Greg Hughes recipes

[obscure]

When I chose to use Belle instead of wyeast it was after reading largely similar comments on here.

Wasnt sure if its specifoc to the yeast or a pre requisite of all saison yeasts.

Iv never seen a dark saison before but mine is probably going to come out about 22 ebc. I am sure it will make a nice beer but its going to end up looking like a bitter.

If nothing else I find that Belle Saison does produce a really decent Saison (well to my taste anyhow). I was also just reading through the Greg Hughes Saison recipe and am curious how much impact the 200g of honey has on it.

 

[UKSkydiver]

Wasnt sure if its specific to the yeast or a pre requisite of all saison yeasts.

Iv never seen a dark saison before but mine is probably going to come out about 22 ebc.

Here's one: UKSkydiver's Brewdays My notes say it was 46 EBC

Whilst planning a Pelforth Brun clone, I decided to change the yeast to an MJ Saison. It finished very low, and I've read many other reports of saison yeast chomping though al the sugars it can get its teeth on.

I wasn't keen on it to be honest with you. It was supposed to be a malty, Belgian type brew, but I think the yeast added a peppery quality and high fusels to it. One of the guys here said it had a soy sauce flavour to it. Not my greatest moment

I have one left from when I brewed it about 11 months ago and I may open it soon just to see if storing / aging has improved it any.

 

[Brewnaldo]

How spooky. I’m planning a Saison for this coming weekend. I’ve not done one before so am using GH recipe as a rough guide only as I’d prefer a simpler grist and more of a session finished beer (can’t be sinking pints of 5.6% at family BBQs).
Ive just posted in my brew day thread.

I got an OG of 1.044-45 so it really depends how far down the yeast goes but conservatively looking at a 5.2% ish but possibly a touch higher.

If nothing else I find that Belle Saison does produce a really decent Saison (well to my taste anyhow). I was also just reading through the Greg Hughes Saison recipe and am curious how much impact the 200g of honey has on it.

I do think this will turn out nice, its just, it doesnt represent my admittedly limited experience of saisons, and not knowing much about a style is normally what results in me going to a GH recipe.

Here's one: UKSkydiver's Brewdays My notes say it was 46 EBC

Whilst planning a Pelforth Brun clone, I decided to change the yeast to an MJ Saison. It finished very low, and I've read many other reports of saison yeast chomping though al the sugars it can get its teeth on.

I wasn't keen on it to be honest with you. It was supposed to be a malty, Belgian type brew, but I think the yeast added a peppery quality and high fusels to it. One of the guys here said it had a soy sauce flavour to it. Not my greatest moment

I have one left from when I brewed it about 11 months ago and I may open it soon just to see if storing / aging has improved it any.

And now im a tad worried

 

[UKSkydiver]

And now im a tad worried

If you have followed a recipe, I'm sure it will be fine. I totally c**ked up my brew as I elected to change the yeast to a saison.

 

[obscure]

Here's one: UKSkydiver's Brewdays My notes say it was 46 EBC

Whilst planning a Pelforth Brun clone, I decided to change the yeast to an MJ Saison. It finished very low, and I've read many other reports of saison yeast chomping though al the sugars it can get its teeth on.

I wasn't keen on it to be honest with you. It was supposed to be a malty, Belgian type brew, but I think the yeast added a peppery quality and high fusels to it. One of the guys here said it had a soy sauce flavour to it. Not my greatest moment

I have one left from when I brewed it about 11 months ago and I may open it soon just to see if storing / aging has improved it any.

Saison does seem to have quite a distinctive taste, and form what I’ve read a lot of the flavour is driven by the yeast with pepper being a pretty common flavour in them it’s not for everyone but I am loving a cold Saison on a hot day.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

I brewed a 11 litre batch of Saison with CML Saison yeast that was in its last month of shelf life. I had an OG at 1060 but the FG was 1014 giving an attenuation of 75% . The published attention is 77-84%. I pitched the whole packet. Still the ABV is 6% so I'm ok with that.

 

[Brewnaldo]

Re the colour I have spoken about, here it is.

 

[Benfleet Brewery]

I brewed a 11 litre batch of Saison with CML Saison yeast that was in its last month of shelf life. I had an OG at 1060 but the FG was 1014 giving an attenuation of 75% . The published attention is 77-84%. I pitched the whole packet. Still the ABV is 6% so I'm ok with that.

I’m looking to use the CML Saison yeast at the weekend. I’d too like it to attenuate down more than the quoted 77 - 84% so am planning to add some yeast nutrient to the last 5 minutes of the boil and Amylase Enzyme to the FV in the hope this gives it a little push.

 

[cushyno]

Re the colour I have spoken about, here it is.

View attachment 45516

Perfect! For me at least, it looks great. I hope mine turns out a similar colour.

 

[jeg3]

I've brewed saisons and a christmas spice ale all the MJ M29.

It chomps through everything leaving a very dry beer. I found the two saisons to be very drinkable, I think they'd be great as a thirst quencher on a hot summer's day.

The spiced ale was OK (I made the recipe up), but too dry for a winter ale.

I'm making another saison in a couple of weeks.

It is an acquired taste - none of my family liked it, but they don't like dry white wine or champagne either

 

[Brewnaldo]

Probably experienced enough to know better than putting any stock into the taste of somrthing straight out the fermenter, but this saison tastes..... Interesting. Its down at 1.004 and certainly tastes it. Theres something else going on there though that I canr put the finger on. Going to put the heater off and crash whilst its to get cold at night.

