Sierra Nevada Inspired Pale Ale - Update

This beer has now been bottled and is sitting in a warm cupboard carbing up.  Keeping on with my trials, two 330ml bottles received 3mL's of espresso and some other bottles were carbed with demerara sugar.

• 100% Cane sugar (control)
• 75% Cane sugar, 25% Demerara sugar
• 50% Cane sugar, 50% Demerara sugar
• 25% Cane sugar, 75% Demerara sugar
• 100% Demerara sugar

Should have results back from the trials in four to five weeks.

Little Creatures Bright Ale Clone

This is a gluten free variant of Little Creatures Bright Ale clone created by "Tony" on Aussie HomeBrewers Forum.

IBU: 

OG:  1049

FG:  ?

Brew date:  29/10/2011

Estimated ABV:  5.5%

Actual ABV:  ?

Batch size:  21.5L

Recipe:

4.5oz Maltodextrine @ 45 minutes

2.8 Kg Sorghum Syrup @ 45 mins

375g Demerara Sugar @ 45 mins

10g Cascade 5.5%AA @ 45 mins

10g Saaz B (NZ) 7.2%AA @ 45 mins

15g Cascade Hops @ 20 mins

15g Saaz B Hops @ 20 mins

1/2 Whirlfloc tablet @ 15 mins

1tsp Yeast nutrient @ 10 mins

28g Cascade @ 0 mins

28g Saaz B @ 0 mins

*** Cold Crash ***

1 x US-05 Yeast

Sugar Carbonation Trials 1

I bottled some beer for trials with different carbonating sugar in 330ml bottles.  I wanted to see how it would affect flavour and if it would be good or bad.  These are the results.  Please keep in mind this is carbonating my All Amarillo IPA with a Sorghum base, so some of the off flavours might not be apparent in barley beer.  Feel free to share any other carbonating sugars you have tried and recommend.

T1 – Plain Sugar – This was the control beer.

T2 – Demerara Sugar – In America this is called Brown Sugar, looks a lot like raw sugar and is used in candy production.  This added a great depth of flavour, not apparent in the plain sugar.  It also took away the sweetness/sourness of the sorghum.  Not great head retention or effervescent like the plain sugar.

T3 – Dark Brown Sugar – Refined sugar with molasses added back in.  This gave off a metallic aroma, however it wasn’t apparent or noticeable in the taste of the beer.

T4 – Maple Syrup (Queen Brand) – This didn’t add a maple flavour to the beer, but it was quite pleasant like the Demerara sugar.  Also the same carbonation properties of the Demerara sugar.  Due to its cost in Australia, it would not be suitable for carbonating beer.

T5 – CSR Golden Syrup – This had an overwhelming metallic flavour which was horrible.  Definitely not using that again.

What I’ve learnt from these trials is that I should experiment more with Demerara sugar.  I’m planning to try a future brew with five different sugar combos.

100% Plain Sugar
100% Demerara sugar
25% Plain Sugar, 75% Demerara Sugar
50% Plain Sugar, 50% Demerara Sugar
75% Plain,  25% Demerara Sugar

Sierra Nevada Inspired Pale Ale

I used the Sierra Nevada Pale Ale for the skeleton for this recipe.  I've added more Cascade hops, and thrown in some Citra Hops at 15 minutes.  I was hoping to use Amber Candy Syrup but the delivery didn't arrive in time.

Code name:  Sierra Nevada Twist

OG:  1049

Recipe:

2.8Kg Sorghum Syrup @ 60 minutes

4.5 oz Maltodextrine @ 60 minutes

375g Demerara Sugar @ 60 minutes

5g Magnum Hops 13% AA @ 60 minutes

20g Perle Hops ?AA @ 60 minutes

28g Cascade Hops 5.5% AA @ 15 minutes

8g Citra Hops 13.4% AA @ 15 minutes

28g Cascade Hops 5.5% AA @ 10 minutes

1tsp Yeast Nutrient @ 10 minutes

28g Cascade Hops 5.5% AA @ 0 minutes

*** Cold Crash ***

1 x US-05 American Ale Yeast

Update:
I have tried a sample from the fermenter.  Damn it tastes good.  Hoping to have this in bottles within a week or so.  This could become a regular house brew.

Tangelo Orange and Coriander Hefeweizen - Update

This has been a big success.  Still room for improvement but the yeast delivers some great flavour.  The feedback from the local brew club, is that the flavour is great, however it was lacking on the malt flavour.  Which is understandable because I'm not using any type of malt yet.

I'd really like to use this as a basis for a blueberry wheat style beer.