English Ales - What's your favorite recipe?

[DuncB]

Those were Halycon days weren't they.

 

[svs]

I'm sure this link is in the threads somewhere but just in case it isn't :



David Heaths Dark Mild

 

[McMullan]

Is that the shifty double-glazing salesman on YouTube who claims to be a master brewer and recommends 'thawing frozen hops in the fridge for a few days before dry hopping'? Personally, I'm totally not interested in what notorious con artists claim. On any subject. I have zero time for con artists whose brazen ignorance and blatant lack of genuine knowledge tend to send naive home brewers down dead-end rabbit holes. He's a menace, frankly.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

https://www.farmhousebrewingsupply.com/10-lb-halcyon-fawcett/

Heh, I'd not seen it at homebrew level for ages, the Malt Miller seem to be the only place that have it in the UK. I suspect it's a byproduct of the pandemic - Fawcetts will have been growing it on contract for a specific brewer, who then didn't need so much because the pubs were closed and so they had some spare which they released to other channels.

 

[McMullan]

I was able to get Halcyon quite easily in Norway until 4-5 years ago.

 

[svs]

Is that the shifty double-glazing salesman on YouTube who claims to be a master brewer and recommends 'thawing frozen hops in the fridge for a few days before dry hopping'? Personally, I'm totally not interested in what notorious con artists claim. On any subject. I have zero time for con artists whose brazen ignorance and blatant lack of genuine knowledge tend to send naive home brewers down dead-end rabbit holes. He's a menace, frankly.

Was that about David Heath? Apologies for posting, I'm new to the forum and didn't realise.

 

[McMullan]

Was that about David Heath? Apologies for posting, I'm new to the forum and didn't realise.

Don't worry, he fools a lot of people. Welcome to HBT

 

[kmarkstevens]

Here's a link to Machine House Mild: Machine House Mild Clong

It's in my top 10 beers of all time list.

 

[kmarkstevens]

BTW, Ron Pattinson is going to be in the Seattle area the end of July. He will be at Machine House and at Foggy Bottom, and not sure where else. Foggy Bottom has tickets on sale, but I'm waiting for Machine House to announce their gig.

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

Cooked up a new batch of #3 last night, as my previous batches didn't come out allright, and a large portion of the sugar had formed a hard crystalline mass at the bottom.
Last time I just let it reach about 85c, and that seems not really enough to reach full inversion and dissolving of the sugar.
This time I added 0.5ml of 80%lactic to 550ml of water, let it reach boil, added about 1kg sugar and 1tsp citric acid, let it heat while gently stirring until the solution cleared, then some more sugar and a dash of honey as per the tip someone gave earlier in this thread, for a total of 1500g of sugar. Let it simmer to just over 110c this time so hopefully I got the sugar completely dissolved and inverted...
Used a 90/10 mix of Billingtons light/dark muscovado.

 

[RimWreck]

I like to keep it simple:

11 lbs MO for an og of 1.065 to 1.068
48 IBU's
10 oz Muntons C60 (varies by OG)
1/4 lb Victory
1 lb Cane Sugar
Straight EKG all pellets
@ 5.9 Alpha...
.35 oz EKG for 60 mins
2.25 EKG 20 mins prior
2.25 EKG 10 mins prior

Single Infusion at 151F.

Don't bother with dry-hopping, it doesn't last (with EKG) and gets lost with the earlier additions. Let the 20 and 10 minute additions carry it. Those WILL last.

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

Sounds tasty, I take it is some strong/keeping ale meant to be matured for a while?

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

I've seen in many of Ron's recipes he has published in his books and blog, that a common theme in British brewing seem to have been 30 min hop additions.
So I have decided to start experimenting a little with adding hops at 30 min left, my next bitter I think I will split my 1g/L hopstand between the stand and 30 min.
I googled around a bit and some guy said he found it to give a deeper hop flavour, and that Bramling X gave the most black currant when boiled for 30.

 

[monkeymath]

I've seen in many of Ron's recipes he has published in his books and blog, that a common theme in British brewing seem to have been 30 min hop additions.
So I have decided to start experimenting a little with adding hops at 30 min left, my next bitter I think I will split my 1g/L hopstand between the stand and 30 min.
I googled around a bit and some guy said he found it to give a deeper hop flavour, and that Bramling X gave the most black currant when boiled for 30.

