Summery English Ale?

[JonM]

So I was planning to do a saison over the Memorial Day weekend and I went to make my starter and ... whoops! The yeast I have ready to go is 002 rather than 3711 (long story). So I guess I'm making an English Ale. I've made the Common Room ESB many times and I have made Orfy's Mild, which is awesome, but I'm thinking I'd like something lighter for the summer.

So I'm thinking for a 5-gallon batch:

10 lbs of Maris Otter mashed at 152
Bitter with Target
One, maybe two late additions of UK Goldings

And ferment with that 002. I'm sure that'll be good, but I'm wondering if anyone have a tried and true light English style ale recipe. Thanks all!

 

[dstockwell]

I have a Best Bitter bottled 4.2 ABV 36 IBU with 90% Pearl.

 

[deere322]

10 lbs of MO seems like a lot for something light and summery.
Maybe drop it to 6-7 lbs. Shoot for 1030-1040.
Hops look good and maybe drop hop with Styrian goldings.

Here's one I brewed a while back and was tasty.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showpost.php?p=7556707&postcount=1236

 

[dyqik]

You should search for Golden ale recipes.

10lb might be a bit much for light finish with 002, although you could mash lower and longer for that.

 

[Revvy]

You should search for Golden ale recipes.

10lb might be a bit much for light finish with 002, although you could mash lower and longer for that.

Yeah, I was just racking my brain trying to recall what this was that suddenly became popular a couple of years ago (kind of the NEIPA of British Beers)... It's called interchangeably British Golden Ale or Golden Bitter....

There's a bunch of interpretations out there...here's one I found...

You might also want to consider rooting through Shut Up About Barclay Perkins, one of the best beer recipe sites around, It's mostly about the history of United Kingdom Beers. Lots of ideas to be found in there....

 

[JonM]

Golden Bitter - that sound like exactly what I'm after. Thanks!

 

[deere322]

You might also want to consider rooting through Shut Up About Barclay Perkins, one of the best beer recipe sites around, It's mostly about the history of United Kingdom Beers. Lots of ideas to be found in there....

Here's the site that has all of SUABP recipes linked.

http://www.unholymess.com/blog/lets-brew

 

[Revvy]

Here's the site that has all of SUABP recipes linked.

http://www.unholymess.com/blog/lets-brew

Oh that's awesome... I swore the blog had a search function, but, my computer was taking forever to load the page.

Cool!!!!

 

[brewbama]

Here's the site that has all of SUABP recipes linked.



http://www.unholymess.com/blog/lets-brew

Thanks for posting this database.

 

[rkzi]

Here's the site that has all of SUABP recipes linked.

http://www.unholymess.com/blog/lets-brew

I think that an AK could be an historical equivalent of this summer/golden ale. They were light and heavily hopped IIRC.

 

[Queequeg]

This is the sort of beer you are after. What CAMRA class as a golden ale.

Hopback summer lightening is a notable example of the style.

https://www.brewtoad.com/recipes/hopback-summer-lightning

 

[JonM]

Nice - that's pretty much what I settled on, including the Challenger hops for bittering. Going with the Maris Otter for the base malt because I don't think I've made a golden Maris Otter beer since I learned about water chemistry.

 

[Revvy]

This is the sort of beer you are after. What CAMRA class as a golden ale.

Hopback summer lightening is a notable example of the style.

https://www.brewtoad.com/recipes/hopback-summer-lightning

So the question is... what do they taste like?

 

[Queequeg]

Light, easy drinking, English hop character, usually quite dry.

They taste very much like a smash

 

[Revvy]

Light, easy drinking, English hop character, usually quite dry.

They taste very much like a smash

Sounds tasty actually.

 

[JonM]

There she is. Darn tasty.

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1499728300.390100.jpg

 

[Queequeg]

You have done well sir. Pleased with the finished product.

 

[65C]

how are you finding the all MO in a summer?

I made a couple earlier this year but found them a little dark and malty for the summer ale I was looking for

I've just made two more with pils added - at 30 and 50% to see if I can get it a bit less malty than what I get with just Maris

 

[Rui]

Looks a winner!!! Usually in the spring I brew a nice smash with vienna and an english hop, like EKG, fuggles, brewers gold or challenger.... you cant go wrong with that!!
OG: 1044; 4.1% ABV; 30 IBUs and S 05, fermented at 17ºC, clean and refreshing for a portuguese summer day, like today.... 45ºC outside!!!

cheers

 

[JonM]

Glad I took that pic when I did - the keg kicked the next day.

