Yes. I ferment this one at 68F and let it rise to 70F after 4 days for a D-rest. So, not as low as it can go but also not at high either. Crash to 40 and keg. And then age for 2-3 weeks cold.
My Final Recipe:
For 10 Gallons
OG 1.060
TG 1.016
SRM 12.5
ABV 5.8%
35 IBU
7.55kg 75% Gambrinus ESB Malt
1.0kg 10% Gambrinus Wheat
1.0kg 10% Gambrinus Munich 10L
350gm 3.5% C80
350gm 3.5% C120
1.75 oz Centennial 60 min
1 oz Cascade 5 min
2 oz Mt Hood 5 min
1.5 oz Cascade (.75 oz dry hop per keg)
Mash 154F, no mash-out, batch sparged in equal batches
WY1318 Yeast (460 billion)
Ferment 68F and let rise 70F after 4 days for a D-rest. Crash to 40 and keg. Age for 2-3 weeks cold.
What a great beer! Thanks to everyone who has contributed to this thread.
I haven't brewed this for a couple of years now. I've gotten really lazy since the brewery is only 15 mins from the house. The last time I brewed it I did a blind test with my brew and the real thing. Both my wife and another friend (who are both very familiar with the real thing) picked mine as the real thing! I still say the yeast is the key. Thought I'd post my current recipe in case anyone wants to try it:
The Shaftebury brand still exists but it's a contract brewed lager made somewhere around here in BC.
The 1.016 FG seems key to getting the correct body for this beer. I'm going to do this one over the weekend with WY 1968 but having never used it before and seeing that it has a "max" attenuation of 71%. Should I lower my mash temp down to 152F to try to get this to finish at 1.016 or just mash at 154F do a healthy pitch and let the yeast do what it can even if it only gets down to 1.018?
Interesting thing about Shaftbury. Tree Brewing in Kelowna actually bought the Brewhouse from Shaftbury, then a few years later bought the brand, so Shaftbury is now brewed in Kelowna by Tree, on the exact same brewhouse that it was originally brewed on!
The 1.016 FG seems key to getting the correct body for this beer. I'm going to do this one over the weekend with WY 1968 but having never used it before and seeing that it has a "max" attenuation of 71%. Should I lower my mash temp down to 152F to try to get this to finish at 1.016 or just mash at 154F do a healthy pitch and let the yeast do what it can even if it only gets down to 1.018?
Interesting thing about Shaftbury. Tree Brewing in Kelowna actually bought the Brewhouse from Shaftbury, then a few years later bought the brand, so Shaftbury is now brewed in Kelowna by Tree, on the exact same brewhouse that it was originally brewed on!
I still brew the beer that Shaftebury helped me design. It's like their Cream Ale meets Fuller's ESB. I call it Ambient Ale. It was my first AG brew.
Cheers and thanks for that tidbit of info.
Cheers!Well I'll be damned. I didn't know that. I was brewing with Redbird right across the street a few weeks back and was thinking about the Shaftebury thing. Hehehehe. Right under my nose the whole time.
I'm not sure it was Shaftebury's original system though. I remember when they installed the new system when they moved to Tilbury in my early brewing days. I'd guess it was that Tilbury system that is now at Tree.
I still brew the beer that Shaftebury helped me design. It's like their Cream Ale meets Fuller's ESB. I call it Ambient Ale. It was my first AG brew.
Cheers and thanks for that tidbit of info.
Cheers!
How is Red Bird? I was working at Tree for last summer, and got to be there for Kettle River to open, but just heard from some others about Red Bird. That's a pretty boozy little intersection there now! I need to make a pass back through Kelowna soon!
That’s a heck of a teaser. Would you mind sharing the recipe? Interested in how it compares to African Amber.
