South Pacific Pale Ale 03 (Galaxy + Saphir) + Pictures

[Totem Brewery]

Hello,
this weekend I'm brewing a Pale Ale with Galaxy and Saphir hops, all added during the last 20 minutes of boil.
This is the first time I try to pair a hop with Galaxy (BTW, thanks Dean!), and I think Saphir will be a good match.
I hope it adds a bit of a "noble" character to my beer.
The grain bill is quite simple, only Maris Otter and Munich malt.
The yeast I chose is becoming one of my favourite: Wyeast 1318 (London Ale III). It has a great flavour profile, in my opinion.
Here's the recipe:

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 20,00 L
Boil Size: 16,50 L
Estimated OG: 1,048 SG
Estimated Color: 15,9 EBC
Estimated IBU: 43 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 68,00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
2,80 kg Maris Otter (Crisp) (6,7 EBC) Grain 62,2 %
1,70 kg Munich (DURST MALZ) (21,5 EBC) Grain 37,8 %

18,00 gm Galaxy 2011 [12,8 %] (20 min) Hops 12,6 IBU
18,00 gm Saphir 2011 [5,3 %] (20 min) Hops 5,2 IBU
18,00 gm Galaxy 2011 [12,8 %] (15 min) Hops 10,3 IBU
18,00 gm Saphir 2011 [5,3 %] (10 min) Hops 3,1 IBU
18,00 gm Galaxy 2011 [12,8 %] (10 min) Hops 7,5 IBU
18,00 gm Galaxy 2011 [12,8 %] (5 min) Hops 4,1 IBU
18,00 gm Saphir 2011 [5,3 %] (Dry Hop 7 days) Hops -
18,00 gm Galaxy 2011 [12,8 %] (Dry Hop 7 days) Hops -

1 Pkgs London Ale III (Wyeast Labs #1318) Yeast-Ale

Total Grain Weight: 4,50 kg
----------------------------
Mash profile
Step Time Name Description Step Temp
0 min Dough in Add 14,50 L of water at 65,7 C 60,0 C
45 min Saccharification 1 Heat to 63,0 C over 10 min 63,0 C
45 min Saccharification 2 Heat to 70,0 C over 15 min 70,0 C
10 min Mash-out Heat to 76,0 C over 15 min 76,0 C

After the brewday I will add the pictures (if I don't forget to...).

Did anybody of you ever try to pair another hop with Galaxy? How was the beer?

[Naich]

If you do a search for "galaxian", you'll find several brews with Galaxy and other hops. What is Saphir like? Never heard of it before.

[Totem Brewery]

Thanks Naich!
Saphir is a German aroma hop, similar to Mittelfruh, from what I have read. It should be flowery and fruity.
My last brew was a Saphir Pils, but I haven't tasted it yet, so I can't tell you how it is like.

I searched the old topics, and I found that most of the brews with Galaxy hops are single hop brews. Some of them contained NZ and US hops (and they look delicious), but I found no recipe with a Galaxy/European hop combo.
I guess we will find out in a couple of months if the pairing I have in mind is good.

[jimp2003]

NIce looking brew. I have never used galaxy in my beers but had my first taste of it in a commercial brew yesterday and was thinking that although it was okay it was a little too much on its own for me and I would probably combine it with something else if I used it.

By the way, what is the homebrew scene like in Italy?

Jim

[deanrpwaacs]

Good luck with that Totem.
I will be following this to see how it turns out.
A nice package is winging its way to you so look out for the postman.
Regards Dean.

[WishboneBrewery]

Saphir is whats in Schneider's Hopfen Weisse.

Hope it turns out well

[Lugsy]

That looks like a good recipe to me.

Galaxy is great but I think it needs to be paired with a bit of citrus to round it out properly, my last one had NS and NZ Cascade which worked quite nicely. I had a beer last night which used Saphir and it's definitely got a flowery citrus flavour, I think it would make a nice pairing. The only thing I'd say is that galaxy is really powerful, if I was brewing that I'd cut the Galaxy additions back maybe 30% (and add a small bittering addition to keep the IBUs up) to give the Saphir a chance to come through a bit more. Or just add more Saphir!

Good luck with it

[Totem Brewery]

@ jimp2003: homebrewing is spreading in Italy, although a lot of homebrewers stick to beer kits and extract brews and never try all grain brewing. Also the number of homebrew competitions is growing.

@ dean: thanks! I can't wait for your hops to arrive!

@ pdtnc: thanks!

@ Lugsy: thanks for the advice, but for this brew I prefer Saphir hops to be in the background, I just added them to increase complexity. The dry hop additions are half Saphir half Galaxy, so maybe this beer's smell will be more Saphir-forward.
If I won't be able to detect them at all, I will increase the Saphir additions in the next brew (SPPA 04 or 05, it depends on when I decide to use Summer hops).

[Totem Brewery]

Hello
the beer is now in the FV, here's the story:

At last, I decided to change the recipe because I wanted to use up my bag of Munich malt, so the grain bill is similar to the previous SPPA brew.

2,45 kg Maris Otter (Crisp) (6,7 EBC) Grain 54,4 %
2,05 kg Munich (DURST MALZ) (21,5 EBC) Grain 45,6 %

Nothing else changed.

Here are the pictures:

The most boring picture ever, the grains (uncrushed):


A smack-pack of Wyeast 1318:


After adding the grains and the salts the pH was close to 6:


I had to add a few grams of citric acid to bring the pH down to 5.2:


The first saccharification step (63°C):


The second (70°C):


The first runoff:


A bit cloudy, nice color (1061 @ 56°C, so 1075 @ 20°C, conversion efficiency 91,5%):


I forgot to take pictures of the second runoff, because while heating the sparge water I realised that my thermometer was broken. I had to use my backup thermometer to finish the brew.
Here's a picture of the third runoff:


Here are the hops (awesome smell, as usual!):


I don't know if anybody else discards the foam that forms at the beginning of the boil. I do.


Rolling boil (still no hops in the kettles, I will add them in the last 20 minutes):


Finally, the hops!


The swollen smack-pack, hopefully ready to be pitched.


Cooling the wort with my counterflow chiller and trasferring it to the FV.


A bit of foam


1049, a bit higher than I expected (which is good)


Spent hops


I'm tired now, but I still have to clean my boiling kettle...bye!
Hope you liked the pictures.

[Totem Brewery]

The beer started fermenting after only 4 hours. I never experienced such a short lag time.
Does London Ale III yeast always behave like this?

[Capper20]

Looks good, I just built a new hop filter with the stainless hose braide, you found that it works well?

[Totem Brewery]

When brewing with pellet hops, this kind of filter may be clogged if I use too much of them (unless you perform a whirlpool at the end of the boil).
No problems with leaf hops.

[greenxpaddy]

TB, have you checked your liquor? With all that Munich I wouldn't have thought you would need to use citric acid. Seems like you have too much carbonate perhaps?

[Dennis King]

Had some Galaxy arrive today, never used it before looking forward to brewing with it. Will probably brew a single hop brew to start.

[Totem Brewery]

@greenxpaddy: yes, my water is high in carbonate. Here's the analysis:
Ca 63 ppm
Mg 19 ppm
Na 7 ppm
SO4 22 ppm
Cl 14 ppm
HCO3 274 ppm
I lowered the pH too much, I was aiming for 5.3-5.4, so next time I will use less citric acid.

@Dennis: a single hop beer is a simple way to find out how a new hop tastes like, so go for it!