Those 30 minute additions also popped up when I was looking into Czech lagers... they'd often even forego any late additions and still seem to have some character from the hops (although probably a different kind). There must be something to it, I guess. Brulosophy has done two experiments on it, and both came out significant.

I have another question regarding British beers in general: is there any place for non-barley grains besides oats in oatmeal stout or a bit of torrefied wheat for head retention?
Crisp (the maltster) has published a recipe named "London Porter" London Porter Recipe | Crisp Best Ale Base Malt | Crisp British Malt, which features a bit of rye malt. I guess that's not very traditional? Are "modern" brewers incorporating other grains? (Incidentally, the recipe is actually quite similar to a Rye Porter I made two years ago, which happened to be one of my favourite beers ever.)

 

[Miraculix]

Those 30 minute additions also popped up when I was looking into Czech lagers... they'd often even forego any late additions and still seem to have some character from the hops (although probably a different kind). There must be something to it, I guess. Brulosophy has done two experiments on it, and both came out significant.

I have another question regarding British beers in general: is there any place for non-barley grains besides oats in oatmeal stout or a bit of torrefied wheat for head retention?
Crisp (the maltster) has published a recipe named "London Porter" London Porter Recipe | Crisp Best Ale Base Malt | Crisp British Malt, which features a bit of rye malt. I guess that's not very traditional? Are "modern" brewers incorporating other grains? (Incidentally, the recipe is actually quite similar to a Rye Porter I made two years ago, which happened to be one of my favourite beers ever.)

Wheat is pretty traditional, so is corn. But corn doesn't improve head retention, neither do oats.

I'll check the brulosophy articles, thanks!

 

[Miraculix]

I've seen in many of Ron's recipes he has published in his books and blog, that a common theme in British brewing seem to have been 30 min hop additions.
So I have decided to start experimenting a little with adding hops at 30 min left, my next bitter I think I will split my 1g/L hopstand between the stand and 30 min.
I googled around a bit and some guy said he found it to give a deeper hop flavour, and that Bramling X gave the most black currant when boiled for 30.

That's interesting. My recent bitter has a shortened boil, 30 minutes with 66% of the ibus as a 30 minute addition and 33% as a ten minute addition. Hope this works.

 

[McMullan]

Flaked maize often finds its way into my bitters. I find it a fairly neutral gravity booster that lightens things a tad, even when mashing high, which works very well me. I find it helps balance things. Generally, there's more than enough variety in English malted barley, so that any English style is perfectly fine with 100% barley.

 

[cire]

Flaked maize is a frequent addition in my paler beers. It was a common ingredient in British beers for reasons of cost, more extract for less cost than from malted barley, and lower nitrogen content for clearer beer. I frequently use Crownfield Corn Flakes from Lidl, which from the packet are 96% corn, barley malt extract and salt. The salt content might be too high for some brewers, but I can't taste it.

Cheaper, lower grade, higher protein malts, often sold as mild ale malt, mashed with 10% flaked corn can be capable of producing a beer of equally clarity to that made from 100% high grade, low protein malted barley. I do find maize beneficial in pale beers.

 

[kmarkstevens]

I found that maize will be balanced with a higher IBU.

I have done side by side brews for comparison. Corn adds some sweetness that off sets higher bittering. Whereas the experiment with corn was balanced, the same IBU level without the corn was overly harsh.

 

[RimWreck]

Sounds tasty, I take it is some strong/keeping ale meant to be matured for a while?

Well, that would be the sensible thing to do. However, it goes into the glass right away. It's my house brew.

 

[Shenanigans]

When I was back home in Ireland last month I picked up two cans of Lyles Black Treacle, anyone here ever used that for brewing something?

 

[McMullan]

When I was back home in Ireland last month I picked up two cans of Lyles Black Treacle, anyone here ever used that for brewing something?

Use it very sparingly. There seems to be some misinformation out there on how much to add to a beer recipe. Personally, I didn't like it that much. You might like it, but I got some flavouring I just didn't enjoy and it carried over into the beer, even at very low dosage rates. I prefer straight molasses, like blackstrap, which is available in health shops generally. Or, if you can get hold of it, crystalline molasses from Billington's. Still used very sparingly, making up about 1-4% inverted cane sugar to add complexity. Up to about 12.5% (of invert) to get invert #4 is as high as I've gone without regretting it.

