Recipe: Fullers London Pride (version 1.0)
An online version complete with process can be found here. UPDATE: Recipe turned out great and has been promoted to the permanent recipe section of the site.
For my last version 1.0 Best Bitter/ESB recipe for the near future (before we turn our sites to the Old Ales) I thought we could go out with a bang with one of my favorites (and my dads), Fullers London Pride. You can find the write-up on the brewery from my recipe post on Fullers ESB.
Fullers London Pride, or just Pride to us Londoners, is the flagship brew from the independent Chiswick Brewery. It can be found in pubs and liquor stores throughout the US, on many airline hospitality carts, and on tap across the globe. It is a refreshing, complex, ale with well balanced hops and malt flavours. Great session brew and a favorite down my old rowing club after an exerting outing on the river.
Written up in the The Real Ale Almanac
Astonishingly complex beer for its gravity, a marvelous melange of malt, hops and fruit.
and in “Brew Your Own British Real Ale” as a:
…fine for drinking on its own or with full flavoured food. A multi-layered delight of malt and hops and a deep intense finish with hop and ripening fruit notes.
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 a malty base, complemented with Northdown, Target and Challenger hops.
The Real Ale Almanac
The all grain recipe contained in Brew Your Own British Real Ale confirms everything mentioned so far and includes an estimate SRM of 13. I doubt the SRM 13 value, which would be copper colour. The Pride I have been known to buy and from my past was a little lighter, more golden. I am going to strike for an SRM of 10.
I have no idea what Alexis and Chariot pale malt is. I found this excerpt on BYO.com
The Europeans only grow 2-row barley. Examples of European spring barley include Chariot, Alexis, Hana, Ferment, Steffi, Krona and Sissi. Winter varieties, mainly grown in England, include Maris Otter, Halcyon and Pipkin.
so I guess it is a form of 2-row spring barley. I then found some threads on a bulletin board stating Alexis malt to be a
Alexis is a lager malt and is the standard variety supplied by Munton’s of Stowmarket, Suffolk.
which I checked and it appears to be true. Either way we are using extract ultimately making the type of 2-row we use irrelevant.
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.
Fullers London Pride (BJCP Beer Style: Special/Best/Premium Bitter, category: English Pale Ale)
- 2.5 Gallon, 60 min boil
- OG 1044, FG 1013
- 4.1% ABV
- 32 IBU
- 10° SRM (Gold to Lt Copper)
- Ready to drink in 6-7 weeks
Base Malt and Fermentables:
- 1 lb 8 oz Light Dry Malt Extract (60 mins)
- 7 oz Amber Dry Malt Extract (60 mins)
Specialty Grains:
- 5 oz Flaked Corn (Maize)
- 6 oz Caramel Crystal 60L
Hops
- Bittering Hops – 0.125 oz Target, 0.125 oz Challenger, 0.125 oz Northdown (60 mins)
- Flavour Hop – 0.125 oz Challenger, 0.125 oz Northdown (15 mins)
Yeast
- I am using some recultured yeast I harvested from a Fullers Vintage bottle. If you wish to use either Wyeast or White Labs I would use either Wyeast 1968 London ESB or White Labs WLP013 London Ale, which according to this reliable online reference, are both sourced from the Fullers Brewery.
Other Additions
- 1 tsp Irish Moss (30 mins)
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: 1-2 weeks 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
