Fuller's 1845 Clone

This is one of my favorite beers in the world. I have done some Internet research and came up with what I thought would be a good clone. I took my first whack at it by doing a 5 gallon batch on 11/25/07 and I have started sampling now. Since finding a good clone for this on the web seems to be difficult, I am publishing my results here in case it motivates someone to improve on it. I am especially looking for any feedback from 1845 drinkers:

Batch Size (Gal): 5.50 Wort Size (Gal): 5.50
Total Grain (Lbs): 12.00
Anticipated OG: 1.061 Plato: 14.90
Anticipated SRM: 15.3
Anticipated IBU: 33.5
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75 %
Wort Boil Time: 90 Minutes


Grain/Extract/Sugar

% Amount Name Origin Potential SRM
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
79.2 9.50 lbs. Pale Malt(2-row) Great Britain 1.038 3
8.3 1.00 lbs. Aromatic Malt Belgium 1.036 25
4.2 0.50 lbs. Crystal 60L Great Britain 1.034 60
4.2 0.50 lbs. Special B Malt Belgian 1.030 135
4.2 0.50 lbs. Amber Malt Great Britain 1.032 35

Hops

Amount Name Form Alpha IBU Boil Time
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.16 oz. Goldings - E.K. Whole 6.00 29.6 90 min.
0.50 oz. Goldings - E.K. Whole 6.00 3.9 20 min.


Yeast
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White Labs WLP002 English Ale


Mash Schedule
-------------
Mash Type: Single Step

Grain Lbs: 12.00
Water Qts: 13.80 - Before Additional Infusions
Qts Water Per Lbs Grain: 1.15 - Before Additional Infusions

Saccharification Rest Temp : 154F


My impressions in a head-to-head comparison at 50F:

I tried my clone first and it has the right malt flavor and a nice malty aroma with a hint of alcohol. I thought is was right on target from what I remember of 1845. I then sipped the 1845 and found the flavors to be close to the same, just much more intense. I thought my grain bill and the 154F rest would do the trick, but the flavor was not nearly intense enough. Thing is, the color is right on. I may increase all of the grains except the pale malt by 50% unless someone can suggest something else. The hops bitterness was a bit low as well. It could use about a 10% to 15% bump.

I know this a a 3 year old thread but since I am drinking a Fuller´s 1845 right now I may just as well put my thought down here.

I think you need to up the pilsner malt to 12 lbs and increase the bittering hops to 2 oz. at least.

To me the 1845 is like a more alcoholic slightly darker India Pale Ale, and if I had to place it in a certain style it would be just there, an Indian Pale Ale.

I made one (IPA) with some Munich malt and CaraMunich malt that fermented to 6.3% ABV and it is just like 1845. Overly hoppy with some malt caracters and a clear alcoholic kick to it.

See this:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/can-you-brew-recipe-fullers-1845-a-205873/

I found a clone recipe last year that was really close. I remember it had a little bit of chocolate malt in it, which surprised me at the time. I wish I could find that recipe. I lost my brewing book with all my recipes and notes. I've only had 1845 once and I'm still dreaming about it. I'm going to buy so much next time I see it. So good!

Og 1.064
Fg 1.016 (abv 6.3%)

British Amber, Chocolate, Crystal and PaleAle malts. Be careful with the amount of special malts.

100% Goldings / 39 EBUs

Fuller's yeast, can be found in a bottle of 1845 (try ImperialA09 , wlp002, wyeast 1968 if not available). 18..21C so that you get some esters. Bottle conditioned.

Oregon_beer_guy said:

I found a clone recipe last year that was really close. I remember it had a little bit of chocolate malt in it, which surprised me at the time.

Click to expand...

That shouldn't be a surprise - see this thread for recipes for the main Chiswick/Pride/ESB partigyle from their actual brewbook which includes a whisper of chocolate, don't think they've shared the 1845 recipe yet but might be worth an ask before Asahi stop any of that nonsense...

Can't imagine they are using Special B, more likely one of the darker inverts.

Northern_Brewer said:

Can't imagine they are using Special B, more likely one of the darker inverts.

Click to expand...

Yes, definitely no SpecialB.

They list the malts (and the hop) on their website and those lists seem to hold very well. In some beers they use treacle and maybe invert as well. In terms of beer color amber and chocolate would be enough to get the correct color if not the taste. When they use brewing sugars (or spices) those are usually not listed on their site. The malts they list as ingredients of 1845 are the ones that I described in the post above. OG, FG, alcohol and EBUs are from the laboratory of the Finnish monopoly selling alcoholic beverages. Their EBU measurement protocol usually gives smaller values than the amount of IBUs described by Fuller's. Fuller's describes it as 52 IBUs vs 39 EBUs (their ESB is correspondingly 35 IBUs and 28 EBUs, I would target in between these values). So you just need to get the proportions and brewing conditions (timing of the hops, malt-%, temperatures) right to get a decent clone. This may take some effort. I would start with a simple approach, maybe 5% of crystal, a hint of chocolate and a bit more amber malt to reach the typical color. This is probably not dry hopped so I would go with early bittering addition + a moderate late copper addition to reach the IBUs. OP may be helpful when deciding the exact amounts, too. When I think about the gravity values and grain bill, I would probably mash at 67°C, adding lots of sugar could bring it too low in FG.