Pale Ale

Australia & New Zealand Homebrewing Forum

Help Support Australia & New Zealand Homebrewing Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

ryanator

Well-Known Member
Joined
9/5/05
Messages
201
Reaction score
0
Hi everyone!

I was once pretty good at the old kit brews but gave it away for about four years due to other commitments. Now I'm ready to drag out the fermenters and have another crack at it. With fear of being a bit rusty, I thought I'd run a recipe by you guys first.

I was looking at doing a pale ale using:
Coopers Australian Pale Ale Kit
Safale S-04 Yeast
2kg Light Dry Malt
Pride of Ringwood Hops Infusion Bag

Any suggestions for this brew? More hops? Different yeast?

What is the yeast that comes with the Coopers kit like? Is it any good? If so I might use that rather than the Safale. If not, I will stick to Safale. Has anyone ever tried chucking in both a Coopers yeast and a Safale?

One more question, I was looking to make this fairly alcoholic. Would chucking in another kilo of dextrose greatly impact on the flavour?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Cheers!
 
I would drop the 2kg's LDM for say BE2 or equalivant and to about 1-1.2kgs. Ditch the S-04 and go S-05 it will give you a nicer clean finish especially if you hold temps in the 18-20C range. Also if you could get Amarillo, Cascade or Galaxy hops :icon_drool2: .

Chappo
 
+1 for Chappos recommendations there.

2kgs of DME might push the %alc up a bit too high, although what is your intended final volume?

Cheers SJ

(and yes, Amarillo, Cascade, Galaxy are :icon_drool2: asif it needs to be said!!)
 
With regards to using both yeasts ie: tin & saf, just use the saf yeast and chuck the kit yeast in the boil for 5-10 mins, it'll give the saf a bit of nutrients and help it start out a bit better.
 
Thanks for the suggestions guys. Much appreciated!

I will go for the S-05. The temp in my garage has been a constant 18C so temp should not be a problem.

It has been a while since I've haunted my local home brew shop but from memory they didn't store Amarillo or Galaxy hops but did have Cascade. I have used Cascade before I think. Do they give a citrus taste?

I was looking for an alcohol content of about 8%. Excuse my ignorance here, but what is BE2?

Supra-Jim, looking at a final volume of 22 litres.

Homebrewer79, interesting tip there with the yeast. Cheers!
 
BE2 is just a brew enhancer, mix of dextrose, dry malt and maltodextrin. IMO a step up from just plain old dextrose.
 
....One more question, I was looking to make this fairly alcoholic. Would chucking in another kilo of dextrose greatly impact on the flavour?...


Teach me to read things more thoroughly huh? How many times do I do it? <_<

Ryanator WHY? Why? why? Geezus PM J1gsaw if you want to go head banging.

There is a place for high alcohol beers and a pale ale ain't one of them,yeah? Sure add a kg of Dex if you must but all you will get is fussels (sp.) and a nasty headache! If you don't have temp control then I wouldn't bother either. I say you will fark a very nice beer but it's your call and your beer. You see high ABV beers like Belgians, DBL IPA's etc have a big malt backbone to support the alcohol, disguise it if you will, balance it, where your pale ale has well, nothing.

Good luck

Chappo
 
Again gotta agree with Chappo here (why is my skin crawling??).

We're not trying to be the wowser police, high alcohol beers have their place, it's just in a pale ale, you have very little else to balance against the alcohol and you'll get a beer that while strong, will be hard to drink. Fusel or alcohol flavours will dominate.

Try aiming for around 5.5% and you'll get a very nice quaffable beer. Save your big alc beers for something that can support it, IIPA, robust porter, RIS etc.

Patience Grasshopper, get a few of the basics right (esp yeast management) and then when you brew a big beer, you'll get a much better (more drinkable) result)

Cheers SJ
 
Haha I realised what the BE2 was as soon as I hit the post button. My bad.

I'll ditch the kilo of dextrose and maybe look at going 1.5kg of light dry malt (or maybe 1kg of BE2 and another 500g of light dry malt). How does that sound?

I'm doing this brew with a few other guys on my site who are interested in seeing the home brew process. I just thought it would be fun to make a monster of a beer first time around. Probably not a good idea. I'll show some restraint and try to keep it around 5%.

