British Brewer

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

Recipe Update – Flowers Original Ale 9/10

Finally the time has arrived to review the Flower Original Ale clone recipe, the penultimate brew in our English Pale Ale series.  Well the title says it all, its a winner and the first recipe to be promoted to my permanent recipes page.  It really is a pleasure to drink.  It has a light mouthfeel, going down easy as a good session beer should. The flavour is packed with fruit, its fresh with a balanced malt/hop flavour profile with the Target and Goldings hop really coming in on the front and a sweetness from the Crystal coming in the back.  The tasting notes call from a “hop edge and a dry finish”, this recipe delivers.

The brew process went well.  The OG came in at 1042, exactly on the money with the recipe, the colour came out exactly as planned though to be honest I am comparing with memory (unreliable given the amount of this stuff I drank in my youth) and some pictures I found on Google images.  The fermentation process went well with the recipe calculator calling for a 1009 FG which is exactly the measurement on the hydrometer out of the primary.  Aroma seemed close to.  I was indeed hopeful but I have been hopeful before and walked away disappointed.  I bottled the beer after 1 week in the secondary using Cooper Carb drops for priming.  Following my own tip to leave ales primed with Coopers for 4 weeks I waited one whole month before sampling the final brew.  So here we are, our first beer to get promoted to the permanent recipe page, and the first of the BJCP English Pale Ale series.

So my record in the English Pale Ale recipe section has picked up a bit in recent weeks.  Here is the current roundup with 1 recipe to go:

• My example generic best bitter modelled after the BJCP style using only kent hops, Kentish Best Ale, was a solid 7/10
• I have upgraded my Fullers ESB also to a 7/10 after my lessons learned on aging ales
  
• Green King Abbot Ale – 6/10
• Wadworth 6X – 4/10
• Flowers Original Ale – 9/10
  

I have the Fullers London Pride clone conditioning and showing promise. So maybe I can get 2 of my English Pale Ale classification recipes to reach my self imposed 8/10 grade required to be promoted to my permanent recipes page.  Getting to this page ensures its a recipe I have faith in and something I would recommend to other people to brew. I will continue to refine the other recipes that did not make the grade with the goal of getting all of them over 8/10 and therefore enjoyable by all.

I welcome everyone to go ahead and brew this recipe and enjoy a near reproduction of a British classic. Send along your comments, brew notes and suggestions, we still have one 1 point to gain for a 10/10 after all.  Give one to a Bud Lite drinker, it will make them cry, InBev can go……… nite nite

Why age beer? Or why my Fullers ESB clone now tastes great

As readers are by now painfully aware I had some issues with my Fullers ESB Clone recipe.  My first review of the clone came after only 2 weeks of conditioning in the bottle and only 4 weeks since the brew began. A little early methinks.  Well the review gave  low grade, only 4/10 citing poor clarity, overly malty and sweet and low carbonation.  But this is not the end of the story, a week later we get a slightly happier tone in the On Tap Update under “Drinking” citing better mouthfeel and improved flavour. I seem to remember it had cleared also.  What a difference a week makes.  Well 2 weeks on from the original review during a review for a disappointing Wadworth 6X clone (still is disappointing btw) we get great news, I have upped the rating to a 6/10 as the flavour had now drastically improved over the original.

This brings me to the other night, almost 7 weeks to the day from its bottling date and only 2 bottles remaining.  I crack a bottle, carbonation is perfect, flavour is definitely ESB, a really bright beer that goes down smooth.  I have to rate this an 8/10, its good, really good.  So what have I learned from all this. First up, don’t write a review on ESB’s until at least 6 weeks, let beer condition for longer, it obviously needs it. The ESB clone has showed just how drastically an ale can improve over a 5 week period.

So what does happen to ale as it ages?  First of all it depends on how long and where.  Most beers can last for months in a temperature controlled, dark area.  Once a beer has carbonated (typically 2 weeks), it is best stored at 55ºF in a dark room.  Light is the first enemy of aging as it causes a premature breakdown in the hops leading to a skunky, “off” taste.  Over time the hops will naturally breakdown but constant temperature and lack of light will greatly prolong an ales life.  Temperature is the other big factor with aging, a fluctuating temperature can cause spoiling and rapid aging leading to prematurely off beer.  This can and has happened during hot summer months and is why I am seriously considering converting an old fridge for beer storage this coming year.

