Golden Ale recipe and yeast harvesting advice

MickDundee · Apr 19, 2017

I'm going to buy my ingredients for my next 3 brews tonight and I've changed my mind whatbthey will be again.

After partaking in a few cask ales at the weekend I remembered how much I like a good British Golden Ale so would like to make one. I've pulled this recipe together, will it be ok?

4.25kg MO
250g carapils

10g each of EKG and fuggles for 60mins

10g each of EKG, fuggles and cascade for 10mins

15g each of EKG and cascade at flame out

28.6IBUS, 4.33% ABV (1.044 SG to 1.011)

Yeast wise, I'm also considering buying a liquid English ale yeast and using it twice - for this brew and for a NEIPA. Or I might just use s-04 and brew something else instead of the NEIPA. I've only ever used liquid yeast once and have never re-used/harvested. What do I do?

strange-steve · Apr 19, 2017

You have a couple of options, if you get a liquid yeast you can overbuild the starter then save a portion for the second brew which is my preferred option. Or you could split the vial between two starters.

Or if you want to harvest some yeast, simply swirl up the yeast/trub in the FV after bottling so that it's well mixed then pour some into a sanitised container, about a pint or so should be enough, then store it in the fridge. If you are using it within a week or so you can just decant the liquid off the top and dump the yeast in as is, or if it'll be longer than a couple of weeks make a starter from it.

wfr42 · Apr 19, 2017

I sanitise a jar along with my brewing gear and scoop up the trub (and what ever is left from bottling) and store it (making a starter if it has sat for more than a month) until needed.

If brewing on bottling day - make a flow chart/check list to keep you right - I have used the jug that my batch priming sugar was in to scoop out the trub and then pour this into the wort after cooling.

Good luck!

(not sure how cascade fits in a British Golden Ale - although my I've planned a "top dollar" 80/- bittering with cheap american hops...)

MickDundee · Apr 19, 2017

Thanks both.

I've had a couple of British golden/pales with cascade and it worked well so thought I'd experiment. I googled and it looks like people think they go well together.

strange-steve · Apr 19, 2017

I actually had a golden ale earlier tonight which was brewed with cascade, I thought it worked well.

trueblue · Apr 19, 2017

I just fill a 500ml plastic bottle about 3/4 full with fermenting wort 2 days into fermentation. Plug the bottle with cotton wool an leave in the fermenting fridge until the main wort has fermented. When fermented the bottle is sealed and stored in the fridge. You need to make a starter and I start with 20ml, after pouring off spent wort, then step up to 2lt. The longest I have kept before re-using is 3 months. I have been using various methods to propagate yeast over the last 40 years and have found this the most successful. Not only have I not bought any yeast for over a year, and I brew at least every other week, but the yeast is getting better as it adapts to my conditions.

MyQul · Apr 21, 2017

trueblue said:
I just fill a 500ml plastic bottle about 3/4 full with fermenting wort 2 days into fermentation. Plug the bottle with cotton wool an leave in the fermenting fridge until the main wort has fermented. When fermented the bottle is sealed and stored in the fridge. You need to make a starter and I start with 20ml, after pouring off spent wort, then step up to 2lt. The longest I have kept before re-using is 3 months. I have been using various methods to propagate yeast over the last 40 years and have found this the most successful. Not only have I not bought any yeast for over a year, and I brew at least every other week, but the yeast is getting better as it adapts to my conditions.

I've come across this technique before. How do you normally extract the fermenting wort?

MickDundee · Apr 21, 2017

I'm going to leave the harvesting til next time. I realised when I wasnorderingbthat if I planned to brew Wednesday and ordering Thursday that i wouldn't actually have time to make a starter! Went with S-04 for the golden ale and MJ Empire for the NEIPA - I might need to add some sugar or the rest of my jar of extract because after ordering I read that this is a low attenuator - not quite ideal when I was brewing it at session strength to start with!

trueblue · Apr 21, 2017

MyQul said:
I've come across this technique before. How do you normally extract the fermenting wort?

I remove a section of the head then take some wort with a ladle, everything sterilized of course.

Golden Ale recipe and yeast harvesting advice

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