Can You Brew It recipe for Wychwood Hobgoblin

[5hakesbeer]

I can't seem to find it using the search on my phone... I've got it bookmarked on my Mac so if no one else has posted it by tonight I'll post it then

 

[5hakesbeer]

Here's the extract link:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=20228

Also, something in the back of my mind appeared this morning...
I'm almost certain the Wychwood tour guide mentioned a beer that they bottle condition. It has been a good 5 years or so since that tour and for all I know it could be a memory from the Hook Norton Brewery tour from around the same time that has manifested itself in my memory of the Wychwood tour...
Back then I had only attempted a couple of home brews in my uni days (all following the instructions from the all-in-one pack - trebling the added sugar content to make a ridiculously strong beer-coloured drink) so I didn't really pay too much interest to anything specific, I was just enjoying the tour like any normal person would.

Now, If my memory is correct I think he was talking about one of the Brakspear beers, perhaps Brakspear Triple? I remember him talking through that beer for a while as they double drop it, and it is called "Triple" because it is essentially triple fermented... I think they counted bottle conditioning as one of those three?
If it is bottle conditioned then there should be yeast present, yes?

Listening to Jeff Drew on that podcast I'm pretty sure he said that he was selected to become head brewer at Wychwood because he had previously worked with the yeast etc. from his Brakspear days before both breweries were bought by Marstons.
So if the same yeast is used for the Brakspear ales and the Wychwood ales (any my memory is correct) then we have a beer to harvest the Wychwood yeast from!

Does anyone have any further information to shoot me down/confirm my suspicions?

 

[5hakesbeer]

My memory was correct:

http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/brakspear-triple-iii/173826/

There we go! Plain as day... bottle conditioned.
This is a wonderful beer by the way for anyone that hasn't tried it, it's just a shame that the ABV means you can't drink it all night!

Has anyone harvested the yeast from this?
I think this is a ruddy good excuse to buy a few bottles of the stuff

 

[adam01]

Ive tried wy1275 aka Brakspear yeast. page 15 has a link saying its whitbread derivative (wy1098)

Enjoy brewing.

 

[5hakesbeer]

Brilliant, I somehow skipped over that!
In that case I'll give WLP007 a go seeing as that is a little easier to get in the UK and should essentially be the same thing as wy1098

I think I'm ready to give the extract + steep recipe a go for this now, although I'll probably have to wait until the 5th to try it (going to Monaco next weekend and all my ingredients have to be ordered online).
I'll order everything this week and nail down the method so I'm good to go.
If all goes well I could have the perfect Christmas present for myself!

...I'll report back with my results

 

[gbx]

Hello all,

I brewed this again on friday. This time is a little different as I brewed with my fresh homegrown hops. I have already brewed the obligatory double IPA and this used up the left overs of my harvest (I only got about a quarter of last years harvest due to the crappy summer weather). This was a no-chill brew with the late hops all added to the chilling vessel.

2016 HarvestGoblin:

9lb TF Golden Promise
13oz Bairds C75
3oz Carafa Sp 2 (I didn't have any UK chocolate malt)
1.5oz Black Strap Mollases (sub for the invert sugar)

2.75oz wet 2016 Hallertau + Goldings @FW
1oz 4%AA EKG @ FW (Store bought as I didn't have enough homegrown)
2oz dry 2016 Saaz @ 0 (Saaz IS the correct substitution if styrian goldings are not available, don't let anyone sell you fuggle)
1oz dry 2016 Cascade @ 0

1tsp CaCl, 1tsp CaSO4 (Vancouver's tap water is essentially RO)
S-04 Pitched at 12C, 18C ambient
OG: 1.044

The gravity sample was very yummy. I'll post a follow up when I drink it.

 

[gbx]

We drank the cask at canadian thanksgiving dinner yesterday and did a side by side with a store bought. The usual issues: too light in body and alcohol, too hoppy. The colour was almost perfect, the wychwood is slightly more red and head is tan vs mine's off-white head. Maybe this is the carafa sp 2 vs the chocolate malt? This store bought bottle had a heavy mollases note. The black strap in mine is barely perceivable if at all.

I think its pointless trying to replicate the export bottles they sell here with this recipe. I really enjoy this recipe but it comes out closer to the Iron Maiden Trooper than Hobgoblin. Not really a bad thing?

 

[adam01]

>Export glass bottles

Are you saying bottled vs Cask ?

I've had fresh English bottles and they are similar to what we have here.
I've also had a keg version - there wasn't much difference, if any with the bottles here.

