Archers Golden Bitter clone

[dhelegda]

Ok found a recipe that calls for 9lb 8oz of Maris Otter...no other grains, I have 10 lbs of MO and a pound of English medium crystal I plan on using about half pound of the English Medium. How dramatically do you think the crystal will change the flavor? Pros and Cons


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[wileaway]

If you are doing a mash then you could potentially lower the target mash temp by a couple degrees to compensate for the residual sweetness that will be caused by adding the crystal. Your color will be slightly darker, of course, so maybe 'Helegda's Bronze Bitter'?

I wouldn't hesitate to try it. It will make a fine, english style bitter with your alternate ingredient.

 

[DogStar]

Archers was my local brewery. It's now long gone and sadly missed. The Golden Ale was one of their best.

It won't be a golden ale if you use any crystal.

I often make a clone of Archers Best Bitter. I'm planning to make some this weekend. Here is the recipe I use to make 5 US gallons. It's very close to the original and comes out at 4% abv.

3.25 Kgs Maris Otter
170 grams medim Crystal

20g Progress at 60 mins
20g WGV at 60 mins

15g WGV at 10 mins

I usually use WLP007 English Dry Yeast but for the last batch I used WLP041 Pacific Ale Yeast which brought out the malt flavour slightly better.

Progress and WGV are essential for an authentic taste and it's probably my favorite combination. They really do work well together.

I sometimes make a clone of Archers Village which was their ordinary bitter. It's the same recipe but bring it down to 3.6% abv

 

[dhelegda]

It turned out awesome...it's bronze in color and I can drink the hell out of it...turned out great. Def not golden!


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[hout17]

I know this is an old thread but I wanted to see how this compared to Boddington's?

I also want to know what you UK folks would do different?

Here is the Archers Golden Bitter Clone recipe the OP was referring to I believe.

Assumed efficiency for the recipe is 65% (not adjusted to my system)

Batch Size = 5 US Gallons/19L
OG = 1.046
FG = 1.010

IBU = 36
SRM = 5
ABV = 4.5%

Malt:
9lb 8oz Maris Otter Pale Malt

Hops:
10 AAU White bread Golding's @ 60min
11 AAU White bread Goldings @ 0min

1 tsp Irish Moss @ 15 min

Wyeast 1318 London Ale III

Mash at 152°F for 60min

Boil for 60 minutes

 

[Northern_Brewer]

I know this is an old thread but I wanted to see how this compared to Boddington's?

Rather than digging up a necro thread on a different beer, if Boddies is what you're interested in then I suggest you read through Orfy's thread on Boddies :
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/boddingtons-bitter.21131/
And then have a read of all Ron Pattinson's research on Boddies (including the comments) :
https://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/search/label/Boddington
The thing is that the recipes on these kinds of beers are generally so simple - close to SMaSHes - that most of the differences are in the process and things like yeast. The pre-1980s Boddies yeast was from Tadcaster and could give apparent attenuations over 90%, subsequent yeasts gave rather less attenuation. It's not clear where 1318 came from, it seems to be a Whitbread yeast that probably never went near Manchester, it may have been used to make Boddies at a Whitbread factory after Strangeways closed but it's not "the" Boddies yeast.

 

[hout17]

@Northern_Brewer Lol, thanks but if you look at Orfy's Boddington's thread I've already posted there quite a bit and posted pictures too and brewed his recipe.

This is an Archers thread totally appropriate to ask the question in. Anyway thanks for your response and also the info you provided me in Orfy's thread as well.

I also frequent Pattinson's site as well.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Sorry, your question came across as wanting to adapt the Archer's recipe to be more like Boddies.

You have to think about the timing and geography here - as a brewery in Swindon in the 1980s/90s, Archer's will have been far more influenced by Exmoor Gold than anything from Manchester. But getting any kind of information about these kinds of small late-20C breweries is notoriously difficult, especially once they go bust - they never had the best of record-keeping even when they were operating, and what records there are tend to have long gone. You might get lucky with some personal recollections (more likely on one of the UK boards than HBT) but otherwise you're on your own.