Beer Ale, Experiment in simplicity Options

[earthtone]

5 gallons
single infusion 152df

9 lb 2-Row

1 oz Northern Brewer @ 60
1 oz EKG @ 20
1 oz EKG @ 10

Safale 04


Low gravity pale ale. I just wanna see what happens when you take 2-Row and some Noble hops and make beer. Thought others might have experience with something this slimmed down?

Going to brew this in a couple days.

[beerturtle]

I did something like this back about 10 years ago. It was one of my first few batches and it came out pretty tasty. Don't remember much about the recipe but I do recall using something like wyeast european ale yeast.

[earthtone]

after further thought on it I think I'll be using Nottingham instead of s-04 but I was tending towards something english. It'll probably ferment around 68-70 df so I want to avoid the esters I have heard s-04 is capable of.

[MtnBrewer]

Low gravity pale ale. I just wanna see what happens when you take 2-Row and some Noble hops and make beer.

You seem to be missing some noble hops in your recipe.

[zymological]

You seem to be missing some noble hops in your recipe.

(IMG:style_emoticons/brewboard/hehe.gif)

[earthtone]

ummm I dunno if I'm missing sarcasm in type or what...I thought EKG was noble...........no?

haha shows what I know. Anyway, what I meant was I wanted as basic a malt bill as possible with a pretty suave hopping schedule

This post has been edited by earthtone: Feb 22 2009, 07:51 PM

[DJ in KC]

ummm I dunno if I'm missing sarcasm in type or what...I thought EKG was noble...........no?

haha shows what I know. Anyway, what I meant was I wanted as basic a malt bill as possible with a pretty suave hopping schedule

Most consider "Noble" hops to be of European origin - UK excluded. But yeah, your point was to brew a very simple beer - it's a good exercise because any flaws in your process are going to be very obvious.

[earthtone]

hopefully not obivous (IMG:style_emoticons/brewboard/wink.gif)


meaning no flaws hahaa

yeah I just really wanna taste what 2-Row tastes like on its own and be able to detect what hops I taste. It's almost a SMaSH I guess.

[MtnBrewer]

Most consider "Noble" hops to be of European origin - UK excluded. But yeah, your point was to brew a very simple beer - it's a good exercise because any flaws in your process are going to be very obvious.

It's actually more restrictive than that. Noble hops are:

• Saaz
• Tettnanger
• Hallertauer Mittelfruh
• Spalt

IMO, EKG and Styrian Goldings are close runners-up.

[sirwillliam]

Just wanted to say, nice bullets. In regards to the beer, looks simple and tasty. You will see how good of a brewer you really are. Can you handle that?

[DJ in KC]

It's actually more restrictive than that. Noble hops are:

• Saaz
• Tettnanger
• Hallertauer Mittelfruh
• Spalt

IMO, EKG and Styrian Goldings are close runners-up.

Yeah, I know that's the "A" list, well when I remember it (IMG:style_emoticons/brewboard/omg.gif) Gotta put in a pitch for Perle too........

[kenlenard]

ET: I think this sounds like a nice idea. The beer should be gold, have a bit of a hop presence and it looks like it will be pretty clean. The funny part is that this beer allows the yeast to take center stage... you could make this beer 10 times with 10 different yeasts and have 10 completely different beers. This would be a great experiment to show people how a complex Belgian yeast tastes. Or a minerally English Ale yeast. Or an American yeast or something like 1338, WLP008, etc. Let us know how it comes out.

Btw... I always assume that "Noble" hops are of German or Czech origin. So my list would have included (had I not seen the aforementioned bullets (IMG:style_emoticons/brewboard/sarcasm.gif) ): Saaz, Hallertau (of any flavor), Styrian Goldings, Tettnanger, Perle, Spalt and Hersbrucker. I would also use a list of Noble wannabees which may include (but is not limited to... (IMG:style_emoticons/brewboard/sarcasm.gif) ) Liberty, Crystal, Mt. Hood, Vanguard and Sterling.

[earthtone]

haha awesome, yeah always learning. Bullets help.

I am excited to see how this goes, I ended up forgetting that I was going to use nottingham and now have s-04 so it should let me get a good fix on how that yeast tastes.

This recipe actually led me to SMaSH brewing, Liverdance told me about it. I am going to do a run of SMaSH brews to really try and understand flavours better.

Here is my lineup:

° Pale 2-Row + Northern Brewer/EKG (I know not a SMaSH but it's my starting point)
° Munich Malt + Northern Brewer
° Amber Malt + Fuggle
° Maybe try something weird and go all wheat + czech saaz - spiccccy

This post has been edited by earthtone: Feb 23 2009, 09:05 PM

[kenlenard]

Again, great idea to nail down flavors. The grain bill of only 2-row will allow hop & yeast profiles to dance right in front of you as if you had 3D glasses on. Then when you have that down, you can match hops to yeast like Cascades or other Pacific NW hop along with 1332. Then Fuggle, EKG or Goldings along with 1028 or other English yeast. Then Saaz, Hallertau or Tettnanger along with 2124 or 830. The combinations are endless which is why I LOVE this hobby! Good luck with it.

[earthtone]

has anyone else done any SMaSH before?

This post has been edited by earthtone: Feb 23 2009, 10:45 PM