Summer Ale Recipe Advice

[Hugo]

Looking for some constructive (or just downright nasty) criticism of a fresh tasting Summer Ale I'm trying to brew for the long, lazy afternoon. I've seen the Monteith's Summer Ale post of late, but wanted to put a recipe up for discussion. Still only on partials....

Cricket's on the Radio Ale

1.50 kg Pale LME
1.50 kg JW Ale malt
0.75 kg Light Munich
0.50 kg Wheat malt
0.25 kg Caramunich I
0.25 kg honey (from my bees... it's wasted on toast)

Single infusion @ 66c
Sparge @ approx 76c

Centennial (9.4% AA)10g @ FWH
Centennial 10g 30 min
Centennial 15g 5 mins
Centennial 15g 1 min

White Labs WLP001 - Cal Ale Yeast

I'll probably add the honey with very small quantities of ground ginger/cloves/corriander (boiled separately) at the end of the boil

Trying out Beer Alchemy at present as I'm a mac user and it gives me OG 1052/ SRM 7.3/ 11 IBUs

All comments welcome. Cheers.

 

[Stuster]

Looks nice to me. I'm not sure about using the spices though. I wouldn't have thought they'd go with Centennial, but there's only one way to fine out so go for it and let us know how it goes.


What volume is that for? I think the IBU calculation can't be right. It looks more like the 30IBU mark, but it may be right if you are doing a concentrated boil. :huh:

 

[drsmurto]

Don't spices take a long time to mellow out?

Also, your a tad late, the cricket starts in an hour! :lol:

 

[Adamt]

Cricket's on the TV for me! Holidays

Looks good, ditch the spices!

 

[Hugo]

Looks nice to me. I'm not sure about using the spices though. I wouldn't have thought they'd go with Centennial, but there's only one way to fine out so go for it and let us know how it goes.


What volume is that for? I think the IBU calculation can't be right. It looks more like the 30IBU mark, but it may be right if you are doing a concentrated boil. :huh:

I end up with about 9 or 10L of wort pre-boil to which I add the LME. After the boil I dilute to the desired OG. If my efficiency is good, ends up being 23L. If not, I just end up with less beer per brew, but at the desired OG. So the wort being boiled would have a pretty high gravity. I had an idea the gravity of the wort effected hop utilization, but didn't think it would be that significant? Tried the numbers on a old version of Promash accounting for a small boil and it came out about 12 IBUs.

I'll go easy on the spice jar if I include them at all.

 

[Stuster]

I'd suggest adding the LME near the end of the boil. It only takes say 10 minutes of boiling to be sanitised and that should help with your hop utilisation.