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Author Topic: brewing an English pale  (Read 3417 times)

Offline tschmidlin

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brewing an English pale
« on: August 24, 2011, 05:23:50 pm »
I'm going to brew a bitter/esb tomorrow and can't decide what to do . . .

I only have 10.75 lbs of maris otter.  It's a bit much for a 5 gallon batch of ESB, and a bit shorter than I'd like for a 10 gallon batch of ordinary bitter.  I have a bunch of other grains I can supplement with if need be, but I am trying to keep it simple to let the flavor and aroma of the hops (Sonnet Goldings) come through.   I could just make an ESB with less of the MO, but I don't want to. :)

Any suggestions?  On hand I have:
brown
munich
vienna
crystal 40
carared
carapils
special b
aromatic
chocolate
pale chocolate
chocolate wheat
carafa special
black barley
pils
Tom Schmidlin

Offline Hokerer

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Re: brewing an English pale
« Reply #1 on: August 24, 2011, 05:41:44 pm »
Use all the MO and add enough pils to get your base malt total - specialty grains as normal ?
Joe

Offline tschmidlin

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Re: brewing an English pale
« Reply #2 on: August 24, 2011, 05:48:58 pm »
I'm trying to avoid using the pils and nearly left it off the list because I figured someone would suggest just that :)

For specialty grains I was just going to use some C40 unless someone comes up with something that sounds enticing.
Tom Schmidlin

Offline skyler

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Re: brewing an English pale
« Reply #3 on: August 24, 2011, 05:50:01 pm »
If it was me, I would bulk it up to 1.044 or so with Vienna and use no specialty malts.

Offline Hokerer

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Re: brewing an English pale
« Reply #4 on: August 24, 2011, 05:51:37 pm »
I'm trying to avoid using the pils and nearly left it off the list because I figured someone would suggest just that :)

Crap, sounds like I'm getting predictable  :-\
Joe

Offline skyler

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Re: brewing an English pale
« Reply #5 on: August 24, 2011, 05:52:53 pm »
Or I would just brew 5 gallons of English IPA.

Offline tschmidlin

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Re: brewing an English pale
« Reply #6 on: August 24, 2011, 06:02:30 pm »
Crap, sounds like I'm getting predictable  :-\
;D  It's a good answer, just not what I'm going for.

Or I would just brew 5 gallons of English IPA.
Also a good answer, and not what I'm going for. ;)  I think I want something that will ferment and be ready to serve quickly, probably less than 5.5% or 5% ABV.

The vienna idea is interesting, I may try that.
Tom Schmidlin

Offline hopfenundmalz

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Re: brewing an English pale
« Reply #7 on: August 24, 2011, 07:13:50 pm »
Tom - use the MO and the Vienna.  Not much else in my book, but a touch of crystal, or a smidge of special B.   A little carapils for body?

Some guy named Gordon use a lot of MO and Vienna together for his beers.  So he says.  ;)

You might be surprised how light a lot of the summer ales are in England these days. Was there last week, and need to do a quick write up on the beers we had.
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Offline richardt

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Re: brewing an English pale
« Reply #8 on: August 25, 2011, 07:41:25 am »
I'd do 10 gallons w/ 10.75 lbs of MO and remainder with vienna, C-40, and Carapils.

Offline dak0415

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Re: brewing an English pale
« Reply #9 on: August 25, 2011, 08:39:41 am »
Do NOT use special B in an ESB!

+1 on the Vienna to make up the diff.
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Re: brewing an English pale
« Reply #10 on: August 25, 2011, 10:41:09 am »
use your maris and go to the store to get some grits.  I could even see, maris, vienna, grits.  Grits are fantastic in a bitter.

Offline tschmidlin

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Re: brewing an English pale
« Reply #11 on: August 25, 2011, 11:35:19 am »
I guess I should have read these ideas before mashing in. Too late.  ;D

I went with 10.75 lbs MO, 1.5 lbs of vienna, and .5 lbs C40.

I'm going to use US-05 in one carboy and S-04 in the other.  I'm pretty sure I'll like the S-04 better, but I want to try the US-05 in this style.  Plus I wanted to brew without going to the store for anything and I have both of those on hand.

Thanks for the ideas.
Tom Schmidlin

Offline skyler

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Re: brewing an English pale
« Reply #12 on: August 29, 2011, 04:28:11 pm »
I think I want something that will ferment and be ready to serve quickly, probably less than 5.5% or 5% ABV.

Actually, I think an English IPA should be under 5.5% ABV, no matter what the American-written BJCP guidelines say.

Offline oscarvan

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Re: brewing an English pale
« Reply #13 on: September 02, 2011, 04:10:34 pm »
I think I want something that will ferment and be ready to serve quickly, probably less than 5.5% or 5% ABV.

Actually, I think an English IPA should be under 5.5% ABV, no matter what the American-written BJCP guidelines say.

Quite a bit under, in fact. 90% of what I drink in the UK is under 5%.
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Offline euge

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Re: brewing an English pale
« Reply #14 on: September 02, 2011, 04:25:45 pm »
I guess I should have read these ideas before mashing in. Too late.  ;D

I went with 10.75 lbs MO, 1.5 lbs of vienna, and .5 lbs C40.

I'm going to use US-05 in one carboy and S-04 in the other.  I'm pretty sure I'll like the S-04 better, but I want to try the US-05 in this style.  Plus I wanted to brew without going to the store for anything and I have both of those on hand.

Thanks for the ideas.

Pretty much what I'd have suggested except the carapils. Looks nice. Are you splitting 5 gallons?
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