Man, you guys are taking the fun out of this!
John Smiths is our equivalent of BMC. To put it another way, we're just trying to stop you copping off with an ugly bird, because we know there are so many hotties out there that you could be with instead.
Danek, do you think S-04 would attenuate enough? It's been a while since I've had the John Smith's but I remember it not having any sweetness. I was thinking of using Nottingham but if you think s-04 is better I'll go with that.
I've not used Notty before, but it does seem to attentuate more than Saf 04, so maybe it would be a better choice.
I've come up with a recipe that may not taste like John Smith's, but I think it will be pretty good. How does this sound?
5 lbs. maris otter
2.5 lbs. biscuit/victory malt
1 lb. flaked barley
0.25 lb. british chocolate malt
1.0 oz. fuggles (60min.)
5.5 gal.
OG 1.041
IBU 21
SRM 14
ABV 4.0
How's it look?
I think using chocolate malt and an ounce of hops might be overdoing it for John Smiths, as there's really not much roastiness or bitterness there. [To be honest, this is the bit I struggle with - there are dozens of very, very good English beers out there, but here I am helping you take all the flavor out of a beer recipe]. Regardless of the JohnSmithsness of the recipe, though, I wonder if you need to drop the amount of biscuit/victory and up the amount of MO? By way of comparison, this is an English Brown Ale recipe from Jamil's "Brewing Classic Styles":
Jamil's Nutcastle Ale:
9.75 lbs maris otter
0.75 lbs special roast
0.5 lbs victory
0.5 lbs crystal 40
0.25 lbs pale chocolate
1.2 oz Kent Goldings @ 60
0.5 oz Kent Goldings @ 5
Nottingham yeast
OG 1051
FG 1013
13 SRM
26 IBU
5.1% ABV
That is mostly base malt, but it'd still be a tasty brew. Or if you wanted to try a simpler English bitter, I recently made a recipe for Coniston Bluebird. It's pretty simple (and sorry it's in metric
) :
Coniston Bluebird clone:
Maris Otter: 3.25kg
Crystal 120: 250g
Crystal 60: 250g
30g Challenger hops (5.9% a/a) @ 60
30g Challenger hops @ 10
30g Challenger hops @ flame-out
OG: 1040
IBU: 36
Yeast: Safale S-04
I found the recipe posted on various different forums, but I think it's originally from Clone Brews. It turned out really well, anyway, and it beats the crap out of John Smiths. Although so would a nice cup of tea