English Ales - What's your favorite recipe?

[Landlord]

Anyone know of a vendor that sell fresh UK hops in the US or a UK vendor that sells fresh hops and will mail to the US?

I bought some fresh UK hops from crossmyloof brewing,
https://www.crossmyloofbrew.co.uk/online-store

pretty good prices, I had mine shipped to my parents in the uk, but I am pretty sure they ship over the pond for a decent price.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Crossmyloof prices include shipping, which means they work out cheap for getting the odd pack (in fact I had one arrive today from them) but expensive for larger amounts. Another plus point is that they do a range of pack sizes, whereas most places in the UK just sell in 100g packs. They tend not to have a great selection of British varieties though - they didn't have the likes of Endeavour when I was ordering (nor Magnum surprisingly) but they're one of the few places here to have eg Calypso.

Surprised TMM wouldn't ship Stateside though. Another one to look at is www.brewstore.co.uk have a reasonable selection, and do some in 50g and 200g packs.

The most recent season hops generally only start to appear in the retail channel around this time of year, except for the ex-farm suppliers.

 

[Hanglow]

hey @Northern_Brewer you are up in the "name that skyline" thread


Here's an interesting thread on yorkshire squares at home from jbk

https://www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=86&t=81630

 

[ba-brewer]

I bought some fresh UK hops from crossmyloof brewing,
https://www.crossmyloofbrew.co.uk/online-store

pretty good prices, I had mine shipped to my parents in the uk, but I am pretty sure they ship over the pond for a decent price.

Thanks for the tip. It looks like they do ship to the US, and the price seems a bit better than what I paid for hops form stocksfarm.net. I will check back with them before my make another order.

Crossmyloof prices include shipping, which means they work out cheap for getting the odd pack (in fact I had one arrive today from them) but expensive for larger amounts. Another plus point is that they do a range of pack sizes, whereas most places in the UK just sell in 100g packs. They tend not to have a great selection of British varieties though - they didn't have the likes of Endeavour when I was ordering (nor Magnum surprisingly) but they're one of the few places here to have eg Calypso.

Surprised TMM wouldn't ship Stateside though. Another one to look at is www.brewstore.co.uk have a reasonable selection, and do some in 50g and 200g packs.

The most recent season hops generally only start to appear in the retail channel around this time of year, except for the ex-farm suppliers.

Thanks for the information on the timing of the freshest crop. I was nervous I had already missed the boat as I seen mostly 2017 or older hops at most places that had harvest years listed.

I do believe brewstore.co.uk would ship to the US but when I look I did not see any 2018 hops listed or ones I was interested in.

I did get the following hops from stocksfarm.net; golding, target, phoenix, jester and sovereign. They promptly filled the order and shipped the day after ordering.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

the price seems a bit better than what I paid for hops form stocksfarm.net. I will check back with them before my make another order.

I did get the following hops from stocksfarm.net; golding, target, phoenix, jester and sovereign. They promptly filled the order and shipped the day after ordering.

Oh, Stocks Farm are probably the most expensive hops in the UK, you're paying a big premium for the from-the-farm schtick, that's probably not worth it for "ordinary" varieties like Target but they do have some fun specialist ones - Jester and Olicana are still fairly hard to come by, and the likes of GP75 you can only get from them.

For the mainstream varieties, I'd be interested to try the Brook Farm ones from Malt Miller, they've obviously spent a lot of money in making sure they're processing them as well as possible.

 

[ba-brewer]

Sure it was a bit expensive for a fairly common hop, but I was not seeing anything fresh local to me and I am leery of the quality of the ones I had been using. The premium price I paid spread out over quite a few batches is relatively frugal compared to the cost of hops some people put into a single NEIPA brew.

Some of the newer varieties seemed interesting but they also seemed closer to North American hops than traditional varieties so the value was harder to see.

 

[z-bob]

I haven't bought British hops from Hops Direct, but I have bought US and New Zealand hops and both were excellent and the prices are good. And they have a few varieties from UK:
https://hopsdirect.com/collections/pellet-hops/Imported HTH

 

[ba-brewer]

I have been watching hopsdirect, yakamavalleyhops and farmhousesupply for a while and did not see any 2018 UK hops.
If the local shops in the UK are just starting to list 2018 ones that could explain why I did not see anything local yet.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Bear in mind that the 2018 heatwave has meant a small crop, some growers were 30% down on average, whereas 2017 was a huge crop. So there is relatively a lot of 2017 in the system, whereas the spot market for 2018 is going to be pretty tight, and in slightly unpredictable ways. So for instance Malt Miller have obviously been caught out specifically on leaf EKG and are selling it at Citra or Vic Secret prices, but they have pellets at "normal" prices. Two years ago there were stories of people being shorted on contracts for Challenger, and I suspect there are equally crazy positions this year.

