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I'm worried about 750gm of crystal anything in 20 litres of beer! Munich I can understand, if you mean munich base malt. But that much crystal will likely result in a very high FG, and a huge cloying sweetness. Especially as it looks like the recipe only gives 22 IBU (and why anyone's bittering with Cascade @ 60 is a bit beyond me).

Fair call. I won't take earles great recipe off-topic any more and post in the 'I will be brewing' section. Might do some real numbers tonight instead of off the cuff

weizgei wrote:(and why anyone's bittering with Cascade @ 60 is a bit beyond me).

Why, what's your thoughts on this?

Sorry, I know it's opinionated...I just believe that Cascade at 60 has all flavour and aroma boiled away, and prefer to use something like Warrior, where you can use ~1/3rd as much to get the same IBU. I was taught early on to use high alpha, neutral bittering hops at 60 minutes, then let the late hops give you the flavour and aroma you're after in a pale ale style.

EDIT: To be clear, there's absolutely nothing wrong with using Cascade for bittering, but in any recipe with late hops, like a pale ale, ipa etc, I think it's a waste of great late hops. Warrior, Magnum, Columbus, Centennial...all much better choices for bittering those styles in my book. I recall reading in "Hops" by Stan H. that Sierra Nevada don't even use the same hop for bittering season by season in their SNPA. The late hops completely drown out what little flavour might be left from the 60 minute addition.

Damn, you got in first, weizgei.

I was about to ask

Are you suggesting that after a 60-minute boil you wouldn't be able to tell what hop it was so why not use something else (i.e. cheaper)? If so, 10g of Cascade instead of less of something else is hardly going to break the bank

Personally, I have no problem bittering with anything I have on hand but try and stick to hops for that style. If I am buying hops because I don't have any on hand I will go for something to style.

Plus, I'd rather be weighing 10g of Cascade at 5% AA than 3.3g of Warrior at 15% AA ... get the Warrior out by a gram and it translates to a big difference in bitterness!

Cheers,

Oliver

I edited my post while you were replying Oliver, so have another read...all true.

Mind you, you know me...if you're using 10 grams of Cascade at 60 minutes you'd better be making a beer for your mum....

Lucky this is a friendly forum. By now on that other one we would have flame suits on and someone would already be banned for life.

Anyhow, galaxy is a high bitterness hop and good for first additions but quite a few brewers gave noticed that a brew bittered with only galaxy can be quite astringent. They recommend a small addition of another hop such as cascade to give a smoother bitterness. So yes, while all flavour and aroma will be boiled away after 60 minutes, not all hops are equal for bittering. I went in with some others to get some hops direct from the USA, price ends up about a third of what you pay at craftbrewer. I have quite a bit on hand so figured I could spare 10g of cascade.

I agree that 700 odd grams of crystal is too much. It won't be the same but I would put some crystal wheat and sub in some more pale ale.

earle wrote:I went in with some others to get some hops direct from the USA, price ends up about a third of what you pay at craftbrewer. I have quite a bit on hand so figured I could spare 10g of cascade.

I bought hops by the pound from the US and really have too much on hand. I seem to use what I have the most of for bittering just to get rid of it.
I will go back to buying fresh 90g packs next time.
Price doesn't really matter to me any more when it comes to brewing.

Earle's S+W is on my to do list after a successful batch last year. I could taste the close similarities between my batch and the commercially available versions on tap and in the bottle, however, I just don't think I'm a big fan of Galaxy hops. I tried a version earlier in the year with Cascade and Centennial instead of Galaxy and I found that to be in the JSGA territory, but nothing to write home about.

This time I'm going to try Mosaic in place of Galaxy as I read somewhere that Mosaic can be quite citrus-ey. Anyone used Mosaic before? Any dry-hop suggestions out there also?

I've never tried mosaic but I did make Earle's S+W with Amarillo instead of Galaxy once as I couldn't get Galaxy. My notes on this say it was pretty good but as it was a while ago I can't remember if it was better than the Galaxy version.

A few people had made apa's with mosaic for the recent pale ale mini comp odour beer club. Very nice but it becomes bit of a blur after tasting so many beers so I couldn't give specifics.

I have a pale ale just about to be dry hopped with mosaic.
Looking forward to this one.
Will report on on flavours when I get the chance to taste it.

Just put down your pac ale clone Earl.
Really looking forward to this one !

This tasted amazing out of the fermenter. Warm and flat but amazing. Happened to have the real thing in my hand and it smelt remarkably similar. Just bottled half of the batch and am dry hopping the remaining 11l with 17g of galaxy (all I had left). Will report on the outcome. Cheers earl!

Glad people are enjoying it. Was that the extract or at version IsonAd?

It was the extract version, bottled the dry hopped half last night - smelt amazing - not sure I'll be able to rid my fermenter of the smell. How does the AG version go?

The AG version is pretty good, brewing one right now. I'd be interested in feedback from anyone who has wee the AG version. My local brew shop has started producing their own fresh wort kits and asked me for my recipe as they've had some people asking for stone and wood FWKs.

Reviewed by Oliver here http://www.homebrewandbeer.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=11051&p=114388&sid=90cd43b1c05336fbb9a536b461b7aed9#p114388

Just an update on the brew I put down on sat september 7. Earls S&W extract recipe.

At the two to three week mark I nearly tipped all the bottles down the sink, assuming there was an infection.
Lucky I held off !!!
Turns out it just may have been the overpowering character of galaxy. Maybe I went over on the recipe amounts a little !
It has settled down into a nice beer !! Clear as all get out too !!!

I'll whack a photo up in a minute.

I had to wait a month and a bit but………..
Thanks Earl !!!
By the way, I am aware waiting 6 weeks for a brew to condition is probably normal and my post makes me look like an impatient bugger ! I just loves me beers !

Yep !
That's a photo of Earl through the beer made with his recipe !

Beauty.