RecipeDB - DrSmurto's Golden Ale

[Edak]

Get her pregnant, that'll stop her.

GENIUS! I also get to have some fun doing it

 

[maldridge]

FINALLY got around to making my first AG brew, Docs Golden Ale of course.

I think it went pretty good! When I was transferring from kettle to fermenter it did seem quite cloudy and maybe even a bit dark, but I think that was because as I saw it draining, it sucked up a lot of the crap left at the bottom unfortunately, however I'll be racking to secondary in 2 weeks, so at least that will hopefully clear it up.

My only 'problem' if you can call it that, was that during my mash I did lose about 4 degrees. Started at 66 and when I opened the lid an hour later I was down to around 62-61 degrees. I was planning to mash for a bit longer as my receipe suggests but I thought at this point I might as well just mash out. IS this any cause for concern? I'd love it if you could put my mind at ease

I've got my temp controller fridge sitting at 18 degrees, hopefully I have no infections and things will be smooth from here on out!

Thanks for the help along the way everybody.

Peace.

Oh here are a few pics:

Oh here's the pup helping out

 

[soundawake]

Yep, this was my first proper AG beer I made, and god damn is it good.

A mate came over, I had about 6-7 longnecks in the fridge, all but one were extract/kit beers. I left the longneck of DSGA to last, and when my mate took his first sip he looked at me and said, 'holy shit!! This is amazing!!' The difference was like a cup of International Roast instant coffee vs a proper coffee made with Luwak beans..

We finished our pints in less than 5 minutes. I've only got 12 longnecks left of it, trying to drink all my crappy kit beer first but its not going well! Another brew day is planned next saturday, when I'll have my urn.

 

[roo_dr]

Finally got round to making this yesterday. The brewhouse was smelling beautiful this morning when I went in to check on the wee yeasties. Just wish I hadn't made a half-batch...!

 

[Muscovy_333]

My only 'problem' if you can call it that, was that during my mash I did lose about 4 degrees. Started at 66 and when I opened the lid an hour later I was down to around 62-61 degrees.

[/quote]


She'll be right, if it only crept down 4 degrees in an hour. All within mash range...will be leaning toward a drier finish at those temps.
If it is your first AG it will still knock your socks off (pending a happy ferment)

 

[Spiesy]

Hey guys,

I plugged this recipe into BeerAlchemy (the brewing program I use), and got some very different results regarding gravities, ABV and colour.

Due to the program not having the exact malts in the recipe, I went with:

• German Pilsner Malt - 2.4kg
• German Wheat Malt - 0.8kg
• German Munich Malt - 0.8kg
• German CaraMunich I - 0.25kg

BATCH = 20L | Efficiency = 66%.
Expected Pre boil gravity = 1.030SG | Expected ABV = 3.3% | Expected colour = 9.6EBC


Is this all due to a different efficiency rating, or have I got some malts wrong?

 

[Arghonaut]

What's your pre boil volume set to? What does it say the OG will be? That is more relevant than the pre boil gravity.

Edit: if it's saying 3.3% Abv then it's definetly coming in low, those grains are all fine, i use the same when using weyerman malts in beer alchemy. You can adjust the OG and it will automatically increase the grain bill accordingly.

 

[Back Yard Brewer]

This beer gets my vote without hesitation, It was on tap at the swap day at my place last year and after that i wouldn't give Smurto his keg back until it was empty i then managed to get another keg off him which lasted a grand total of 8 days in my special care
AWESOME hop flavour, the bitterness was just to my taste as well. I brewed this the other day and I'm very much looking forward to kegging (and drinking it of course) so I can make some more Going to be on tap at my place for the foreseeable future.

edit: spelling

Really do miss the early swap days I was just starting out then like a lot of the old regulars. How things have changed, along with my brewing knowledge :icon_cheers: But yes I did make this brew ONCE....

 

[Spiesy]

What's your pre boil volume set to? What does it say the OG will be? That is more relevant than the pre boil gravity.

Edit: if it's saying 3.3% Abv then it's definetly coming in low, those grains are all fine, i use the same when using weyerman malts in beer alchemy. You can adjust the OG and it will automatically increase the grain bill accordingly.

