Needed: Decent AG brew recipe within 3 weeks grain to glass!

[Madchester7]

I'm after a decent AG recipe that will be good to drink on Halloween night, I plan to brew tomorrow 11th October so that's 20 days!

The ingredients I have to work with are:
Pale ale malt
Pilsner malt
Crystal 100
Crystal 200
Crystal 400
Special B
Carafa Special III
Cara Munich III
Chocolate Malt
Torrified wheat
Lyles Golden Syrup 1KG
DME (dark) 3KG
Kandi sugar (dark) 3KG
9 or 10 different hops
Big batch of washed yeast ready to go

 

[IainM]

I'd do something light in colour and abv, pale ale and a bit of crystal, perhaps a touch of the torrified wheat, overpitch and use a loaf of Americal aroma hops for a dry hop to mask any green flavors.

 

[Sandimas]

The good thing with AG is that it can be pretty much ready to drink straight from the FV, in fact I've been know to dip my glass straight in :whistle:

Single-hop Cascade with pale malt and a bit of crystal will fit the bill. Or for more of a UK slant Fuggles and EKG. Just keep it to 4-4.5% ABV and it won't need much conditioning.

 

[MyQul]

I'm a bit of an accidental specialist in fast turn around beer as I alway seem to be almost running out of beer and the beers I like and the way I make them seems to coincide with the principles of turning around beer quickly

The trick to fast turn around beer is: Keep it low ABV, keep it simple. Ferment at the top end of the yeast's temp range. Pitch lots of yeast (two packs if you can afford to if your using dried yeast, or a whole yeast cake if your repitching). During the hottest period of summer I did a grain to glass pale ale in 5 days. I wasnt trying to I just used a high temp tolerant yeast a it was so hot in my kitchedn and made the beer low OG

From that lot I'd do an ordinary bitter

3.8kg Pale
200g crystal

28 IBU 60/10/0 hopshedule

1.040 OG

 

[Simonh82]

I agree. Go pale and hoppy and relatively low ABV.

Are you bottling or do you have kegs? If you are bottling them make sure you give it at least a week to carbonate.

I'd go for 9 days primary fermentation, raising the temperature at the end to make sure it was completely attenuated and had cleaned up any off flavours. Then dry hop wit for 3 days. Could crash for 24h then bottle it.

Good luck.

 

[MyQul]

Simon, above, mentions carbonation. I often start drinking my beer after 2 days conditioning. It's not fully carbonated to the level I primed at but is carbed up 50%-75% of the way. I store my beer at room temp.

 

[Badseed1974]

Simon, above, mentions carbonation. I often start drinking my beer after 2 days conditioning. It's not fully carbonated to the level I primed at but is carbed up 50%-75% of the way. I store my beer at room temp.

Don't you find it too yeasty tasting after 2 days? I always try one of mine after a week in the bottle and almost always I've found it needs at least 10-14 days to be drinkable. Only exception to this I've found is my witbier using WB06

 

[MyQul]

Don't you find it too yeasty tasting after 2 days? I always try one of mine after a week in the bottle and almost always I've found it needs at least 10-14 days to be drinkable. Only exception to this I've found is my witbier using WB06

No. Can't say I do. But I'm usually fairly careful when I pour

 

[Simonh82]

No. Can't say I do. But I'm usually fairly careful when I pour

I agree, I've never found this a real problem. My last brew i tested after 4 days and it was pretty well carbed and didn't have a particularly strong yeast flavour. I say give it a week to be on the safe side, especially now the temperature is dropping.

I also store my beer at room temperature and just stick it in the fridge when I want to drink it. Sometimes it gets a day or so, which definitely helps it to pour clearer, sometimes it is just an hour or two. All comes out tasting great.

 

[Badseed1974]

No. Can't say I do. But I'm usually fairly careful when I pour

No, I pour very carefully too so it's not the yeast thats dropped getting into the glass, it's a flavour which I find hard to describe (not unpleasant, but not present at bottling time) which for me takes around two weeks to shift. I've always put it down to 2nd fermentation.

