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gbx

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Are there any fans of Ron Pattinson's beer history blog http://barclayperkins.blogspot.ca and the "Let's Brew Wednesday" recipes?

I've brewed a few of the recipes and I often have questions but unless you jump on a post when its still new, any discussion quickly fizzles out so I thought I'd start this thread.

What recipes have you brewed?

So far I've brewed:
http://barclayperkins.blogspot.ca/2010/07/lets-brew-wednesday-1952-lees-best-mild.html
-was alright but nothing great. used wy1469 which I didn't like and resolved to use wy1968 on all future English beers.

http://barclayperkins.blogspot.ca/2011/08/lets-brew-wednesday-1930-whitbread-ak.html
-overshot OG and finished low, almost an entire percent abv too strong. Amazing summer session beer

http://barclayperkins.blogspot.ca/2012/02/lets-brew-wednesday-1914-courage.html
-brewed last Easter weekend, came in high at 1.102, fermented with nottingham. I bottled half with bret C. Opened a bottle of each at xmas, promising (especially the bret infected) but still too young

http://barclayperkins.blogspot.ca/2012/05/lets-brew-wednesday-1987-boddingtons_23.html
-turned out really really nice despite finishing a little too dry. I used a couple oz of carafa sp 2 in place of the caramel colourant.

http://barclayperkins.blogspot.ca/2012/05/lets-brew-wednesday-oldham-1987-mild.html
-I mashed a little hotter and tried to make my own caramel colourant. fermentation issues and finished high.

http://barclayperkins.blogspot.ca/2010/01/lets-brew-wednesday-1843-whitbread-oat.html
-Brewed on Saturday and kegged tonight. I had some mild malt and wanted to brew something from WW2 (the url is a mistype of 1943). Gravity sample was yummy!

Considering the 1848 Imperial Brown Stout from Ron's Porter! book or something from the IPA book
.
...here is the full list of "Let's Brew" recipes
http://www.unholymess.com/blog/lets-brew/comment-page-1
 
These are on my brew to do list. Thanks for the thread and the easy to access Let's brew blog listing.
 
How did the Lees Mild turn out? I thought that looked a cracking recipe with all the coloured malts.
 
Mild's are hard style, it seems easy to do an "ok" mild but something magical has to happen in the fermentation for it to be great and I'm not able to consistently reproduce that. The ELM mild had it and was fantastic but the Lees Mild was just alright. I think its a good recipe and any shortcomings in the brew were my own fault. I tried to mash a little warmer to hit the finishing gravity but that combined with the first pitch of wy1469 west yorkshire (i'm not a big fan of the style of fruitiness it puts out) and it finished at 1.015 - too chewy for a session beer. I drank about about 2/3rds of the keg and then soured the rest with roeselare dregs which turned out awesome :) One of my friends brewed it using wy1318 and homemade invert (i used golden syrup). His turned out better but it was one of his early attempts at cask conditioning and wasn't "magical" either. I'll ask him to post to this thread. He has brewed a lot of your recipes (recently ive had his fuller's OBE, youngers xxps, BP EI porter)

I've also brewed a few things inspired by your blog:

I did what started as a 100% modern brown malt mash and I added pale malt until it converted. I wanted something as close to 100% brown as possible but it ended up being 1.060 and approximately 60% brown, 40% pale. Its got a grape kinda fruitiness. Its sitting on bret C with hopes it will age into something cool.

I also did the 1883 guinness that was done on the brewing TV stout episode but I used mfb sp aromatic for the amber malt (as recommended by kristen as a sub for historic diastatic amber malt) and cut the black malt with 50% chocolate malt. Its sitting on bret C until st. patricks day.

...and caramel colourant? It must have added some flavour to the beer or why would they add it to some of the porters that were already dark? I've tried making it but its scary and I didn't like the flavour (a chemical burnt odour and taste), I've tried using small amounts of carafa special but it definitely affects the flavour. I haven't been able to get any of the commercial stuff but is modern caramel the same as what they were using 50+ years ago?
 
