English Ales - What's your favorite recipe?

[Cheshire Cat]

I was going through my old recipes searching for something to brew with Maris Otter as I have 5kg sitting around a few months that I ordered crushed by mistake and want to use it up before it gets old.

I found a recipe for Goose Island IPA based on one posted on Brewer's friend in 2012 before AB-Inbev took over and ruined it in Europe.
It's like an English/American hybrid recipe which is supposed to be brewed with WLP007/Wyeast 1098 but I brewed it with WLP005 in the past and it turned out very nice. I will brew it again this weekend and see what it's like from the keg as last time I could only package in bottles.
I'll also do some water adjustments as 7 or 8 years ago I didn't have any experience with that.

I added a bit more cascade in the dry hop, because I can

View attachment 816341

I love Goose Island what water profile do you use? Thanks.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

That is a beautiful kräusen!

That's barm, not kräusen!

But it's a good reminder of what people mean when they refer to ale yeasts as "top-fermenting". I've seen some posts lately where people are almost scared of a proper top-fermenting yeast, they're so used to yeast lab strains that have adapted to life in conicals. So here's a reminder of what proper yeast looks like in Yorkshire squares, from Tim Taylor, Sam Smith and a fishtail in action on the round squares at Black Sheep :

 

[Shenanigans]

@Shenanigans
I used the WLP099 in a Thomas Hardys ale barleywine clone following the @ronpatto recipe on shut up about barclay perkins.

Made a big starter stepped up to final volume of 6.5 litres in the fermentasaurus, conveniently the stir bar and stirrer fitted nicely on the stand and then when complete I stood it up and the yeast dropped into the collecting bowl. The Fermentasaurus was open for air exchange during the growth stage.
Very impressive krausen on the beer within 24 hours in the ferment fridge which lasted several days. No chance of contamination with this as an example of safe open ferment arrangement. No tea towel used at all. Harveys in Sussex don't cover their open fermenters with a clean tea towel!
See latest Get er brewed video for a great tour of Harveys brewery.


The remaining yeast in the fermentasaurus after taking off the starter volume in the bottle I pitched the partigyle 1.041 bitter onto and that was good at 18C ramped to 22.

View attachment 816378View attachment 816379

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Thanks for the info.
Looks crazy
Unfortunately I'm not so well equipt like you but I'm sure I could put together some kind of monster starter.
One of the recipies I read mentions a 4 hour boil.
That would be one expensive brew with the price of malt and energy these days.

 

[Shenanigans]

I love Goose Island what water profile do you use? Thanks.

Last time I brewed it I just use my tap water as I didn't know anything about water treatment then.

This weekend I will use a similar profile to the one suggested on the recipe page

Hopefully you are still getting the original American recipe wherever you are.
Here I can only get it when I pop across the border to The Netherlands and it's brewed in Belgium.
Tastes like a soapy warm fermented lager with a bit of extra hop extract added to it.

 

[Colindo]

That's barm, not kräusen!

What is the difference? In German, kräusen means the build-up of yeast on the top of the wort, or more precisely the action of the yeast that leads to that build-up. How is it used in English?

Amazing pictures btw. There is a wheat beer brewery in Germany called Schneider who ferment in a way that appears to me to be remarkably British: Open fermentation and conditioning in the keg with live yeast. They get similar barm as in your pictures. You can find their brewery tour on Youtube.

 

[DuncB]

There is a wheat beer brewery in Germany called Schneider who ferment in a way that appears to me to be remarkably British: Open fermentation and conditioning in the keg with live yeast. They get similar barm as in your pictures. You can find their brewery tour on Youtube.

I'll look it up tonight thank you.

 

[DuncB]

@Shenanigans

I realised after repurposing the fermentasaurus that the one gallon fermenter I had would have been a much better option!!

 

[duncan_disorderly]

Landlord has about 50g of Black Malt but that looks a great pint.

I'm not sure the real thing does have black malt. The colour appears to come from some form of sugar. An invert or caramel colouring presumably.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

What is the difference? In German, kräusen means the build-up of yeast on the top of the wort, or more precisely the action of the yeast that leads to that build-up.

I'm messing with you because it's an English yeast, suggesting you use what is effectively the British English equivalent rather than the German word that has been borrowed by American English.

