Old Style English Ale. Any advice on my recipe?

Brewing an english ale.

Heres what I have ordered so far, if you guys think i should add anything please let me know, this is only my second brew so im trying to keep it simple.

Maris Otter 5-7.5lbs(not sure how much i will use yet)
East Kent Goldings hops 2oz
Danstar Windsor Dry Ale yeast

Thoughts?

What style are you going for? Mild, ESB? You're probably going to want some crystal, maybe some 60L.

Malric said:

What style are you going for? Mild, ESB? You're probably going to want some crystal, maybe some 60L.

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Probably a mild for now, can you please explain why I would need some crystal? also what is the difference between 60L and 120

Looks like you're on the right track - in fact, it looks a lot like the recipe I'm doing tomorrow (Maris Otter base with mild crystal and goldings as the late addition hops.)

Crystal malt is traditional in English ales because they add color and a caramelly sweetness. 60 is probably your best bet for an English ale. 120 is much, much darker.

Thanks for the input guys, just ordered 2 lbs of the crystal 60L.

Let me know how your brew turns out Jon.

How many lbs of maris are you planning on using?

I'd use S-04 or Nottingham over the Windsor, but that is a personal preference.

AndytheBeave said:

I'd use S-04 or Nottingham over the Windsor, but that is a personal preference.

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+1 S-04 or Notty. Here's a good article on the style and recipe with reasons for each addition;

https://byo.com/stories/issue/item/1201-old-ales


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Why do you guys recommend the nottingham? I was considering it but then decided to go with the windsor.

I ordered some nottingham also now. Ill probably brew this twice and use the different yeast to see which one turns out better.

Also, if I run 5 lbs of maris otter, in 5 gallons, will that be enough or will it be to light?

DatBrew said:

Why do you guys recommend the nottingham? I was considering it but then decided to go with the windsor.

I ordered some nottingham also now. Ill probably brew this twice and use the different yeast to see which one turns out better.

Also, if I run 5 lbs of maris otter, in 5 gallons, will that be enough or will it be to light?

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I didn't like my last brew with Windsor. Just me. I added a link above. Ck it out.

I think you need more grist to increase OG. Crystal helps add mouthfeel as well as color.


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English ales do often include a bit of crystal malt. I would go for an English crystal over an American crystal personally. You can make a really nice Bitter with only 90-95% Maris Otter and 5-10% crystal. Another possible route (and if you really want to go the "old style" English ale, this is the way to go) is just your Maris Otter, and then take some turbinado or demerara sugar, and invert it (basically boiling it with a little bit of citric acid). If you're interested in brewing historically accurate English ale, I would recommend checking out the work of Ron Pattinson (start with his blog "Shut Up About Barclay Perkins"). He's also got a book specifically on historic English ales for homebrewers. Many of which are a single malt (sometime pale malt like Maris Otter, and sometimes it's mild, amber, or brown malt), and then various colors of invert sugar (#1 being very very pale through to #4 which is extremly dark).

I'm also not a fan of Windsor. S-04 is a better choice. If you can go liquid there are even better options. Wyeast 1469 West Yorkshire is my go to.

Here's what I would do:

93% Maris Otter
7% Crystal malt

Enough for an OG of 1.040-1.045. Mash it at 152. And then a late-ish 0.5-1 oz addition of your EKG at 15 mins, with whatever you need to hit 30-35 IBUs as your 60 or 90 min bittering addition. And then ferment it around 68. Should make a nice simple Bitter. If you want to go Mild you'll need some other grains (either a different base malt, or some additional character malts).

Thanks for the advice guys!

DatBrew said:

Maris Otter 5-7.5lbs(not sure how much i will use yet)
East Kent Goldings hops 2oz
Danstar Windsor Dry Ale yeast

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That's a good recipe for an ordinary bitter. 7.5 lbs of Maris Otter should yield an OG around 1.033. If you can get your final gravity down to 1.008 your ABV will come it at 3.2% which is right at the bottom of the style. If I were doing the recipe I'd up the MO to about 8.0 lb. and add about 6 oz. of medium British crystal (crystal 60 or 80 would do) for color and a little more caramel flavor.

Like others here I would advise against Windsor.

It appears you have chosen Nottingham and it should do well for you. One thing to note with this yeast is that it likes fermentation temperatures on the cool side, especially during the critical first 48 -72 hours. If you can keep it around 60-65F (lower end is better) it will ferment out very nicely. Too warm and it may throw some not so pleasant fruity esters.

You might consider splitting the hops additions. With a 75 min. boil you could add 1 oz. at the beginning and the second ounce with 10 minutes remaining. Your IBU's will come it at around 23 which is close enough to the style to work and will certainly taste good. Adding them all at the beginning will cost you much of the flavor from the hops and increase the bitterness quite a bit.

Just my 2c worth. Cheers!