Maybe it's just me :)

 

[MyQul]

No, I pour very carefully too so it's not the yeast thats dropped getting into the glass, it's a flavour which I find hard to describe (not unpleasant, but not present at bottling time) which for me takes around two weeks to shift. I've always put it down to 2nd fermentation.

Maybe it's just me :)

Sounds like it might be that it's just too green for your tastes and you need to wait till it's conditioned a bit before you like it, rather than yeast

 

[Madchester7]

Thanks for the replies and yes it is going in bottles, I have gas and cornies but I have nor figured out the rest of the bits I need to hook it all up

I think a low abv bitter is on the agenda then. 3800g pale ale, 200g crystal and cascade since I have cascade (9 aa). 28 ibu 60/10/0. Galena, simcoe, palisade, Goldings, bishop and green bullet are the other hops I can use. Is it still best to go with just cascade?

My yeast is what I recovered from my last brew. I got it off my local microbrewery, it's a thwaites ale yeast and there's a fair bit to chuck in. I have a fermentation fridge, what temp should I ferment at? I was thinking like 18oC for 2 days then up to 22oC with a load of yeast doing the work?

 

[MyQul]

I'd ferment higher than 18C if you want to ferment it quick. I'd do it at least 20C. Seeing as your going for the ordinary bitter option it can take some esters as it's style appropriate so you could even got as high as 22C

As others have said also chuck loads in at the 0 min addition to hide any flaws. I never really count this addition for any IBU's (although it probably does add some)

 

[Madchester7]

Did the brew yesterday, had a right nightmare with the Grainfather getting clogged up and the chiller not working. In the end I did 3600g pale malt, 450g Crystal 150L & 450g torrified wheat (80/10/10) ended up with 25.5L in the fermenter at 1.045. I used green bullet to bitter to 40 ibu and put Goldings in at 0 min. It all looks like it should be ok after the Grainfather debacle. My fermenter fridge is still busy so this brew is sat a foot or so from a radiator so it will be fermenting in the low 20s I think.

 

[JabeerIni]

The good thing with AG is that it can be pretty much ready to drink straight from the FV, in fact I've been know to dip my glass straight in :whistle:

Single-hop Cascade with pale malt and a bit of crystal will fit the bill. Or for more of a UK slant Fuggles and EKG. Just keep it to 4-4.5% ABV and it won't need much conditioning.

LOL! I guess you actually did that and now are bragging about that? LOL!!! Home brewing is such an incredibly cool thing...

 

[Wabby]

Dr Smurtos Golden Ale.

 

[Slid]

Did the brew yesterday, had a right nightmare with the Grainfather getting clogged up and the chiller not working. In the end I did 3600g pale malt, 450g Crystal 150L & 450g torrified wheat (80/10/10) ended up with 25.5L in the fermenter at 1.045. I used green bullet to bitter to 40 ibu and put Goldings in at 0 min. It all looks like it should be ok after the Grainfather debacle. My fermenter fridge is still busy so this brew is sat a foot or so from a radiator so it will be fermenting in the low 20s I think.

This could be a very good beer, IME, if only there were more time. Very heavy on the Crystal malt and the wheat might give a cloudy finish.

But, hey-ho, I do hope it goes down well, as a 10C temp served light-ish ale with GB and Goldings is a great example of the craft.

 

[Madchester7]

This could be a very good beer, IME, if only there were more time. Very heavy on the Crystal malt and the wheat might give a cloudy finish.

But, hey-ho, I do hope it goes down well, as a 10C temp served light-ish ale with GB and Goldings is a great example of the craft.

I used protofloc and will use vickers auxiliary finings and cold crashing after fermentation then keg it and cross my fingers :thumb:

 

[Madchester7]

Dr Smurtos Golden Ale.

I see you've done a simcoe smash. That was my first brew that I did 25 days ago and drinking now it's pretty good

 

[Wabby]

I see you've done a simcoe smash. That was my first brew that I did 25 days ago and drinking now it's pretty good

5 pints in and its lovely. :mrgreen: