Bucklebury Ferry Antipodean Amber Ale

[Lesinge]

Bucklebury Ferry NZ Amber Ale, 4kg Maris Otter, 300g Vienna, 200g very dark crystal. Hops 20g Waimea at start, 18g Summer at 15, 15g of Summer and 15g of Wai iti at flameout. At pitch I was getting an OG of over 1060 so added a few litres of cold water to bring it down to 1052/54 which should bring it to about 5.5%. Got over 23L with cold additions. Pitched US 05. Colour at pitch nice amber/light brown. Smell, usual creamy malty. Taste, cool smooth creamy but not overly bitter. Bitterness is at back of mouth and lingers but not front of mouth and punchy. Nice, cold milky.

 

[Bodleigh Head]

Now that looks like a mad sort of brew, not the sort of thing that I would be doing ... but ... whatever floats your boat. Great thing about the forum, you see that one man's medicine etc ...
:thumb:

 

[Lesinge]

Now that looks like a mad sort of brew, not the sort of thing that I would be doing ... but ... whatever floats your boat. Great thing about the forum, you see that one man's medicine etc ...
:thumb:

What don't you like about it?

 

[Bodleigh Head]

What don't you like about it?

It wasn't meant to be a criticism, quite the opposite, hope it wasn't taken as such. The forum has helped me get out of my own fish bowl and see that just because I like a certain style it doesn't mean that is the be all and end all. There are lots of people brewing country wines, again, not something I would be doing but one man's medicine and all of that ...

not like => dark crystal for a start ... did a couple of brews with dark Belgian crystal malt, lots of fruity fig like flavours at the end, a bit like fruit cake ... not really my sort of thing. Add the other special malts to that plus the new world hops ... it's going to be a thick tasty brew ... fine if you like that sort of thing.

I am into light session beer mode at the moment ... so that's why your recipe hit a chord for me. :thumb:

 

[Lesinge]

It wasn't meant to be a criticism, quite the opposite, hope it wasn't taken as such. The forum has helped me get out of my own fish bowl and see that just because I like a certain style it doesn't mean that is the be all and end all. There are lots of people brewing country wines, again, not something I would be doing but one man's medicine and all of that ...

not like => dark crystal for a start ... did a couple of brews with dark Belgian crystal malt, lots of fruity fig like flavours at the end, a bit like fruit cake ... not really my sort of thing. Add the other special malts to that plus the new world hops ... it's going to be a thick tasty brew ... fine if you like that sort of thing.

I am into light session beer mode at the moment ... so that's why your recipe hit a chord for me. :thumb:

I didn't take it as a criticism I was interested in your point of view. It's the first time I have used any of these ingrediants except for the yeast and Maris Otter :) I read that the extra dark crystal will give me a dark toffee flavour and I wanted to see how peach/stone fruit flavours of the hops would work with it. Have been using Munich malt in some beers lately and wanted to see the difference between it and Vienna. No idea how it will turn out but you never know it might be a diamond!

 

[Bodleigh Head]

I didn't take it as a criticism I was interested in your point of view. It's the first time I have used any of these ingrediants except for the yeast and Maris Otter :) I read that the extra dark crystal will give me a dark toffee flavour and I wanted to see how peach/stone fruit flavours of the hops would work with it. Have been using Munich malt in some beers lately and wanted to see the difference between it and Vienna. No idea how it will turn out but you never know it might be a diamond!

toffee & peach ... sounds like a good plan to me. I suspect the dark crystal will give the overriding flavour ... in my mind, I tend to put all of those caramel fruity type flavours in the Christmas pudding box.

might be a diamond => that's what I love about HB ... just go for it and see what happens. And I console myself when I do get the odd duff brew it's no great loss really, it still works out a lot cheaper than commercial prices and I usually end up learning something along the way.

 

[Lesinge]

Me too...don't know if my Fuggles and EKG with MO and Munich mix in my last concoction will work. At the moment it tastes a bit too sour and woody so might be the Fuggles and lack of carbonation or me sticking in the 100g of Chocolate malt into it! I will learn all of the hops and malts eventually!

 

[Bodleigh Head]

Me too...don't know if my Fuggles and EKG with MO and Munich mix in my last concoction will work. At the moment it tastes a bit too sour and woody so might be the Fuggles and lack of carbonation or me sticking in the 100g of Chocolate malt into it! I will learn all of the hops and malts eventually!

I guess you will end up with something between a brown ale and a porter with that one ... depending on the proportions. It will be gorgeous. I brewed a "Brown Ale" back in October ... very similar to Fuller's Porter it is. What sort of yeast did you use ? I am intrigued by the "sour & woody".

Learn all of the hops & malt => I took a trip to Wikipedia the other day ... there are about 130 different varieties listed ! I doubt it is fully reliable but there is an awful lot out there to discover. I have come round to thinking that I just won't have enough time left on the planet to be able to do it all. Now, if I had been born into money ...

 

[chesters-mild]

Well as long as the ale gets you to Bree and the Prancing Pony that's OK
Enjoy!

 

[Lesinge]

I guess you will end up with something between a brown ale and a porter with that one ... depending on the proportions. It will be gorgeous. I brewed a "Brown Ale" back in October ... very similar to Fuller's Porter it is. What sort of yeast did you use ? I am intrigued by the "sour & woody".

Learn all of the hops & malt => I took a trip to Wikipedia the other day ... there are about 130 different varieties listed ! I doubt it is fully reliable but there is an awful lot out there to discover. I have come round to thinking that I just won't have enough time left on the planet to be able to do it all. Now, if I had been born into money ...

I used Wilco Gervin yeast which I understand is Nottingham yeast. I think the woody taste is from the Fuggles as I remember once using these as a dry hop and getting the taste. The sour tatse is more kind of slightly bitter/salt sour..hard to explain but I suspect it will mellow with age. As to getting to know all the malts and hops I try to brew once a week now and am up to my 124th brew in three years! The current new stuff I have apart from the hops and extra dark crystal are Caramalt and Aromatic malt lined up to be tried. I personnally like Carared and Crystal Rye but wasn't so keen on the Amber Malt.

 

[Bodleigh Head]

I used Wilco Gervin yeast which I understand is Nottingham yeast. I think the woody taste is from the Fuggles as I remember once using these as a dry hop and getting the taste. The sour tatse is more kind of slightly bitter/salt sour..hard to explain but I suspect it will mellow with age. As to getting to know all the malts and hops I try to brew once a week now and am up to my 124th brew in three years! The current new stuff I have apart from the hops and extra dark crystal are Caramalt and Aromatic malt lined up to be tried. I personnally like Carared and Crystal Rye but wasn't so keen on the Amber Malt.

I put the S04 / GV12 / Nottingham into the same bag. I have gotten woody, leathery type flavours from them in the past. So it might not be your Fuggles at all. I have had better results with the S04 when kegging but I really don't like using it for bottling ... which is a shame because it drops clear easily. Glad to find that I am not the only one getting those sorts of flavours ... I was wondering whether it was just my taste buds that were playing up. Or even worse ... my poor brewing technique !

Brew once a week ... I take it you are not doing 25 litre brews each time. I would like to brew once a week or every other week ... but as I am the only one drinking the stuff ... it tends to go stale before I can get through it all.
Special malts ... I have backed off using them, I'm not into Belgian beers and my main supplier is Chateau Maltings up in Belgium. I use their light crystal but that is about all. I have decided that I am going to give up on their Pale Malt and just stick to their Pils ... it's more neutral. Their malts do tend to give honey like flavours though which is quite nice.