Charles Dickens Inspired Beer

[kevin58]

Would you mind sending me your Beersmith Victorian Era style profile? I'm very interested.

I'm not sure I did this in the most scientific way but here is my Victorian style guidelines. I sat down with a notebook and scoured through nearly 300 of Ron's recipes (in books and from his blog) from 1837 to 1901. I divided them by sub style... X, XX, XXX, etc. and recorded starting gravities, finishing gravities, IBU, SRM, ABV, and maybe a few more data points to come up with minimums and maximums. For better or worse this is what I came up with.

 

[user 246304]

I'm not sure I did this in the most scientific way but here is my Victorian style guidelines. I sat down with a notebook and scoured through nearly 300 of Ron's recipes (in books and from his blog) from 1837 to 1901. I divided them by sub style... X, XX, XXX, etc. and recorded starting gravities, finishing gravities, IBU, SRM, ABV, and maybe a few more data points to come up with minimums and maximums. For better or worse this is what I came up with.

That is a lot of work and really generous, Kevin. Many thanks.

 

[Drinking Sensibly]

I'm not sure I did this in the most scientific way but here is my Victorian style guidelines. I sat down with a notebook and scoured through nearly 300 of Ron's recipes (in books and from his blog) from 1837 to 1901. I divided them by sub style... X, XX, XXX, etc. and recorded starting gravities, finishing gravities, IBU, SRM, ABV, and maybe a few more data points to come up with minimums and maximums. For better or worse this is what I came up with.

Impressively nerdy

 

[Bullhog]

I'm not sure I did this in the most scientific way but here is my Victorian style guidelines. I sat down with a notebook and scoured through nearly 300 of Ron's recipes (in books and from his blog) from 1837 to 1901. I divided them by sub style... X, XX, XXX, etc. and recorded starting gravities, finishing gravities, IBU, SRM, ABV, and maybe a few more data points to come up with minimums and maximums. For better or worse this is what I came up with.

Wow, thank you, thank you, thank you!

Got them imported! You really worked hard on this, thank you for sharing!

 

[user 246304]

Kevin or others, I was unable to open - can someone tell me what format this is in, or what they used? Thanks again Kevin.

 

[Bullhog]

Kevin or others, I was unable to open - can someone tell me what format this is in, or what they used? Thanks again Kevin.

It's for BeerSmith, but it needs some massaging before it will work.

Open the file with a text editor, and replace the top line with this "<Style><_PERMID_>0</_PERMID_>"
Then remove the .txt ending so it's just .bsmx
Then within BeerSmith go to file and open, and open the file where you have it saved
Then copy and paste the styles into your style profiles

 

[kevin58]

Kevin or others, I was unable to open - can someone tell me what format this is in, or what they used? Thanks again Kevin.

It's a Beersmith file. From Beersmith open it from the File menu. Save them to Profiles > Style. Then you will need to go to Tools > Options and then check the box next to the new guidelines under Style Guides To Display.

 

[kevin58]

Wow, thank you, thank you, thank you!

Got them imported! You really worked hard on this, thank you for sharing!

You are welcome. I also have a few in a style guide that I called Custom - Wartime (1914-1946) and another called Custom - Post War (1947-1965). There are not nearly as many styles included in these however since these eras are noted for ingredient shortages and rationing which cause beer to dramatically change. Even in the post war period beer did not recover and was a mere shadow of what it once was.

 

[user 246304]

It's a Beersmith file. From Beersmith open it from the File menu. Save them to Profiles > Style. Then you will need to go to Tools > Options and then check the box next to the new guidelines under Style Guides To Display.

Great, thanks Kevin.

 

[Witherby]

I'm not sure I did this in the most scientific way but here is my Victorian style guidelines. I sat down with a notebook and scoured through nearly 300 of Ron's recipes (in books and from his blog) from 1837 to 1901. I divided them by sub style... X, XX, XXX, etc. and recorded starting gravities, finishing gravities, IBU, SRM, ABV, and maybe a few more data points to come up with minimums and maximums. For better or worse this is what I came up with.

I really love this and have wanted these style guides in Beersmith for a long time. Back in 2016 (and since then in other posts I can't find) Ron mentions that he creates style guides in Beersmith for himself:
https://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2016/12/lets-brew-1912-thomas-usher-ip.html

I emailed him in 2020 because I thought he could sell those on his website for homebrewers and apparently at least a few of us are interested! He told me that he lost a bunch of them at one point when he upgraded Beersmith.

Another way of going about this would be to find the periods when he is starting a new book project, because he often has a series of posts with a broad overview of a style during a given period, e.g., like these for AK from 1925-1939:

https://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2021/04/ak-1925-1939.html

https://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2021/04/ak-grists-1925-1939.html

https://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2021/04/ak-sugars-1925-1939.html

https://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2021/04/ak-hops-1925-1939.html


In his Scotland book at least, he divides the eras up this way: 1840-1880, 1880-1914,1914-1939, 1939-1970.

In other places, periods like WWII get a subcategory, but those recipes are probably are interesting for a much smaller set of people, in terms of brewing beer.

Here's another example, Scottish Stout 1920-1939.
https://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2011/11/scottish-stout-1920-1939.html

Seems like finding the posts with "grists" in the title or date ranges in the title would be a way to go about this, if someone had the skills to design a search with AI, so it could do something useful for once.

 

[kevin58]

I really love this and have wanted these style guides in Beersmith for a long time. Back in 2016 (and since then in other posts I can't find) Ron mentions that he creates style guides in Beersmith for himself:
https://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2016/12/lets-brew-1912-thomas-usher-ip.html

Yes! It was this post and a few others where he says he created his own style guide that inspired me. When I want to find specific recipes or styles I use the search bar at the top of his blog and search something like "Let's Brew +Mild".

 

[AmarikinBrew]

The Windsor yeast has a rep of being slow to attenuate, to the point of being described as "creeping" yeast, especially with crystal malts which Chevallier Malt seems to be like even before kilning.
After 3 days of the FG measurement not changing, I would then check it every cupla months after that to see if it drops and then if not, keg or bottle. So in other words, age it whilst checking with a hydrometer in the secondary, then carb.