I’m working on a recipe at the moment I am calling a summer ale. I don’t think it really fits any of the style guides but hopefully it will be what I am aiming for. I am trying to make a beer that will be good for summer. However, I’m not really into the whole process for making a lager. I have made a couple that have actually come out ok but it just takes so long and I haven’t been able to achieve quite the result I am looking for. I seem to be able to make a drinkable ales so I thought I would go down that road instead.
So the beer I am looking for is something reasonably clean but still with a bit of a nice malty character and not too dry on the finish like a lager generally is. I am thinking something reasonably bitter but with a smooth bitterness using noble, low alpha hops or similar. Reasonably pale in colour but with a touch of sweetness and a little more body than the average lager.
So I set to work looking through style guides to see if I could find something that would fit my ambiguous description. I looked through the BJCP 1999 and 2004 guides and came up with a blank. A koelsch and even a California Common came close to what I was after but both require lagering which is something I want to avoid. The California common also calls for the American hops and considering I already have and American Pale and an American Brown I thought I would give it a miss. So I decided I was going to have to work it out for myself. A bit of a new experience. I have designed my own recipes before but I have always had some style guides to give me a little direction.
So I thought I would start with the yeast. As Wyeast is the main one available in Adelaide I limited myself to their range. Which isn’t much of a limit really as they have a pretty good selection. Initially I was thinking a Koelsch yeast as I had heard good things about them but the Wyeast description has put me off it. I don’t have a filtration system and I don’t intend to lager so it probably won’t suit. The White Labs WLP001 but it just isn’t available to me. So I have ended up settling on the Wyeast 1272 American Ale2 which sounds like it has a pretty good profile for what I am doing. Despite the fact that it will not be an American style beer at all.
So the next step is malts. This was pretty easy as it was always going to be a fairly pale beer so plenty of pale malt. This has also been partly dictated by what I have in stock. I have decided to go with pretty much 60/40 Pale to pilsener malt. I really don’t know my malts well yet but I think this should give me a pretty good balance. I am also using just a little dark crystal malt to give it a little colour, help with head retention and maybe add a little sweetness. I am still really learning the malts but this will com with time and like I said this was dictated in large part by what I had available to me.
Now my favourite part of any beer, the hops. I have used Hallertauer and Tettang for bittering and have used both for aroma hops also. I though these hops would give me a nice smooth bitterness and have wonderful spicy aromas. I have then finished the beer with Czech Saaz hops. I think the Saaz gives a nice fresh slightly floral character to the beer and is not overwhelming so will hopefully give this beer the balance I am looking for.
I will hopefully be making this beer in a week or so. I just want to get a couple of people to look at it first. Still a little nervous with my own brand new recipes I guess.