Greg Hughes recipes

[Sandimas]

I'm just drinking the London Bitter, really good traditional ale.

 

[GerritT]

I'm just drinking the London Bitter, really good traditional ale.

Ah, I hope that mine turns out well too. I was wandering: the IBUs are about 23, isn't that a bit low, even with an ale at around 4%?

 

[Sandimas]

I was wandering: the IBUs are about 23, isn't that a bit low, even with an ale at around 4%?

Yes and no. I've just done another English bitter, similar style and clone of a local brew, and at 35 IBU that wasn't really enough. But the London Bitter seems fine at a lowish IBU in the mid-20s, I pushed mine up a little bit to 26 IBU as I was using up a pack of hops. Bottled mine back in Oct and it's really come good now.

 

[Brewnaldo]

Just ordered all the needful for the GH Belgian Dubbel. One exception is that I subbed the Wyeast Witbier yeast for Wyeast 3787 Abbey High Gravity, having read it recommended for Dubbel.

 

[ssparks]

I have just poured my 2nd bottle of Northern Brown Ale from GH's book, only my 7th or 8th all grain brew but the best by a good distance

 

[alsch890]

I think all bar half a dozen of my brews have started out as an idea from either Palmer or Hughes, but almost always with some slight tweak, I rarely follow a recipe to the letter, even my first I had to swap some hops since I couldn't get them over here in Prague. I only use dry yeast so far too.

From Hughes I have done:
Spring beer - twice, once with Cascade/Citra rather than Galaxy/Wai-iti and with a slightly higher proportion of Munich, and the second time more or less as per recipe.
Bohemian pilsner - with S-23
Imperial pilsner - similar grain bill ratio but reduced down to around 5% abv and with Sladek/Saaz hops 4 additions, W34/70
Black IPA - but with Nugget and Cascade, US-05
Patersbier - BE-256
Weiss - with Hillertau Mittelfruh rather than HH, WB-06
Oktoberfest -Sladek instead of Perl and used MJ54 (this yeast was awful)
ESB - with S-04
Smoked Porter - higher smoked malt ratio with Fuggle and Challenger, S-04
Oatmeal Stout - with S-04
Scottish 70 - with S-04 (got infected)
Yorkshire bitter - S-04
Vienna Lager - S-189, decent but a few gushers, used Sladek/Saaz
Black lager - used only Saaz, S-23. decent
American Wheat - with US-05 and slightly higher ratio of wheat to pilsner/carapils

The top ones for me:
Oatmeal stout - a beer I'd gladly pay a fiver a pint for....
Smoked porter - i love smoked beers though
ESB - nice balanced beer
Imperial Pilsner watered down - I live in Prague, we have dozens of excellent pilsners, whilst not fantastic it stands up against them. I've down three batches of this. Also I love Melanoidin so it goes in a few of my brews!

Worst:
The Oktoberfest was ruined by the yeast and the Scottish got an infection. otherwise none to complain about. did what they said they would.

Planning to do the Irish Red next (been meaning to do it for over a year, it keeps getting pushed back). And the Amarillo Single hop has been on my list since I got the book. I plan to add about 5% Melanoidin though. This year for sure! :-)

From Palmer for the record - American Amber, American Brown, Dry Stout and Robust Porter.

Since posting the above I have brewed the Irish Red ale, it came out fairly well - not exactly red though, quite dark. I have also brewed the Belgian Golden Strong (but subbed in Sladek/Saaz) and it came out very very well indeed. I am bottling the Belgian Tripel that I brewed over Christmas tomorrow and so far so good (again Sladek and Saaz subbed in). I still have not done the Amarillo single hop! This year for sure!..

 

[Sandimas]

Just had another bottle of the London Bitter, bottled back in Oct - wow, only did it for a use-up brew but it's fantastic, one of the best traditional ales I've brewed.

