uk beer ideas

Hi
Being new to brewing beer in the UK, are there any members that can recomend beer that would be similar to Fullers ESB, Ringwood Old Thumper, Gales HSB or the king of beers Theakstones Old Peculiar, basically easy drinking beer with flavour at around 5-6 abv, also if you know of a supplier at a great price, the more I save the more beer I can drink
Thanks.

hi gooditurn,

I'm not in the UK, but I just made an ESB that is supposedly like Fuller's. I love fuller's but it's quite expensive here in California. This is the recipe I was given:

8 lbs. Pale Liquid ME
1 lb. 75* L crystal
.25 120* L crystal
.25 150* L crystal
1 oz Target (60 min boil)
.5 oz Challenger (20 min)
1 oz Kent Golding (steep)
WLP002 English ALe yeast

I hope it's like Fuller's. I know that I've seen other clones, however, that include flaked maize in the steep and report that it is essential. How true that is, I do not know. Also, I wonder if some gypsum would be needed to get closer to the Fuller's version of ESB. I use spring water, and don't know what kind of mineral makeup is present. Anyway...hope that helps you a bit. Cheers!

monk

Hi there,

Heres an extract recipe for Theakston's Old Peculiar from a book called 'Clone Brews'. I'm thinking of trying the all grain version some time.

For 5 US gallons (multiply it by 1.2 for UK gallons):

3kg light DME (multiply that by 1.2 if you're using LME)
.23kg belgian clear candi sugar (I think this is basically sucrose)
.23kg dark brown sugar
113g lyle's golden syrup
--
.34kg British Crystal Malt
113g torrified wheat
85g British chocolate malt
--
1oz of Northern Brewer for 60mins
half an oz of Fuggles for 15 mins
half an oz of Fuggles for 2 mins
dry hop with an oz of Fuggles
--
Irish Ale style yeast

It looks pretty expensive at first glance, but no doubt you've got some of the sugars lying about at home. Only Fuggles & Northern Brewer to buy which is about £4 together, which should give you enough for a few batches. The steeping malts are also pretty cheap and you can get that and White Labs Irish Ale yeast from www.hopandgrape.co.uk - I use them regularly and they're great.

Hope that helps.