Who's brewing low ABV beers for the plague?

[duncan_disorderly]

Golden Ale is on my to-brew list. Seems right up my alley. I hadn't heard they were using American Hops, but I have always loved those British yeasts.

Any idea what hops they are using?

Yes I drink them often and they often tell you what's in them. It's the obvious candidates, but a wide range, we get a lot of different US hops here, and Oz and NZ, and we homebrewers use them too of course. A lot use Cascade or Amarillo. But the rest show up to, it's just the most recent new hops that reach us later than you have them in circulation over there. Citra is popular obviously. Columbus, Centennial, Mosaic, Chinook, Galaxy etc. Amarillo is probably the one that has become a classic in golden ales, following on from Cascade which was the trail blazer. Don't hop it to smithereens. Think of English Bitter hopping regimes. Willamette works well too, maybe pair it with Cascade, obviously.

 

[Stand]

Love willamette/cascade. What distinguishes from an APA? Lower IBU and british yeast?

 

[duncan_disorderly]

Love willamette/cascade. What distinguishes from an APA? Lower IBU and british yeast?

IBUs wouldn't be much different I think, it's more about the yeast, and they are usually served from casks. Which is hard to replicate exactly but lower the carbonation a bit. And don't rule out English hops, or combining US and UK hops.

 

[kmarkstevens]

Don't forget bottle or cask conditioning to be a "real ale."

Now I have not done a side by side keg experiment with one natural carb vs a forced carb. It's on the experiment list when I can free up 2 kegs.

I currently spund just about every keg. Usually, I don't catch it a few points before FG, so just add priming sugar. While not having done a side by side, I think natural carb tastes better (but I could be fooling myself). And it certainly makes the CO2 last considerably longer. Typically, I pour at least a few pints before needing to hook up the CO2, and since the CO2 is just pushing out already fully carbonated liquid, it uses a LOT less gas per keg.