 

[Moe]

Hi,
Just ordering ingredients for my next few brews.
I want to brew the American IPA. However when I have put the recipe into brewers friend the IBU shows as 87.
The stated IBU on the recipe is 55. I have put the %AA of each hop into BF.
Any ideas on this discrepancy please? Should I brew as is or reduce the hops?
Thanks

 

[obscure]

Hi,
Just ordering ingredients for my next few brews.
I want to brew the American IPA. However when I have put the recipe into brewers friend the IBU shows as 87.
The stated IBU on the recipe is 55. I have put the %AA of each hop into BF.
Any ideas on this discrepancy please? Should I brew as is or reduce the hops?
Thanks

I keyed it into Brewers friend and am getting something similar it looks like he doesn’t include any IBU for the hops added at flameout. That said even with the amount of hops added at this point I was surprised that brewers friend was counting this as about 30 IBU.

 

[Horners]

Hi,
Just ordering ingredients for my next few brews.
I want to brew the American IPA. However when I have put the recipe into brewers friend the IBU shows as 87.
The stated IBU on the recipe is 55. I have put the %AA of each hop into BF.
Any ideas on this discrepancy please? Should I brew as is or reduce the hops?
Thanks

I would just reduce the 70 minute addition to an amount that gives you the correct total IBUs. presumably your citra has a higher alpha content than his?

 

[Moe]

Thanks, I’ll take a few IBUs off the first addition.
I use hop bags and suspect that this under utilises the hops a bit anyway so I’ll shoot for somewhere in the middle and see how it comes out.

 

[Gingerbrews]

I'm having a couple of pints of American Stout that I bottled in October.
And as those of you who are familiar with Para Handy would understand, It's "Chust Sublime"

 

[will4009]

Just brewed the Weissbier. Looking forward to see how it turns out. I shall also brew the American wheat beer next week.

I finished the last bottle of English barley wine, a fantastic beer. Reminds me of Sarah Hughes Snowflake.

 

[obscure]

Just brewed the Weissbier. Looking forward to see how it turns out. I shall also brew the American wheat beer next week.

I finished the last bottle of English barley wine, a fantastic beer. Reminds me of Sarah Hughes Snowflake.

I did the Weissbier recipe recently though had to sub the yeast with FM Cloves and It’s just a lovely beer drinkable straight out of the fermentor (After being force carbed).

I’m also planning another batch of it but using CML Gretel Yeast (primarily because of it works well it would bring my cost down).

 

[grooves]

Has anyone brewed the GH Dortmunder Lager?

 

[Arrakus]

Currently chugging on a GH Nelson single hop pale. It’s a beauty

 

[Brewnaldo]

Currently chugging on a GH Nelson single hop pale. It’s a beauty

My only attempt at one of these was disastrous. The amarillo one. I think, but dont know, that I made a complete arse of adjusting the hops for AA

 

[Brewnaldo]

Belgian Dubbel ready for a few days in the cold now. Tastes nice out the FV, but.... My mash was poor resulting in being about 8 points off OG, however, it has gone all the way down to about 1.005 so whilst ABV hasnt really suffered much, body might. I guess I didnt maintain the mash high enough as I tend to not worry if it tails downwards off 65 degrees too much but I suspect for future beers of this type I am going to have to reheat and maintain temp a bit more aggressively.

I did wonder if the grain bill being larger meant I should have gone more than an hours mash but I guess rather than poor efficiency, maybe I just pulled out a lot of the wrong types of sugar, since I was lower on both OG and FG by almost 10, the amount of convertible sugar has remained the same?

 

[gerald8_kop]

My only attempt at one of these was disastrous. The amarillo one. I think, but dont know, that I made a complete **** of adjusting the hops for AA

Likewise! Worst beer Ive done by a long stretch which is ironic considering it was also the simplest.

 

[Brewnaldo]

Likewise! Worst beer Ive done by a long stretch which is ironic considering it was also the simplest.

I dont really know what went wrong, but the AA of the hops I got was WAY higher than recipe and though Indid adjust, I must have made mistakes in doing so. It ended up really bitter, quite oxidized and a bit medicinal tasting.