But "barm" *is" the yeast in the Anglo-Norse view of the world, rather than the action of the yeast. It's a bit old-fashioned, you only see it commonly used outside the traditional breweries in the phrase "barm cake", which is the Lancashire name for a bread roll/cob/bap.* But it clearly has the same origin as "berm" which is what people around the Skagerrak (Denmark/Southern Sweden/Telemark) call their yeast instead of kveik.

*the ethnography of naming small lumps of bread in the UK, particularly northern England, is fascinating. It's perhaps the most sensitive way other than accent to work out where someone was brought up.

 

[Colindo]

@Northern_Brewer Thanks for the heads up. I'm no fan of using foreign words in any language, so barm it shall be henceforth. I have to be honest that I never read this word before, not even in British literature. Also thanks for the ethymology, always nice to widen one's horizon.

 

[DBhomebrew]

OT: If you're interested in etymology and why English is what it is, check out the podcast "The History of English" by Kevin Stroud.

https://historyofenglishpodcast.com/

 

[Cheshire Cat]

I'm not sure the real thing does have black malt. The colour appears to come from some form of sugar. An invert or caramel colouring presumably.

View attachment 816431

Graham Wheeler’s recipe has Black Malt so it must be right.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

@Northern_Brewer Thanks for the heads up. I'm no fan of using foreign words in any language, so barm it shall be henceforth. I have to be honest that I never read this word before, not even in British literature.

As I say, it's somewhat old-fashioned - as is using proper top-cropping yeast. But you could argue that it's just as foreign as kräusen, it's just crossed the North Sea earlier. But the dominance of American influence in modern brewing culture means that the modern generation of British brewers end up using American brewing terms, which often reflect the Continental influence on US brewing - kräusen rather than barm, foeders rather than vats and so on. We're still holding out on Plato vs specific gravity though!

So it is sort of dying out other than in the traditional breweries that have top-cropping yeast, but its use goes back to before Shakespeare. See Act 2 of Midsummer Night's Dream, "that shrewd and knavish sprite called Robin ('robbing') Goodfellow" who would be blamed for everything that went wrong on a farm, including "sometime make the drink to bear no barm". So next time your yeast is dead or you get a stuck fermentation, it's not your fault, blame Robin Goodfellow!

 

[cire]

Graham Wheeler’s recipe has Black Malt so it must be right.

Graham used small quantities of Black Malt in his recipes to compensate for color from invert sugars. In the book with Graham's recipe for Landlord there is a section on Brewing Sugars and to quote from that:-

In this book the recipes have been reformulated to do away with specialist sugars because of the difficulties obtaining them through home-brewing sources.

There is no black malt in Landlord made by Timothy Taylor. There is Invert sugar.

 

[duncan_disorderly]

@Northern_Brewer Thanks for the heads up. I'm no fan of using foreign words in any language, so barm it shall be henceforth. I have to be honest that I never read this word before, not even in British literature. Also thanks for the ethymology, always nice to widen one's horizon.

Growing up in Lancashire in the 60s and 70s we called a certain type of soft bread roll a barm cake. Traditionally made with skimmed brewing yeast, hence the name. You can still buy them, they are often used for bacon breakfast 'butties', chip shops will make you a chip barm, and burger stalls often put burgers in them. People don't seem to say barm cake quite as much now though, despite eating them.

From Wikipedia
A barm cake is a soft, round, flattish bread roll from North West England, traditionally leavened with barm.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...ing-is-spreading-say-researchers-8985889.html

 

[Witherby]

Growing up in Lancashire in the 60s and 70s we called a certain type of soft bread roll a barm cake. Traditionally made with skimmed brewing yeast, hence the name. You can still buy them, they are often used for bacon breakfast 'butties', chip shops will make you a chip barm, and burger stalls often put burgers in them. People don't seem to say barm cake quite as much now though, despite eating them.

From Wikipedia
A barm cake is a soft, round, flattish bread roll from North West England, traditionally leavened with barm.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...ing-is-spreading-say-researchers-8985889.html

I'm messing with you because it's an English yeast, suggesting you use what is effectively the British English equivalent rather than the German word that has been borrowed by American English.

But "barm" *is" the yeast in the Anglo-Norse view of the world, rather than the action of the yeast. It's a bit old-fashioned, you only see it commonly used outside the traditional breweries in the phrase "barm cake", which is the Lancashire name for a bread roll/cob/bap.* But it clearly has the same origin as "berm" which is what people around the Skagerrak (Denmark/Southern Sweden/Telemark) call their yeast instead of kveik.