I've made a bunch of the Let's Brew beers... porters, milds, stouts, although I've been dreaming of one day brewing that 1914 Courage RIS... and the Youngers No 1.

I was all set and ready to brew a 3 gallon batch of the RIS, until it occurred to me that a batch that small would require water as hard as diamonds for proper PH, considering the huge amount of dark grains. Even if I used my tap water undiluted, I would still have a mash ph of around 4.6! Crazy stuff.

Don't tell anyone, but I've been sneaking the odd half-pint of Ron's East India Porter. And for having only been in the keg for a month, it tastes amazing. I even caught my friends trying to sneak pints of the stuff.
 
I've made a bunch of the Let's Brew beers... porters, milds, stouts, although I've been dreaming of one day brewing that 1914 Courage RIS... and the Youngers No 1.

I was all set and ready to brew a 3 gallon batch of the RIS, until it occurred to me that a batch that small would require water as hard as diamonds for proper PH, considering the huge amount of dark grains. Even if I used my tap water undiluted, I would still have a mash ph of around 4.6! Crazy stuff.

Don't tell anyone, but I've been sneaking the odd half-pint of Ron's East India Porter. And for having only been in the keg for a month, it tastes amazing. I even caught my friends trying to sneak pints of the stuff.

I don't believe the mash pH:dark grain relationship. I think its a homebrewer myth like hot side aeration and scotch ale:) Maybe there is some truth to it but nothing like its been sold to us. I was obsessed with water chem for a while and took notes on the 1914 irs brew day: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f128/brewing-water-chemistry-primer-198460/index35.html#post3971044 Vancouver tap water is incredibly soft with less than 5ppm bicarbonate. The pH got a little low but nothing as low as the spreadsheets were predicting.

Rereading that post brought back the horror of that brew day. That was the biggest beer I'd ever brewed. I've since worked out a better system for doing huge beers by splitting the mash in half, BIAB with a thick mash in the kettle and then running in the 1st runnings of the other half. It worked really well for a 5gal 1.095 baltic porter - very quick to lauter, overshot the OG and didn't blow out the mashtun. ...the only thing i really need to work out is a better system for milling grain - hand cranking through anything more than 12 lbs is murder.
 
I have a lot of these on my "want to brew list".
I did 1952 Lee's best Mild. As gbx posted, "was alright but nothing great".
A lot of these recipes call for really thick mashes, long boil times, and monitoring the gravity, and cold crashing to stop fermentation.
How close do you stick to those procedures when doing thee recipes?
Another question, when they call for 1lb of invert sugar, do you use a pound of sugar to make the invert and then add whatever volume of syrup you end up with? Or do make the syrup and the add 1 lb of that?
I am brewing a modified version of the 1843 Whitbread Oat Mild on Monday.
Here is what I came up with, it is quite a bit different from the original.

View attachment HF2004.pdf
 
I have a lot of these on my "want to brew list".
I did 1952 Lee's best Mild. As gbx posted, "was alright but nothing great".
A lot of these recipes call for really thick mashes, long boil times, and monitoring the gravity, and cold crashing to stop fermentation.
How close do you stick to those procedures when doing thee recipes?
Another question, when they call for 1lb of invert sugar, do you use a pound of sugar to make the invert and then add whatever volume of syrup you end up with? Or do make the syrup and the add 1 lb of that?
I am brewing a modified version of the 1843 Whitbread Oat Mild on Monday.
Here is what I came up with, it is quite a bit different from the original.

Looking at the Lees Best Mild again, it has a lot of dark malts but none of them are greater than 4oz in 5 gal batch, for something like crystal its barely at perceivable level.

I try to get the grist and hops as close as possible but as the goal is to still make a drinkable product, I generally don't adjust my process. I do the long boil times, I don't do the mashes. I even no sparged BIABed the 1943 Oat Mild.

I try to hit the OG and FG but I usually go over. On the micro-mashes like the oat mild, even no sparging I over shot the expected of 1.028 by 4pts. On the RIS, I ended up boiling off more than I anticipated but I got the right high level of attenuation by mashing low and pitching 3 packs of nottingham.

