Pale Ale With Ek Goldings?

[marlow_coates]

Hey guys and girls,

Brewing a Pale Ale tomorrow and was hoping a few in-the-know could OK the recipe or point out any serious errors.

Pale Ale to 60L

2 x tins of Coopers Pale Ale
3kg LDME
500gms dextrose
300gms crystal steeped
300gms carapils (have yet to pick this up but want a nice head)

OG 1044
Anticipated FG 1012

Hops
EK Goldings
20gms 20min
30gms 10min
40gms 0min

Fuggles
10gms 0min

Yeast - Safale s-04 or Safale us-05?? not sure what would be better
Ferment at 18C

My main concern is the hops. Is EK Goldings used in Pale Ales?
If it is totally wrong I can easily pick up some other hops tomorrow.

Cheers in advance for any advice or feedback.

Marlow

 

[discoloop]

EKG will be very nice in this. I did something similar with Fuggle a few weeks ago and it's shaping up very nicely. Reckon the softer EKG would have been even better. I'd use S-04 for a bit more of that british character.

Only thing I'd be concerned about is your bitterness. Don't have beersmith handy so can't check the figures, but I suspect if it were me I'd be shooting for a higher IBU. Those Coopers pale kits are not particularly bitter and you're spreading two of them over virtually three batches. Anyhow, that's my opinion but it's your beer....

 

[Scruffy]

I've just opened a bag of 2009 NZ Goldings Flowers (5.0%) - lovely smell, and like they said at CraftBrewer - very like the English (i've got some EKG and Styrian in the fridge too, so I'm not comparing from memory...) - I'd boil the crap out of the coopers kit first and use S-04 - the harsh bitterness, if you decide to throw all the hop in at start, will mellow over a few weeks in the bottle... your bag of LDME will also help the head...
I think your hops are fine!! (but then i like hops...)

 

[seemax]

Go with the S-04, it will add some fruitiness... US-05 far too neutral for a Brit Ale.

EKG is a great bittering/aroma hop.... Fuggles not bad too, but EKG is my preference, a softer(?) well rounded hop.

 

[RobboMC]

I see you are raising the quality of the beer you produce, good on you.

IMHO ditch the dex, keep it for priming if you already have it,
and double the crystal.

I use a full kg of crsytal in 25 litres, so for 60 litres it'll take double this easy,
maybe even triple. Try and steep it at 70 deg C, add a touch extra hot water toward the end,
and hey presto you are doing a mini-mash. I started my mashing efforts just this way, and I do like caramel flavoured beer.

Goldings makes a nice English Ale, you are onto a good path here, but make sure you give the Fuggles
a minute or 3 of boil, I dry hopped them into an IPA once and it was not great.

Maybe reverse you quantities of Goldings and up the boil times, like 40g@30min, 30g@20min, 20g@0min;
or maybe just ADD 40g@40min to your schedule to up the bitterness somewhat as discoloop suggests.

You will notice the BIG difference between beer bittered just by a kit and that bittered with Goldings.

Next step is to drop the kit and just use that LDME.

 

[tcraig20]

I agree with Robbo on reversing the hopping schedule.

I'd also suggest dropping the carapils entirely. Use wheat malt to get your head retention - replace 1kg LDME with wheat LDME.

 

[marlow_coates]

Cheers for the advice and recommendations fellas,

Here is what I have altered the recipe to:

3 x 1.7kg Coopers Pale Ale tins
1 x 1.5kg Morgans unhopped liquid wheat malt (I think this is 50% wheat and 50% barley)
1kg LDME
1.6kg Crystal - steeped

Expected OG 1048
Expected FG - 1014
Expected ABV - 5.1-5.3% (with priming)

Hops
EK Goldings 30gms at 20min, 10min and 0min
Fuggles 10gms at 0min

Going with s-04 based on a couple of your recomendations, at 17-18C.

The 3 tins of coopers is to up the bitterness overall, and I am keeping the hop additions relatively short (20, 10 and 0min) to just add the flavour and aroma and not over bitter it.

Added the wheat for head retention, and upped the crystal (hope it won't over sweeten it, but considering the size of the brew should be alright)

Going to do this in about an hour, so if anyone can see big issues please let me know, otherwise I will report back on the outcome in a couple of weeks.

Cheers again

Marlow

 

[The Big Burper]

Hops
EK Goldings 30gms at 20min, 10min and 0min
Fuggles 10gms at 0min


Cheers again

Marlow

Hi Marlow,


Probably too late now, but in English style ales, Fuggles is the bittering hop and EK Goldings is the aroma hop, so in the above recipe, substitute Fuggles for your Goldings and Goldings for your Fuggles. :unsure:

 

[marlow_coates]

Hey guys,

I ended up with 3 kegs full of this Ale. Sat for 1 week in the kegs, drunk 2 on the weekend with a BBQ.
Not sure whether it classifies as a Pale or a Bitter. But I am not brewing to a category here (strictly speaking)

It was quite nice. I am no good at describing beer tastes but here is having a go.

Simple, but with a semi dry finish.
Not overly malty (as expected), with a medium body that was enough to back the hops.
A bitterness that wasn't out of place, and a distinct hop flavour, which I am assuming is the EK goldings.

Overall impressions from others was that it was well liked.
Used Polyclar for the first time and was very impressed with the clarity of the beer :icon_cheers:

This is an easy drinker / quaffer, that was simple to make and not intimidating for new beer drinkers trying homebrew.
The s-04 made it quite clean.

Will try and put this on the recipe database, as I don't think there is anything much I would change about it.

Cheers again for the advice. If it changes significantly with time in the keg I will report back.

Marlow

 

[King Brown]

Hi Marlow,


Probably too late now, but in English style ales, Fuggles is the bittering hop and EK Goldings is the aroma hop, so in the above recipe, substitute Fuggles for your Goldings and Goldings for your Fuggles. :unsure:

Actually EKG is fine as a bittering hop, its just a lower alpha variety so you will have to use more of it then if you used fuggles. In fact its fine to make a beer entirely out of low alpha hops provided you add enough, and as these hops are generally less harsh the beer will probably turn out better