ale

Golden Ale Recipe

Apr 26, 2017

Golden Ale (23 Litres)

It was early 2004 when the Amarillo Hop variety (from Washington State, USA) first appeared in Australian brewing stores. This exciting new hop caused an immediate frenzy amongst “hophead” brewers and quickly became the “go to hop” (in the USA) for big American ales, IPAs, Double IPAs, etc. With such a strong following, it wasn’t long before Amarillo popped up under Australian commercial beer labels, often referred to as “Golden Ale”. This lighter version of the English Pale Ale style, with Amarillo as its “niche hop”, quickly became popular. Now, Australian Golden Ales (although not always brewed with Amarillo hop) carry a “quasi” beer style status and are known for being aromatic and flavoursome with a clean finish and high drinkability. This recipe looks to capture the essence of Golden Ale; displaying a tightly packed white head with aromas of orange, melon and stone-fruit, subtle sweet malt/hop flavours followed by a clean bitter finish.

Ingredients

1.7kg Australian Pale Ale
2 x 500g Light Dry Malt
200g Crystal Malt Grains
2 x 25g Amarillo
11g BRY-97 yeast
Dextrose Corn Sugar or Carbonation Drops

Features:

Colour: Gold
Body: Medium
Bitterness: Medium
Approx. Alcohol Level: 4.6%
Naturally Carbonated: Natural

Instructions:

STEP 1: Mix

Place the Crystal Malt Grain in a plastic zip-lock sandwich bag and crack it using a rolling pin. In a good sized pot (around 8 litres), mix with 2 litres of hot water (not boiling) and let steep for about 1hr. Remove the grain; add 3 litres of water and 500g of Light Dry Malt then bring to the boil. Add 25g of Amarillo Hops and boil for 10min then remove from the heat. Set the pot in a cold/ice water bath to cool then strain into a fermenting vessel. Add the Australian Pale Ale and the remaining 500g Light Dry Malt, stir to dissolve then top up with cool water to the 20 litre mark and stir thoroughly. Check the brew temperature and top up to the 23 litre mark with warm or cold water (refrigerated if necessary) to get as close as possible to 18C. Sprinkle the dry yeast or stir in liquid yeast, fit the lid and try to ferment at 18C.

STEP 2: Brew

On day 4 or after the foam has subsided, add the remaining 25g of Amarillo hops (we recommend wrapping the hops in a mesh cleaning cloth, pulled straight from the wrapper). Fermentation has finished once the specific gravity is stable over 2 days. It should finish in the range of 1006 – 1010.

STEP 3: Bottle

Bottle the brew with a priming rate of 8g per litre (2 carbonation drops per 750ml bottle).

STEP 4: Enjoy!

Store the bottles at or above 18C for at least two weeks to allow the secondary fermentation to take place. To take advantage of the fresh hop characters, drink this brew early. Expect the alcohol content to be around 4.6% ABV.