Don't forget the UK industry is pretty small, smaller in acreage than Mosaic or Chinook in the US, and fragmented into lots of varieties. Goldings is the biggest at 600 acres, of which only 40% is in East Kent, there's less than 250 acres each of First Gold and Fuggle which are the next biggest, whilst the likes of Bramling Cross are down to a few fields. There's actually a greater acreage of US Goldings than EKG.

 

[kmarkstevens]

I haven't bought British hops from Hops Direct, but I have bought US and New Zealand hops and both were excellent and the prices are good. And they have a few varieties from UK:
https://hopsdirect.com/collections/pellet-hops/Imported HTH

I really like Hops Direct, but they are sold out of EKG and most of the British hops last I checked. 2017 Fuggles is $13.10. To digress, when I got back into homebrewing in 2016 after about a decade's sabbatical, I went to hops direct and picked up 2# First Gold and 2# Sonnet Golding pellets being closed out for $20 total. That, wanting low alcohol yet tasty beer and Barclay Perkins got me into the wealth and glory that is British beer.

 

[Derp]

Yakima Valley just sent an email saying that 2017 UK Fuggle pellets are on sale for $12/pound. Good price, and maybe it means that they're clearing out 2017 in anticipation of the arrival of the 2018 crop?

EDIT: Now that I think of it, I think they might have had only 2016 Fuggle in stock before today. The website says they have 300 pounds available, so maybe they just received their first 2017 Fuggle crop.

 

[Miraculix]

Was forced to go out of the house by my girlfriend to buy chocolate and toilet paper at the corner shop, didn't get any paper but found greene King xx mild in the fridge of the shop. Supposed to be a decent mild, according to online sources and fairly new in the bottle.


I just had a greene King Dipa last weekend which was surprisingly good. Looking forward to having my first what is looking to be a decent and original dark mild tonight

Anybody had it?

 

[z-bob]

I really like Hops Direct, but they are sold out of EKG and most of the British hops last I checked. 2017 Fuggles is $13.10. To digress, when I got back into homebrewing in 2016 after about a decade's sabbatical, I went to hops direct and picked up 2# First Gold and 2# Sonnet Golding pellets being closed out for $20 total. That, wanting low alcohol yet tasty beer and Barclay Perkins got me into the wealth and glory that is British beer.

I saw all those English hops and did not click thru to see that they were out of stock. Sorry about that; if they were not available I thought it would say so on the list.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Looking forward to having my first what is looking to be a decent and original dark mild tonight

Anybody had it?

I think that was one of the ones I had at GBBF last year and I lost my notes...

You could have had Holt's Mild on cask at the Euston Tap earlier this week...

It is noticeable that with English hops being out of fashion, they can hang around in the warehouse, whereas something like Galaxy will only be the latest vintage if any.

 

[Miraculix]

I think that was one of the ones I had at GBBF last year and I lost my notes...

You could have had Holt's Mild on cask at the Euston Tap earlier this week...

It is noticeable that with English hops being out of fashion, they can hang around in the warehouse, whereas something like Galaxy will only be the latest vintage if any.

Just having it, it is really good.does not taste like 3% at all, full of flavour. Nicely balanced with the hops, really good beer. If I would try brewing a dark mild,I would aim for something similar.

 

[z-bob]

I made invert syrup tonight in a pressure cooker. I have some 1.5 pint Mason jars, and I put a pound of unbleached cane sugar in each one. I added 8 ounces of hot (almost boiling) distilled water to the first two, and that looked like too much water so I only added 6 ounces to the other two. Also I added 1/8 tsp of citric acid to each jar. Stirred them up, and the sugar was not all dissolved but most of it was and it was all suspended.

I did not put lids on the jars, and I put them in my big canner and processed them at 15 pounds for an hour. That's longer than I intended; I forgot about it while I was watching TV. I turned the fire off and let it cool down on its own until I could open it up.

All 4 jars are much darker than when they went in. Surprisingly, the jars with more water are noticeably darker than the other 2. The jars with less water had 1/2 inch of undissolved sugar at the bottom; I stirred it in and it seemed to dissolve but I won't be surprised if those jars are crystallized tomorrow. I don't know if they are *really* lighter colored, or if they have little crystals throughout that are scattering the light.

The syrup is very thin (but it's still hot) and tastes kinda molasses-y. The plan was to pour the syrup into hot pint jars with 2-piece lids and seal them. I put lids on them loosely and will figure out what to do with them tomorrow. I think 6 ounces of water per pound might be the right amount, but I should have cooked it on the stove just until all the sugar was dissolved and then poured into jars.

