Hi There

[CharlieZ]

Hi there, just joined up going to try some home brewing I am sure I will find a wealth of info here, Also I like to do a Great Northern Brew for my first any tips will be mostly appreciated
Regards
Charlie

 

[yankinoz]

Your best bet is a Coopers or Morgans kit for Australian pale lager. Besides the liquid malt extract (LME), maybe use dextrose in moderation rather than brew enhancer. That will make the beer very dry and very light bodied. If you can, check the packing date on the bottom of the LME can. Past about three months it gradually acquires a darker colour and heavier malt flavours.

You might not want to use the kit yeast. On that count get some kit brewers to advise, but state the temperatures at which you expect to ferment the beer.

Great Northern would be a hard beer to clone from scratch.. Any beer that comes in clear glass bottles most likely uses isomerised hop extract for bittering (which is slight in GN), because exposure to light gives beer bittered with actual hops an aroma like skunks. GN may also flavour with a very light touch of distilled oils from hops or citrus peels. From the one time I tried I got a bit of those aromatics.

 

[MHB]

Ok it isn’t a beer that I think a lot of but if you want to make something heading in that direction, here goes...

It’s a lager; if you aren’t set up to making lager properly don’t go there until you are. Braukaiser has a pretty good section on how to make a basic lager, it’s worth taking the time to read through it and making some choices.
You will get a fair way in the direction you want to go with a highly attenuateive (good at eating sugar) Ale yeast brewed cool. Good temperature control is going to be important either way (Lager or Ale).

The website for Great Northern says the beer is 4.2% ABV (Alcohol By Volume) and 11 IBU (International Bittering Units) and claims to have a light fruity taste.

If you are a kit brewer I would go with something like a can of Coopers Canadian Blond, 1kg of dextrose, a better yeast, Nottingham fermented around 16oC would fit the bill nicely, and maybe just a smidge of one of the fruity hops, maybe 5g of something like UK Challenger or one of the more citrusy US hops like Cascade/Citra (lots of C hops) but for god’s sake go easy on the hops or they will dominate the beer.

If you are thinking of going all grain, let us know if you want a hand with the recipe. If you have an Hydrometer, let a bit of the beer warm up and measure the FG, from that and the ABV equation you can work out the OG... A lot can go into designing a clone, some hard numbers are a big help.
Mark

 

[AHB_Admin]

Hello Charlie, welcome to the forums.

 

[yankinoz]

(QUOTE)
Nottingham fermented around 16oC would fit the bill nicely, and maybe just a smidge of one of the fruity hops, maybe 5g of something like UK Challenger or one of the more citrusy US hops like Cascade/Citra (lots of C hops) but for god’s sake go easy on the hops or they will dominate the beer.

Yup, Nottingham's a fav for faux lager, but I've always gone down to 12--14. It works. We don't know what temp control he has. if any. Wendouree, at some altitude, would be expecting hot days and cool nights. Charlie, please advise.

 

[philrob]

G'day, and welcome.