British Brewer

On Tap (Mar 15th 2010)

What a week, the wife and kids have been in San Diego, I have been as sick as I think I have ever been, I managed to finally watch Beer Wars and even brewed some beer.  Well brewing beer wasn’t the forgone conclusion I thought it was going to be with the family away. Getting the flu, immediately followed by a stomach virus actually left me not wanting to even smell ale, a first for me, let alone the pungent delicious aromas of boiling wort filling my house.  It was not until Sunday I finally felt well enough to move some ales around and get my Old Speckled Hen clone underway.  I am looking forward to the rest of my time alone, I hope to get my Fullers London Pride clone review done and finally begin my malt post which I have been working on but it has been taking a while.  So hears to staying healthy for a week, drinking some great beer and happy reunions when the family returns all sunned up from San Diego, its time for an On Tap Update.

Primary

• Old Speckled Hen clone ( 1 day (p) ) - Its all good, colour is golden and the yeast is a cooking.

Secondary

• 115th Dream Imperial IPA ( 2 wks (p) 1 day (s) ) – A rather extreme IPA, high in ABV and a whopping 120 IBUs with over a 1 lb of hops using a technique called Hop Bursting I covered a few weeks back. It came out of the primary a whopping 1015 FG, almost 83% attenuation from the mighty American Ale yeast and checking in at over 10% ABV, so begins week 1 of its 6 week rest.
  
• Olde Luddite English Strong Ale (1 wk(p) 2 wk 1 day (s) ) – A new Old Ale kit from Northern Brewer, thought I would add some Old Ale kits to my current Old’s and Browns series.  Final week of its 3 week rest.

Bottle/Keg Conditioning

• Theakston Old Peculier Clone (1 wk(p) 3 wks(s) 1 day (b)) – My first pass at this classic old ale, FG came out in range along with the colour, that is all we can ask. But the tail does not end here.  As reported the yeast fired up again leaving a layer of cake on the surface of the secondary and sure enough I retested the FG before bottling and it had fallen from 1016 to 1012, the yeast in my cellar is really rocking this year.  Smelled delicious but definitely in for at least a 6 week rest before sampling.
  
• Twelfth Night Stout (2 wk (p), 2 wks (s), 2 wks 2 days (k) ) – A new extract clone recipe of Rogues Shakespeare Stout from Northern Brewer featuring the PacMan Ale yeast strain from Rogue.  This one is an ass-kicking 70 IBU stout sitting in the keg and in its third week rest out of  four.
  
• Lord Fatbottom Ale (1 mth (p), 3 mths 1 wk (s)) –beginning the second half of its 6 months rest.

Drinking

• Fullers London Pride clone (1 wk (p), 1 wk (s), 4 wks 3 days (b) ) – came out crystal clear from the primary with the FG exactly on target. Looking forward to seeing how this brew finishes off.  So its done, its great, special review to come this week. Yeah I am really happy about this one.
  
• Spitfire Premium Ale clone (1 wk (p), 2wks (s), 5 wks, 3 days (b)) – my 2nd pass at Spitfire Ale, the Shepherd Neame classic from Kent UK.  I am drinking one now as a matter of fact.
  
• Grateful Dead Guy Ale (1wk (p), 2wks (s), 5 wks 3 days (b)) – another special edition kit from Northern Brewer featuring the newly released PacMan Ale yeast strain from Wyeast/Rogue Breweries, this one is a Rogue Dead Guy Ale clone. I did a side by side taste test with an actual Rogue Dead Guy Ale, colour and flavour are so close its hard to tell which one was which. Good job NB.
• Dogfish Head 90 min IPA clone (1 wk (p), 3 wks (s), 4 mnths (b) ) – Continues to mature with age. Cracked one open last night on its 4 month birthday. It continues to age beautifully, really smoothed out and I still think it could a few more months. I will pace these for a while.
  