So, given we have taken temperature and light into consideration what does happen to the various flavour notes?  Aging essentially is a mellower. Hops will gradually breakdown causing strong hop flavours to blend into the malt profile (important for Imperial IPA’s and Stouts, that need at least 3 months), strong caramel and toasted malts subside into subtle coffee notes, alcohol notes become soft tawny port, and the sweet base malt breakdowns into a more complex blend of flavours. This happened with the Fullers ESB, the “overly malty sweetness” balanced out perfectly with the hops, become more fruity with a hint of citrus.

Some beers really benefit from extended aging, something typically synonymous with wines.  Sweet malty beers with a baseline ABV level of 8% often fare well if stored for prolonged periods of time. Barleywines, Imperials, Old Ales, and Browns are good candidates.  A general rule of thumb, the higher the ABV the longer it will age.

To wrap up, I have changed the Fullers ESB clone recipe from version 1.  I still think the 120L Crystal is too much malt and have opted for the 60L instead which will also lighten the colour a little, something I still believe is required. I have managed to acquire the complete hop mix recommended by the brewers website which appears to be working well for my London Pride clone. I have also learned that White Labs English Ale is actually the Fullers yeast strain. So some major changes, it will need one more run before being declared a success but I do know that next time I will definitely be leaving the finished product in the bottle for at least 6 weeks before I crack open a bottle.

Recipe: Theakston Old Peculier (version 1)

Full recipe and process can be found online here.

So begins our journey looking into some classic British Browns and Olds.  First up, probably my favorite commercial Old Ale, Theakston Old Peculier from Masham in Yorkshire, England.

There is something really satisfying for the homebrewer when brewing an Old Ale recipe.  Unlike the English Pale Ales we have just finished, which tend to more delicate and one mistake in any ingredient is heavily punished, it is really hard to mess up an Old Ale.  What with the copious amounts of dark Jamaican sugar, Golden Syrup, Chocolate Malt and Molasses to compliment the mainstay Pale Malts and English Crystal. You end up with a rich, smooth almost rum like dark ale that will last forever in the cellar if we ever gave it a chance.  So I must say I had a ton of fun with the Theakston recipe and have taken more than a few risks in the quest to faithfully recreate this quintessential Yorkshire Old Ale.

The family owned Theakston Brewery is located in the North of England in Masham, North Yorkshire. A town steeped in brewing history dating back to before William the Conqueror.  The village of Theakston, and the namesake of the family was referenced in the Doomsday Book, created in 1089, and the Theakston coat of arms created in 1587 for Sir Richard Theakston whose descendent, Robert, in 1827 went on to create the first Theakston brewery in a pub called the Black Bull.  In 1875 Roberts son Thomas takes over the brewery building a new one in the process, which is still used today.  The company proceeded to grow buying many local breweries to meet growing demand.  In 1984 the Theakston family joins the wave of independents selling to larger firms and finally decided to sell and the brewing of its flagship products moves away from historical Masham to larger capacity breweries of the acquirer. Now proceeds a story we have become familiar with, bigger company x sells to even bigger company y (in this case Matthew Brown PLC is bought by then North East England brewing giant Scottish and Newcastle, maker of Newcastle Brown, who in turn is taken over by Heineken in 2008).  In 2004, as some previously Theakston owned breweries are closed and brewing operations moved as far north as Newcastle, four Theakston brothers buy back the company, making it an independent family owned brewery and in 2009 announced that brewing would again return to Masham after 35 years, bringing the story full circle.

On to the ale itself.  According the The Real Ale Almanac this is the flavour profile we are trying to recreate:

Dark and vinous old ale bursting with complex fruit flavours. Massive winey bouquet of rich fruit with peppery hop notes.  Toffee and roast malt in the mouth, deep bitter-sweet finish with delicate hops

On to the ingredients.  The brewery website was actually very unforthcoming with ingredients.  All they have posted is the use of Fuggles hops and a ABV of 5.6%. Its a start. The Real Ale Almanac was a little more helpful listing pale malt, crystal, unmalted cereal (torrified wheat) and sugars.  Fuggles and “other” hops, with an IBU of 29, 48 SRM colour, and an OG of 1058.

This has to be the toughest challenge we have had yet. Typically by this point we have a complete list of hops and malts  and enough variables in colour, gravity and bitterness to fire up the calculator and get to work.  Instead we have incomplete hop information and no FG.  What is most concerning is the vagueness around “sugars”. In English Pale classification ales sugar is used to bolster ABV with no flavour so its safe to assume cane sugar.  With Old Ales all types of sryups and dark sugars are used, imparting dark rum like richness to the finished brew.  This is going to be tough (but fun).

