Coopers APA - 2 tins and a load of hops!

[Monkeybrew]

The yeast has just been pitched, and this brew is now parked in my brewfridge

I steeped the whole 250g pack of crushed Caramalt for 30 mins in a muslin bag @ 75-70C.

After removing the Caramalt and giving it a little sparge, I then boiled the wort for 10mins and then added the first hop addition and boiled for another 10mins instead of 15.

I then waited for the wort to cool to 80C and added the second hop additions, covered and left to steep for 20mins instead of 30.

Whilst the hops were steeping, I bagged up the remaining hops into a boiled muslin bag ready for dry hopping. After straining the boiled and steeped hops through a piece of boiled voile, I mixed up the brew to 23L and checked the gravity, it was 1.044 @ 21C, so the yeast was pitched

Lets hope its a good'un.

[Geezah]

Certainly sounds interesting Monkey
i'll be watching out for your tase reviews on this one.

[Stomach]

Certainly sounds interesting Monkey
i'll be watching out for your tase reviews on this one.

Me too, I am drooling already!!

[Monkeybrew]

Certainly sounds interesting Monkey
i'll be watching out for your tase reviews on this one.

Me too, I am drooling already!!

Mrs Monkeybrew had a friend around for dinner last night, and she wasn't so impressed!

When I got her to smell the hops before they went in for the boil, she said OMG, they smell like cats wazz

She clearly has no idea when it comes to quality US hops

[Stomach]

Certainly sounds interesting Monkey
i'll be watching out for your tase reviews on this one.

Me too, I am drooling already!!

Mrs Monkeybrew had a friend around for dinner last night, and she wasn't so impressed!

When I got her to smell the hops before they went in for the boil, she said OMG, they smell like cats wazz

She clearly has no idea when it comes to quality US hops

She has no taste!! hahaha!

[Monkeybrew]

I checked on this brew when I got in from work about 20 hours after pitching the yeast, and the krausen is against the inside of the lid!

My fridge is set to a max of 20C, so the wort will be about 19C for the duration of the ferment.

BTW I got a nice lung-full of citrussy CO2 when I peeked under the FV lid

[Monkeybrew]

I checked on the SG and racked this brew into a clean FV yesterday evening on day 8 and it was down to 1.012.

By the looks of it, I don't think that it will drop much more, but time will tell I suppose!

I plan to leave it for at least another week before bottling to aid clearing

[Stomach]

I checked on the SG and racked this brew into a clean FV yesterday evening on day 8 and it was down to 1.012.

By the looks of it, I don't think that it will drop much more, but time will tell I suppose!

I plan to leave it for at least another week before bottling to aid clearing

I can taste it from here matey!! Excellent work! Fingers crossed it turns out as you want it!

[Monkeybrew]

I couldn't resist it and cracked open one of my half pint taster bottles at only 5 days old!

It's all malt at the moment with subtle hop aroma and flavours and some bitterness.

I am sitting here 5 mins after drinking it, and can still taste the lingering hop flavours

I know from my Toucan SMOTY brew, that the maltyness will mellow a bit over time and hopefully allow the hops to shine through a bit more.

Listen to me judging a 5 day old brew

The main thing, is that it doesn't taste like Sarsons!

[Monkeybrew]

This brew is now just over 6 weeks old and has come on a long way since the first couple of weeks!

It is a lighter golden colour than the picture shows, which makes it very pleasing to my eyes.

The aroma is citrus, but not sharp. The taste has really started to settle down now, and the 2 hops seem to work very well together. I can taste grapefruit and orange citrus flavours that end with a slight sweetness that is then balanced out with the bitterness from the hops

The real bonus for me, is that the Toucan Australian Pale Ale obviously has alot more body than usual, and that this works well with the full hoppiness.

A success, me thinks

[Stomach]

That looks like you have found a little drop of heaven matey!!

[Geezah]

What a fantastic, hoppy and fruity pint this is!
Nice sharp bitterness from the cascade biting on the sides of my tongue, nicely offset by the sweet, citrussy flavours of the ammerillo on the top & tip of my tongue.

I little bit too carbonated, but I bet served from a keg you can controll it a bit better. Bottles are always hard to get right every time.

All in all, if it was on the shelf of my local beer shop @ £1.49 a bottle I would put a few on my shopping list.

Nice tipple mate.


As soon as the sun appears and the elders start to flower i'll have a few bottles of my elderwych clone to hand out.

[Monkeybrew]

Just thought I would update this brew again as it has changed a lot over the last 8 months.

For a while I actually stopped drinking this brew because the sweetness from the malt conditioned away and left the brew quite astringent and over bitter.

Now nearly 8 months on from bottling, I now have an APA that has mellowed again and the aroma and flavour is very floral now and the astringent bitterness has mellowed again

On reflection I should have only boiled the hops for 5 instead of 15 minutes.

Anyway I shall really enjoy the last 10 bottles.

MB

[Geezah]

Its amazing how certain yeasts will mask a beer like a chamelion and the flavour changes time and time again.

I stopped using SA-04 for that reason... all my brews tasted the same, then changed, then got the same SA-04 taste ... repeat.


I stil have a bottle for you, but been putting off posting it because of the flavour changes.

I'd love to have a good SN yeast culture to play with though.

[Stomach]

I know what you both mean. My APA experiment with 3 different hops changed about it seems every othe week! The Cascade was lovely and hoppy when young, then it jst dissapered!!

I am trying US - 05 on my latest Cascade attempt and see if that helps!