BeerWars, The Movie

So back in January during my rants against the mega-breweries closing down British real ale breweries I briefly mentioned the movie “Beer Wars” (trailer here), a documentary on the battle raging between the mega-breweries and the small independents in the USA.  Well tonight the wife and kids are away on school break in sunny San Diego and I am home bound in cold wet Marshfield.  To make matters worse I am on the tail end of one of the most painful bouts of flu I have ever had followed immediately by a nasty 24 hour stomach virus.  I had planned to brew beer today and then crack open my London Pride clone and write the review but I am feeling really fragile and been bed ridden for the best part of the day and the thought of food or beer is not sitting well in a churned up belly.  So what better way to pass a quiet evening in than to rent Beer Wars on iTunes and jot down some thoughts.

The documentary starts off with an overview of the US beer industry, the 3 big guys, Anheuser, Miller and Coors controlling 78% market share with the remaining 22% being contested by a mere 1400 breweries. Does not sound like war to me it sounds like domination especially considering that 50% of all consumption is an Anheuser brand.  The movie then goes down into some history of how the giant 3 have grown over the last 50 years, essentially all selling the identical beer to the American public, one indistinguishable from the other (Anat Baron, Producer, writer and narrator) even does a taste test to prove it with die-hard Bud, Miller and Coors drinkers not being able to tell one from the other.  Not hard really, I would have better luck telling you Marshfield town tap water from neighboring Scituate water.

The narrative moves swiftly on to the small independent brewers focusing on a local South Shore of Boston gal, Rhonda Kallman (whom I have met a few times around town, typically in the old Mount Blue Restaurant) and my personal favorite Dog Fish Head Brewery in Delaware.  The contrast between the big and little guys is the most startling part of the documentary. We have the big guys buying massive blocks of advertising (apparently Anheuser spends $800M per year), sponsoring every sport under the sun, with Bud even sponsoring the Presidential debate. Then  we have Sam the founder of Dog Fish calling his winning the hearts and minds (and beer mugs) of the US population one individual at time, the ground war.  It felt good to know that homebrewers like myself, but with passion and a certain risk taking sensibility like Sam, were out there helping America finally learn what the rest of the world has known for centuries, what beer really tastes like.

But it’s at this point the movie lost me for a while, it became less about the beer and more about the politics. How through lobbying (Bud contributed more than guns and tobacco combined) and unfair practices the big guys stop the little guys, making it hard to enter the market and blocking them when they do.  I guess its not meant to be easy, I have worked in the finance industry long enough to know the playing field is never flat. It takes hard work and a certain level of insanity to succeed.  But I think this part of the movie missed the point, its about the beer, and people who want to will always find good beer. Back in the 70’s and 80’s people could not get anything but bland old Bud so the homebrewers rose up and from this movement over 1400 microbreweries now exist. Today I can go down to my local and get a Dog Fish Head 90 min and I don’t mind paying premium for it because it is worth paying 4x what a Bud is worth. Its a steal considering the beer is 10x better on every level. The people that drink Bud, drink it, its what they have been told to like for generations and they like it, its a commodity, cheap and cheerful. It’s about choice, of course the big guys play unfair, its their market to lose and they have nowhere to go but down.

Towards the end of the film it does all come together, the little guys are growing, the big guys are going global, and Government is getting fatter. Sounds like America to me. The one piece that made me upset was the role of Government and the 37,000 beer laws the movie cites.  It has been sad to see my home country become such a “Nanny State” where the Government is so deep into your personal space they can tell you what you can and cannot eat. The end of this movie reminded me that the US is going down the same path.  Whether you are a Big Gov liberal or a Small Gov Consrvative no Government should be deep inside your home telling you how to live your life and control the choices we can make, especially when those choices are influenced by deep pocketed corporation with nothing but global growth on the bottom line.

I am happy I am free to brew my own beer, to buy from a good selection of brews, but for how long? This was not covered in the movie but how long before the Beer Lobby influences some bozo Senator to put a Bill before Congress to stop homebrewers like me from brewing “for our own good”, just like smokers cannot smoke anywhere anymore or New Yorkers cannot get MSG and the lastest in NYC is the attempt to ban salt in food, because it for our own good.

I know what is good for me, I know my beer is great, because I know whats in it, which is more than I can say for a Bud.  It was a good documentary, every beer drinker should see it. It was not my favorite documentary this year. That honor belongs to “It Might Get Loud”, the documentary covering a Summit meeting of 3 guitar legends Jimmy Page, The Edge and Jack White.  That was an amazing film.  But go rent Beer Wars today, get informed and have a beer.

Tips and Tricks: Cooling wort in a kitchen sink

We covered cooling the wort in the “Getting Started” series. This is a more detailed description of how to easily cool the wort in two steps and get consistent results (assuming a 3 gallon boil). 1) Once the boil is finished place kettle in the sink, if you do not have a sink then a large plastic bucket.  Fill the sink with cold tap water up to the level of the wort stirring with a spoon to aerate the wort for 60 seconds.  Empty the sink and refill to the same level stirring for 2 minutes this time.  This will bring the temperature down to 110ºF every time, I do not even use a thermometer anymore, its that consistent.  2) Now fill the kettle with cold water to the 5 gallon level and the temperature will be ~75-80ºF and perfect for pitching the yeast.

On Tap (Mar 8th 2010)

Apologies for the lite post week, it was a busy busy week at work with some long days and late nights. I was also working on a long post for Inly School where I am a sometime middle school guest speaker on a class I taught recently. I will post the link when its up.  It has been a lite brewing week to as all the fermenters are full with fermenting and conditioning ale with none ready to be transferred.  This is the problem when brewing heavier ales like Olds and Imperials, they take longer to condition. Take a look at my cellar inventory below and everything is in a 3-4 weeek rest (or more).

So we will have to wait a week for the Speckled Hen clone to get started.  My kids are off school this week and next and the wife and kids will be off west to LA to visit Grandpa, so poor old me is left alone with my brewing, I just wish I had timed this event better. I could have used the time to brew every night! I will miss them all very much, its a big empty house without the sound of two little boys running around, laughing, joking.. I digress, its time for the On Tap update

Primary

• Nothing new I am afraid, Old Speckled Hen clone is on deck
• 115th Dream Imperial IPA ( 1 wk  1 day (p) ) – A rather extreme IPA, high in ABV and a whopping 120 IBUs with over a 1 lb of hops using a technique called Hop Bursting I covered in a post last week.

Secondary

• Olde Luddite English Strong Ale (1 wk(p) 1 wk 1 day (s) ) – A new Old Ale kit from Northern Brewer, thought I would add some Old Ale kits to my current Old’s and Browns series.  The FG came in at a whopping 1017, almost 6% over its max attenuation, the Fullers yeast was very active.  The sample was already very clear and I could have drunk the whole thing.  This is going to be a very smooth, Old Ale. Second week of its 3 week rest.
• Theakston Old Peculier Clone (1 wk(p) 2 wks, 2 days (s) ) – My first pass at this classic old ale, FG came out in range along with the colour, that is all we can ask. It would appear the Trappist yeast is still working as a thin layer of yeast cake has formed on top of the conditioning ale. I am intrigued to find out what if anything has happened to the FG.  Now for 1 more week in the secondary

Bottle/Keg Conditioning

• Twelfth Night Stout (2 wk (p), 2 wks (s), 1 wk 2 days (k) ) – A new extract clone recipe of Rogues Shakespeare Stout from Northern Brewer featuring the PacMan Ale yeast strain from Rogue.  This one is an ass-kicking 70 IBU stout sitting in the keg and in its second week of rest. I will probably give this at least 4 weeks before tapping
  
• Fullers London Pride clone (1 wk (p), 1 wk (s), 3 wk, 3 days (b) ) – came out crystal clear from the primary with the FG exactly on target. Looking forward to seeing how this brew finishes off.  In its final week of conditioning so look for a review on this next week, I am quietly confident.
  
• Lord Fatbottom Ale (1 mth (p), 3 mths 1 wk (s)) –beginning the second half of its 6 months rest.

Drinking

• Spitfire Premium Ale clone (1 wk (p), 2wks (s), 4 wks, 3 days (b)) – my 2nd pass at Spitfire Ale, the Shepherd Neame classic from Kent UK.  Completely cleared but with a lot of sediment in the bottle.  Took 2 weeks to finish off the first case, a little too quick given this ale is pretty strong. It just goes down like a session brew
  
• Grateful Dead Guy Ale (1wk (p), 2wks (s), 4 wks 3 days (b)) – a new special edition kit from Northern Brewer featuring the newly released PacMan Ale yeast strain from Wyeast/Rogue Breweries, this one is a Rogue Dead Guy Ale clone. I did a side by side taste test with an actual Rogue Dead Guy Ale, colour and flavour are so close its hard to tell which one was which. Good job NB.
• Flowers Original Ale clone (1 wk (p), 1 wk (s), 6 wks (b)) – my first brew of 2010 and first attempt at the classic Flowers recipe. See review from earlier, its a winner and has been promoted to the recipe page. Only one bottle left, this will be finished this week. Only made 3/4 of a case and look forward to brewing a full 5 gallons later in the year. This ale appears to peak in flavour after ~5 weeks in the bottle
  
• Dogfish Head 90 min IPA clone (1 wk (p), 3 wks (s), 3 mnth 3 wks (b) ) – Continues to mature with age, been holding back on these to see how they pan out.

Hop Bursting

As those of you who read this blog will know I have been talking about a technique called hop bursting recently. I first tried it back in Nov 2009 whilst brewing my Dog Fish Head 90min without really knowing how the technique worked. I came across it again last week when I brewed Northern Brewers 115th Dream Imperial IPA, which shipped with over 1 lb of hops.  How can you add 1 lb of hops to a 5 gallon brew and it not taste disgusting? I was curious and wanted to find out more, especially given how clean the bottom of boil kettle was where the hops had settled while cooling.

First up lets quickly review the big hop post I did a few back. First thing to remember are the Alpha Acids, these cause bittering and are not very water soluble so require an hour of boiling to fully extract. Then there are the Beta Acids, these are water soluble and actually evaporate if left too long in the water. Beta acids provide the hop aroma and flavour.  The more the beta acids evaporate the less the aroma which is why we have flavour additions with 10-15mins of a boil to go and aroma at 0 mins.

Hop bursting is a technique used to impart massive amounts of hop flavour and aroma by adding large amounts of hops at the end of the boil, typically beginning at the last 20 mins.  Some bitterness will be extracted (use the formula in the hop post and replace the 60 with 15 and play around with the hop quantity and see how much more you would need) so in order to get the same level as a 60 min boil we need a lot more hops. Here is a simple example. In the hop post we calculated the IBU’s for a recipe with a 60 min and a 15 min addition, it was approx 29 for a 2.5 gl batch using 1.2 oz of hops.  What if we want to create a 29 IBU recipe with a big hop aroma and flavour using hop bursting with no bittering hops at the beginning of the boil.

Here is the same formula used in the hop post but this time using 4 additions a 15 min, 10, min, 5 min and 1 (assuming we are a using a generic 4.5% alpha hop in pellet form, same batch size and OG).

First calculate the utilization for each addition

15 min: ( 1.65 * 0.000125^( 1.060 – 1 ) ) * ( ( 1 – 2.72^( -0.04 * 15 ) ) / 4.14 ) = 11.54%

10 min: ( 1.65 * 0.000125^( 1.060 – 1 ) ) * ( ( 1 – 2.72^( -0.04 * 10 ) ) / 4.14 ) = 8.43%

5 min: ( 1.65 * 0.000125^( 1.060 – 1 ) ) * ( ( 1 – 2.72^( -0.04 * 5 ) ) / 4.14 ) = 4.64%

1 min: ( 1.65 * 0.000125^( 1.060 – 1 ) ) * ( ( 1 – 2.72^( -0.04 * 1 ) ) / 4.14 ) = 1%

Next calculate the IBU for each addition given its utilization and add them all together to make the final total.

15 min: 11.54 * ( 0.5 * ( 4.5 / 100 ) * 7490 ) / 2.5 = 7.78

10 min: 8.43 * ( 1 * ( 4.5 / 100 ) * 7490 ) / 2.5 = 11.37

5 min: 4.64 * ( 1 * ( 4.5 / 100 ) * 7490 ) / 2.5 = 6.25

1 min: 1 * ( 3 * ( 4.5 / 100 ) * 7490 ) / 2.5 = 4.06

Total IBU = 29.46

So we have an ale with the same IBU made with the same hops as the traditional bittering method except the hop load is 5 1/2 oz as compared with 1.2 oz giving us an really BIG hop flavour and aroma. Another advantage for homebrewers like myself that do not own filtration equipment is strong hoppy IPA’s can be made without the need for a dry hop addition and all the additional complexities that come along with the process.

So go ahead and try the NB recipe, its a 1 lb of hops for a 5 gallon brew, have no idea how it will turn out but I love the quote on the web site which I will end this post with:

If you serve this beer to a Michelob Ultra drinker, he or she will cry. If life were a 1950s horror flick, this I2PA would climb out of the fermenter and turn on its master. Your dentist does not want you to brew or drink this beer. Sorry in advance about your tooth enamel

Tips and Tricks: Pots and Pans

When boiling a high OG ale make sure you have a kettle capable of holding double the capacity of the liquid in the boil. E.g. If you have 3 gallons of liquid make sure you are using a 6 gallon kettle. High OG means lots of malt and lots of malt leads to a large hot break (think thick creamy foam) in the kettle. When I brewed my 1123 OG Barleywine with over 14 lbs of DME I could barely keep it inside a 7.5 gallon kettle with only 3 gallons of liquid. Be warned.

On Tap (Feb 28th 2010)

Been more in the groove this week, head not spinning so fast and managed to get some posts done.  Getting used to the commute, the work and occassional travel and the wife drinking my ales without me home. I am happy about this fact I think. It was fun to brew this weekend, tried “hop-bursting” for the first time using over 1 lb of hops in a brew (12 oz in the last 15 mins). I also found some time to research another classic Old Ale, Old Speckled Hen, so its off with this weeks On Tap Update.

Primary

• 115th Dream Imperial IPA ( 2 days (p) ) -  A rather extreme IPA, high in ABV and a whopping 120 IBUs with over a 1 lb of hops.  Thought I would try out hop-bursting.  I love the comment on the NB site “If you serve this beer to a Michelob Ultra drinker, he or she will cry. If life were a 1950s horror flick, this I2PA would climb out of the fermenter and turn on its master. Your dentist does not want you to brew or drink this beer. Sorry in advance about your tooth enamel“. OG came in perfect and the yeast is raging, was worried about a blow-out with this one.

Secondary

• Olde Luddite English Strong Ale (1 wk(p) 1 day (s) ) – A new Old Ale kit from Northern Brewer, thought I would add some Old Ale kits to my current Old’s and Browns series.  The FG came in at a whopping 1017, almost 6% over its max attenuation, the Fullers yeast was very active.  The sample was already very clear and I could have drunk the whole thing.  This is going to be a very smooth, Old Ale. First week of its 3 week rest.
• Theakston Old Peculier Clone (1 wk(p) 1 wk, 2 days (s) ) – My first pass at this classic old ale, FG came out in range along with the colour, that is all we can ask. Now for 1 more week in the secondary
  

Bottle/Keg Conditioning

• Twelfth Night Stout (2 wk (p), 2 wks (s), 2 day (k) ) – A new extract clone recipe of Rogues Shakespeare Stout from Northern Brewer featuring the PacMan Ale yeast strain from Rogue.  This one is an ass-kicking 70 IBU stout destined as is sitting in the keg. Will give this one 2-3 weeks to settle down before tapping
  
• Fullers London Pride clone (1 wk (p), 1 wk (s), 2 wk, 3 days (b) ) – came out crystal clear from the primary with the FG exactly on target. Looking forward to seeing how this brew finishes off.  Week 3 of its 4 week conditioning period.
  
• Lord Fatbottom Ale (1 mth (p), 3 mths (s)) – exactly half way through its 6 month rest.

Drinking

• Spitfire Premium Ale clone (1 wk (p), 2wks (s), 3 wks, 3 days (b)) – my 2nd pass at Spitfire Ale, the Shepherd Neame classic from Kent UK.  Completely cleared but with a lot of sediment in the bottle.  We started drinking these this week and its good, as good as the first time I brewed it, rich amber colour, butterscotch notes, really yummy.
  
• Grateful Dead Guy Ale (1wk (p), 2wks (s), 3 wks 3 days (b)) – a new special edition kit from Northern Brewer featuring the newly released PacMan Ale yeast strain from Wyeast/Rogue Breweries, this one is a Rogue Dead Guy Ale clone. I did a side by side taste test with an actual Rogue Dead Guy Ale, colour and flavour are so close its hard to tell which one was which. Good job NB.
  
• Flowers Original Ale clone (1 wk (p), 1 wk (s), 5 wks (b)) – my first brew of 2010 and first attempt at the classic Flowers recipe. See review from earlier, its a winner and has been promoted to the recipe page.
  
• Dogfish Head 90 min IPA clone (1 wk (p), 3 wks (s), 3 mnth 2 wks (b) ) – Continues to mature with age, been holding back on these to see how they pan out.
  

Recipe: Old Speckled Hen (version 1)

Online version with calculator can be found here.

Next up in the series on Old Ales and Browns is another classic Old Ale available in both the UK and US, Old Speckled Hen, brewed by Greene King after its acquisition of the Morland Brewery in 2000.  We have already covered the history of Greene King with the Abbot Ale recipe last year but Morland also has an interesting past.

Prior to its acquisition by Greene King, the Morland Brewery was located in Abingdon, now part of Oxfordshire, in the UK and has a history dating back to 1711.  The original brewery was located in the town of West Ilsley started by a local farmer John Morland to brew stouts and porters, the popular ales of the time.  Over the next 150 years the brewery slowly grew, remaining a family business, eventually acquiring 2 small breweries in nearby Abingdon in 1860.  By 1880 Morland had moved its operations from West Ilsley to Abingdon and by 1885 they incorporated as a limited company registered as United Breweries.  From this point on the company grew rapidly, buying out a number of local breweries.  The company went public in 1994 and was acquired by Greene King in 2000.  Throughout its history the company had a reputation for respecting the breweries they acquired, maintaining the original brewery names and brews.  Post Greene King acquisition though only the Morland name survived, the Abingdon brewery did not and all production is now in the Greene King brewery based in Bury St. Edmunds in Suffolk, UK.

The history of Old Speckled is not so old but is definitely one worth noting.  I found this description on wikipedia:

Old Speckled Hen was first brewed by Morlands of Abingdon in 1979. MG cars celebrated the 50th anniversary of their move to Abingdon, from Edmund Road in Cowley. They asked Morland to brew a special commemorative beer for the occasion, for which they would suggest the name and they would design the bottle label. The name chosen was Old Speckled Hen which took its name from a car which was brought to Abingdon, when the factory moved.

The car was called the MG Featherweight Fabric Saloon made from cellulosed fabric stretched over a wooden frame and was black speckled with gold. It became the factory’s demonstration model and general runabout and as it chugged about the factory people would say “There guz the Owd Speckl’d un”.

