops 1
40.00 gm Cascade [5.40 %] (10 min) Hops 4.4 IBU
40.00 gm Chinook [11.40 %] (10 min) Hops 9.2 IBU

Cube Hops 2
40.00 gm East Kent Goldings [4.70 %] (10 min) Hops 3.8 IBU

8.00 gm Calcium Chloride (Mash 60.0 min) Misc

Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Light Body
Total Grain Weight: 10.25 kg
----------------------------
Single Infusion, Light Body
Step Time Name Description Step Temp
60 min Mash In Add 27.00 L of water at 72.5 C 65.0 C


Notes:
------
Cube 1 = 40 Chinook + 40 Cascade (39.8IBU) US05 - American Brown
Cube 2 = 40 EKG (30IBU) WY1469 - Northern English Brown
estimated mash pH 5.32


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[Bribie G]

Argon, grain bill looks mouthwatering.
However the late hops........ why are you cube hopping? If you are looking to position both brews as far away from each other as possible by means of the late hops, why not use la methode argonoise ?

i.e. chill cubes to about 8 degrees and steal wort from each and carry out post-cube boils with the chosen hops, then pitch immediately?


Edit: I reckon the EKG, despite being boiled as a bittering addition, may still come through as UK ... maybe go Northern Brewer GER to the same IBU?

 

[argon]

Argon, grain bill looks mouthwatering.
However the late hops........ why are you cube hopping? If you are looking to position both brews as far away from each other as possible by means of the late hops, why not use la methode argonoise ?

i.e. chill cubes to about 8 degrees and steal wort from each and carry out post-cube boils with the chosen hops, then pitch immediately?


Edit: I reckon the EKG, despite being boiled as a bittering addition, may still come through as UK ... maybe go Northern Brewer GER to the same IBU?

Not a bad idea Bribie.. although i don't want either to be overly hoppy. I might consider it for the ABA, but i'd like to keep both beers malt focused.

In regards to the EKG, I considered that, and I figure this is quite a crafty ploy on my behalf, because I'm allowed to use UK hops in the ABA
From ABA Guideline;

American hops are typical, but UK or noble hops can also be used

Edit: also Little Creatures use it as a kettle addition and i get none of it coming through from them... but in saying that i'm sure that the Cascade and Galaxy stomp all over it without prejudice.

 

[ekul]

I played around with this for ages but i found the resultant beers to be a little 'empty'. I could taste the bitterness, and i had aroma, but there was little in between. Its a good experimetn to do to find exactly what cube hops can do though. I cube hop all the time, but if you want flavour, you really need to do a flavour addition. This flavour addition can be smaller if you cube hop though.

I played around with it a fair bit because i wasn't always meeting my boil off requirements. When you're only adding bittering and cube hops it doesn't really matter if you boiil for an extra 20mins.
I'm not rying to discourage you, i reckon cube hops are great, especially with flowers. Cube hopping is so much better with flowers for some reason. And if you have a beer which is meant to be malt forward it can kind of work without a flavour addition.

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

<snip>
Somewhat inspired by a SE QLD brewer who sneaks English grainbills into American beers, i thought i'd go for the 2 close cousins of the Brown Ale variety...

Reminded me of this description of Bairds Perle Malt on the CB website:

A very popular winter barley with British breweries.
Also used extensively on the West Coast of the USA in IPA's, etc. The grains are
fully modified & it gives a great extract with full malt flavour profile.

It's pretty damn cheap and is my base malt now for all british and american balanced but hoppy ales.

Goomba

 

[argon]

Brewed the double batch this morning... was supposed to dough in around 7am, but had some problems with grain not feeding into the new mill properly (free roller was a bit stiff as some grain got stuck there somehow <_< )

After much swearing got it sorted and doughed in around 8.15. From then on everything went fine, till i accidently added twice as many hops to the cubes, forgetting to halve each addition from the double batch recipe . So assuming cube hops as 10 min additions, the Northern English will be about 34IBU and the American will be much too bitter at 53IBU. All cleaned up by 12.45pm with 2 cubes in waiting for some top cropped 1469 and a starter of US05 i'll knock up tonight.

ah well these things happen... it'll still be beer and still be tasty is my guess.

 

[Bribie G]

It must be catching. I did a double batch on Saturday and cube hopped one cube with 30g Aurora , and intended to do the second one with a post cube hop boil with some of the wort. Then I bought a 60L fermenter so tipped both in and accidentally did a short boil with 60g of Aurora instead of 30. OOps, forgot the first cube had got 30 already. But should mellow out as it's 46 Litres in there.

 

[mwd]

American Brown with Chinook and Cascade at around 53IBUs sounds yummy to me bet it turns out wonderful.

 

[argon]

American Brown with Chinook and Cascade at around 53IBUs sounds yummy to me bet it turns out wonderful.

yeah not upset really... just one of those things that you remember once it's done. I'm trying to convince myself that the piney/citrusy hops will cut through some of the chocolate and the bitterness won't be as apparent.

 

[beerbrewer76543]

Might come out something like the Little Creatures Brown... :icon_drool2: