British Brewer

Recipe: Swampswill 6X (version 1.0)

The recipe and process can be found online here. My wife came up with name Swampswill as a play on Marshfield, with our house backing a large marsh swamp, can’t think were she came up with swill, more like nectar in my opinion.

This is my first attempt at replicating another British Real Ale Classic, Wadworth 6X, brewed at the Northgate Brewery in Devizes, Wiltshire.  This is probably one of the independent classic ales of the South of England with its predominantly malty fruit, full bodied flavour.  It is hard to classify, its sold as a Best Bitter but the hop IBU level is low, below the recommended BJCP minimum for an ale of this class.  I really don’t care, its a fine session brew and something I hope to replicate, if I can, as this beer is VERY hard to come by in the US.

A brilliant example of traditional ale at its best – biscuity, fruity, gently hoppy and wonderfully refreshing. – The Real Ale Almanac, Roger Protz

The Wadworth Brewery Ltd was founded in 1875 by Henry Wadworth, an already accomplished brewer at 22.  He went on to design the impressive Northgate Brewery in 1885 when he, and business partner and friend John Bartholomew, ran out of space. It is is run today as it was then, as a family business.  When built the brewery at Northgate was state of the art with Henry Wadworth building the brewing equipment into the fabric of the building, much of which is still used today.  Back in 1885 power was hard to come by so much of the brewing process incorporated old fashioned gravity to move the wort from mash tun to fermenter to fermenter with cylinders being built inside a grand tower atop the brewery, a similar technique employed by many all-grain homebrewers today.  Northgate is one of the only remaining breweries to employ a full time cooper to build oak casks to ship the ale, (note to self, oak chips to be used in this recipe).

The first 6X was first brewed on June 16th 1921 and has been brewed ever since.  The name XX’s comes from medieval monastic times when literacy levels were poor so monks would mark X’s on oak casks to define the strength of a brew, the more XX’s the stronger the brew.  Between the 2 world wars Wadworth also brewed an XX Mild, XXXX and XXXX pale ale.  It is rumored a young employee at the brewery whose job it was to stencil the XX’s on the casks decided to write 6X instead of the XXXXXX and the name has stuck ever since.

On to the ingredients, as with our last couple of recipes the company website and almanac are very forthcoming with the basic ingredients and parameters for the brew.  The website is kind enough to provide the malt as % with 93% pale malt, 4% crystal, and 3% cane sugar, 85% fuggles and 15% Goldings for the hops.  The SRM is approx 16 and an ABV of 4.3%.  This is probably the most forthcoming brewery I have found yet, these % help a lot but our final breakdown will change as we convert the pale malt into DME.

The almanac provides some additional details, specifically the low IBU level of 23 and confirms the ingredients listed on the website.  It lists the OG as 1040, FG 1008 and an ABV of 4.3%.

Next stop is to input the ingredients into the beer calculus system on hopville.com and balance the quantities in order to create a workable recipe conforming to the constraints above and ingredients available to homebrewers.

Base Malt: Given this is an extract recipe we need to replace the Pale Malt with Light DME. Had no problems balancing the the OG and colour between the base malt and specialty grains so we do not require an additional darker base malt.

Specialty Grains: Both the Almanac and the web site state the use of Crystal as the specialty grain.  After fiddling around on the calculator it became clear we need to use Crystal 120L to get both the malty caramel flavour and the rich colour.  After our apparently successful experience with the Fullers ESB clone (though it is still too early to really tell) it looks like we will also need a little Black Malt to kick the SRM to 16 without having to add too much to the OG and providing some additional rich malty flavour the tasting notes call for.

Hops: As stated in the almanac and the website, we shall be using Fuggles and Goldings. Given the alpha content of the Fuggles hops I have in inventory are higher than average we can use less to gain the stated IBU. The calculator calls for 2/3 Fuggles and 1/3 Goldings.

Yeast: The yeast profile for this brew definitely calls for fruit. The high ABV relative to the lower OG calls for a yeast with high attenuation. The choice for version 1.0 is Wyeast London Ale.

Swampswill 6X (BJCP Beer Style: Special/Best/Premium Bitter, category: English Pale Ale)

• 2.5 Gallon, 60 min boil
• OG 1043, FG 1011
• 4.3% ABV
• 23 IBU
• 16° SRM (Copper to Deep Copper)
• Ready to drink in 6-7 weeks

Base Malt and Fermentables:

• 2 lbs Light Dry Malt Extract (60 mins)
• 3oz Cane Sugar (at the end of the boil)

Specialty Grains:

• 5 oz Crystal Malt – 120L
• 1 oz Black Malt

Hops

• Bittering Hop – 0.5 oz Fuggle (60 mins)
• Aroma Hop – 0.25 oz Kent Goldings (15 mins)

Yeast

• Wyeast London Ale (#1028) (Attenuation 73-77%, Flocculation: Medium Low)

Other Additions

• 1 tsp Irish Moss (30 mins)
• Packet of Isinglass Liquid (to help remove any lingering proteins given the low flocculation level of the yeast)
• 1oz Oak Chips in the secondary

Process

• Please follow the process guidelines outlined in my post here.  You will require all the equipment specified here.
• Primary Fermentation: 5-7 days at 65-75°
• Secondary Fermentation: 2 weeks at 55° (if you can otherwise just 5-7 days in the same location as the primary), add oak chips to the fermenter after soaking the chips for at least 24 hours and sterilizing them.
• Prime and store in the bottle for at least 2 weeks before consuming
• Peak flavour will be reached after 4 weeks in the bottle

Recipe: Chiswick ESB (ver 1.0)

The recipe and process can be found online here. Feedback on this recipe can be found here.

This is my first attempt at brewing one of my all time favorite ales, the beer I would drink the most consistently, Fullers ESB.  This ale is one of the first British ales to become widely available in the US, along with Bass.  Unfortunately, as with Bass, the flavour of Fullers ESB in the US pales in comparison to a fresh pint served in a Fullers Pub in London.  Fullers ESB is also the winner of 7 CAMRA Best ESB awards, Two Best Beer of Britain awards, and two US Beverage Tasting Institutes “World Champion Bitter” medals, among many other honors.

Fullers ESB is probably ‘the’ classic London ESB, an Extra Special/Strong Bitter classed English Pale Ale.  As discussed in the post on creating your own beer recipes (here), ESB brews tend to have more of a balance with the malt and bitterness.  This beer is a fine example.  Written up in the The Real Ale Almanac as an:

Explosion of malt and hops and cooper’s marmalade.  Enormous attack of malt and fruit with hop underlay; profound finish with strong Goldings character and hints of orange, lemon, gooseberry and some tannin.

Beer has been brewed at the Fullers Brewery site in Chiswick, known as the Griffen Brewery, since the time of Oliver Cromwell.  The brewery existed as a variety of partnerships with its namesake, John Fuller, joining the firm in 1829.  In 1845 John Fullers son, John Bird Fuller, was joined by Henry Smith of the brewery Ind Smith, and John Turner, Smiths brother-in-law and head brewer. They formed the company Fuller, Smith & Turner, as it is still know today.  Descendants of these 3 families are still actively involved in the day to day running of the company today.  More on Fullers here.

On to the ingredients.  Standard practice these days is for the the brewery to be forthcoming with its basic ingredients and Fullers in no exception.  The site proclaims the malt mix to include Pale Malt (base), Crystal and Goldings, Northdown, Target and Challenger hops.

The Real Ale Almanac confirms the  brewers website and includes the addition of Maize.  Maize is used in brewing to boost the ABV in the same way as cane sugar.  But unlike cane sugar Maize is not 100% fermentable, containing 20% non-fermentable sugars and therefore will not dry the beer as much as cane sugar leaving some sweetness behind.  The almanac estimates the bitterness at 35 IBU’s, colour of 16 SRM and a FG of 1013.  The website provides two ABV values, 5.5% in the cask and 5.9% in the keg or bottle.

Next stop is to input the ingredients into the beer calculus system on hopville.com and balance the quantities in order to create a workable recipe conforming to the constraints above.

Base Malt: Given this is an extract recipe we need to replace the Pale Malt with a combination of Light DME and Dark DME in order to get the colour and sugar levels high enough without having to use too much crystal malt to boost the colour and in turn overpower the beer.  As stated in our research and from personal experience, this is a balanced beer with neither hop nor malt overpowering.

Specialty Grains: Both the Almanac and the web site state the use of Crystal and Maize as the primary specialty grains.  After fiddling around on the calculator it became clear we need to use Crystal 120L to get both the caramel, nutty flavour and the deeper colour.  Even after using 120 Crystal and the Dark DME the OG of the beer comes in over the recommended 1054-1059 range needed to get the 5.5-5.9% ABV.  After consulting some books the recommendation was to add a tiny amount of Black Malt to kick the SRM up to 16 without having to add too much sugar or altering the flavour profile too much.

Hops: The website and Almanac called for quite the mix of hops.  Due to the hop shortage, which we are told is about to come to an end,  both Northdown and Challenger Hops are really hard to come by.  After some research on the BYO hop chart and Brew365, the recommendation is to substitute the Challenger with Perle given it has a similar Alpha % and taste profile. For Northdown the recommendation is to add additional Target following the same reasoning. Only time will tell if this is the right decision, this is why this recipe is Version 1.0.  Given the tasting notes call for a strong Goldings aroma and flavour we should go with the Goldings for the Flavour hop.  Its now up to Hopville to calculate the appropriate quantities of Bittering and Flavour hops to reach the 35 IBU target.

Yeast: The yeast profile for this brew definitely calls for fruit. The high ABV calls for a yeast with high attenuation. The choice for version 1.0 is Wyeast London Ale.  The strain is from the right region and this is a London Ale after all.  Wyeast London ESB was up for consideration, but the recipe called for a higher attenuation.

Chiswick ESB (BJCP Beer Style: Extra Special/Strong Bitter, category: English Pale Ale)

• 5 Gallon, 90 min boil
• OG 1059, FG 1013
• 5.9% ABV
• 35 IBU
• 16° SRM (Copper to Deep Copper)
• Ready to drink in 6-7 weeks

Base Malt and Fermentables:

• 3 lbs Light Dry Malt Extract (90 mins)
• 3 lbs Dark Dry Malt Extract (90 mins)

Specialty Grains:

• 11 oz Flaked Corn (Maize)
• 5 oz Crystal Malt – 120L
• 1 oz Black Malt

Hops

• Bittering Hop – 0.8 oz Perle (90 mins)
• Bittering Hop – 0.5 oz Target (90 mins)
• Aroma Hop – 0.7 oz Kent Goldings (15 mins)

Yeast

• Wyeast London Ale (#1028) (Attenuation 73-77%, Flocculation: Medium Low)

Other Additions

• 1 tsp Irish Moss (30 mins)
• Packet of Isinglass Liquid (to help remove any lingering proteins given the low flocculation level of the yeast)

Process

• Please follow the process guidelines outlined in my post here.  You will require all the equipment specified here. I found the maize flakes clogged up the strainer while rinsing the specialty grains. I will be researching the best way to incorporate maize when I get a chance.
• Primary Fermentation: 5-7 days at 65-75°
• Secondary Fermentation: 2 weeks at 55° (if you can otherwise just 5-7 days in the same location as the primary)
• Prime and store in the bottle for at least 2 weeks before consuming
• Peak flavour will be reached after 4 weeks in the bottle

Recipe: Abbots Special Bitter (1st Pass)

This recipe and process can be found here. Recipe feed for this pass can be found here.

Abbots Special Bitter is my first attempt at creating one of my wife’s favorite British Ales, Greene King Abbot Ale.  She describes the ale as “smooth with a nice hint of apples”.  It is this hint of fruit we will try to recreate in this classic Extra Special/Strong Bitter classed English Pale Ale.

Greene King Abbot Ale is steeped in history. Brewed in the old English town of Bury St Edmunds in the heart of Suffolk, the brewery sits along side the historic ruins of the old “Great Abbey” where, according the Doomsday Book, the local Abbot hired “cerevisiarii” or ale brewers as servants over 1000 years ago.  The ale is still made from water drawn from the chalk heavy wells used all those years ago.

According to the Greene King web site the ale contains no wheat, is made from malted barley, is 5.0% ABV, and uses finings to clear the ale. On the brewing process page they claim to use Fuggles and Challenger hops.

Next stop was to check the The Real Ale Almanac by Roger Protz. This is the bible of Real Ales covering every ale in the British Isles. The book provides tasting notes, descriptions of the brewery and its process, water source and ingredients (where available).  From the almanac we get Pale Malt, Amber Malt, Crystal and the use of cane sugar. We also get an IBU of 30 and OG of 1048 and 90 min boil time.  I could find nothing on SRM so I did some hands on research and purchased a can of draft Abbot Ale from the local Blanchards. I observed a copper to light brown colour, an SRM of approx 12-13. Not exact science I know, but it was a fun piece of research to carry out. It is often necessary to make sacrifices for ones research.

Finally I inputted all these variables into Hopville.com and played around with the mix of quantities until I came up with something near to the constraints provided above.

Base Malt: I replaced the Pale base malt with Light DME. Nuff said. I used a little cane sugar (as stated in the alamanc to bring the OG to 1050 and get the final ABV as near 5.0% as I could).

Specialty Grains: This proved difficult. We need to get the colour to around an SRM 13 and give a strong malt flavour to balance the moderately  bitter 30 IBU.  The almanac called for Amber and Crystal malt. To give colour without adding to the OG I used an Crystal 80 and then made up the ABV with Amber.  The Crystal 80L should provide a moderate caramel flavour.

Hops: Given the higher Alpha % I went with Challenger as the bitterness hop and Fuggles as the aroma and used the quantities required to bring the IBU to approx 30.

Yeast: This is guess work.  We want a yeast that provides fruity esters (for the apple taste) and a high attenuation to get a 5.0 ABV from an OG of 1050.  I like to use the liquid yeasts with yeast starters so checked out the current strains available from Wyeast and White Labs. We also know they use finings, used to brighten an ale and remove yeast and proteins left behind from the primary fermentation.  This would hint to the brewer using a yeast with low to medium flocculation as finings are not typically required when using high flocculating yeast.

Abbots Special Bitter (BJCP Beer Style: Extra Special/Strong Bitter, category: English Pale Ale)

• 5 Gallon, 90 min boil
• OG 1050, FG 1012
• 5.0% ABV
• 30 IBU
• 13° SRM
• Ready to drink in 6-7 weeks

Base Malt and Fermentables:

• 4 lbs 12 oz Light Dry Malt Extract (90 mins)

Specialty Grains:

• 12 oz Amber Malt
• 8 oz English Crystal 80L

Hops

• Bittering Hop – 1.25 oz Challenger (90 mins)
• Aroma Hop – 1 oz English Fuggles (10 mins)

Other Additions

• 1 tsp Irish Moss (30 mins)
• 2 oz Cane Sugar (after boil is complete)

Process

• Please follow the process guidelines outlined in my post here.  You will require all the equipment specified here.
• Primary Fermentation: 5-7 days at 65-75°
• Secondary Fermentation: 2 weeks at 55° (if you can otherwise just 5-7 days in the same location as the primary)
• Prime and store in the bottle for at least 2 weeks before consuming
• Peak flavour will be reached after 4 weeks in the bottle

Beer Styles – Creating your own English Pale Ale recipe

I noticed in my first recipe post (here) that I inserted jargon around beer style categories and used acronyms such as BJCP without actually giving any detail as to meaning and importance. My bad, but it got me thinking that a write up on beer classifications would provide a great framework to begin discussions around recipe creation as we begin to build and review different recipes.

The Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) is a non-profit organization whose purpose (taken from their website):

…is to promote beer literacy and the appreciation of real beer, and to recognize beer tasting and evaluation skills. We certify and rank beer judges through an examination and monitoring process.

The BJCP was founded in 1985 and has administered the Beer Judge Examination to 5,299 individuals worldwide. 3,126 are currently active judges in the program, with 481 holding the rank of National or higher. Since we started keeping detailed records, our members have judged over 510,871 beers and we have sanctioned over 3,805

For the current year (2009), 58 exams have been registered. Exams have been given to 570 examinees. Organizers have registered 310 competitions. More detailed statistics can be found in the Database Reports section of the website. competitions.

(My italics) By creating a set of standards for judging beer the BJCP has created a defacto standard for classifying beer now used by almost every homebrew calculator, book, website, and in almost all beer competitions.  These classifications provide a great starting point for the new homebrewer to begin researching their own new recipes.

Each style listed by the BJCP contains a number of sub-categories outlining general characteristics, guidelines, and requirements an ale is assessed against when placed into competition.  These guidelines include aroma, flavour,  appearance, and mouthfeel.  Assessment requirements include Specific Gravity (OG & FG), colour (SRM), bitterness (IBU’s), and Alcohol By Volume (ABV).  A recommended range of values is provided for each of the above.  These guidelines therefore provide an excellent place to start when beginning to craft your own recipe.

Given the focus of this blog lets focus on the various categories of British ale. A complete style guide can be found here.  Arguably the most popular British Ale style is “Category 8 – English Pale Ale”.  English Pale Ale is broken down into 3 sub-categories:

• Standard/Ordinary Bitter
• Special/Best/Premium
• Extra Special/Strong Bitter.

It is not uncommon to hear the phrase “A pint of Best”, or “pint of your Ordinary” in an English Pub.  Each brewery would typically have one of each of the 3 categories, each with its own unique flavour, aroma, colour and strength.

Standard/Ordinary

Vital Statistics:	OG 1.032 – 1.040
IBU 25-35	FG: 1.007 – 1.011
SRM 4 – 14	ABV 3.2 – 3.8%

So lets translate the above table into English.  With a recommended ABV of 3.2-3.8% these styles of ale are low alcohol making them light and easy to drink.  The low alcholol level accounts for a lower OG.  With a FG around 1.007 most of the sugars have been converted into alcohol and with IBU’s in the high 20’s-30’s give these ales quite a dry and bitter taste. A higher ABV would smooth the bitterness out but this is not the case here.  The SRM dictates a light yellow to copper colour so a light Crystal Malt may be used giving us a hint of caramel flavour.

Some commercial examples of Ordinary Ale include: Fuller’s Chiswick Bitter, Adnams Bitter, Young’s Bitter, Greene King IPA, Tetley’s Original Bitter, Brakspear Bitter, Boddington’s Pub Draught (All good session beers and great with pub food).

Special/Best/Premium

Vital Statistics:	OG 1.040 – 1.048
IBU 25-40	FG: 1.008 – 1.012
SRM 5 – 16	ABV 3.8 – 4.6%

As the above table highlights a pint of Best is very similar to the Ordinary. The similar bitterness profile combined with the higher ABV leaves a smoother, more balanced malt flavour but with the bitterness still coming through. A high FG still gives a dry ale but not as dry as the ordinary and the darker colour (gold to copper) provides for potentially more crystal malt or a darker strain and a stronger caramel flavour.

Some commercial examples of Best Bitter include: Fuller’s London Pride, Adnams SSB, Young’s Special, Shepherd Neame Masterbrew Bitter, Ruddles County Bitter (all have been personal favorites of mine).

Extra Special/Strong Bitter

Vital Statistics:	OG 1.048 – 1.060
IBU 30-50	FG: 1.010 – 1.016
SRM 6 – 18	ABV 4.6 – 6.2%

Strong Bitter is most commonly served as an ESB and is probably my favorite overall English Pale Ale category.  This ale is the most balanced in flavour between hop and malt thanks to both the high OG and IBU.  The deeper golden to deep copper colour gives a richer caramel taste with the opportunity to use some of the darker or roasted malts in small quantities giving a nuttier, biscuit like quality.  This category provides the greatest flexibility to the brewer given the wide range of values which is reflected in the wide variety of ESB’s on the market.

Some commercial examples of ESB include: Fullers ESB, Adnams Broadside, Shepherd Neame Bishop’s Finger, Young’s Ram Rod, Samuel Smith’s Old Brewery Pale Ale, Bass Ale, Whitbread Pale Ale, Shepherd Neame Spitfire, Marston’s Pedigree, Morland Old Speckled Hen, Greene King Abbot Ale, Bateman’s XXXB, Shipyard Old Thumper.

Bringing it all together –

So now its our turn to figure out our own British Bitter recipe.  The easiest way to begin is to use a brewers calculator, such as the one found at  Hopville.com, and construct a recipe.  As we add ingredients the calculator updates SRM, IBU, ABV, OG and FG helping us structure the perfect ale.  To check whether your ale conforms to your chosen category simply select your style in the calculator and it will  compare your recipe against the BJCP guidelines and provide the appropriate feedback.

Remember as we are only focused on extract based recipes for English Pale Ale use Light Dry Malt Extract as the base malt with maybe some Amber DME for a darker colour. For specialty grains play around with the various degrees of Crystal malt for colour and flavour, maybe a small amount of black or toasted malt such as Victory for nutty overtones.  For hops Fuggles, Target, Kent Goldings, and Williamette are all good places to start. To get going and perfect your own brew.

Of course there is no substitute for actually trying one out.  So give it a shot and please post recipes in the comments or email me with a description and I will post them.

Recipe: Kentish Best Bitter