Description
Lightbulb is a modern pale ale full of bright hop flavours and mind sweetness that rounds out the whole beer and makes it more substantial. At only 4.5% this beer would give most 7% IPAs a run for their money.
Ingredients Included
SIMPSONS MALTS EXTRA PALE MALT
Weyermann® Vienna Malt
Flaked Oats Including Husk
Weyermann® Carapils®
Crisp CaraGold Malt
5360g Total Grain bill
Magnum Pellets (6 grams)
Simcoe Pellets (100 grams)
Centennial Pellets (60 grams)
Lallemand Verdant yeast (1 packs)
Method
Beer Style (main): American Ales
Beer Style (sub): Juicy or Hazy Pale Ale
Batch Size: 20L
Original Gravity: 1.045
Final Gravity: 1.011
ABV %: 4.5
IBU:
THE MASH
Temperature °C: 67
Length (mins): 60
Out temp °C: N/A
Out time (mins): N/A
THE BOIL
Boil time (mins): 60
Additions and timing:
60 min Magnum 6g
0 min Simcoe 20g
0 min Centennial 20g
Secondary additions and timing:
dry hop Simcoe 80g
dry hop Centennial 40g
Yeast: Verdant Yeast
Fermentation temperature/steps: Ferment at 18, then diacetyl rest at 22c
Comments:
Lightbulb is a modern pale ale full of bright hop flavours and mind sweetness that rounds out the whole beer and makes it more substantial. At only 4.5% this beer would give most 7% IPAs a run for their money.
This recipe was published in Hop & Barley and shared with us by Greg Mellor
Trevor Dawson (verified owner) –
I’m still relatively new to all grain brewing, I made this Verdant Lightbulb kit as my third brew as I wanted to try something light and hoppy, compared to my previous brews that were a ruby porter and a dark porter.
I put the figures into my brewing app and it stated that the OG would come in at 1.057 and the FG at 1.012 to give an ABV of 5.9% which is quite a bit higher than the 4.5% stated in the description. Maybe as a new brewer I made some mistakes somewhere, but pressed on regardless. When I did the brewing, my actual OG was 1.050 and after two weeks fermenting the SG was 1.010 giving me a final ABV of 5.3%.
I kegged the beer and left for a couple of weeks under about 15psi to carbonate.
Then it was time to try the beer…. It is absolutely amazing! I am no beer tasting expert, but this has to be one of the nicest beers I have ever sampled either home brewed or in a pub. It is citrusy, refreshing and hoppy.
I was determined to see how this compared to proper Verdant Lightbulb, so purchased some tins for a side-by-side comparison. I would say that the original version is a little more citrusy on initial taste, but there is very little to choose between the two.
I will definitely buy this kit again, I loved it, and it was very popular with all my beer drinking friends.
Robert Neale –
Hi Trevor, glad you are enjoying the beer. The discrepancy in the OG will be the flaked oats with husk. As they contain the husk (this is a good thing as it helps lautering) you need to add twice as much to achieve the sugar points that you would expect from oats alone. The fact that you got 1.050 just means your efficiency was good. In future if your OG is above what you are aiming for then you can liquor back, easiest way is with bottled water. Use the calculators ( https://www.brewersfriend.com/dilution-and-boiloff-gravity-calculator/ ) to determine how much liquor is required.
Sergio Larrañaga (verified owner) –
Awesome kit and excellent finished Hazy Pale Ale. For pics take a look at instagram profile : akoust_brewing_project
Message
Chris Channing (verified owner) –
This kit really does make a cracking beer! As Trevor mentioned in a prior review: it is citrusy, refreshing and hoppy! My OG came out at 1.053 and the FG was 1.011 (brewed on Grainfather kit), making this a 5.5% ABV beer for me.
This is a perfect beer all year round, I will definitely buy this again!
Jonathan Neilly –
Had a go at brewing this on the Grainfather G30 and thought the end result was half decent. I later managed to get a reference can from my local and taste the two side by side- as it turns out this is pretty bang on!
julian.white34 (verified owner) –
I did this on the grainfather using Ashbeck. It turned out absolutely delicious after 3 of 4 weeks in the bottle. It looks and tastes pretty much the same as the commercial version. Ideal for the summer.
Matthew Piercy (verified owner) –
Awesome beer. I’m drinking it now. Just poured my first beer out of the keg and thought “I need to give some feedback”. I’m relatively new to AG brewing, but this is probably the best example of this style that I’ve done. Was very careful to avoid oxidation, but otherwise did nothing special. Cheers!
Graham Pearson (verified owner) –
My 2nd ever AG brew. What a fantastic beer it is. Hoppy, fruity, refreshing.. Delicious!
Will definitely be brewing this again!
Jonathan Shaw (verified owner) –
Brewed a couple of times and it’s been really successful. I sometimes use the grain/mash recipe as a base and mix up the hops. Tried one with Sabro, Motueka and Azacca which turned out great.
Chris Raynor (verified owner) –
This turned turned out to be much better than I’d expected. Juicy, fruity hops, a very refreshing drink. Just a nice amount of haze left in it. If I’d had to pay for this, in a pub, I’d have been satisfied with it, and would have been happy to have a second pint. I think it’s probably the most impressive TMM kit I’ve brewed.
I’d add that I was really, really careful regarding oxidation. I seemed to be perpetually flushing CO2 into things! But the extra care seems to have been worthwhile.
Nigel Macey (verified owner) –
Superb AG kit, mine was very close (but not quite as good😄) as the Verdant cans that i purchased,very nice though.