 

[gbx]

>Export glass bottles

Are you saying bottled vs Cask ?

I've had fresh English bottles and they are similar to what we have here.
I've also had a keg version - there wasn't much difference, if any with the bottles here.

The bottles they sell here in Canada is the 5.2% ABV, low hopped, heavy malt version. There is no way the recipe from CYBI is the same. The mini cask that I bought last christmas (and refilled with my homebrew) was 4.3% and it seemed conceivable that the recipe given in the interview might make that beer with the same malts and process.

 

[TonyKZ1]

Yesterday afternoon I brewed a 5G Extract w/steeping grains recipe, it was a Hobgoblin Dark English Ale clone from Jaspers. The grains and hops sure smelled good while brewing. I guess I'll know how it turned out in a few weeks. I've never tried the original but it sounded good so I thought, why not?

 

[Tribe Fan]

Yesterday afternoon I brewed a 5G Extract w/steeping grains recipe, it was a Hobgoblin Dark English Ale clone from Jaspers. The grains and hops sure smelled good while brewing. I guess I'll know how it turned out in a few weeks. I've never tried the original but it sounded good so I thought, why not?

It is a fantastic beer. I drank a ton of it in the UK, both bottled and cask and never knew there was a difference.

 

[adam01]

Wish we could get someone in the UK to talk to the Brewers about the sweetness we can't duplicate.

 

[gbx]

Simpson's 70-80L dark crystal. That is the answer. This is the missing "british" taste in Hobgoblin and Fuller's (especially the London Porter). We just got it at the local stores a couple months ago and it is awesome. (although the Golden Promise didn't blow me away)

 

[adam01]

So you like this better the Bairds crystal ?
Did you use this in a hobgoblin recipe, or a fullers ?

 

[gbx]

So you like this better the Bairds crystal ?
Did you use this in a hobgoblin recipe, or a fullers ?

So far I've only used it a bjcp 70/- and a mild that is >20% crystal. Both have "the taste". I don't know if I like it better than the Bairds but its different and probably is the right crystal for hobgoblin or a fullers clone. My next brew planned is another attempt at London Porter - my other favourite english import.

 

[gbx]

The cans are so much better than the bottles

 

[adam01]

What do you taste that you like
More ?

 

[gbx]

What do you taste that you like
More ?

Its in a lot better shape than most of the bottles I've had. It has a lot of malt but it isn't near as sweet and the hops are there. Its also the lighter 4.5% ABV version vs the 5.2% export version.

 

[adam01]

I have a 4 pack of unoxidized Hobgoblin - well now a 3 pack.
It has no sherry like taste to it. This is the first time in 7 years.
Amazingly, it tastes almost like what I brewed in march and almost threw away because it had little sweetness (too long in the primary).

So Jeff's CYBI recipe is really pretty close. I'm going to MKE soon and will bring some simpsons crystal to brew again and taste. Thx GBX for the tip.

I was reading the Mild Ale style book and it mentioned that british brewers get oxidation from whirlpooling their wort. Maybe this is where it comes from. But where did it go in this batch ? I even had a few bottles flowin from the UK and they had the oxidized taste. Strange.

 

[gbx]

I was reading the Mild Ale style book and it mentioned that british brewers get oxidation from whirlpooling their wort. Maybe this is where it comes from. But where did it go in this batch ? I even had a few bottles flowin from the UK and they had the oxidized taste. Strange.

Hot side oxidation is not a thing - its just cold side oxidation and crappy brewers in denial of their bad process. Nobody who purges their transfers and keg conditions ever has a problem with "hot side aeration". Any oxidation in British beers comes from cask conditioning and (like ALL oxidation) from post fermentation/cold side handling.

Most of those old style books are complete nonsense and most brewing books that pre-date the internet are garbage too unless you are aware that 90% of the information contained is wrong or horribly out of date and are just reading them for fun. They are like reading a book about evolution from before dna sequencing - maybe the general concepts are sort of right but the details are all wrong.

 

[cheesechoker]

Simpson's 70-80L dark crystal. That is the answer. This is the missing "british" taste in Hobgoblin and Fuller's (especially the London Porter).

Going by their spec sheets, you are talking about "Crystal medium dark", yeah?

• Crystal medium: 63.2 - 71.8 L
• Crystal medium dark: 70.0 - 83.0 L
• Crystal dark: 94.3 - 107.5 L

Unfortunately not stocked by my LHBS...