The 1.016 FG seems key to getting the correct body for this beer. I'm going to do this one over the weekend with WY 1968 but having never used it before and seeing that it has a "max" attenuation of 71%. Should I lower my mash temp down to 152F to try to get this to finish at 1.016 or just mash at 154F do a healthy pitch and let the yeast do what it can even if it only gets down to 1.018?
Awesome to know. Your one of a couple people who have stated high attenuation that Wyeast states on their website for that beer. I'm going to follow the recipe's mash temps and see where it ends up. Worst comes to worst I'll be at 1.017-1.018.Rechecked my notes. Last time I was at 76%. Mashed at 157. I should check my thermometer but I'm pretty sure it is calibrated.
Perhaps I take a small sample and do a FFT test to see what the expected FG will be. Then calculate that when deciding how much additional priming sugar is needed.Would have been best to let it ferm out naturally but yeah, kegs.
Perhaps I take a small sample and do a FFT test to see what the expected FG will be. Then calculate that when deciding how much additional priming sugar is needed.
I was thinking an estimation could be ok here because I'm using WY1968. I was reading others experience with this yeast that the average attenuation is 74%; and see that Wyeast says the max attenuation is 71%. I'm currently at 72%, so if I assume I end up getting 74% that means there is 1 more point for it to drop. Using Kai's krausening calc I see that a 1 pt drop in bottle plus 2.9 oz of sugar gets me to 2.3 vols. If worst comes to worst and I end up getting 76% attenuation (unlikely with this yeast and mash temp) then at worst I'm carbed to 2.9 vols which is overcarbed certainly for the style, but not a bottle bomb. Fingers crossed.
I feel silly for having done this cold crash so soon, but I was completely taken off guard by how fast this got to my expected FG, and based on what I had read in this thread I wanted to be left with the body targeted. Oh well, lets see how this goes. Either way, this will officially be the fasted turn around I've ever had on a beer.
Perhaps I take a small sample and do a FFT test to see what the expected FG will be. Then calculate that when deciding how much additional priming sugar is needed.
I was thinking an estimation could be ok here because I'm using WY1968. I was reading others experience with this yeast that the average attenuation is 74%; and see that Wyeast says the max attenuation is 71%. I'm currently at 72%, so if I assume I end up getting 74% that means there is 1 more point for it to drop. Using Kai's krausening calc I see that a 1 pt drop in bottle plus 2.9 oz of sugar gets me to 2.3 vols. If worst comes to worst and I end up getting 76% attenuation (unlikely with this yeast and mash temp) then at worst I'm carbed to 2.9 vols which is overcarbed certainly for the style, but not a bottle bomb. Fingers crossed.
I feel silly for having done this cold crash so soon, but I was completely taken off guard by how fast this got to my expected FG, and based on what I had read in this thread I wanted to be left with the body targeted. Oh well, lets see how this goes. Either way, this will officially be the fasted turn around I've ever had on a beer.
The biggest concern will be diacetyl. I wouldn't be so concerned with the FG. Finishing gravity will be based on the wort composition and yeast.
So just looking on Mac & Jack's website. Listing the hops for African Amber as Cascade and Nugget. Their distributor site lists the IBU at 30.
Take that for what it is worth.
Next time I'm thinking I'll add some carapils and maybe some 60L. And I guess I might bitter with Nugget and possibly use a little at 5 minutes.
I took inspiration from this thread to brew this last weekend:
8.5 lbs 2 row
1 lb munich 10L
1 lb Crystal 120L
.5 lb Crystal 10L
Mash at 155 for 60 minutes
Hops (all pellet)
.25 oz Summit 60 min
.5 oz Cascade 20 min
1.5 oz Cascade 5 min
1 oz dryhop for 4-5 days Cascade after 10 days fermentation. Haven't decided yet.
Wyeast 1028 London Ale yeast
OG 1.052
FG expected 1.014-1.015
It looks good!
Exciting news! I spent some time this past weekend with a guy who was formerly a brewer for Mac & Jack's. Since he no longer works there he was more than willing to share information about M & J's. Here are some of the things I learned:
OG = 1.054
Grainbill: Pale malt, Munich, Crystal 120, and Wheat (hence the cloudiness)
Hops: Bittering - Cascade 60 mins, Aroma - Mt Hood (Last 5 Mins), Dry - Cascade
They also add something called Allfloc. Not too sure what this is or exactly what it does.
He couldn't tell me anything specific about their yeast other than it is proprietary and they harvest from their kegs to keep it going. He agreed with what I have always thought - the yeast is probably the most important ingredient. The nice thing is they don't filter so it is fairly easy to harvest yeast from a keg or growler (if you're in the Great Northwest).
Since my last batch was fairly close I can't wait to tweek my recipe and try again.
Cheers,
Dwight
Update: I still think the recipe is right there now that everything has been dialed in... BUT there were two problems in the last brew that warrant sharing.
1. I goofed and mashed at 156F instead of 154F.
2. I usually ferment in a temp-controlled fridge but ran out of space. I didn't have time to compensate so I just let 'er rip, not realizing it'd get so hot. The coolest place in the house made for a 75F peak temp during the ferment. (average temp during active fermentation was about 72F).
Well, the results were fantastic in spite of a sloppy brew! The body was a little fuller as a result of the higher mash temp. The Safale S-04 yeast didn't suffer at the high temps. In fact, it benefited. The esters were complimentary in every regard and I thought better mimicked the M&J's house yeast strain. The TG was still 1.016, so possibly better yeast health, possibly the temp, or a combinations of factors.
Conclusion:
For future batches, I'm going to raise my mash temp to 156F. I'll still let the fermentation start at 68F but will set the fridge to 72F, letting it rise naturally and will continue using S-04. Additionally, carbing to 2.3 vols CO2 seems to be the sweet spot for this beer.
Hi, I'm curious, has anyone converted this latest recipe for 5 Gal Dry Extract? Interested in trying this out.
Thanks.
Still haven't tapped my keg, but I did have enough left over in the fermentor to fill two bottles. I also found Mac & Jacks on tap locally, so I got a growler to compare and popped a bottle.
M&J on left, mine on right.
Color looks about spot on. Mine is hazier, but some gelatin, a longer cold crash, or more time in the keg/bottle should drop some of the haze out.
Aroma is dead on to my novice smell receptors. Neither my wife nor I could tell which was which based on a blind whiff test.
Taste is extremely close. Bitterness and alcohol flavor was indiscernible. Nutty/malty flavor and caramel/crystal flavor is what my palate would call identical. The hops are where the two diverge, but not by much. My recipe had a cascade hops flavor that started late and lasted, whereas the M&J hops flavor seemed to start late and taper off quickly. Either dropping my 1.5 oz addition to 1 oz, or a longer aging time would probably make it more similar in this regard.
All in all, it's a great recipe. Good job to those that did the heavy lifting for this recipe.
I don’t know where you got the double dry hopping idea. Just one ounce for the last few days of fermentation. Fermentation temp was 67-68. I’m without a chamber at the moment, so I can only go off my brew buckets thermometer in the morning and evening, and it was constant.
My “strategy” is just make a brew in brewers friend and go with it. I pulled malt numbers loosely from this thread, and hop numbers from my ass. I don’t have nugget, but I have 9 or so pounds of other various pellets, so I use what I’ve got. I didnt take any gravity readings for this beer out of laziness, but I am almost always 72-75% efficiency. Easy to get theoretical numbers from that. Water is Redmond Oregon tap water.
I don’t have good lighting anywhere in my house except my reloading bench. My wife only likes poopyty soft lit everything, so I take my photos with a grain of salt.
Does Mac and Jack still add the “bung” with hops attached to the finished kegs? I remember when I was up there a few years ago it was a proud part of their process as they had to have the special kegs to do it.
If so, it this considered a second cold dry hop?
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