I like challenger. I like cascade. John suggests this combo in an ale is excellent so at the earliest opportunity I wanted to test this out. I'm off work this week so grabbed the chance to do some midweek brewing, something I never get the chance to do. The recipe looked like this:
4.3 kg Maris Otter
Challenger 40g 60 mins
Challenger/Cascade 20, 10, 5, 0 mins
Mashed 66 C
1.5 litre British ale yeast starter
OG 11 Plato
The most important thing about this brew was ensuring that I had removed all the alkalinity from the water because a grist composed of entirely pale malt will not tolerate much alkalinity and cannot produce enough acidity to counter the buffering effect of carbonates. I took care of this with an acid blend solution and the mash went well. The beer will be golden in colour but perhaps not as light as it could be due to some inevitable darkening during the boil. The beer is appropriate. The sun came out today and a distinct spring warmth was in the air and this beer will be a refreshing golden ale, slightly lower in alcohol than the beer I brewed over the winter and well suited to drinking in quantity.
6 comments:
It's a good combo. Twisted Thistle IPA uses this combo I believe. What happened to your other beer you fermented with S-05? I just brewed today using Nottingham. Sort of an experimental brew. First time I used local tap water. I treated it with gypsum and lactic acid. Gypsum to bring the calcium up, lactic acid to drop the bicarbonates. Never used Nottingham either. Hopefully it's good, 'cause I plan on serving it on the engine.
Adeptus - this won't be a hop bomb. I purposely eased back on the hops because I have been a little heavy handed of late. I felt like something a little easier going.
Wurst - Pilgrim Ale is bottled and undergoing conditioning as we speak. I fined as you suggested and it made very short work indeed of stubborn Saf 05. I think the yeast learned a very valuable lesson.
I use a pre blended acid mix to reduce alkalinity. It's expensive but suitable for the home brew scale. Would not phosphoric acid be better suited than lactic acid? I'd be afraid of any lactic character hanging around in the beer.
Ok, I wasn't sure what quantities you were using in your later additions. I know what you mean though. I was tending to go heavy on the hops for a while, but my last couple of brews have been relatively restrained in those quarters. It's good to hit the reset button now and again :)
Sausage - Nottingham yeast pulls down very dry. Just what you need to combat the West coast heat
Lactic acid works well as long as you don't use too much. I use about .7cc's per 5 gallons.
yep, twisted thistle does use this, as does Copper Dragon's Challenger IPA. Sounds like you'll get a nice, zingy IPA. interesing point about the acids too. I plan an IPA before the start of summer and was going with about 80% pale and 20% Crystal (ish). Never thought of alkalinity!!
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