Yeah, that's what I'm going with too. Thanks.

 

[maldridge]

Hey guys. Quick question.

Having brewed this guy and had it in the fridge at 18c doing its thing for 12 days, I decided to take a hydrometer reading, as I plan to rack to secondary on Friday.

My reading was 1.010. Am I in the ballpark? I noticed in my recipe that FG should be 1.012. Close enough? I had a quick taste and I was quite happy - even with a shit load of sediment (sediment level was above the tap!) Didn't smell off or taste bad. Although I have no reference for comparison.

I never got around to taking SG and OG readings as this was my first AG brew and I was too focused on not ******* things up

Am I on track? ABV should be ok?

Thanks!!

 

[Danielscott26]

Yea mate i just bottled mine a few days ago and its fg was 1010.

 

[Aydos]

Im drinking the rye version as I type, geez it going down well.

Too bad the keg will blow soon!

 

[tcc]

Thanks Dr this was very popular, almost all gone....

Has anyone tried doing a belgian mixup of this recipe, say with wy3522 and B Sazz instead of the 1056 and amarillo?

cheers

 

[maldridge]

Hey fellas, I'll be bottling my first batch this coming Friday, very much looking forward to it. Currently tastes and smells great, always a good sign

Last Friday I racked to secondary for my cold conditioning stage. I set my stc1000 to 1c, however my fridge is rather old and is sitting at about 4.5deg. At this temperature is it still doing its thing?

Also, come Friday, should I set my fridge back to 18c so I can bottle at a warmer temp? Or is bottling at 4-5c ok?

Thanks in advance!

One more thing, when mixing up my bulk priming glucose mixture, how much water should I be mixing it with? I'm aiming for about 2.2 vol co2, with a 24L batch - used the online calculator.

 

[tcc]

Last Friday I racked to secondary for my cold conditioning stage. I set my stc1000 to 1c, however my fridge is rather old and is sitting at about 4.5deg. At this temperature is it still doing its thing?

I'm no expert but I think it will be ok, my go at this beer didn't get a cold conditioning stint (and isn't close to clear) and it still tastes great. Palmer lists lagering temps as high as 7deg C in his book but says clarity is inversely proportional to temp....still, its an ale who cares.

Also, come Friday, should I set my fridge back to 18c so I can bottle at a warmer temp? Or is bottling at 4-5c ok?

Thanks in advance!

There will be more dissolved CO2 in the cold beer, meaning final carbonation might be slightly higher, it is probably worth looking up the difference this will make if you are trying to be precise

One more thing, when mixing up my bulk priming glucose mixture, how much water should I be mixing it with? I'm aiming for about 2.2 vol co2, with a 24L batch - used the online calculator.

Palmer recommends using about a 3:1 ratio of boiling water to sugar.



Hope that helps, you can read the entire book online; http://www.howtobrew.com/intro.html

 

[soundawake]

Got about 8 longnecks left of this... its going too quickly. Question - How do I rate this recipe? I can't figure out how to do it, then again I've had a few beers!

 

[Juzdu]

I've been browsing around for quite a while in the hope of not having to ask this question...i so hate being a newbie at something. But here goes:

The recipe database on this forum confuses me a bit...for example Dr Smurto's Golden Ale recipe page lists all the grains and hops necessary to make this beer. But it doesn't say "how". Let me explain...given my newness to all of this, and having done a few kit beers, i'd like to try DSGA as my first full extract brew. It's great that the recipe has an extract version, but i'm keen to know some missing info. For example:
1. How much water do I put in the pot to steep my Crystal grain?
2. What temperature should I be steeping at, and for how long?
3. I plan on using a grain bag, should I sparge the grain, and if so, with how much water?

Do I just follow something like John Palmer's How to Brew? Section 2 suggests steeping 500gm of grain in 4 litres of 70'ish degree water for 30 minutes in a grain bag (which I have). It doesn't suggest sparging though, rather just squeezing the bag after you remove it.

Oh and lastly, the crystal grain i've purchased says it's "cracked". Does that mean it's ready to go as is into the grain bag? Or do i need to mill/crush it some more first?

