Abbot Ale: UK to US help needed!

I picked up Line's book on my last trip to the UK, and I would like to try my hand at his version of Greene King's Abbot Ale, as I love this beer. The recipe as given is (5 gallons):

7.5 lb Pale Malt
3 oz Crystal Malt
2 oz Roast Malt
8 oz Flaked Maize
12 oz Soft Brown Sugar

0.75 oz of Northern Brewer at 90 mins
3 oz of East Kent Golding (EKG) at 90 min
0.5 oz EKG at flameout (wait 15 min before cooling)
0.25 oz EKG dry hop.


So: to subs. This is what I have so far...

Pale Malt ==> Maris Otter
Crystal ==> Caramel/Crystal 120 L
Roast malt ==> toasted malt or this one? (??? really not sure about this).
Soft Brown Sugar ==> Demerara Sugar

Am I in the right ballpark?


Also - 3 oz of EKG for the full (90 minute) boil seems high. BeerSmith is giving me 80 IBU from this, which seems too high. This is an ESB, not an IPA! I remember it as being balanced, not overly hoppy. I'm thinking 0.5, maybe 1 oz for the boil?

Guess, while I am here: what yeast? I have some WLP005, WLP002 and WLP013 in my fridge right now. I'm leaning towards the 013 myself, although maybe (with some tending) the 005 for improved flocculation...

mmmmm, abbot. I just got back from a year in London. It was one of my favorites at my local pub.

I grew up in Biggleswade, 50 miles north of London. There used to be a Greene King brewery in town. I have a soft spot for Abbot!

This makes me want to find a badger recipe...

I've never had Abbot Ale as I lived south of the Thames, so I don't know what it was like
Pale Malt would be Maris Otter as you said
The crystal malt would be crystal 55. (Muntons still produce this). That was the only crystal malt commonly available in England at the time the book was written.
It's difficult to know what he means by roast malt. If you look at chapter 2, he says says that roast malt covers everything from crystal to black patent.
Looking at the small amount of crystal in the recipe, I would guess he was looking for something to add color without too much sweetness. My guess would be crystal 120 (but that is just a guess, having never tasted or even seen the beer).
Soft brown sugar is considerably darker than Demerara, which is very similar to Turbinado. See Brown sugar - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia for a good description of brown sugar (aka soft brown sugar)

Hope this helps

-a.

P.S.
As for the hops, be aware of when the book was written. In those days, the hops available to homebrewers were old and stale. The AA% was undoubtedly low (although nobody in England knew about AA% - check the index in the book).
As for the yeast I would use the 002 (but that's probably because I have about 10 jars of that waiting to be used). I think the 002 or 005 would be more suitable for a best bitter/ESB.

ajf covered most of the important points about Line's book. The last one I'd like to mention is that most of Line's recipes don't use a full boil. Most top out at 4 gallons of boil with topoff water at the end. This also causes lower hop utilization. When combined with the poorer hops back when the book was written, this accounts for his extremely high rate of hopping.

mkling is absolutely right, but bear in mind that the gallons mentioned in the book are imperial gallons which are about 1.2 * the size of US gallons.

-a.

Thanks guys. I'll adjust the hops to get it in range, Using the given rain to volume ratio, I get around 5% ABV predicted, so that seems about right.

It'll be a week or two til I can brew this. I'll let y'all know what I finalize on. Cheers!

BioBeing said:

I grew up in Biggleswade, 50 miles north of London. There used to be a Greene King brewery in town. I have a soft spot for Abbot!

Click to expand...

"Biggleswade." Heh. Watched too much Monty Python.....

Seriously, let us know how this thing turns out.

Think that i am going to do it like this... to the LHBS tomorrow then brew Sunday. I'm actually going to ferment in two buckets : WLP002 in one, and WLP013 in the other.

Recipe: About Ale
Brewer: Richard
Asst Brewer:
Style: Extra Special/Strong Bitter (English Pale Ale)
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (35.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 10.50 gal
Boil Size: 13.12 gal
Estimated OG: 1.054 SG
Estimated Color: 12.1 SRM
Estimated IBU: 46.6 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
16 lbs Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 83.64 %
1 lbs Corn, Flaked (1.3 SRM) Grain 5.23 %
6.1 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 1.99 %
4.0 oz Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) Grain 1.31 %
1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (Dry Hop 3 dHops -
3.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (60 min) Hops 25.2 IBU
1.50 oz Northern Brewer [8.50 %] (60 min) Hops 21.4 IBU
1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (0 min) (AroHops -
1.00 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 min) Misc
1 lbs 8.0 oz Brown Sugar, Dark (50.0 SRM) Sugar 7.84 %
1 Pkgs London Ale (White Labs #WLP013) Yeast-Ale


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body, No Mash Out
Total Grain Weight: 17.63 lb
----------------------------
Single Infusion, Medium Body, No Mash Out
Step Time Name Description Step Temp
60 min Mash In Add 22.04 qt of water at 170.1 F 154.0 F

ETA a NOTE: On some other boards, I found people who had used the roasted barley where Line had said "roasted malt". So, I'll give that a go!

Half way through the boil now. LHBS did not have UK EK Goldings, so I ended up with Styrian Goldings (3.5%). I'm going to add 3 oz them at 20 min instead of 60 though. Then 1 oz of Fuggle leaf at flameout. I'll get some EKG for the dry hop. If this ends up anything like Abbot, I'll be very surprised!

Its been three years since this thread last saw the light of day. How did this turn out? I had my first abbot the other day ans was immediately love struck. This beer is everything I love about beer, from the texture and flavor all the way down to the %abv, this beer is awesome. How did your go at this turn out? Is this an Abbot recipe? Or anything close??