On the low attenuators, i haven't had any success hitting the FG that resulted in a decent beer. I've been using wy1968 because I like the flavour profile and its a relatively low attenuator but it still blows past the high FGs. Any I've cold crashed could be used as an example of diacetyl and acetaldhyde in a seibel off flavours kit.

I've had the same questions about homemade invert sugar and didn't get an answers. Lately if the recipe calls for 1lb of invert, I use 1lb of raw sugar to make it and add the entire volume of finished invert. What do other people do? And the clear invert that can be purchased at wine making stores? Has anyone had any success by adding black strap to get the right colour?
 
As per the invert syrup, I've done it both ways. Made the invert from the 1lb of sugar and added everything and weighed out the final product and added it like that. It doesn't seem to make much of a difference and now I generally just make up a large batch of the stuff and add it by the lb to the beer.

Also, while I've not tried adding blackstrap to "wine-store" clear invert, I will say that diluting your sugar solution with molasses does not give the same flavor as starting with a pure sugar and reducing it slowly over time. They are completely different in flavor, although similar in color. I know the dilution method saves time and is probably 'close enough' for most people - I recently made some No.3 with this method - but the dilution method retains some of its molasses character and doesn't develop the same intensity of porty/cocao/liquorice flavors as the pure sugar stuff. Does it really matter? Probably no...

Lastly, I'm very surprised to see your data about brewing the 1914 with such soft water. I've been using a lab grade PH meter for my adjustments (actually, WAS, since I had to give the meter back to the lab I "borrowed" it from. :D) and found that my PH was dropping very low when I tried brewing small batch, high gravity beers that contained lots of dark malts. Even with my water bicarb at 360 (!), with some of these beers containing 30% roasted malts, the mash PH was venturing close to 4.8-5.0. I now use a middle of the road PH meter and Bru'N Water and have found the estimated PH numbers to be pretty close... usually no more than 1/2 point off. However, his acid malt usage estimate has not been accurate.

The whole water adjustment thing is sort of a moot point for most brewers, I'm not nearly as OCD about it as I used to be, although I do brew from RO water and adjust for certain sulfate and chloride levels; it seems to make a difference in the final beer. Most breweries around me brew with very soft water and don't make any adjustment what so ever, and they make 'decent' enough beer. Although there is an equal number of breweries making beer from super hard water and wondering why they have problems.

Also, about the Lets Brew recipes, I rarely do the complex step mashes and all that but I do the long boils. I have plans to make the Youngers No. 1, though I'll be needing a new mash tun for that.
 
I made the 1914 Courage. The only change I made to my water was to add about 1g of baking soda per drinkable gallon, an idea I got from http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2007/11/courage-russian-imperial-stout.html. It was fantastic at a mere 2 months, rivalling any well-rated commercial Imperial Stout. I knew I should have brewed a bigger batch. I definitely have plans for the 1987 Oldham Mild from the OP, as well as these:

the 1948 Royal Soldier http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2012/06/lets-brew-wednesday-1948-portsmouth-and.html

the 1859 East India Porter bierhaus mentioned http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2012/11/lets-brew-special-1859-barclay-perkins.html
 
I made the 1914 Courage. The only change I made to my water was to add about 1g of baking soda per drinkable gallon, an idea I got from http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2007/11/courage-russian-imperial-stout.html.

I was inspired by that post too and have put bottles away to open at xmas. I have bottles labeled and numbered and plans to still have a few bottles 20 years from now. I'm a little worried about the bret infected so I bottled them almost flat and used a couple plastic bottles for my coal mine canaries to detect if they are getting over carbed.
 
Plastic will bleed CO2 even if you don't open it. I think 2LT soda bottles are dated to last 6 months before they go flat, vs a year for the cans.
 
Plastic will bleed CO2 even if you don't open it. I think 2LT soda bottles are dated to last 6 months before they go flat, vs a year for the cans.

I know from experience that they last longer than a year...20 years? probably not:) and I think its unlikely they will need to last that long anyways.
 