So time to consult the BJCP classification to see if we can gain any insights into the types of Crystal Malt and sugars used.  Old Ales are listed under the classification of Strong Ales.  Here we see Caramel Crystal Malts, and a sparing use of both Chocolate and Black Malts which is to be expected given the rich dark colour but not too much or risk imparting too much of the roasted smokey flavour. This ale is all richness and fruit.  It is the following sentence in the BJCP guidelines that could help answer our question:

Adjuncts (such as molasses, treacle, invert sugar or dark sugar) are often used, as are starchy adjuncts (maize, flaked barley, wheat) and malt extracts

This helps greatly.  So I then took to the internets and enquired into the sugar mix employed by other homebrewers attempting to recreate this historic ale.  To my surprise I found consistency, the use of Golden Syrup, Molasses and Dark Sugar.  The quantities varied but this should be enough to get us started.

The big question for me remains the yeast. We know we need fruit but at the same time we need a yeast that attenuates fairly well to get from a OG of 1058 to a final ABV of 5.6% (implied FG of approc 75%). It cannot be a dry finishing yeast because of the strong fruit flavours in the tasting notes.  I scoured the yeast strains available to homebrewers and scratched my head.  There are limited Yorkshire yeasts and I could find little to provide the level of fruit and attenuation implied by the data.  Finally I got some inspiration from the Pretty Things Old Ale, inspired by Theakston Old Pecuilier among others, and their use of German and Belgian strains.  So I started digging and hit pay dirt with various Belgian strains. You can have your cake and eat it to providing high attenuation and fruit flavour characteristics.

This just leaves the hops. Not so worried here, as the BJCP guidelines for Old Ale state:

Hop variety is not as important, as the relative balance and aging process negate much of the varietal character

So I am going to stick with Fuggles which will definitely provide the peppery hop notes, and we know the target IBU is 29. The calculator can do the rest.

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 as best we can to the constraints above.

Theakston Old Peculier (BJCP Beer Style: Strong Ale, category: Old Ale)

• 2.5 Gallon, 60 min boil
• OG 1060, FG 1011
• 6.3% ABV (slightly stronger but this is the mid-point range for the yeast with the 5.6% on the lower)
• 29 IBU
• 48° SRM (Dark Brown to Black)
• Ready to drink in 2+ Months

Base Malt and Fermentables:

• 1 lb 8 oz Dark Dry Malt Extract (60 mins)
• 9 oz Light Dry Malt Extract (60 mins)
• 4 oz Lyles Golden Syrup (15 mins)
• 2 oz Black Molasses (15 mins)
• 8 oz Dark Candi Sugar (0 mins)

Specialty Grains:

• 2 oz Torrified Wheat
• 8 oz Caramel Crystal 60L
• 3 oz Chocolate Malt
• 3 oz Black Malt

Hops

• Bittering Hops – 0.67 oz Fuggles (60 mins)
• Flavour Hop – 0.53 oz Fuggles (15 mins)

Yeast

• White Labs Trappist Ale (WLP500)

Other Additions

• 1 tsp Irish Moss (15 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

Wadworth 6X recipe review (4/10)!!!!!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh, I was right, my worst fears concerning the use of oak chips in any quantity have been realized.  Big lesson, trust your instincts, that little voice raging inside your head telling you not to add oak chips, it is not required, especially since the beer was doing so well in the primary and came out near perfect without the help of any adjuncts.

Well I didn’t listen, the ale has strong oak notes and a sweetness similar to a chardonay, its not bad to drink it is not a Wadworth though.  Ah well that is why I brew these experimental brews in small batches, its not a big loss and I have tons of other brews in the cellar right now.

So why did I give the ale a 4/10, well the recipe without the oak appeared to be very close. The OG and FG were perfect as was the colour and aroma.  The flavour out of the fermenter showed great promise.  I will brew this again as an experimental batch, little changed from version 1, except NO OAK CHIPS.

So my record in the English Pale Ale recipe section remains poor.  Here is the current roundup with 2 recipes to go

• My example generic best bitter modelled after the BJCP style using only kent hops, Kentish Best Ale, was a 7/10
• I have upgraded my Fullers ESB to a 6/10 as aging has improved the flavour some what
• Green King Abbot Ale – 6/10
• Wadworth 6X – 4/10

I have Flowers Original conditioning and showing promise (and no adjuncts going in to spoil it either) and a Fullers London Pride in the primary fermenter. So I live in hope that at least one of my English Pale Ale classification recipes reach my self imposed 8/10 grade required to be promoted to my permanent recipes page.  Getting to this page ensures its a recipe I have faith in and something I would recommend other people to brew.  I so have work to do as I want at least one brew in each major English Ale category.