Edit: None of the jar crystallized overnight, not even the ones where I stirred some undissolved sugar back into it. And they might have darkened a little more. It's still pretty thin, so I'm going to put it in a stockpot and boil it down a little just to reduce it; it will fit in 4 pint canning jars that way.

 

[kmarkstevens]

I saw all those English hops and did not click thru to see that they were out of stock. Sorry about that; if they were not available I thought it would say so on the list.

Austin Home Brew supply has a close out on Bramling Cross pellets with 1 pound for $10. I'm sure these are old but I've found hop pellets in a nitrogen bag keep pretty well. I have wanted to try bramling cross but never found them before, and these arrive on Monday.

 

[Landlord]

Just kegged a lovely bitter, tasted smelled and looked awesome on the way into the keg:

1048 SG
1010 FG
5%
35 IBU

8lb 8oz Crisp gleaneagles floor malted maris otter
8 oz simpsons crystal medium 65L
8 oz torrified wheat (OIO canada)
8 oz homemade invert #2ish
60min boil
20g northdown FWH
15g northdown @ 5Mins
30g stryian goldings, 20g Northdown and 20g EKG @ flameout

Fermentation: Ringwood ale (escarpments yeast) approx 200B cells pitched into 18°C wort which had 1min of pure O2. free rise to 20°C hold for 7 days. D-rest @ 25°C for 3 days. Aiming for 1.5vols of CO2 in the keg and serve at 12°C.

I guess its a bit big and hoppy for a traditional bitter, but I think its gonna be real tasty!

 

[Buckwilde]

common room esb

 

[z-bob]

I have 4 pints of #3-ish invert syrup, about a pound of sugar in each jar. How best to use it for my first try? I was thinking maybe an ESB because I have pale ale malt and Fuggles hops already. How much syrup should I use in 4 gallons? Is S-04 yeast okay if I ferment it cold, or would S-33 (close cousin of Windsor) be better? Or Nottingham?

Hopefully those of you who are English ale connoisseurs are not cringing too much. I'm not going for authentic yet, just want to practice with the ingredients that I have on-hand before buying more.

 

[Miraculix]

I have 4 pints of #3-ish invert syrup, about a pound of sugar in each jar. How best to use it for my first try? I was thinking maybe an ESB because I have pale ale malt and Fuggles hops already. How much syrup should I use in 4 gallons? Is S-04 yeast okay if I ferment it cold, or would S-33 (close cousin of Windsor) be better? Or Nottingham?

Hopefully those of you who are English ale connoisseurs are not cringing too much. I'm not going for authentic yet, just want to practice with the ingredients that I have on-hand before buying more.

I would go with s04, because I like the yeast. It flocs REALLY great, ferments quickly and has nice esters. I use it without temperature control and have no issues with it, but I guess keeping it around 18c would not do any harm.

Nottingham is really neutral and does not contribute much on it's own, which might be good for certain beers but imo not for an ESB. It also attenuates very well, so further use of syrup would be detrimental imo.

For S04 I would use 5% of the fermentables as Syrup, maybe 5% medium crystal malt (can be left out) and the rest pale malt. Never used fuggles, my favourite English hop is Goldings.... but I am afraid I have not tried much more English hops, therefore kindly ignore my mumbeling about English hops please.

 

[z-bob]

I would go with s04, because I like the yeast. It flocs REALLY great, ferments quickly and has nice esters. I use it without temperature control and have no issues with it, but I guess keeping it around 18c would not do any harm.

Nottingham is really neutral and does not contribute much on it's own, which might be good for certain beers but imo not for an ESB. It also attenuates very well, so further use of syrup would be detrimental imo.

For S04 I would use 5% of the fermentables as Syrup, maybe 5% medium crystal malt (can be left out) and the rest pale malt. Never used fuggles, my favourite English hop is Goldings.... but I am afraid I have not tried much more English hops, therefore kindly ignore my mumbeling about English hops please.

That's just the sort of info I needed. (so a whole jar of syrup is too much, but a half a jar might be about right) Thanks!

I don't think I have enough Fuggles to single-hop it. I will probably use Willamette or Sterling for bittering and add the Fuggles at 15 minutes and flameout, unless someone says to use the Fuggles for bittering and the Willamette or Sterling for late additions. (If anyone isn't familiar with Sterling, it's like a higher-alpha version of Saaz.)

