English Ales - What's your favorite recipe?

[Colindo]

What an absolutely shameless self-plug!
But that's why we love you @patto1ro

I'm pretty sure he just wants to make sure we're using primary sources ;-)

 

[Miraculix]

Just buy his books, they are worth it.

 

[hout17]

Just buy his books, they are worth it.

I second that they are absolutely worth it!

 

[kmarkstevens]

And his Birthday recipes are great: Make your birthday special - by brewing a beer originally made on that date.

Had my kid get one for my birthday a few years ago with these directions: I’m looking for a recipe for my dad’s birthday June xx, 19xx. He prefers ABV below 4% yet hoppy beers and has enjoyed brewing your recipes such as the 1958 Whitebread IPA and the 1939 Boddington Mild.

From that, Ron produced this gem: attached is a nice low-alcohol AK from Fullers. I couldn't find a recipe from 1961, so instead it's from 1925.

How cool is that? Ron went back through the years on my birthday to find a cracking recipe. It's now my birthday tradition to brew this sometime around my bday. And this was before the resurging interest in AK's. And it was a partigyle, with Ron adding an explanation to the "underlet".

And I did see Ron speak at the Machine House English Brewery in Seattle. His kids are big lads with considerable thirst.

 

[HM-2]

I will likely dump this batch and rebrew it, way too cloying than I want a mild...

Why not just pitch another yeast with higher attenuation and better "appetite" for complex sugars?

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

Well I already changed my mind and will keg it as usual

 

[kmarkstevens]

Lesson learned, double check your White Lab orders.

So, WLP038 Manchester was released from the vault. I put in what I thought was an order for WLP038 and WLP705 Sake #7 yeast about a week ago. Got some confirmation emails, shipping notices, yadda yadda yadda. only looked at the header and didn't bother to open any of the emails.

Yesterday, got the package with 3 WLP038. Hmmm, wierd. Started digging through the emails and order information and discovered that:

1. WLP038 x3 was from a vault order placed 2.5 years ago
   1. No email asking if I still wanted this order. They used to send out a notification for confirmation
   2. This time it was just the order was placed, and then shipped.
   3. I didn't check and thought it was simply the order that I had placed a week ago. Boy, did they screw that order up!
2. While spending way too much time on composing a nasty gram, was when it hit me that the Vault Order from 2.5 years ago was what I got, and I had a second order for even more WLP038
   1. I can't remember but I prolly did order Manchester 3x.
   2. one to use and culture, one for a back up and one for the homebrew club
   3. In the meantime, some saint on these boards sent me a couple of slants of Manchester, and i think it is the bees knees for Tony's pre-1970 Boddingtons.
3. The order I actually placed was for WLP001 and WLP705
   1. Wierd because I first helped brew in 1980 at UC Davis, at least 6-8 years before homebrewing became a thing despite the University's reputation.
   2. Long before Charlie Bamforth took up his professorship and started teaching micro-brewers
   3. And I have never once used the Chico strain in my homebrewing career
   4. But alcohol might have been involved, and maybe I thought it was a good idea to order a pack of the WLP001 dried yeast just for fun
   5. At least, I got the WLP705 Sake Yeast #7 that I have been wanting to try for a while. Turns out WLP705 is now a core strain, and WLP709 (sake yeast #9) is now a vault strain. That flipped in the past 2 years or so.
4. White Labs doesn't have system to catch if the same person or address has ordered two different batches a day apart.

Net net, White Labs sent a nice email, refunded one of the shipping charges, and I now have WLP038 x3, WLP001, WLP705 in my fridge. First world home brewer problems.

Double check your order.

 

[WesBrew]

Finally getting to the bottom of keg #2 of my December best bitter. Didn’t like it at first but got pretty darn good after 2 months. Put a Northern Brown attempt in the keg last week. Meh right now but 2 months it might be delicious

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

Anybody got any ideas for water profiles for a 1885 Kirkstall L from Shut up about Barclay Perkins I am gonna brew this sunday?
Have read that mild, old and stock ales alike back then were brewed with a slight sulfate focused water, so I am leaning towards the "sweet pale ale" profile from Graham Wheeler over at Jim's beer kit.

 

[eshea3]

Anybody got any ideas for water profiles for a 1885 Kirkstall L from Shut up about Barclay Perkins I am gonna brew this sunday?
Have read that mild, old and stock ales alike back then were brewed with a slight sulfate focused water, so I am leaning towards the "sweet pale ale" profile from Graham Wheeler over at Jim's beer kit.

I use this for my British beers

https://www.murphyandson.co.uk/resources/technical-articles/water-water-everywhere/

 

[DuncB]

Anybody got any ideas for water profiles for a 1885 Kirkstall L from Shut up about Barclay Perkins I am gonna brew this sunday?
Have read that mild, old and stock ales alike back then were brewed with a slight sulfate focused water, so I am leaning towards the "sweet pale ale" profile from Graham Wheeler over at Jim's beer kit.

Having read the blog post maybe a quick email to kirkstall brewer.
I suspect Burton water profile but perhaps not full on sulphate level.
Awaiting your update

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

@DuncB
That's a really good idea actually, I went with 150 cl, 200 So4 and 70 Na.
Gonna send an email and if they get back in time I'll modify it if it's markedly different.

On another note, any Brits on here who have heard any news on Black Sheep? Their website don't mention anything about closing down so I suspect they managed to find some partners/investors to keep going.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

@DuncB
That's a really good idea actually, I went with 150 cl, 200 So4 and 70 Na.
Gonna send an email and if they get back in time I'll modify it if it's markedly different.