Recipe: Fullers London Pride (version 1.0)

An online version complete with process can be found here.

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 as an:

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 confirms the  brewers website and includes the addition of maize, crystal malt and Alexis and Chariot pale base malt, which I confess to know nothing about.  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 30 IBU’s, and a OG of 1040.  The website provides two ABV values, 4.1% in the cask and 4.7% in a pasteurized bottle.

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

Recipe Update (Chiswick ESB version 1) – 5 out of 10

I finally cracked the first bottle of version 1.0 of my Fullers ESB clone I started back in early December. I am a little disappointed. The brew went well with the OG being spot on and the primary fermentation proceeded without a hitch leading to an almost clear ale with great taste potential when transfered into the secondary. The FG was perfect with the yeast attenuation at 77%, the highest point in the range provided by the supplier.

But during the secondary something happened.  The colour appears to be just a little darker when compared to the original ESB.  But the finsihed beer could be clearer, its actually not that bad, but I look for really bright, crystal clear ales in all my recipes. Given the ale shows no signs of infection I am putting this down to a little over zealous use of the Burton Salts in the water treatment.  This has happened to me before and something I shall put down to experience. Clarity may also improve with age so I will be sure to hold back a few bottles for comparison. The carbonation was way off too, the finished ale is almost flat.  But all of these little gripes still does not explain the taste.

The flavour is overly sweet and malty, not dry and balanced like the original.  Again I will hold a few back to if aging brings out a more balanced hop/malt taste.  These issues would suggest a reduction in the 120L Crystal to say a 60L and potentially the use of Black Malt altogether, hopefully taking take care of the overly malty sweet flavour. The lack of malt/hop balance could also suggest an issue with the hops. In this brew the hops were a substitute, I used Perle instead of Challenger and Northdown so I guess I need to rethink the substitution or wait until my supplier gets some Challenger and Northdown hops in stock.

The carbonation I will need to work on as it is the one area of brewing I am inconsistent on.  Right now I simply mix powdered sugar into the secondary and bottle.  The issue is dissolving the sugar.  To do so requires rigorous stirring risking aeration of the wort in the process, something I do not wish to do.  I am going to try carbonation tabs and the process of dissolving sugar/DME in boiling water and adding to the bottling bucket prior to racking. Lets see which process works best and delivers consistent, predictable levels of carbonation.

Thats it for now, so far my clones are 1-3. The Kentish was a hit, the Abbott was okay but not a Greene King and the Fullers ESB has room for improvement.  I have high hopes for the Wadworth 6X which will be bottled later today so I will keep you posted.

Recipe: Flowers Original (version 1.0)

I have decided not to give this brew my own BritishBrewer name, it is a special ale with a rich history, similar to many of the classic British Ales covered on this blog.  But the recent history around Flowers is becoming more and more common with the growth of mega-breweries, such as InBev, as many local cask brewers are acquired and then shut down to cut costs and reduce the number of brands. I don’t know what a “brand” of ale tastes like but I do know that Flowers is one of the the classic ales which unfortunalely has a very uncertain future under its new owners.

Flowers Brewery opened in 1831 as Flower & Sons on Brewery St in Stratford Upon Avon, home of the British Bard William Shakespeare. In 1954 the brewery was acquired by J.W. Green and changed its name to Flowers Breweries and then shortly after acquired again by the growing Whitbread empire in 1961.  As part of Whitbread’s cost cutting they closed the original brewery in Stratford and moved the operations 45 miles SW to Whitbread’s Cheltenham Brewery (previously known as West Country Brewery Ltd before also being acquired by Whitbread in 1963 and becoming the Flowers Brewery). I wonder the effects the move had on the quality of the original ale given the changes ground water, equipment, and possibly ingredients.

In 2000 Whitbread, along with the large Bass empire, sold all its brewery holdings to the Belgium brewing conglomerate, InterBrew, who consolidated all of its cask brewing operations into the home of Boddingtons Beer at the Strangeways Brewery in Manchester, some 130 miles to the North (founded in 1778 and eventually sold to Whitbread in 1989 by the Boddington family), becoming the only remaining cask brewery in the Interbrew empire.  In 2004 InterBrew merged with another global mega-brewer, the Brazilian AmBev, to become InBev, the largest brewer in the world by volume.  In Sept 2004 InBev announced it was closing Strangeways and brewing for the brands they retained moved to either Glasgow, Scotland or South Wales (except Boddingtons which moved to Hyde Brewery in Manchester).