I have a lot of these on my "want to brew list".
I did 1952 Lee's best Mild. As gbx posted, "was alright but nothing great".
A lot of these recipes call for really thick mashes, long boil times, and monitoring the gravity, and cold crashing to stop fermentation.
How close do you stick to those procedures when doing thee recipes?
Another question, when they call for 1lb of invert sugar, do you use a pound of sugar to make the invert and then add whatever volume of syrup you end up with? Or do make the syrup and the add 1 lb of that?
I am brewing a modified version of the 1843 Whitbread Oat Mild on Monday.
Here is what I came up with, it is quite a bit different from the original.

I started drinking my 1943 Oat Mild yesterday (8 days after brewing). It is really nice and as per the description it tastes a lot bigger than it actually is. I used wy1968 @ 66-70F and did a sort of open ferment in a bucket with the lid only set on loosely. Its not as dark as I was expecting (I guess my number 3 invert wasn't dark enough) but other than that I'm really happy with it.
 
This definitely needs some traction...good post!

So far I've brewed two IIRC:

http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2009/10/lets-brew-wednesday-1941-whitbread.html
http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2010/03/lets-brew-wednesday-1955-whitbread-xxx.html

The last I have a brewblog with notes here: http://brewblog.beerbarons.org/index.php?page=brewBlogDetail&filter=bmiller&id=158

The invert sugar was made more like candi sugar and may have been different from the real thing, even though in the end all I think it did was provide some color and thin it out.

I have plans to make a Mackeson stout and a BP milk stout if I can manage it.
 
I tried to brew the Hardy Ale today: http://barclayperkins.blogspot.ca/2013/03/lets-brew-wednesday-eldridge-pope-1967.html

Aside from Bairds Crystal 75, I wasn't able to get any actual british malt so I went with gambrinus ESB (canadian 2 row malted to "british specifications"), gambrinus pilsner for the lager malt and flaked wheat. I usually overshoot the OG when brewing these recipes but this one I was way under at 1.090 vs the desired 1.110. I'll have to order another bag of maris otter and rebrew again sometime in the future. I also boiled up the second runnings that came in at 1.028 once I padded them out with 9oz of stove top inverted turbinado sugar. Both using EKG at 90, Styrians at 30 and fermenting with 1318 London Ale 3. A beautiful day for an outdoor brew makes up for missing the gravity.

partigyle.jpg
 
I was looking at this recipe the other day. Are you going to try to keep the FG high, or just let the yeast attenuate as far as it will go?
 
since I've already missed the OG I'm just going to let the big beer ferment out but I might try to stop the small beer from drying out if I catch it in time. ...I'm also not fermenting at the ridiculously high temps either. the big beer is at 17C and the small is at 20C
 
...and i just poured the first pint of http://barclayperkins.blogspot.ca/2012/05/lets-brew-wednesday-1987-boddingtons_16.html that I brewed a couple weekends ago. It was really only brewed as the yeast starter for the Hardy Ale but it is pretty awesome. I must confess I did a few subs - I only had 8oz of Bairds C75 so I used dingmanns special b to make up the rest of the crystal malt, gambrinus canadian pilsner for the 6 row and 4oz of debittered carafa sp2 for the caramel colour. I like this a lot. I have now brewed the entire 1987 line of milds and they were all great. The 1987 Boddies IPA didn't really interest me but I should brew it just to complete the set.
 
I brewed Ron and Kristen's recipe for the Courage 1914 RIS last week. I have a couple of other things that I intend to brew first, but I'll probably brew a Burton ale or the Hardy next.
 
I brewed Ron and Kristen's recipe for the Courage 1914 RIS last week. I have a couple of other things that I intend to brew first, but I'll probably brew a Burton ale or the Hardy next.

I still have about a dozen bottles of the one I did a year and a half ago. The bret C version is pretty awesome - all the hoppy and roasty harshness is gone. Right now I'm drinking the second pint of the 1987 Boddington's Mild rebrew. This time with TF MO, Bairds C75, Briess 6-row, and 3oz of carafa sp2 for a caramel colourant sub. I really like this one but I left it on the yeast too long and its got that slight tartness 1318 gets if left to long.