*the ethnography of naming small lumps of bread in the UK, particularly northern England, is fascinating. It's perhaps the most sensitive way other than accent to work out where someone was brought up.

View attachment 816455

Another article on various bread names in England, including barms:
Bun! A Taxonomy of the British Bread Roll — Pellicle

While we are on the theme of English brewing terms, St. Mars of the Desert (SMOD) in Sheffield* recently posted a nice article on the history of cooling trays (which they refuse to call coolships since they were traditionally called flat coolers in England):
THE KOELSHIP: A FLAT COOLER FOR ALL OCCASIONS

*Formerly of Pretty Things in Boston, MA where they were my favorite brewery a decade ago. They did many collaborations with Ron Pattinson back then. Good times.

 

[Shenanigans]

I'm flying back to Ireland for a short trip later this month and was looking into sourcing some Lyle's golden syrup and found this :

Shame I'm limited to only 10Kg on the Ryanair flight
Probably also still a bit overpriced compared to the UK though.

 

[balrog]

@Shenanigans , I see no issue. It's only 7.25kg, leaving you 2.75kg for hops.

 

[Hanglow]

And I'm sure you can think of a novel way to bring back the brewlabs slants

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Shame I'm limited to only 10Kg on the Ryanair flight
Probably also still a bit overpriced compared to the UK though.

It's not too bad - although if you're going for size then you might as well buy a block of invert for £50/25kg even if you have to smash it up and bring it back in multiple loads! I'm sure someone like Geterbrewed could get some in for you given enough notice....

 

[DBhomebrew]

Go ahead and give Ron some clicks.

https://beerandbrewing.com/recipe-1841-truman-xxxxk/

 

[HM-2]

Anyone have much experience with Imperial Malt? I've got it at 15% in a West Coast DIPA at the moment (yes, yes, I know, not British, humour me) instead of using Munich II and T50 Crystal. Rest of the grain bill is 52% GP, 25% pilsner and 8% invert.

I was attracted as I thought the dry sweetness (described as honey/plum) would play pretty well with the Centennial, Amarillo and Mosaic but now I'm wondering if it'll be a bit too much.

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

@Miraculix has used it a bit if I don't remember wrong.

I clamped the lid down on a 1890's Truman Runner(porter) inspired brew a few hours ago, the krausen had receded a bit compared to this photo from yesterday though. Brewed and pitched last sunday after-noon.

 

[Colindo]

I currently have a brew with 93% of the German Chevallier that I still have some leftovers of and 7% Pale Chocolate Malt, trying to aim for a Brown Ale sort of thing. Hopping with Fuggles according to the hop schedule of the Five Point Best Bitter, I hope that this will be a beer far from the ordinary. Kräusen Bram was gone within two days, so seems to be a rather quick fermentation.

 

[DuncB]

Kräusen Bram was gone within two days, so seems to be a rather quick fermentation.

Your correction corrected

Barm

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

Oh and this will be the first try using Simpsons darker brown malt.
The grains had that typical, slightly burned bread-crust type brown malt flavour, just a bit more pronounced.
I am starting to think brown malt might have been a bit darker back in the day, even after the introduction of the drum roaster.

 

[Colindo]

Your correction corrected

Barm

Damn it! Thought I'd got it.

 

[DuncB]

Damn it! Thought I'd got it.

Off English ales slightly but brewing an Altbier at the moment using Wyeast1007, top fermenting wonderful yeast head on it.
Now is that Barm or krausen as it's German?? over to you

 

[Miraculix]

@Miraculix has used it a bit if I don't remember wrong.

I clamped the lid down on a 1890's Truman Runner(porter) inspired brew a few hours ago, the krausen had receded a bit compared to this photo from yesterday though. Brewed and pitched last sunday after-noon.

Correct!

I've used it on a porter at 50%, other half chevallier and a dash of black malt.


IT IS SOOOOO GOOOOD!!!


I wanna brew a 100% Imperial lower og beer soon, kind of best bitter strength. This plus 20-25 ibus should be great.

Think of Imperial malt as all the goodness from brown malt without any of the possible downsides.

 

[Colindo]

Off English ales slightly but brewing an Altbier at the moment using Wyeast1007, top fermenting wonderful yeast head on it.
Now is that Barm or krausen as it's German?? over to you

Pretty sure that's barm, except if you'd like to write your whole post in German? ;-)