The original beer label bore the MG colours of cream and brown. The bottle dressing was finished with a green foil capsule, which matched the background colour of the Borough of Abingdon Arms. The beer was an amber colour and was brewed at a gravity of 1050 to denote 50 years (i.e. 1929 – 1979) of production of MG cars in Abingdon.

According the company website the ale is described as:

“Old Speckled Hen” has a full, smooth flavour and is very easy to drink. Its rich amber colour and superb fruity aromas are complemented by a delicious blend of malty tastes.

Toffee and malt combine with bitterness on the back of the tongue to give a balanced sweetness. This is followed by a refreshingly dry finish.

I can attest to the validity of the above notes for the pre-1999 version. In my experience the current export version is not as balanced or as rich and comes across a little dialed down in the flavour department.  Not to worry though as is what this blog is about, trying to recreate the original and sample the ale fresh  as John Morland intended.

The company website gives nothing away around ingredients, colour, or bitterness. It states the ale comes in 2 varieties, a cask version at 4.5% ABV and a bottled version at 5.2%. We will focus on the bottled.  I consulted with the The Real Ale Almanac (5th edition, last published in 1999, so prior to the Greene King acquisition. Important to note considering many experts on this beer claim the recipe was changed) and it confirms the bottle strength is 5.2% ABV, with an OG of 1050 (a given considering the history of the ale), uses Pipkin Pale Malt as a base, Crystal Malt, brewers sugar, Challenger hops for bitterness, Goldings and Challenger for aroma with a range of 30-35 IBUs of bitterness.

Here are the tasting notes from the Almanac:

Nose: Superb Goldings hop aroma (considering using Goldings for a flavour addition at the end of the boil)
Palate: Full hops and fruit in mouth, long dry finish with hops and delicate fruit notes
Comments: Rich coloured and fruit flavoured strong ale with generous hop support.

(my italics) The only hint we have for colour is it is “Rich” and “Amber” (from the company website). My own experience put the colour as a light amber almost a dark golden colour.  Given we have the OG and final ABV, bitterness and fermentables I believe the colour is a variable that will resolve itself. For yeast I will go with Wyeast #1275 Thames Valley Ale, its high attenuation will give the dry finish and both yeast and ale hail from the same location. So lets get busy and input the ingredients into the beer calculus system on hopville.com and balance the quantities in order to create a workable recipe conforming as best we can to the constraints above.

Morland Old Speckled Hen (BJCP Beer Style: Strong Ale, category: Old Ale)

• 2.5 Gallon, 60 min boil
• OG 1050, FG 1011
• 5.2% ABV
• 35 IBU
• 10° SRM (Gold to Copper)
• Ready to drink in 2+ Months

Base Malt and Fermentables:

• 2 lb 4 oz Light Dry Malt Extract (60 mins)
• 4 oz Cane Sugar (0 mins)

Specialty Grains:

• 6 oz Caramel Crystal 60L

Hops

• Bittering Hops – 0.5 oz Challenger (60 mins)
• Flavour Hop – 0.125 oz Challenger, 0.125 oz Goldings, East Kent (15 mins)
• Aroma Hop – 0.5 oz Goldings, East Kent (0 mins)

Yeast

• Wyeast Thames Valley Ale (1275)

Other Additions

• 1 tsp Irish Moss (15 mins)
• 1/4 tsp Yeast Nutrient (10 mins)

Process

• Please follow the process guidelines outlined in my post here.  You will require all the equipment specified here.
• Primary Fermentation: 7 days at 65-75°
• Secondary Fermentation: 2 weeks in the same location as the primary
• Prime and store in the bottle for at least 4 weeks before consuming
• Peak flavour will be reached after 4 weeks in the bottle

Tips and Tricks: Cleaning Bottles

After cracking open a bottle and pouring a drink ensure to empty the bottle of sediment and rinse the inside in HOT water a couple of times.  Experience has shown me that if you do this all that is required to clean the bottle in the future is a tiny amount of dish soap and a bottle brush. You save time and money by not having to use sanitizer.