My plan right now is to do either the 1987 Boddy Bitter (if i want another light beer) or the 1941 IBSt (the <5% "session" imperial stout) or the 1952 mackeson's milk stout

..unless there is another recipe posted. I really miss the Let's Brew posts. I can only read so much beer history without drinking it:)
 
gbx, for the Boddie's did you "mash in pretty wet for a short time (~25-30min)...[to get] more body in the finished product" ?
 
It's not me who's stopped them. I think Kristen is just too busy with his brewery to write the recipes.

On the other hand, I've a book of homebrew recipes coming out in January:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/search?index=books&linkCode=qs&keywords=1592538827

I'll probably restart the Let's Brew series with recipes I've written.

Cool, but I will buy that book! If kristen is too busy, isn't there anyone else out there who can help? If not, I like reading the brew log style recipes you have in your books without all the details Kristen adds.

gbx, for the Boddie's did you "mash in pretty wet for a short time (~25-30min)...[to get] more body in the finished product" ?

That was the goal but it ended up being closer to 45minutes and "wet" was 15L for the ~6lb grist.
 
Cool, but I will buy that book! If kristen is too busy, isn't there anyone else out there who can help? If not, I like reading the brew log style recipes you have in your books without all the details Kristen adds.
Tomorrow I'm posting a preview recipe from the book.
 
Glad to see Let's Brew is back! The East India Porter recipe was a little bare-bones without Kristen's input, but it contained everything I needed to make a fantastic beer. So please continue to post recipes, with or without him. Otherwise I'll have to ask for a refund the next time I visit the site.
 
I brewed the JW Lees Best Mild of 1952 5 days ago. I made the invert sugar and caramel colorant. It was nice to see how just a smidgen of that colorant adds color to a glass of water. Anyways, I overshot my OG at 1.041 but have a reading of 1.014 today. I'm thinking of racking it to a keg to condition at slighter cooler cellar temps for several days and serve via gravity.

gbx, you said that you've had troubles cold-crashing these ales to keep a high FG. Is this something you have to time several points before your desired FG is reached so that the yeast doesn't "blow past it"? You mentioned something magical has to happen for milds to come out right. What do you think that is? Have any updates on any SUBP beers you've brewed lately?
 
My cold crashing problems come from not having decent temperature control. In terms of magical fermentations, I think its just hitting that perfect balance of esters and maltiness. There are pages and pages of speculation on how to accomplish this here https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/b...on-temps-profiles-cybi-other-thoughts-221817/

Right now I have the 1936 Mackeson Milk Stout, the BP 1941 IBSt (the 5%ABV "session" imperial stout) and the 1987 Boddingtons mild on tap. At the local homebrew club's winter party yesterday one of the guys brought casks of the 1952 Lees Best and the 1952 Mackeson plus a few that were inspired by Let's Brew (he made too many substitutions to call them by name)

casks.jpg
 
The 1914 RIS that I brewed last year was fantastic. I had intended to save most of the bottles for annual holiday tastings, but it was so popular that I'm almost out. Getting ready to brew a new batch in a couple of weeks. This time, I'm thinking about saving out some bottles after secondary to bottle with Brett. Anybody have any experience with that? It would be great to get some advice.

After that, I want to give the Hardy a try.
 
Thanks for sharing, I'm planning on brewing this up in the fall/winter. What was your final gravity on this and how did you handle the dryhopping? Any time frames would be helpful if you have them. A couple of my recent bigger beers have been falling short on attenuation even though I believe I'm pitching a sufficient amount of yeast. I'll be using 1469 but will need to brew a smaller beer before then to increase my count.
 
I don't have my notes handy, but I think my FG was around 1.019. I brewed in early October of last year and, in a month, racked it over onto 1.5 oz of oak cubes soaked in bourbon. About three months in secondary, and dry hopped it for the last ten days or so. After that, I bottled it.

When I brew it again, I'm not going to move it to secondary at all--just let it go in primary the whole time.
 
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