;)
 
I'd just stick with the 1kg of BE2 and not add the LME or even do a 50/50 of both as it will give you the 5% from memory. I only say this because you've got mates watching in and your better off giving them a brew that tastes nice with a low alcohol percentage than something thats going to get them smashed but tastes like arse :lol:

I think the brewer shop guy suggested to use 50/50 Chinook and Cascade hops which worked really well as it gave of a slight citrusy, grapefruit aroma.

Goodluck!!!
 
My latest trick is to make a fermenter at 7-8% and bottle a small amount,
then water it down with BOILED water and bottle the rest.

If you want to make a pale ale at 8% then go for it!
But carefully. Don't add dextrose when you can add dry malt and get more flavour.

Even with the 2kg you're using already it;s going to be very sweet and malty, possible too sweet for you're VB swilling mates to appeciate, I found this limit with my neighbour at about 1 kg with the Coopers PA kit.

To use 2 kg of dry malt, you will need to boil in some bittering hops for around 45 min, say about 25g.

I'd start with that and see how it turns out, I reckon about 6.2%, then think about how to go about making it stronger while you sip on the results of the first batch. Another kg will get you to about 7.9%, seriously great beer if yu can get the hop/malt balance anywhere near right, that's the trick.
 
With regards to using both yeasts ie: tin & saf, just use the saf yeast and chuck the kit yeast in the boil for 5-10 mins, it'll give the saf a bit of nutrients and help it start out a bit better.


Hey Homebrewer79, that is a good tip. I have plenty of those kit yeasts in my fridge wondering what to do with them... So you just boil them in something like 100mL and then chuck it in the fermenter, or you do a starter first?

ryanator - there is a good excel spreadsheet in this forum that helps a lot with your recipe when you are aiming for a particular beer style. Have a look. Cheers.
 
... So you just boil them in something like 100mL and then chuck it in the fermenter, or you do a starter first?...


Just throw it into the boil but make sure you boil the shyte out of the little critters. You don't want them swimming around having dirty beer s3x with your good yeasties spoiling the party do you?

OR

...you can make sour dough bread with them for a twist on the normal? Look up LloydieP/Katie's bread threads for inspiration... it's almost as addictive as brewing, almost!

Chap Chap

Edit: Speelinkz (beat ya Butters ^_^ getting slow in your old age!)
 
Hey Homebrewer79, that is a good tip. I have plenty of those kit yeasts in my fridge wondering what to do with them... So you just boil them in something like 100mL and then chuck it in the fermenter, or you do a starter first?

ryanator - there is a good excel spreadsheet in this forum that helps a lot with your recipe when you are aiming for a particular beer style. Have a look. Cheers.

no starter, just boil. You're actually wanting to kill this yeast, to use it as a nutrient.
 
no starter, just boil. You're actually wanting to kill this yeast, to use it as a nutrient.
Is it worthwhile adding a little slurry from a previous batch to a boil for the same reason?

(accepting that this may also bring along other flavours so you would only be doing it for a similarly flavoured brew)
 
Just throw it into the boil but make sure you boil the shyte out of the little critters. You don't want them swimming around having dirty beer s3x with your good yeasties spoiling the party do you?

yep

no starter, just boil. You're actually wanting to kill this yeast, to use it as a nutrient.

And yep

Is it worthwhile adding a little slurry from a previous batch to a boil for the same reason?

(accepting that this may also bring along other flavours so you would only be doing it for a similarly flavoured brew)

I don't see why not, maybe best to use the same rule as pitching onto yeast cakes though, like go from a paler, less full on beer upwards.
 
CDJ, cheers for the heads-up with the spreadsheet. I'll hunt around for it.

I'm gonna chop the 2kg of malt down to 1.5kg. I have done a pale ale with 1.5kg of malt before and from memory it was very sweet. It had almost a "sticky" mouthfeel. I'll be sure to add some bittering hops too.

One of the guys I'm making it with is not a fan of overly bitter beers so he'll probably like sweetness over bitterness. I'm not sure what the other guy's tastes are so it'll be interesting to see what he thinks of it.
 
I don't see why not, maybe best to use the same rule as pitching onto yeast cakes though, like go from a paler, less full on beer upwards.

I wouldn't think the same issue applies here because the old yeast isn't producing any flavours it's killed and used as a nutrient rather than processing fermentables.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top