English malt, english yeast, American hops

Lately I have really enjoyed some commercial beers that are either malty american ipas or ESB/ Bitters that are well hopped with American hops. I've seen the latter referred to as Northwest Style ESB.

I'd like to brew something up that falls into this area. I figure around a 5ABV beer with a good malty mouthfeel but lots of citrus or pine hop flavour at the end.

I have probably anything I would need on hand. I've got 10# maris otter, some carastan 30-37, WY1028 - London Ale and lots and lots of hop varieties.

Does someone have a recipe they've had success with and can post? If not, let's build one here!

I love english beers, and west coast beers so this sounds like a great idea. for the grain bill keep it simple. Say 95% MO 5% 30-37 a single bittering addition of a nice clean hop to about 45 B.U.s. As for flavor, aroma, and dry that kinda depends on what you got.

I would keep it around 30 ibus with fuggles or goldings

i've got some BC Goldings to bitter with. Wondering about nice 'west-coast' style hop pairings?

I've tried a few times to make something on the lines of an English pale with American influence.

Mostly been using Goldings and Chinook with Maris Otter as a base and then things like special-b/aromatic/biscuit/munich to give it an 'American' malt base (ie. not the typical Maris Otter & Crystal combo most English ales stick too).

Trick is, not too over do the hops (no dry hopping!), and either keep the IBU's around 30 with a 150F mash to give it that English ale drinkability but with a more complex flavour profile from the special malts and different hop flavours.

ChillWill said:

I've tried a few times to make something on the lines of an English pale with American influence.

Mostly been using Goldings and Chinook with Maris Otter as a base and then things like special-b/aromatic/biscuit/munich to give it an 'American' malt base (ie. not the typical Maris Otter & Crystal combo most English ales stick too).

Trick is, not too over do the hops (no dry hopping!), and either keep the IBU's around 30 with a 150F mash to give it that English ale drinkability but with a more complex flavour profile from the special malts and different hop flavours.

Click to expand...

Those are some interesting points. So your experience is that those specialty malts give a more complex profile than strictly a combination of crystal malts?

Also, why 150? How does that mash temp affect the beer?

English breweries tend to mash fairly low, like 65degC which is around 149f from my experience. This is to create a beer you can stomach plenty of as these is less residual sugar than a higher mash temp gives, remember our pints are 20oz. Typical finishing gravity is in the 1.008-1.010 range.

I used more specialist malt as I felt it a more American thing to do, kind of got my influence from the arrogant bastard clone.

You'll often find a good 12% torrified wheat in there for body, as cask conditioned beer is generally only around 1.5vol CO2 it doesn't put a ridiculous head on the beer, but one that'll last all the way down the pint.

First crack at a recipe. Kept the IBUs at 30. Mash temp would be 150.

Looking for feedback on everything!

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 6.00 gal
Boil Size: 7.50 gal
Estimated OG: 1.047 SG
Estimated Color: 8.7 SRM
Estimated IBU: 31.7 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
9.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (3.0 SRM) Grain 85.71 %
0.50 lb Brown Malt (65.0 SRM) Grain 4.76 %
0.50 lb Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 4.76 %
0.50 lb Toasted Malt (27.0 SRM) Grain 4.76 %


0.25 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] (60 min) Hops 9.1 IBU
0.50 oz Goldings, B.C. [5.00 %] (60 min) Hops 7.0 IBU
0.25 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] (30 min) Hops 7.0 IBU
0.25 oz Zeus [14.00 %] (15 min) Hops 4.9 IBU
0.50 oz Cascade [5.00 %] (10 min) Hops 2.8 IBU
0.50 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] (1 min) Hops 0.8 IBU


1 Pkgs London Ale (Wyeast Labs #1028) [Starter 1 Yeast-Ale

I love Carastan, I would go 10% with it and 90% Maris Otter.

Try using a Cascade / Willamette blend for finishing, you get mostly American citrus and a noticeable hint of English hop flavor from the Willamette. Or for more of a "pine" flavor, 25% Simcoe 50% Cascade 25% Willamette. That will give you just a hint of the Fuggle that Willamette is descended from.

TacoGuthrie said:

Lately I have really enjoyed some commercial beers that are either malty american ipas or ESB/ Bitters that are well hopped with American hops. I've seen the latter referred to as Northwest Style ESB.

I'd like to brew something up that falls into this area. I figure around a 5ABV beer with a good malty mouthfeel but lots of citrus or pine hop flavour at the end.

I have probably anything I would need on hand. I've got 10# maris otter, some carastan 30-37, WY1028 - London Ale and lots and lots of hop varieties.

Does someone have a recipe they've had success with and can post? If not, let's build one here!

Click to expand...

I liked Robotten's suggestions and put together this recipe. I'm looking for comments again:

6 gal
1.045 OG
37 IBUs
Mash at 150

Ingredients
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
9 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (3.0 SRM) Grain 1 90.0 %
1 lbs Carastan 30/37- 30L (30.0 SRM) Grain 2 10.0 %

1.00 oz Goldings, B.C. [5.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 3 14.7 IBUs
0.25 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop 5 7.3 IBUs
0.50 oz Williamette [5.50 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop 4 6.8 IBUs
0.50 oz Cascade [5.00 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 6 4.0 IBUs
0.50 oz Williamette [5.50 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 7 3.2 IBUs
0.50 oz Cascade [5.00 %] - Boil 1.0 min Hop 8 0.3 IBUs
0.50 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] - Boil 1.0 min Hop 9 0.8 IBUs
1.0 pkg London Ale (Wyeast Labs #1028) [1000.00 ml] Yeast 10 -

Beer Profile

A bit too much crystal for my taste, but there's no reason why your taste should be the same as mine. 10% is certainly not excessive.

Your hopping schedule looks very complex. For an English version, I use one bittering addition at 60 minutes, one flavour addition at 10 minutes, and one aroma addition at 0 minute; but I use English hops (or US hops with similar characteristics).
Of course you are looking for an Americanized version, which would tend to have much more hop flavor and aroma, so your schedule could be just what you are looking for.
As for the yeast, I like the 1028 for bottled beers with a good amount of carbonation, but I don't like it for draught beers with very low carbonation (traditional English Bitters). It has a very minerally character which I don't think goes well with the smoothness of a Bitter. If you don't like the 1968 (which I only like for draught beers), I would suggest 1275, which I like for both draught and bottled beers.

-a.

Good point about the hops. while I am doing an americanized version, the schedule doesn't need to be that complexe. It looks like an IPA right now!

As for the yeast. 1028 is what I've got right now. I do keg so I will research and consider your other reccommendations. I've used 1098 but just in an American IPA that I wanted to experiment with. In the end it under attenuated on a 1070 beer but still tasted great.

Falcon hop test
-------------------------------

96.4% golden promise
3.6% cara 45

8 g. Magnum 60 min.
30g. Falconers Blend 15 min.
30g. Falconers Blend 2 min.
14g. Falconers Blend Dry Hop

Wyeast 1882-PC Thames Valley II

mash 152F
Time: 75min
5 gal.

3 wks primary
5 days dry hop in keg @room temps
5 days in the fridge and its gone