Bear in mind the current Kirkstall Brewery (started 2011) is nothing to do with the old one (bought by Duttons in 1936 and closed by Whitbread in 1983). But I'd guess that it would be similar to their Leeds neighbours who by 1985 were using a 2:1 mix of tap and well water, treated only with a bit of sulphuric acid :
https://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2011/07/messrs-joshua-tetley-son.htmlhttps://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/search/label/Tetley's

On another note, any Brits on here who have heard any news on Black Sheep? Their website don't mention anything about closing down so I suspect they managed to find some partners/investors to keep going.

Went into administration (ie creditors wiped out) but are still going having been bought by a private equity firm called Breal Group, who have also bought Brick in London and are rumoured to be sniffing round Brew By Numbers as well. Can sort of see how that works for them if the price is right.

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

Note to self: never EVER again effin dry hop in the effin keg you retarded dum-bass!
After struggling to switch out a clogged beer post, cleaning up overflowing beer due to hop debris acting as nucleation sites, and still just getting a dribble of ale, I rage quitted and dumped the whole lot.
Hopefully the mild will fare better as it was not dry hopped as much.
On a postive note, the 1890 Truman Runner(Porter) was terrific!

 

[moreb33rplz]

Note to self: never EVER again effin dry hop in the effin keg you retarded dum-bass!
After struggling to switch out a clogged beer post, cleaning up overflowing beer due to hop debris acting as nucleation sites, and still just getting a dribble of ale, I rage quitted and dumped the whole lot.
Hopefully the mild will fare better as it was not dry hopped as much.
On a postive note, the 1890 Truman Runner(Porter) was terrific!

Can we get the recipe for that delicious looking beer?

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

Can we get the recipe for that delicious looking beer?

It's a fairly straight forward one:
All Simpson's malt, 83% efficiency, about 21L post boil.
Golden Promise and Vienna (mild malt sub) in a 50/50 mix as base, 13% brown malt, 8% black malt, 12% invert 3 emulation (50% white cane sugar, other half 2/3 light 1/3 dark muscovado)

Fermented with a Brewly English/ Mangrove Jacks m42 mix, pitched at 17 then allowed to freerise to 21c, open ferment.
68c/2h mash, 2h boil, bittering charge at 60 and 30g Fuggle at 20 min.
OG 1.057
FG 1.017
40 IBU (Beersmith 3, Tinseth)

 

[Miraculix]

It's a fairly straight forward one:
All Simpson's malt, 83% efficiency, about 21L post boil.
Golden Promise and Vienna (mild malt sub) in a 50/50 mix as base, 13% brown malt, 8% black malt, 12% invert 3 emulation (50% white cane sugar, other half 2/3 light 1/3 dark muscovado)

Fermented with a Brewly English/ Mangrove Jacks m42 mix, pitched at 17 then allowed to freerise to 21c, open ferment.
68c/2h mash, 2h boil, bittering charge at 60 and 30g Fuggle at 20 min.
OG 1.057
FG 1.017
40 IBU (Beersmith 3, Tinseth)

Sounds delicious.

 

[tracer bullet]

I rage quitted and dumped the whole lot.

Maybe could have tried a shortened dip tube, or one of the gizmos that pulls beer from the top?

Next time anyhow, if there is one.

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

Maybe could have tried a shortened dip tube, or one of the gizmos that pulls beer from the top?

Next time anyhow, if there is one.

I might shorten a diptube ~5mm and do a quick switcheroo before hooking up the gas in the keg fridge and then do a few purge cycles.
In the future though I will likely just dry hop as fermentation winds down before closing the fermenter up.
One of those cases where practicality outweights historical accuracy...

 

[Colindo]

Sounds like you need a wooden barrel for higher historical accuracy. Or one of those vats that are house high ;-)

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

I could repurpose my house to a vat and live in a trailer out in garden instead...

 

[Colindo]

Definitely won't get plugged up bung holes that way. Just open a window

 

[kmarkstevens]

Been there, done that.

I have floating dip tubes now and use a hop ball (tea infusion ball) to keep the pellets from clogging up the system

 

[DuncB]

I could repurpose my house to a vat and live in a trailer out in garden instead...

Could stand the trailer on it's end and use that to Vat.

I think floating dip tube and hop filter your best option if dry hopping in keg and have the hops in one of those metal cylinders of mesh.

EDIT I see @kmarkstevens beat me to it.

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

The 1885 Kirkstall L is mashed in now, no misshaps except having to subtract some sparge water due to temp corrections in the protein rest and main rest steps.

It seems that if doing a p-rest followed by a warmer main rest, a good strategy is to undershoot strike temp a little for the first and overshoot a little for the second.

 

[Broothru]

It's a fairly straight forward one:
All Simpson's malt, 83% efficiency, about 21L post boil.
Golden Promise and Vienna (mild malt sub) in a 50/50 mix as base, 13% brown malt, 8% black malt, 12% invert 3 emulation (50% white cane sugar, other half 2/3 light 1/3 dark muscovado)

Fermented with a Brewly English/ Mangrove Jacks m42 mix, pitched at 17 then allowed to freerise to 21c, open ferment.
68c/2h mash, 2h boil, bittering charge at 60 and 30g Fuggle at 20 min.
OG 1.057
FG 1.017
40 IBU (Beersmith 3, Tinseth)

Targeted water profile?

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

Targeted water profile?

~300 Cl
~100 Na
~80 So4
Ca should be somewhere about 150-200 depending on your base water.

 

[Broothru]

~300 Cl
~100 Na
~80 So4
Ca should be somewhere about 150-200 depending on your base water.

Thanks. Got a British Golden Ale on deck for brewing on the 5th, followed by a Bitter and a Best Bitter in the following days. I’m assuming similar target waters for all three?

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

Yes, I would go with any of the bitter/pale ale profiles that have been posted here.

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

After trying the Porter I decided to go back to Crisp's brown malt. The darker one from Simpson's just is a bit too intense.