 

[Shenanigans]

Use it very sparingly. There seems to be some misinformation out there on how much to add to a beer recipe. Personally, I didn't like it that much. You might like it, but I got some flavouring I just didn't enjoy and it carried over into the beer, even at very low dosage rates. I prefer straight molasses, like blackstrap, which is available in health shops generally. Or, if you can get hold of it, crystalline molasses from Billington's. Still used very sparingly, making up about 1-4% inverted cane sugar to add complexity. Up to about 12.5% (of invert) to get invert #4 is as high as I've gone without regretting it.

Thanks.
Yes I've seen from doing a search that 3 or 4oz in a 5 gallon batch is enough.
Some homebrewers have used it for a Theakston Old Peculier clone.
I might have to use some for baking as well to use it up

 

[DBhomebrew]

I brewed this recipe featuring treacle early in my brewing career. It was a fine and interesting beer, but far from traditional, etc.

https://beerandbrewing.com/make-your-best-old-ale/
Northern_Brewer recommends using treacle in parkin. Haven't tried it yet, but it looks like it'd be right up my alley.

 

[cire]

I use 50g, say 2 oz, in 1 Kg of refined cane sugar, home inverted into #1 to make very close to a #3 Invert. Be careful, it is very easy to go over the top. 2 tins will last a long time, but used wisely will repay your outlay several times over.

 

[McMullan]

I brewed this recipe featuring treacle early in my brewing career. It was a fine and interesting beer, but far from traditional, etc.

https://beerandbrewing.com/make-your-best-old-ale/
Northern_Brewer recommends using treacle in parkin. Haven't tried it yet, but it looks like it'd be right up my alley.

I think that recipe was copied and propagated without much idea. From BYO, if memory serves. An acquired taste to say the least. The bit about not substituting blackstrap or other better sources of molasses just expressed even more ignorance on ignorance. Yay, for the internet!

 

[DBhomebrew]

I think that recipe was copied and propagated without much idea. From BYO, if memory serves. An acquired taste to say the least. The bit about not substituting blackstrap or other better sources of molasses just expressed even more ignorance on ignorance. Yay, for the internet!

I'm struggling to figure out what your comments have to do with 1) whether the recipe features treacle and 2) whether I've brewed it.

You may have seen the recipe twice. Weikert typically publishes a 'Make Your Best...' writeup along with a sister post of the recipe by itself. This one can be found by searching for 'Make Your Best Old Ale' and 'Amazon Old Ale'.

As I said in my first post on the topic: interesting beer, non-traditional, will likely use any further treacle in parkin.

 

[McMullan]

You don't put a 455g tin of black treacle into a 5 gallon batch of beer. It says an awful lot about those daring to recommend otherwise.

 

[An Ankoù]

I brewed this recipe featuring treacle early in my brewing career. It was a fine and interesting beer, but far from traditional, etc.

https://beerandbrewing.com/make-your-best-old-ale/
Northern_Brewer recommends using treacle in parkin. Haven't tried it yet, but it looks like it'd be right up my alley.

So does An Ankoù. Parkin is delicious, as is treackle toffee. You can find recipes for both online. Bith these are associated traditionally with "Bonfire Night" November 5th in the UK, when an effigy of Guy Fawkes is burnt on the bonfire. Personally, i wouldn't use it in beer in any quantities.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkin_(cake)
By the way, Tate & Lyle Black Treacle isn't easily available in France, either, so I have the occasional tin brought over for making cakes etc.

What a fascinating thread this is. I love hearing about other countries' take on English beers. Often the recipes are very much worth trying. The weirdest I came across was from New Zealand using 40% melanoidin malt. It turned out delicious!

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Flaked maize is a frequent addition in my paler beers. It was a common ingredient in British beers for reasons of cost, more extract for less cost than from malted barley, and lower nitrogen content for clearer beer.

Aside from that, talking to John Keeling a while back, he said that flaked maize was believed to help finings to work and he thought it "opened out" the flavour a bit.

Maize has a lot of ferulic acid which POF+ yeast turn to "clove", my theory is that it doesn't get used in breweries that have Beer2 ("saison")-type yeasts. Certainly maize seems to be more common down south where Beer1 yeasts are the norm.

Was working a festival at the weekend, complete with the traditional beer showers when you tap a lively cask - you don't get that with kegs!