Hightail Replica Attempt

[forcetwelve]

Gday. Just put this down, thought I'd share the recipe. Not exactly ground breaking but it smells fantastic!

Coopers IPA Kit
Coopers LME can
200g Amber Malt grain
20g Goldings
20g Cascade
Safale US05 yeast

First brew i've done using specialty grain. Really does make it smell/taste fresher in the boil.

Any thoughts on what this wil be like guys?

AG

[rwh]

When did you add the hops?

[forcetwelve]

boild the malt and hops for 20min. flameout added the amber malt (had been steeped for 20min) and then stirred the kit in.

its bubbling like crazy and smells fantastic!

[buscador]

question forcetwelve-

you steeped the amber malt, im assuming the grains were crushed (if wrong let me know), does steeping specialty grains like these bring out all the sugars/ferentables, or wouldnt you need to mash to get full use of grain?

just wondering, thanks,

b

[rwh]

Crystal grain types have been mashed in their husks. No need to mash, only a steep is required.

[forcetwelve]

rwh got it in one. grain & grape mash them for you if you tell them what you are doing with them. i just put them in oiling water for 20min or so then poured the liquid in to the boil.

[rwh]

Er... try not to use boiling water, or you risk extracting tannins. Try to keep the temperature between 60 and 70°C. It's good practice for mashing if you can keep them at 65°C.

Oh, and yeah, you need to crack the grains before you use them. I'm assuming that's what forcetwelve meant actually. You can do this in a mortar and pestle if you only use a small amount, or ideally a grain mill. Or yes, you can get your HBS to crush them for you when you buy them.

[forcetwelve]

sorry - thats what i meant. it was from the kettle, so it was sterile. but left to cool for a bit.

[dragonphoenix73]

did you actually put both types of hops in together then?

I'm planning to do a Hightail clone this season, and the fellas at Goat told me to use cascade hops....

[forcetwelve]

yep. i just put 20g of each in a hop bag and dumped it in the pot.

[forcetwelve]

just had a taste of this tonight. it's quite bitter. has upfront aroma similar to the hightail, but then finishes quite dry and bitter.

its only just been 2 weeks i guess. probably a bit green still!

[timmy]

There is another recipe for the hightail on this site somewhere else (i think I started that thread), and it uses a Coopers Real Ale + some crystal + goldings or fuggles to finish with. But I've since found out that they use cascade to finish. At any rate, my brew came out very close to target and has been one of my faves so far.

Cheers,
Tim

[rwh]

Not surprised about the bitterness, the IPA kit is hopped pretty high, around 27 from memory. The recipe with the real ale can that you're referring to is:

* 1.7kg Coopers Real Ale tin (Pale ale if doing Mtn Goat Pale Ale)
* 1kg Light dry malt extract
* 100g Crystal malt (steeped for 20 minutes)
* 100g brewing sugar
* 25g Amarillo hops for the Pale Ale or Goldings/Fuggles for the Hightail, steeped for 10 mins with the LME.

Method:
1. Crush the Crystal in your mortar and pestle, add to grain sock and steep at 70-80°C for 20 mins, or use a coffee plunger.
2. Put the liquor from the Crystal into a pot, top up to 2L, add the LDME, bring to boil.
3. When the LDME is fully dissolved, add the hops, turn off the heat, put on the lid, and wait for 10 minutes.
4. Half top up your fermenter with cold water, and pour the contents of your pot into it, then top up to 23L.
5. Pitch yeast. Ferment as close to 18°C as you can.

I recently did a partial in which I vaguely aimed for the hightail style, but it was more of a general experiment in which I was just doing it for fun lol. It's still in the fermenter though.

54. Rob's experimental ale

2.5kg JW pils, 220g of which toasted at 180 degrees C for 10 mins
1.5kg LDME at end of boil
200g JW light crystal
100g JW dark crystal
300g JW light munich
50g JW choc
20g challenger @ 60
9g cascade and 9g goldings @ 30
15g cascade and 15g goldings @15

mash 8L@ 67 deg C for 45 mins
batch sparge 5L @ 80 deg C, resulting in 78 deg C for 10 mins

WYeast 1056 slurry, proofed in 100g LDME in 1.5L water for 2 hours on stir plate.

[Kevnlis]

But the Real Ale kit has 31 IBUs, so that will be more bitter?

[rwh]

Yeah, maybe. It's pretty malty though, I haven't noticed it being overly bitter.

[Kevnlis]

But bitter to you...

[rwh]

What?

[Kevnlis]

What?

Bitterness can be measured, but in reality it is percieved and everyone has different tastes. What is bitter to you... may not be bitter to someone else...

[rwh]

Agreed. It's also not as simple as quoting an IBU figure, which is defined as the parts per million of isohumulone (isomerised alpha acids) in the beer. It is balanced against the malty sweetness. What I guess I'm getting at here is that the real ale doesn't taste as bitter to me, possibly because it's quite malty which balances its bitterness.

I suspect we're agreeing here, but managing to have an argument all the same.

[wildschwein]

Yeah, I agree. It's all about the balance between the maltiness and the bitterness. Coopers Stout has an IBU in the 50s but it doesn't really seem to be twice as bitter as some other kits in the 20s when made up with extra malt. It all depends on how much malt you add to the brew. And, of course different people have different perceptions of hop bitterness.