 

[kmarkstevens]

I would use Willamette. It's always listed as a substitute for Fuggles, goldings and the usual English suspects. IIRC it is derived from either Fuggles or Goldings. It pairs well with Fuggles.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Historically sugar went up to 20-25%, but 10-15% is more like the maximum nowadays. A good rule of thumb would be 1:1 with crystal for a medium attenuation yeast like S-04, and 1.5:1 sugar:crystal for a low attenuator like Windsor/S-33.

At least start with that and then tweak it according to taste - you'd tend to get less crystal:sugar up north and more crystal relatively down south (and historically southern breweries were more likely to use maize rather than sugar).

I'm not a fan of Fuggles but love Goldings, so I'm not really the person to ask. You do get beers that are obviously Fuggles-heavy in the taste but they're not that common. The lack of sun in 2017 meant 2017 British hops were particularly earthy, which isn't for everyone. Willamette is a triploid derivative of Fuggles generally grown in US terroir which pushes it a bit more towards citrus and less earthy. There's a healthy tradition of dry-hopping with Central European hops, usually Styrians but sometimes Saaz.

So if you want traditional, then go big on the Fuggles as a late copper hop, and mebbe dry hop with a bit of Willamette or Sterling and bitter with the other one, probably Sterling. If it was me, I'd bitter with the Fuggles, add the Willamette late and dry hop with the Sterling. But really I'd toss them and get me some Goldingy goodness.

 

[z-bob]

@Northern_Brewer: Is T-58 yeast totally inappropriate? (especially if I don't use any wheat in the grist) I have a lot of that.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

I've not used T-58 in a trad bitter, my first instinct is that it's a bad idea.

My second instinct is that maybe if might work, if you try to minimise phenolics - no wheat or maize, really happy unstressed fermentation etc.

But I think it does have some potential as a blend - as it happens I've actually got a 10:1 S-04:T-58 blend in a best bitter just about to hit FG, so I'll be able to tell you how that works pretty shortly.

 

[rhys333]

I have 4 pints of #3-ish invert syrup, about a pound of sugar in each jar. How best to use it for my first try? I was thinking maybe an ESB because I have pale ale malt and Fuggles hops already. How much syrup should I use in 4 gallons? Is S-04 yeast okay if I ferment it cold, or would S-33 (close cousin of Windsor) be better? Or Nottingham?

Hopefully those of you who are English ale connoisseurs are not cringing too much. I'm not going for authentic yet, just want to practice with the ingredients that I have on-hand before buying more.

If you have access to liquid yeast I recommend trying Wyeast 1968. It ferments fast, drops clear, and produces a great malt character. Excellent for a range of English styles (and even American) in my humble opinion.

 

[jturman35]

My first ESB and really a big hit with everyone at only 11 days in the keg.

 

[lowtones84]

Been reading a lot of Ron Pattinson's (Shut Up About Barclay Perkins!) work and decided to brew a modern version of a pre-20th century IPA (makes sense, right?). Actually less hops/barrel in the "copper", but more dry hops certainly, though one account mentions dry hopping close to this recipe. The idea is to kind of combine NEIPA techniques with English ingredients, highly experimental but going well so far.

Sexy Rexy
5.5 US gal
OG: 1.068
Est. FG: 1.012
IBU: 75

9.5 lbs. Crisp Maris Otter
1 lb. Flaked Barley
4 oz. Acidulated Malt (Mash ph adjustment)

Mash @150F 60 minutes. Mashout/Batch Sparge @ 162F 20 minutes

1 lb. Invert #1 @20
.5 lb. Invert #2 @20

.5 oz. Challenger @60
1 oz. Fuggles @ 20
4 oz. Jester Whirlpool @165F 25 minutes
1 oz. Fuggles Whirlpool @165F 25 minutes
.5 oz. Challenger, 1 oz. First Gold Dry Hop 3 days as krausen drops
4 oz. Jester, 1 oz. EKG Dry Hop 5 days

WLP 007, rinsed repitch from 1.054 bitter, 1000ml Starter

Smelled phenomenal when I put the second dry hop in a couple days ago. Will update when it's ready to drink.

 

[kmarkstevens]

Just chiming in to share that I love the Barclay Perkins site. It has tons of session beers. Admittedly, you may have to wade thru tons of recipes that are virtually the same but there are a lot of diamonds to be mined. Here is one that got me hooked on Shutup, the 1930 Whitbread AK at 2.4% ABV and 56 IBU: https://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/search?q=1930+AK+bitter Tell me that one doesn't break all sorts of BJCP guidelines (and in a good way!).


I've got at least half a dozen recipes from the website in rotation, a few to modify and at least a dozen on my "to brew" list. I've got two of his books, and they are helpful in that Ron Pattinson has filtered out the dozens of similar recipes for 1-2 examples that he showcases.