Definitely not too malty. I mashed at 150, so it was pretty dry/light. A good summertime sipper.

 

[65C]

I'm making progress on this now - using some Pils malt with the Maris has given me the colour and reduced the maltiness - hops are closer now I'm using Target to bitter and Saaz - but still something missing - I need to try another yeast (I've used US-05 for this so far).

Has anyone got any recommendations for a summer ale yeast ?

 

[65C]

MJ West Coast M44 yeast sounds like it might be worth a try

 

[Hanglow]

@65C

I've done two golden ales recently with this grainbill and they are pretty good, not as malty as the all MO beers I've done in the past - carahell is rather light and even at that amount doesn't make itself too obvious


OG 1.040
30 to 40 IBU
88.4 % Pilsner malt - weyerman/chateaux
8.4 % carahell -weyerman
3.2 % Torrified wheat


The yeasts I used was BRY97 - I like this as it clears much better than US05 although it can take a while to start. I used this with homegrown hallertau mittelfruh and while the beer certainly reminded me of german lagers, it was still obviously an ale from the yeast.

And the second one was with Crossmyloof Brewery US Pale Ale yeast ( you can buy this on ebay uk very cheaply) with London ESB yeast, three weeks on from bottling this has cleared well, it was a rather hazy when bottled - getting some nice restrained yeast esters from it. Lots of cascade in it makes a tasty beer

 

[MSK_Chess]

I just had a bottle of the fabled TT Landlord. I thought I could detect a very faint hint of caramel malt, very faint though. They must use something like that because its was almost like Irn Bru in colour, maybe melanoidin malt would give the same kind of colour, I dunno. What does carahell do if you don't mind me asking.

 

[Hanglow]

It's just a very light crystal malt from weyermann. It's lighter in flavour than the light british caramel malts imo, I know you mentioned in another thread you disliked crystal/caramel malts but it's pretty good when used with a pils base. I think Weihenstephaner use a similar amount in their pils

I think TT is still 100% golden promise but they will get it malted to their specs, so it might well be a bit darker than the GP we can buy off the shelf. Or they might actually add some colouring/roast malts for colour to the bottled version, I'm not sure. It could also be some oxidation if the bottle was a bit old . I've not drunk it in ages, but on its day the cask version at least is sublime

 

[boomslang]

Just go simple man. Not sure if you're british or not but I'm from Newcastle and summer blondes and golden ales are all over the place at the moment. Add a bit of crystal 60 for a nice golden colour, stick to east kent goldings, and maybe hallertau blanc (although this pushes the idea of what an EPA is).

US-04 usually ferments out to about 1.010, giving you a nice sweet finish and plenty of fruity esters.

 

[MSK_Chess]

It's just a very light crystal malt from weyermann. It's lighter in flavour than the light british caramel malts imo, I know you mentioned in another thread you disliked crystal/caramel malts but it's pretty good when used with a pils base. I think Weihenstephaner use a similar amount in their pils

I think TT is still 100% golden promise but they will get it malted to their specs, so it might well be a bit darker than the GP we can buy off the shelf. Or they might actually add some colouring/roast malts for colour to the bottled version, I'm not sure. It could also be some oxidation if the bottle was a bit old . I've not drunk it in ages, but on its day the cask version at least is sublime

Perhaps I should clarify. I am not against crystal malts per se, but just when they are used overtly in certain beers. I had a brewdog stout that had overt amounts of caramel malt in it, was truly horrible.

Ok I see its a very light crystal malt. Sounds awesome. As for TT I have used 100% Golden promise and it was a pale straw colour, the bottled TT I suspect uses a very light crystal malt or perhaps like you say they have their own speciality of Golden Promise. After making so many American pale ales its rather pleasant to have something a little less bold.

 

[Gravity]

MJ West Coast M44 yeast sounds like it might be worth a try

This is great for IPAs and ESBs

 

[Queequeg]

If I was going to make a beer of this style I would use golden promise and caramalt it possible Maris otter low colour and golden promise as the base.

I would use challenger as the bittering hop and the pioneer as the aroma hop.

I would use timothy Taylor yeast to add body but mash low

 

[Queequeg]

Reading the post above about crystal its caramalt your atfer. Extremely pale British crystal.