Beer Forum

I've been asked by a local brewery to make a couple of pilot brews of 2.8% pale ale. 2.8% in the UK is a tax threshold that a number of breweries are looking at cashing in on. They've supplied me with a couple of two three recipes and my friend and I will also be brewing our own recipes to give them some more options and as a feature for our website.

Does anyone have any hints and tips on producing a beer of this strength? I'm thinking of mashing at 69°C/156℉ and using Vienna as my base malt with crystal and caramalt to add body through unfermentable sugars. They've specified US-05 yeast, so using a low attenuating yeast isn't an option.

Check out Gineu Riner, it's a Spanish hop bomb that's ~2.5%. It's a little thin but still pretty damned good, you could try asking them about it.

Thanks for the tip, I'll look it up.

This is what I've come up with so far. The weights look a bit odd as I've converted from metric.

Batch size: 6.6 gal
Boil volume: 8.2 gal
OG: 1.029
FG: 1.007
Bitterness (IBU): 29.4
Color (SRM): 7.6
ABV: 2.8%

Grain/Sugars:

6.39 lb Vienna (US), 77.3%
0.77 lb Caramalt, 9.3%
0.55 lb Wheat (US), 6.7%
0.55 lb Crystal 60L, 6.7%

Hops:

1.06 oz Columbus (AA 15.4%, Pellet) 5 min, 10.8 IBU
1.06 oz Galaxy (AA 14.4%, Pellet) 5 min, 10.1 IBU
1.06 oz Mosaic (AA 12.1%, Pellet) 5 min, 8.5 IBU
0.88 oz Columbus (AA 15.4%, Pellet) 0 min, 0.0 IBU
0.88 oz Galaxy (AA 14.4%, Pellet) 0 min, 0.0 IBU
0.71 oz Columbus (AA 15.4%, Pellet) dry hop
0.71 oz Galaxy (AA 14.4%, Pellet) dry hop
0.71 oz Mosaic (AA 12.1%, Pellet) dry hop

Yeast:

US-05