So now Flowers is an orphaned ale with no home, its heritage a tale driven by corporate cost cutting and shareholder value rather than quality and taste. It is a very popular ale with a strong following, a point not lost on InBev, who recently revived the Flower lineup (Original and IPA) and commissioned Badger Brewery (owned and operated by Dorset independent brewers and pub owners, Hall and Woodhouse, makers of the exceptional Badger ales and Tanglefoot cask ale) to brew both IPA and Original for the UK market.  So for now the ale is safe, it is a classic and maybe its heritage is something we can retain by recreating the recipe for homebrewers for generations to come.

Researching the ale was hard as InBev does not post ingredients or even acknowledge the existence of the Flowers Original on any of its web properties.  I had to rely on a couple of dedicated all-grain homebrewer’s and Roger Protz “The Real Ale Almanac” to piece together the recipe. (ingredients and process can be found here)

The Almanac provides the following tasting notes:

A strong, fruity bitter with some acidity… Fat malt in the mouth with hop edge, dry finish with some hop character with raisin and sultana notes.

The almanac lists the hops as Stryian Goldings and Target, Pale Ale base malt with Crystal and cane sugar. OG 1044.  I found the ABV listed by online retailers as 4.3%. So we should be able to calculate the FG using a brewing calculator.  SRM is up in the air.  The homebrewer’s I found who had tried an all-grain version listed the SRM as 9. This seems a little light to me, the colour reminded me more of a Fullers London Pride, i.e. a burnt gold, giving more of a 13 SRM.  I have decided to use Wyeast Thames Valley yeast for this batch given its proximity to Cheltenham and high attenuation to provide the dry finish. I used the recommendations of 2 online homebrewers for IBU and will use the hops specified in the almanac.

So given this is the least we have ever had to go on here is the recipe. (We will be following the same logic used in the previous recipes tp calculate the specific quantities of DME, hops etc to save on the words)

Flowers Original Bitter (BJCP Beer Style: Special/Best/Premium Bitter, category: English Pale Ale)

• 2.5 Gallon, 60 min boil
• OG 1043, FG 1010
• 4.4% ABV
• 30 IBU
• 13° SRM (Burnt Gold)
• Ready to drink in 6-7 weeks

Base Malt and Fermentables:

• 1 lb 12 oz Light Dry Malt Extract (60 mins)
• 4 oz Cane Sugar (at the end of the boil)

Specialty Grains:

• 6 oz Crystal Malt – 120L
• 4 oz Torrified Wheat

Hops

• Bittering Hops – 0.25 oz Target, 0.125 oz Styrian Goldings (60 mins)
• Flavour Hop – 0.125 oz Styrian Goldings (15 mins)
• Aroma Hops – 0.25 oz Target, 0.125 oz Styrian Goldings (1 min)

Yeast

• Wyeast Thames Valley Ale (#1275) (Attenuation 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.
• Primary Fermentation: 5-7 days at 65-75°
• Secondary Fermentation: 1 week 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: 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 update

Recipes first posted here and here.

Had a busy day moving beer from primary to secondary, secondary to bottles and kegs and had a chance to sample the Kentish Best and the Abbots Special Bitter.

First up the Kentish.  Am happy to report the beer is one of the brightest, clearist I have ever brewed, with the fining’s doing their job.  The SRM and IBU where as expected.  The taste and mouthfeel were that of a real ale best bitter, fresh and very drinkable.  Had mine with some ‘bubble and squeak’, a Boxing Day favorite.  The Fuggles hops came out in the flavour though I felt the beer had a metallic aroma I still cannot trace. Been doing some research on the aroma but have not found an explanation as of yet.

The one big issue I found was my own mistake, I failed to add enough priming sugar to the batch prior to bottling, the ale took longer than expected to carbonate, and when it did, it proved to be a little flat, though not overly so.  This is easily remedied. Given the metallic aroma and the incorrect amount of priming sugar I will need to brew the recipe one more time before it can get promoted to the permanent recipe page here.

The Abbots Special Bitter was a real surprise. First up the ale was nothing like the original so back to the drawing board. That said the finished ale served really well, have it in a keg with a BeerGas mix.  The IBU and SRM were perfect but the taste, flavour and aroma were not Greene King.  The taste lacked the fruit and there was a little too much malt for a recipe that calls for a balanced flavour.  Nonetheless it tastes great, sometime mistakes can lead to great discoveries.

So the Abbot clone recipe needs some work.  For the caramel I will look to change the base malt to include some amber to replace the amber specialty malt reducing the caramel tones.  I found some While Labs Burton Yeast with apple flavour characteristics I will look to try also.  Look for more in the future.

So nothing gets promoted but we have definitely made progress and as always they are fun to make and drink.