British Golden Ale Miraculix Best - Classic English Ale

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Mumathomebrew said:
Friday afternoon... it has taken all this time and all these beers to use up that 20 litres of silly maths mistake. Basically I'd put in ten times the amount of crystal due to a single decimal point error, and enough ignorance/stupidity not to automatically recognise it at the time.

Beer 1 = one gallon demijohn. I was so determined to taste your lovely beer. So restored the quantities to your original recipe by making enough Maris otter/wheat malt blend to dilute the 'crystal mess' to the right proportions. Used Lallemand English Ale London yeast. Summit/EKG hops.

Beer 2 = 20 litre carboy. Half and half 'crystal mess' to ''maris/wheat' blend. Lallemand English Ale London yeast. Summit/EKG/Cascade hops.

Beer 3 = one gallon demijohn. Pure 'crystal mess' to see what it would turn into. Hops and yeast chosen to attempt to be citrusy/orangy to go with the dark caramel to make a marmalade beer. Lallemand Nottingham yeast with Amarillo hops and nectarine peel. Strong OG of 1:054. This'll either be vile or fabulous but I had to make it to find out.

Beer 4 = one gallon demijohn. Same idea as 3. Lallemand Nottingham yeast with Mandarina hops and nectarine peel. Same turbo OG. This is a gentler hop than Amarillo so we'll see.

Beer 5 = 12 litres in a bucket. A small beer made from the second runnings. It had to be boiled fast as it had begun fermenting on it's own with all these other goings on. Used Nottingham yeast. Summit + some mystery hops that I suspect are Citra. Low OG 1:024 so added 150g golden syrup.

Finally finished. A daft thing to do, but learned a lot and we'll have oodles of beer. We will taste this recipe after all as long as no infection sets in. Fingers crossed.
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That sounds like a fun experiment! I have to ask, did the wort just stand around all the time or did you start fermenting it before? Our did you reboil the wort?
 
I hadn't boiled the wort after extraction once I realised the mistake. It was standing around before I boiled it and hopped it for each beer.
 
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Beers 2 & 3 look as if they're brewing ok, but beer 1 has a sort of fleshy brain thing filling the whole demi. There appears to be beer around it but it's huge. Weird.
 
Hey @Miraculix , where I shop there's no Crisp 57L. I can get Bairds Medium Crystal (70-80L) or Thomas Fawcett (81-90L). Without taking wads of time and energy to shop elsewhere for 4.4 oz of english crystal Crisp 57L would you go with the Bairds or the Thomas Fawcett?
 
balrog said:
Hey @Miraculix , where I shop there's no Crisp 57L. I can get Bairds Medium Crystal (70-80L) or Thomas Fawcett (81-90L). Without taking wads of time and energy to shop elsewhere for 4.4 oz of english crystal Crisp 57L would you go with the Bairds or the Thomas Fawcett?
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I have no idea. I think I would go with Thomas because I know the maltster, but not the specific malt. Only judged by colour, Bairds would be closer though. I'm afraid I cannot help here, both will probably result in a fine brew.
 
I made this beer today. The step mash turned out better efficiency than normal for me so I added some water at the end to get the SG right. More beer!

That Pub yeast is crazy. Its like cottage cheese. The yeast pouch was 4 months old so I made a half liter starter a couple days ago. My son commented on how strange the starter looked on the stir plate. I took it out of the refrigerator this morning, decanted and let it warm up. I put about 8 oz. of wort from the first step in with the yeast while I finished mashing and brewing. Kind of a vitality starter. It was bubbling when I pitched it at 5 o'clock. The beer in the carboy was foaming and blowing bubbles through the blowoff tube within 2 hours. I froze about 30 ml of the thick slurry from the starter to add to my yeast bank. I can't wait to see how this turns out.
 
InspectorJon said:
I made this beer today. The step mash turned out better efficiency than normal for me so I added some water at the end to get the SG right. More beer!

That Pub yeast is crazy. Its like cottage cheese. The yeast pouch was 4 months old so I made a half liter starter a couple days ago. My son commented on how strange the starter looked on the stir plate. I took it out of the refrigerator this morning, decanted and let it warm up. I put about 8 oz. of wort from the first step in with the yeast while I finished mashing and brewing. Kind of a vitality starter. It was bubbling when I pitched it at 5 o'clock. The beer in the carboy was foaming and blowing bubbles through the blowoff tube within 2 hours. I froze about 30 ml of the thick slurry from the starter to add to my yeast bank. I can't wait to see how this turns out.
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That sounds like s very good brew day! Glad to here that, I've hadn't had a very good one myself since some time :D

... Too much experimenting lately...
 
