Graham Wheeler brew your own British real ale ??

[The Baron]

Hi
just got the Graham Wheeler brew your own British real ale book. Looks really good but have noticed the recipes which most contain Crystal malts but how do I/we know what colour/type it is 30, 40, 120 etc?
Anybody know how to get around this?
thanks Pete

 

[terrym]

Hi
just got the Graham Wheeler brew your own British real ale book. Looks really good but have noticed the recipes which most contain Crystal malts but how do I/we know what colour/type it is 30, 40, 120 etc?
Anybody know how to get around this?
thanks Pete

In short the higher the number the darker it is and the more caramel-like overtones you will get, but you probably knew that anyway. So if you are making up a light beer you might not want to be using a high number crystal, whereas for darker beers it won't matter so much. However I found that using high number crystal malt in quantity can introduce a cloying taste, so I don't use them anymore.

 

[Spapro]

If ordering some supplies you won't go far wrong using a 50-70 EBC crystal for pale ales and maybe 120 for bitters and darker beers.

Only other way round it is to enter the recipe from the book into something like beersmith or brewersfriend (Free and quite good) and you can see where the EBC colour ends up using different crystal malts.

Good luck with it, good book that as a basis for recipe creating

 

[Honk]

+1 for what spapro says above about using a calculator to check colour and also hop bittering as the alpha values he uses can be a bit out of date. I also wish the book recommended yeasts but a Google search usually shows what other people have used.
Despite these flaws the recipes I've tried have all been great and it's my favourite brew book.

 

[Sbond10]

If you read the book where it says crystal it's 145 ebc and where dark crystal is stated it's 245ebc

 

[foxbat]

The recipes make great starting points for entering into Beersmith/Brewers Friend etc. Then you can stare at them before succumbing to the inevitable temptation to pile more hops in...

 

[trueblue]

+1 for what spapro says above about using a calculator to check colour and also hop bittering as the alpha values he uses can be a bit out of date. I also wish the book recommended yeasts but a Google search usually shows what other people have used.
Despite these flaws the recipes I've tried have all been great and it's my favourite brew book.

Graham has often said he never stated any particular yeast on purpose as he felt you would never truly replicate a beer unless you used the actual brewery yeast.
Most of the recipes are from traditional brewery's that would have maintained their own strains. The thinking was it is up to the brewer to try different yeasts and make their own decisions.

 

[Honk]

Yes, I know what he says, but I still find it annoying not having a recommended yeast.

Having said that if it did recommend one I'd probably change it to a dried yeasts cos I am cheap.

 

[trueblue]

Yes, I know what he says, but I still find it annoying not having a recommended yeast.

Having said that if it did recommend one I'd probably change it to a dried yeasts cos I am cheap.

I get six brews from each whitelab pack, cheaper than dried. Another option is brewlab slants. They have an extensive of almost every strain going and are very helpful if you want a particular strain.

 

[The Baron]

Tried a few of the brews in brewers friend seem to be well out on IBU's mucher higher than should be?

 

[Slid]

+1 for what spapro says above about using a calculator to check colour and also hop bittering as the alpha values he uses can be a bit out of date. I also wish the book recommended yeasts but a Google search usually shows what other people have used.
Despite these flaws the recipes I've tried have all been great and it's my favourite brew book.

I think that Graham Wheeler knows well, through long and very tiresome, if transiently enjoyable experimentation, that the yeast and the actual brewing environment will make differences beyond his control as a suggester of recipes.

My go-to supplier (Worcester Hop Shop) usually has Safale 04 English yeast strain as the default yeast for their GW recipe AG packs. I find this interesting.

Back when Graham brewed at home, for his first few ventures, I would suggest that central heating may not have been a feature of most houses?

This makes a huge difference on choice of yeast.

As I live with 3 women (far less exciting than it sounds) it is always at the top end of tolerable temperatures for both Slid and brewing yeast. Hence I use US 05 as a go-to. Have also used and re-used the Coopers yeast, which gives a good flavoured product as well.

 

[trueblue]

Graham went into a lot of detail about his research on another forum several years back. In most cases he did get the brewery yeast, he was in the know so it was easy, so he used that but in the early days only dried yeast was available to us plebs. In the latter books he did experiment with liquid yeast and although impressed was sceptical about the provenance of some of them. Personally I would never let SO4 anywhere near my beers. The fact WHS add it to all there kits seems a lack of imagination.