Dennis King’s Galaxy Delight

[Top Cat]

I mentioned on the brewing water forum that I was going to have a go at this recipe.
It’s a grain kit from the MaltMiller that contains grains and yeast I’d never used before, fortunately Dennis had seen the post, gave me a little advice, and asked to let him know how I got on with this award winner, so here goes!

The ABV quoted (5%) is a little strong for me so I simply added 2 litres more water to give me 25 litres in the fermentation bin.
I purchased enough grains from the MaltMiller to brew 3 batches.

The method was as per recipe except the final addition of Galaxy hops were added at flame out not dry hopped in the fermentation bin.
The yeast, west coast, fermented at 20c took off like a rocket, bin lid and blow off tube were taken off and cleaned twice due to massive krausen.
When fermentation had finished, it was given a rest for a few days then bought down to conditioning temperature to clear then kegged.

The resulting beer (ABV 4.6%) was decent but I thought that what was in the recipe could have been better, so on to brew 2.

Changed the yeast to US 05, always get good beers from this.
Used water profile for sweet pale ale (instead of dry) in Graham Wheelers water calculator, used CRS to reduce alkalinity to 20 ppm.
Fermented at 18.5c.
Reduced 2nd batch of hops from 45g to 35g
No other changes.

Conclusion.
Much better beer,
If you happen to read this post Dennis, it’s a beautiful well balanced beer, it has, due to the hops I assume, similarities to Old Golden Hen one of my favourite tipples.
I’ll certainly brew it again but may go to the trouble in dry hopping to see if there’s much difference in hop flavour/aroma.

[orlando]

I’ll certainly brew it again but may go to the trouble in dry hopping to see if there’s much difference in hop flavour/aroma.

It will make a big difference to the aroma.

[Dennis King]

Glad you enjoyed it I have tweaked the recipe in various ways over the years and found keeping the alkalinity around 20 or below suits the beer. With the yeast I find Whitelabs 002 or Wyeast 1469 to be my favorites. I brewed it again this morning, first time in a while, and going for a more chloride forward water treatment this time. Are you bottling the beer? I find leaving it a couple of months in a bottle is when the beer is at it's best

[Top Cat]

I normally cornie keg and bottle. I leave the bottles primed, in a warm room for around two weeks then bung them in the keezer with the kegs. I drink or give the bottles for my father to drink after about 6 weeks. The beer seems well conditioned after that.
Glad you mentioned the liquid yeast, I have some WLP 001 for use at the moment, have you tried it with your recipe?

[Dennis King]

Never tried WLP001 but would probably suit this beer.