Still hopeful this will be nice, but its as dry as a stick and just a little odd currently

 

[timtoos]

I have done the Brown Porter a few times and its amazing. I have tweaked it slightly from the book - its a really nice beer at Christmas time.
I did the Winter Welcome (is it???) also. Brewed it last year and I ended up with a 6.7% beer. My OG was much higher than planned (increased efficiency since crushing my own grains). I did not rate this at all, too strong for me and very much a old type ale - bland.
I also did the Amarillo Single Hop a few back. I probably cocked this up at the time but it was drinkable, not as hoppy as I would have liked though. A nice dry hopping would have made all the difference.

 

[Slid]

I've only used biscuit malt once, in a single hop EKG pale ale which was the blandest effort I've yet brewed. 250g in a 23l batch. It was Belgian, pre-crushed in a 500g pack. Maybe it was old? I may get some fresh stuff.

I missed this earlier, but if you have a grain mill and unmilled (whole, uncrushed) base malt, you can turn 500g-1,000g into Biscuit / Amber malt by roasting it in the oven at 150C. Line a large baking tray with aluminium foil and fill it to about 1cm or maybe half an inch. Give it a stir with a spoon or something after 20mins or so to see how it is going and give a couple of grains a chew to decide when it's done.

This idea is borrowed from the Durden Park booklet "Old British Beers and how to make them", which is a very interesting read. Martin Keane also mentioned this in one of his 99 beers in 99 weeks vid's.

 

[timtoos]

Anybody done the BrewUK Sonic Small IPA AG Recipe pack?

 

[UKSkydiver]

I just so happen to have all the bits in stock for a GH Ruby Mild, except the yeast (I tend to use dry yeasts at the moment)

I have both CML Beoir and Four in stock. Does anyone have a view as to which might be best to use? For any difference it makes, I prefer a fuller, maltier, rich brew rather than hop forward. I’m thinking the Beoir might be better.

Cheers

 

[Brewnaldo]

I just so happen to have all the bits in stock for a GH Ruby Mild, except the yeast (I tend to use dry yeasts at the moment)

I have both CML Beoir and Four in stock. Does anyone have a view as to which might be best to use? For any difference it makes, I prefer a fuller, maltier, rich brew rather than hop forward. I’m thinking the Beoir might be better.

Cheers

On the basis of what I came in here to type, I would go with Beoir.

I sampled my second go at GH 60 shilling lastnight. It was only a carb sample really as once its carbed up its being gifted away and will be stored outside till ready. The carbing was a little off but thats only been six days and the beer is crystal clear, I used Beoir for this one and it really clears up well. Suspect it will take a wee bit longer to reach the carb levels which are admittedly low anyway.

That, and the addition of 400g honey were the only deviations from the recipe. This one is miles, literally miles nicee than the last one I did though. I think theres some credit to be given to the fact that I have since started treating my water but this one has real toffee/caramel flavours on the nose and taste. Actually quite chuffed witgh and will keep a few back to monitor how well they condition.

Given its low ABV, 3.7% in my case, would we expect this one not to need too long?

 

[Jzrp]

There are tons of errors in the second edition. I might have found a few more than that thread because I went through every recipe converting to percentages and picked up a few while I was scribbling all over it.

https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/errata-greg-hughes-home-brew-beer-2019-edition.89222/

Ah happy to find this thread. I got this book recently (orange and white cover) and seemed as good as the recommendations for recipe baselines. But then when I started looking at them in detail was seeing lots of confusing issues which obviosuly I now know are errors and not me getting wrong end of the stick!

I was gonna use the double dry hopped pale ale on page 120 as a kind of base American Pale Ale style and edit the hops and grain bill to try and get closer to a deya steady rolling man vibe but then noticed...

* Seems to have the same volume for mash and boil, so assuming 27L boil was meant to be written there.

* The hop process listed, if you whack it in a recipe builder you are just not coming out with 29.6 IBU. If anyone has done this style before is the process right (all hops at flame out or later) or is the target IBU right? I.e. I’m in two minds to add some small bittering hops addition to try and get to 29 IBU but not sure if better off going all late?

* The grain bill doesn’t add up to the ABV either but I would be editing that anyway so no buggy there.

 

[ssparks]

Brewed the Abbey Beer at the week, but due to slip in concentration (not that I am pointing fingers, but the wife was going on about something unrelated to beer) I managed to grab East Kent golding instead of styrian golding for the 2nd hop addition.

 

[An Ankoù]

the wife was going on about something unrelated to beer

FFS. You can see why the monks made such decent beers. I wonder if the Trappists are a silent order. (Apart form snoring and belching and farting, of course).

 

[jayk34]

I have done the following from the book.

• Brown Porter- wasn't keen on this although possibly an issue with oxidation/infection in some of the bottles.
• Northern Brown Ale - not bad but don't think I would repeat.
• Dry Stout- have done this twice. The first one was amazing with the only difference between the recipe using Nottingham instead of the suggested irish ale yeast. The second has only been in the bottle just over a week and used the irish ale yeast, upped the chocolate malt and reduced the boil time. Very promising after tasting one bottle. Will probably get another one on for Christmas.
• American IPA - currently in the fermenter. Missed out one of the 10 minute additions and used us-05. This seems to be a slow burner, took around 20 hours to start fermentation and currently at 1.030 after 3 days. I hope I'm wrong but I suspect its going to stall very shortly.

I intend to do the oatmeal stout and milk stout next.