Ubrewit - Scotch Ale - should I dry hop it?

[Cloth Ears]

It's been a while, and I've been doing my own home brews semi-regularly. But Mrs Cloth Ears got me a Ubrewit (Keilor) gift for Valentines Day (she must really love me!)

I've decided on a Scotch Ale, as that is somewhat similar to the effect I look for (malty, sweet) in both my lighter and darker ales. But, I always like to temper this with a dry-pitched hop to take the edge off a bit. Too sweet and it'll end up that I can only have one bottle.

I tend to use Citra, Crystal or Pacific Jade, depending on my mood (or what's available) at the time.

Now, for this Scotch Ale, I'd like to do the same thing, but I don't want to overdo it. The batch is 50 litres, so I was thinking maybe 25g of Pacific Jade and 15g of Crystal, pitched at the end of fermentation. As they say:
"After the fermentation is complete, usually within 10 days, your beer is placed into a cold room and allowed to settle, mature and wait patiently for your return."

So, do you reckon having it in there for only the cold room session would be OK? I am planning on leaving it for 3-4 weeks in the cold room before bottling.
And, do you reckon I've got the right blend and amount of hops, or should I be going heavier and with a different blend? Bearing in mind that I'm only really looking for the aroma and not so much for the actual bitterness.

Any comment's will be read

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

If you late hop it will no longer be a Scoth Ale. The whole idea of Scottish ales is malty/caramel/toffey sweet flavour that is lightly hoped at 60mins and no further additions.

Have you aged your previous batches.

You will need a hop that will go with that sweetnes. Go something traditionaly english.

W1728 yeast is the only yeast for these type of ales

 

[Cloth Ears]

Understood and thanks.

I guess I could live with a straight Scottish from their recipe book. But I tend to like that sort of caramelised taste to go with a little floral/citrus aroma, or the beer starts to become too sweet for my tastes. And I've looked through all their recipes - the Scottish seems like a nice base to start with and just a hint of floral/citrus would make it more my style.

Not sure what yeast these guys use, but I don't think I have a say in it.

What hops are traditionally English? Goldings?

 

[manticle]

EKG or challenger would suit what you are chasing. Styrians might also work. If you do dry hop, be gentle and don't do it for more than about 2-3 days.

How do you not get a say in the yeast? The u-brew it idea is odd.

 

[carniebrew]

IIRC, UBrewIT use MauriBrew's 514 ale yeast for all their ales....I never did work out if they use lager yeast for their lagers....guessing they must, 'coz there was always a lot of blokes down there brewing another 50 litres of VB clone.

I see Maurivin even have a weiss yeast: http://www.maurivin.com/yeast.aspx?id=4&menu=open&parentid=282&menuid=286

I'm sure you could take your own yeast along to UBrewIT if you wanted.

 

[Ross]

Also, I'd be checking the quality of the hops for dry hopping or providing your own. Many of the U-brew-its I've visited have oxidised brown hops (in numbered boxes) & little idea what they were or what to do with them, other than following their printed recipes. Discuss what you want with the guys running the joint & you'll soon know whether they are educated brewers or not.


cheers Ross

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

+1 Ross

Its a case of you brew it with their recipie sheet.

I went to one in Coffs......rather sad......fuckers would not sell liquid malt from their bulk drums....

 

[Cloth Ears]

Thanks all.

Not sure if my local shops have W1728, but I'll see what I can find on the weekend. And I'll be careful with the dry-hop. I'm bringing my own hops whatever they have there, so I'll do the same with the yeast. And I'll see if I can talk them into only putting the bag in for the last few days of the ferment.

I figure it's an interesting experiment, and it's better (for me) than half a lap of a circuit in the passenger seat of a V8.

 

[Cloth Ears]

Reporting back.

OK, I've done the Ubrewit experience at Keilor (bit of a hike from Narre Warren) and it's been good.

First, they won't have any other yeasts than what they provide - the reason is risk of infection (I'll accept that).

The site is clean, the guy/gals are friendly (if a bit busy) and everything is pretty well explaied to you when you turn up. It's fairly simple. You measure up all the ingredients, you have three addition points to you boiling wort (pretty much sugars, grains, hops) with set intervals (so you have more hops for more hop flavour - rather than a longer boil). You can change the recipe (more or less) and you can add other ingredients (I got some hops dry pitched after fermentation had finished). I'm sure you could change the boil times if you asked them.

Then, you get the filtered wort cooled (through a cooler), filtered (a bit) into your 50l fermenter - where you add the yeast.

You go away an organise to come back to bottle (or have it kegged) the brew. It gets filtered a couple more times before it hits the bottle (in my case, 750ml CUB old style). I've been taking bottle around and everyone loves it - a nice scotch recipe is hard not to like. All I did to it was an extra kg of dark malt, plus a small packet of Pacific Jade with two weeks before bottling.

Not cheap, but not expensive either. The inital price is for the first 25l, the rest is $90 for the second 25 (less if you provode your own bottles). Worth recommending to people, who cannot be bothered with home-brewing, as an option for a good beer.

 

[djar007]

can you can a brew there?

 

[toncils]

Nah- follow the recipes, malt extract only. If you smile sweetly they might let you design your own recipe. Pretty suprised you couldn't pitch your own yeast, if it's shop sealed.

I personally find it comparible to McDonalds; it's quick and tastes roughly how it should, but once you've had a gourmet burger you won't go back.

Edit: CAN a brew, whoops. Not sure about Keilor, but Oakleigh has a 500ml canner.