 

[Acasta]

I've been browsing around for quite a while in the hope of not having to ask this question...i so hate being a newbie at something. But here goes:

The recipe database on this forum confuses me a bit...for example Dr Smurto's Golden Ale recipe page lists all the grains and hops necessary to make this beer. But it doesn't say "how". Let me explain...given my newness to all of this, and having done a few kit beers, i'd like to try DSGA as my first full extract brew. It's great that the recipe has an extract version, but i'm keen to know some missing info. For example:
1. How much water do I put in the pot to steep my Crystal grain?
2. What temperature should I be steeping at, and for how long?
3. I plan on using a grain bag, should I sparge the grain, and if so, with how much water?

Do I just follow something like John Palmer's How to Brew? Section 2 suggests steeping 500gm of grain in 4 litres of 70'ish degree water for 30 minutes in a grain bag (which I have). It doesn't suggest sparging though, rather just squeezing the bag after you remove it.

Oh and lastly, the crystal grain i've purchased says it's "cracked". Does that mean it's ready to go as is into the grain bag? Or do i need to mill/crush it some more first?

The recipe DB is more for recipes and not for the method on how to brew them as everyone does it differently. Most will give a mash temp (which is not relevant to sparging grains)

Good to see you have been reading 'how to brew' and I would suggest you follow Palmer's techniques that you read in there.

The cracked grain you have will be fine to steep. Once it's cracked its good to go!

Good luck! Hope it's tasty :beerbang:

 

[wbosher]

I've been browsing around for quite a while in the hope of not having to ask this question...i so hate being a newbie at something. But here goes:

The recipe database on this forum confuses me a bit...for example Dr Smurto's Golden Ale recipe page lists all the grains and hops necessary to make this beer. But it doesn't say "how". Let me explain...given my newness to all of this, and having done a few kit beers, i'd like to try DSGA as my first full extract brew. It's great that the recipe has an extract version, but i'm keen to know some missing info. For example:
1. How much water do I put in the pot to steep my Crystal grain?
2. What temperature should I be steeping at, and for how long?
3. I plan on using a grain bag, should I sparge the grain, and if so, with how much water?

Do I just follow something like John Palmer's How to Brew? Section 2 suggests steeping 500gm of grain in 4 litres of 70'ish degree water for 30 minutes in a grain bag (which I have). It doesn't suggest sparging though, rather just squeezing the bag after you remove it.

Oh and lastly, the crystal grain i've purchased says it's "cracked". Does that mean it's ready to go as is into the grain bag? Or do i need to mill/crush it some more first?

There's a couple of threads in here about doing BIAB. I've just done my first AG brew using this method and it's surprisingly easy. You might want to read up on that.

 

[Feral Shane]

I've been browsing around for quite a while in the hope of not having to ask this question...i so hate being a newbie at something. But here goes:

The recipe database on this forum confuses me a bit...for example Dr Smurto's Golden Ale recipe page lists all the grains and hops necessary to make this beer. But it doesn't say "how". Let me explain...given my newness to all of this, and having done a few kit beers, i'd like to try DSGA as my first full extract brew. It's great that the recipe has an extract version, but i'm keen to know some missing info. For example:
1. How much water do I put in the pot to steep my Crystal grain?
2. What temperature should I be steeping at, and for how long?
3. I plan on using a grain bag, should I sparge the grain, and if so, with how much water?

Do I just follow something like John Palmer's How to Brew? Section 2 suggests steeping 500gm of grain in 4 litres of 70'ish degree water for 30 minutes in a grain bag (which I have). It doesn't suggest sparging though, rather just squeezing the bag after you remove it.

Oh and lastly, the crystal grain i've purchased says it's "cracked". Does that mean it's ready to go as is into the grain bag? Or do i need to mill/crush it some more first?

Juz, you have just taken the first step on the slippery slide to making the best beer you can. JP's (I say that like I know him) How to Brew is a great reference for starting out. Read as much as you can and give it a go. If you are at this stage you won't make a bad beer. I will give you one piece of advice though, take notes, write down everything or put it in your computer as you go. One day you will make a beer and you will say this is it; I want this to be my house beer but if you didn't take specific notes you won't be able to replicate it.