Miraculix said:
I have no idea. I think I would go with Thomas because I know the maltster, but not the specific malt. Only judged by colour, Bairds would be closer though. I'm afraid I cannot help here, both will probably result in a fine brew.
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Both are competent malting companies. I've used the Fawcett, but had to change recently since my homebrew shop switched to Crisp. Not sure most people tasting the final result will be able to notice a difference between the 2.
 
eshea3 said:
Both are competent malting companies. I've used the Fawcett, but had to change recently since my homebrew shop switched to Crisp. Not sure most people tasting the final result will be able to notice a difference between the 2.
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I just read that Fawcett has about 200 years of company history, so it's probably not the worst choice. :)
 
M-hm, m-hm, double, hmm. Yeah, I don't have the brew time for that. I'm going to disappoint further by letting you know that since Imperial is not readily available I'm going to try the Lalbrew London. Sorry to let you all down.
 
balrog said:
M-hm, m-hm, double, hmm. Yeah, I don't have the brew time for that. I'm going to disappoint further by letting you know that since Imperial is not readily available I'm going to try the Lalbrew London. Sorry to let you all down.
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I like that one, it just does not floc so well.
 
I brewed this on March 12, pitched a healthy starter of Pub A09. I thought this was only a moderate attenuater. FG is 1.006. My OG was 1.055 and I used Brewer's Friends' calculator to add water to bring it down to 1.047. I did not measure after dilution. Either the calculator was off or I used it wrong or this yeast accomplished 87% AA. The gravity sample tastes nice, like an English beer I have had on draft in a California pub. I'll bottle this weekend and see what the final product is like in a few weeks.

Has anyone else had Pub attenuate this much? I did the step mash. 45 minutes in the mid to upper 140s, 30 minutes around 160 and 15 minutes at 170F.
 
InspectorJon said:
I brewed this on March 12, pitched a healthy starter of Pub A09. I thought this was only a moderate attenuater. FG is 1.006. My OG was 1.055 and I used Brewer's Friends' calculator to add water to bring it down to 1.047. I did not measure after dilution. Either the calculator was off or I used it wrong or this yeast accomplished 87% AA. The gravity sample tastes nice, like an English beer I have had on draft in a California pub. I'll bottle this weekend and see what the final product is like in a few weeks.

Has anyone else had Pub attenuate this much? I did the step mash. 45 minutes in the mid to upper 140s, 30 minutes around 160 and 15 minutes at 170F.
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Never. How much water did you add and how much volume did you have before the dilution? As long as tastes good, all is good.
 
Adding 1 part for every 6 parts of beer at 1055 (eg 1 gallon for every 6 gallons) would reduce gravity to 1047.

1006 is not altogether unusual for a British cask conditioned ale as they continue fermenting/conditioning in the pub cellar until they are served.

Step mashes are not normal for British beers in general, ales in particular. Low protein, well modified malts and pre treated mash liquors obviate any gain from acid and protein rests.

I'm sure the beer will be fine.
 
I ended the boil with 15 quarts at 1.055. I added 2 quarts, which I thought would make it 1.047. I think it will be fine. I’m just surprised that Imperial Pub would attenuate at 87%.

I have read several other places that the step mash would help create better foam and could increase mash efficiency. The only other time I did it was with a doppelbock and I got higher mash efficiency than I anticipated that time also.
 
InspectorJon said:
I ended the boil with 15 quarts at 1.055. I added 2 quarts, which I thought would make it 1.047. I think it will be fine. I’m just surprised that Imperial Pub would attenuate at 87%.

I have read several other places that the step mash would help create better foam and could increase mash efficiency. The only other time I did it was with a doppelbock and I got higher mash efficiency than I anticipated that time also.
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It is not typically English but it enhances pretty much everything that we want to be enhanced in this recipe, I even think my biceps grew during the mash and I got fuller hair than yesterday, so yes, do it!

Your attenuation is completely not normal at all for this particular strain. Did you maybe use too much of the simple sugar?

The step mash makes better foam, better attenuation (not that high though), better efficiency and you start being the most attractive person in the world. Oh boy is the step mash a good idea to do!
 
