Yeast and hop alphas for Summer Lightning recipe

[jim80]

Hi,
I'm going to throw together a 60 litre brew of "Summer lightning" next weekend, wondering if anyone has any recommendation of a nice yeast to use?
I'll follow the recipe from brewUK, same one as here : http://www.brew.x10.mx/Recipes.html. Also, see below!
Brewuk have a choice of s-04 or 1318 london ale 3 on their site - both of which I have (I'll be making starters around tuesday from frozen weak wort).
s-04 I used in a kit before, didn't really like it but If it's going to be good in this style I'll give it a go again. 1318 - it's meant to be a little sweet and the "landlord" I bottled last weekend seemed to confirm that in comparison with the wpl-05 I also used on the same brew.
I also have available s-05, wpl-05, wpl-07, danstar nottingham, muntons gold, if there is any real recommendation for something else (and I can use that for further brews) I may get another.
WPL-01 is one that I've been meaning to add to my collection, for instance.
(I may also try a couple, I'll probably use 3 FVs for this one so it's easy enough to do).

Also, I'm presuming that this is a Graham Wheeler recipe from his book that I own but have regrettably misplaced somewhere
If so, could someone confirm and let me know the alpha value he uses for challenger hops? Just in case those I have differ wildly - without checking I think they are about 7.5%.

Many thanks in advance,
Jim.

Pale Malt (EBC 4 or less) 4.99Kg
Challenger Hops (start of Boil) 46g
Goldings Hops (Last 10 Min of Boil) 15g
Goldings Hops (End of Boil) 9g
Yeast S-04
Mash Liquor 14 Litres
Mash Temperature 66C
Mash Time 1 Hour 30 Minutes
Sparge Temperature 77C
Mash Efficiency (estimated) 75%
Boil Time 1 Hour 30 Minutes
Batch Volume 23 Litres
Fermentation Temperature 20C
Expected OG 1052

 

[dennisking]

I have brewed this clone and harvested the yeast from bottles of summer lightning.

 

[Good Ed]

the Challenger is based on 7.6% AA

also I would use S-04 or Nottingham, or as Dennis says use the yeast from the bottle of the real thing, you don't want to use a fruity yeast for this beer

 

[anthonyUK]

Maybe US-05 would be a good choice for yeast. I used S-04 and it was OK.
I would definitely up the hops though if you like it hoppy. The standard recipe is a bit lacking IMO.

 

[brewtim]

I used 1318 for this one and it turned out delicious, slightly sweet but not too sweet, very quaffable for a 5% beer :-)

It took 6-7 weeks from brewday to clear with cold conditioning/force carbonating in a cornie, up to the point of clearing there was a slight bitter astringency which disappeared when the yeast dropped. It was the GW recipe. I used Marris Otter which I believe has more sweetness than other pale malts, so take that into consideration also.

Why not split the batch and try different yeasts?

 

[jim80]

Thanks for the replies guys - I have 80 odd litres on the boil right now.
I'm going for 1318, s-04 and s-05. Tried an early bottle of my "landlord" with the 1318 on friday night, it didn't seem especially sweet so thought i'd try it again with some I'd washed from that brew.
s-05 I've never tried, s-04 I'm actually not completely sure if I had.
I'll up the end of boil hops by 30% or so.
My only fear is that the weather gets really hot again, but the forecast looks reasonable enough so I'm hoping the garage stays around 17-18 degrees (as it has been the past few days)

 

[jim80]

The S-04 seems a bit slow to start so far - Just sitting in bloody great clumps just under the surface (well, I hope it's the yeast...), whereas the other two are bubbling away just fine and forming a head.
Everything else is the same, same wort, same temperature (currently sitting at just under 20 degrees).
Oh well, nothing I can do (except maybe give it a stir if it's not got going by this evening perhaps).

 

[jim80]

Well, it's just getting going now after 48 hours + and a good stir last night.
Surely this is not usual for this yeast?