Miraculix said:
Your attenuation is completely not normal at all for this particular strain. Did you maybe use too much of the simple sugar?
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I used 10 oz of table sugar inverted with lemon juice while I mashed and brewed. This in a batch aiming for 3.5 gallons into the fermenter.
75% 4.625 lb MO
10% 10 oz malted white wheat
10% 10 oz cane sugar, inverted
5% 5 oz Bairds Crystal 57L

Just bottled today. Tastes great. It has been sitting at 1.006 for three days now
 
Reporting in from post 479.
Beer 1 - original correct recipe = got chucked as it had grown something weird in it
Beer 2 - half and half = quite nice but unstable ferm temps made it taste a bit like aspirins. Drinkable but not necessarily delicious (yet). Might improve with time.
Beer 3 & 4 - pure 100% mistake versions = actually both really, really delicious and would deliberately make this recipe wrong again on purpose. These are like dark stout marmalade. The Amarillo version was brighter but the Mandarina was lovely too. What luck from a mistake.
IMG_1093.jpg

Beer 5 - small beer = haven't had time to take off the trub yet. Maybe ruined by now.

Thank you for the fun and the learning curve. I'll make this the right way again to try this properly. If the mistakes were this delicious then I bet making it correctly makes the most wonderful beer. I'll be sure to find out.
 
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Mumathomebrew said:
Reporting in from post 479.
Beer 1 - original correct recipe = got chucked as it had grown something weird in it
Beer 2 - half and half = quite nice but unstable ferm temps made it taste a bit like aspirins. Drinkable but not necessarily delicious (yet). Might improve with time.
Beer 3 & 4 - pure 100% mistake versions = actually both really, really delicious and would deliberately make this recipe wrong again on purpose. These are like dark stout marmalade. The Amarillo version was brighter but the Mandarina was lovely too. What luck from a mistake.
View attachment 764899
Beer 5 - small beer = haven't had time to take off the trub yet. Maybe ruined by now.

Thank you for the fun and the learning curve. I'll make this the right way again to try this properly. If the mistakes were this delicious then I bet making it correctly makes the most wonderful beer. I'll be sure to find out.
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Thanks for the update! I'm glad it turned out well... Sort of :D
 
I'm in trouble 35 different hops in the freezer total weight just over 9kg, in my defence I did get at least 7kg when a small craft brewer closed down and got rid of his stock for a song. Mostly Fuggles, Sabro, Citra, Simcoe, Centennial, EKG and Mandarina Bavaria.
Probably why I've got too many specialist malts as well as a lifetimes supply of salts and whirlfloc, but I'm making big efforts to use them up, but then too much beer to drink , am I allowed to say that on the forum?
 
Miraculix said:
Good Evening,

as I am drinking one right now, I feel like sharing the recipe of my best beer so far. I nailed the beer I had in mind 100% with the first shot, which never happened before. So don't judge me for being a tad bit proud. I shared the beer with a lot of friends yesterday and everybody was blown away, so my initial feeling was confirmed.

I believe that beer recipes should be as simple as possible and as complex as necessary, therfore my approach for this one wasn't too complicated.

I like the flavour of the southern English ales, but I do not like the cloying sweetness of, for example fullers. But the flavour of fullers is nice. So my aim was to get something with the nice and English fullers Flavour, but without it's cloying sweetness. In addition, I like a bit of head on my beer and a bit of carbonation. I took all of this into consideration and created the following recipe, which has all of the mentioned attributes.

Please keep in mind that this is for a 4.5 american gallon batch at 80% efficiency, therefore I give you the percentage in brackets by total fermentables so that you can adjust for your own system.

Ingredients:

1.8 kg Marris Otter (75%)
0.2kg spelt malt (torrified wheat or wheat malt works as well) (10%)
0.125 Crisp Crystal malt Ebc 150, 57L (5%)
0.3kg Golden Syrup (10%)

Hops: Magnum and Cobb's Golding (can be substituted with Goldings if not available)


MO is the base malt, could be theoretically substituted for similar base malts.

Spelt malt is in it to promote the head of the beer, you can use torrified wheat or wheat malt as well, this should also do the trick.

Crisp Crystal malt brings some caramel flavour. I recommend sticking to the one I used as crystal malt's tastes differ from maltster to maltster, even when having the same color.

Golden Sirup is used for flavour and to up the attenuation a bit. The choosen yeast strain is very very very tasty, but unfortunately a weak attenuator. It will flocc out like a stone but leave a cloyingly sweet beer, if not treated the right way.

Therfore the following mash schedule, to enhance head on the one side and attenuation on the other:

Water:

The water should promote Hops, but not too much. Aim for something like this:

Sulfate: 150
Chloride: 90
Calcium: 100

Lowest alkalinity possible.

This is meant as a ballpark thing. Don't sweat it too much. If you have more alkalinity, compensate with acidulated malt or some acid.


Mash Schedule:

1. Protein rest for 10 min @55c (this enhances head retention, but keep it short, and do not go lower than 55c!)

2. 45min @62C

3. 45min @72C

4. 15min @76C (Mashout, this releases a certain type of proteins that will also enhance head retention, just do it, also if you biab as I do :) )

After the mash finished, time for the 30 min boil with the following hop additions:

Hops Schedule:

@30min: 8g Magnum (11.9% Alpha) and 10g Cobb's Golding (6.1% Alpha)
@10min: 15g Cobb's Golding
@Flame out: 15g Cobb's Golding

NO DRY HOPS

This should add up to 30 Ibus.
Please adjust accordingly to your Hops and to your Flame out heat. Mine takes longer to chill, I will therefore get more Ibus out of it. You might need to add a little bit more Hops to the 30min addition.

The aim is to get the hops presence/flavour/aroma in the final beer, but not to overpower the caramel and marmelade tones of the yeast and crystal malts.

Chill this down to 25c, pitch the yeast and let it ride till it is finished without further temperature control at room temperature. It should be done in less than 4 days with the recommended yeast.

If you need to use dry yeast, windsor should be the closest, but this will yield a completely different beer. The Imperial Pub Yeast really provides this fullers marmelade moreish type of thing to the beer. It is simply amazing.

Carbonation: 2.5g sugar per 0.5l beer

This beer will be (semi) dry with an attenuation of about 75%. LOADS of flavour, low ABV and really really moreish.

I hope you guys enjoy it as much as me and my friends did :)

Let me know how you like it!
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Sounds like an interesting and delicious brew 🍻
 
Happy National Beer Day. Brewing a British Golden Ale. Using Verdant IPA yeast for the first time. Finishing off the last of my Golden Promise stock and using some #1 invertIMG_20220407_104324_082-01.jpegScreenshot_20220407-112725.pngPXL_20220407_143901467.MP.jpg
 
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Just to let you guys who might care know, I got quite good news. I found a dry yeast combination that comes surprisingly close to pub taste wise.

50/50 mix of Verdant ipa and Nottingham. Pitch one pack each at the same time into a normal batch sized beer, no rehydration, nothing fancy, just two packs into the chilled wort. Keep the temperature low for the first three days, about 18-20 c, preferably 18 and you'll be good.

This combination restrains the excess fruitiness of verdant IPA quite a bit and the result tastes almost like pub. Only thing is, the dry yeast combination is a bit more attenuative (I like it) so you might want to mash a bit higher. The flocculation of Nottingham is really good, clear beer after 3 weeks in the bottle without fining or cold crash.

Cheers!
 
Miraculix said:
Just to let you guys who might care know, I got quite good news. I found a dry yeast combination that comes surprisingly close to pub taste wise.

50/50 mix of Verdant ipa and Nottingham. Pitch one pack each at the same time into a normal batch sized beer, no rehydration, nothing fancy, just two packs into the chilled wort. Keep the temperature low for the first three days, about 18-20 c, preferably 18 and you'll be good.

This combination restrains the excess fruitiness of verdant IPA quite a bit and the result tastes almost like pub. Only thing is, the dry yeast combination is a bit more attenuative (I like it) so you might want to mash a bit higher. The flocculation of Nottingham is really good, clear beer after 3 weeks in the bottle without fining or cold crash.

Cheers!
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Well okay, then!
I've got my Lyles and I just need to get some more Maris Otter.
 
Chris White did a recent Beer Smith podcast. Chris is now promoting mixing strains. ;)

WLP002 is popular for flocculation properties.

Here's a White Labs 2014 NHC presentation "A guide to blending yeast strains". The example used is WLP002 and WLP007. Whilst no one at White Labs will admit it, I'm 99% sure that this means WLP085 is a combo of these two yeasties.

I made dozens of brews with WLP085. It's got a soft spot in my heart as the bartender at white labs san diego actually went in the back and found me a vial about 5 years ago. I stopped using it as my go to after a split batch with different yeasts revealed that WLP085 stripped out all the chocolate malt notes.
 

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