English Ales - What's your favorite recipe?

[Miraculix]

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.

I think the only time I tried brown malt, it was from Simpsons. Horrible .

Never touched that again.

After aging for half a year though.... Lovely! I guess it all depends....

I'm now into Imperial malt. That one tastes like I want it right from the beginning.

About 50% of the grist roughly equals 15% brown malt I would say.

 

[Shenanigans]

I think the only time I tried brown malt, it was from Simpsons. Horrible .

Never touched that again.

After aging for half a year though.... Lovely! I guess it all depends....

I'm now into Imperial malt. That one tastes like I want it right from the beginning.

About 50% of the grist roughly equals 15% brown malt I would say.

I love brown malt in a brown porter or stout and decided to stock up on some with my last order from Ireland but the shop of choice only had Simpsons which has a colour of 400 to 500 EBC compared to about 150 EBC for Fawcett's or Warminister, which are the only ones I have used until now.

I actually started a thread on it as I wasn't sure what to expect from Simpsons but didn't get much answers.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/different-colors-of-brown-malt.723428/
Good to know I should be careful with it.
I do however have a kilo of it so I will use it in whatever recipes ask for coffee malt as the description and colour seem to be quite similar.
I guess it would be good in a Belgian quad that needs to aged for at least 6 months anyway.

Edit:

This recipe with English Coffee Malt looks epic

https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/435099/xocoveza-clone
Anyone had the real thing from Stone?
I'm tempted to give it a go.

https://www.stonebrewing.com/beer/special-releases/stone-xocoveza

 

[Colindo]

the shop of choice only had Simpsons which has a colour of 400 to 500 EBC compared to about 150 EBC for Fawcett's or Warminister

In that case I would just use it as a pale chocolate malt and ignore the naming of the maltster. It's the same thing with Crisp's Crystal 150, which they call Light Crystal. You can't just go by the name, you have to go by the colour and the method of malting.

If I'm not confusing you with someone else who lives in Germany very close to me, I would say you should be able to get Warminster brown malt from braumischung.de. I used it once and it was very pleasant.

 

[Shenanigans]

In that case I would just use it as a pale chocolate malt and ignore the naming of the maltster. It's the same thing with Crisp's Crystal 150, which they call Light Crystal. You can't just go by the name, you have to go by the colour and the method of malting.

If I'm not confusing you with someone else who lives in Germany very close to me, I would say you should be able to get Warminster brown malt from braumischung.de. I used it once and it was very pleasant.

That is indeed me, thanks for the tip!

 

[InspectorJon]

Anyone had the real thing from Stone?
I'm tempted to give it a go.

https://www.stonebrewing.com/beer/special-releases/stone-xocoveza

Xocoveza is one of my favorites. Only comes out in the fall for a short time. There is a thread on here about making it. Not an English beer but it is recommended to use an English yeast.

 

[Granite03]

I’m in the UK right now and am looking for some recipes of my favorites thus far: Shepherd Neame’s Master and Fullers’ HSB. My favorite from last year was Corncrake.

 

[HM-2]

I’m in the UK right now and am looking for some recipes of my favorites thus far: Shepherd Neame’s Master and Fullers’ HSB. My favorite from last year was Corncrake.

A few recipes floating around for HSB (previously Gale's), including this one cropping up in several places (circa 1993 in origin)

23 litres at OG 1050

pale malt 78.5%
torrefied wheat 5%
black malt 1.5%
white sugar 15%
Mash at 65C for 90 mins. IBU 32, full boil (120 mins)

challenger 20g, goldings 22g, fuggles 26g.
last 15 minutes - goldings 10g.

I don't know if current Gale's is brewed with Fuller's house yeast or whether they retained Gale's, but Wyeast 1332 is supposed to be the Gale's strain or a derivative thereof.

 

[Colindo]

Fullers’ HSB.

I can give you the recipe of either Fuller's ESB or Gale's HSB. Please specify ;-)

Edit: @HM-2 got the Gale's spot on. Wyeast 1332 or WLP041 are the right yeasts. I got exactly the flavour I got from cask HSB with Wyeast 1332.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

My current favourite

5 Points Best Bitter​

Best Bitter
4.6% / 11.3 °P
Recipe by
David Edgeley
All Grain

Mundschenk Mash Kettle 30 L​

75% efficiency
Batch Volume: 22 L
Boil Time: 60 min
Mash Water: 19.75 L
Sparge Water: 12.13 L
Total Water: 31.88 L
Boil Volume: 28.96 L
Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.038

Vitals​

Original Gravity: 1.045
Final Gravity: 1.010
IBU (Tinseth): 35
BU/GU: 0.78
Colour: 7.8 SRM

Mash​

Temperature — 65 °C — 60 min

Malts (4.25 kg)​

3.6 kg (84.7%) — Muntons Pale Ale Malt — Grain — 3.2 SRM
200 g (4.7%) — Crisp Extra Light Crystal 100 — Grain — 56 SRM
200 g (4.7%) — Crisp Wheat Malt — Grain — 2.1 SRM — Mash — 60 min
150 g (3.5%) — Castle Malting Chateau Biscuit — Grain — 25.5 SRM
100 g (2.4%) — BESTMALZ BEST Melanoidin — Grain — 35.5 SRM

Hops (100 g)​

40 g (25 IBU) — Fuggle 5% — Boil — 60 min
20 g (7 IBU) — Fuggle 5% — Boil — 15 min
40 g (3 IBU) — Fuggle 5% — Aroma — 20 min hopstand

Hopstand at 80 °C

Miscs​

3.94 g — Calcium Chloride (CaCl2) — Mash
0.5 items — Campden Tablets — Mash
4 g — Gypsum (CaSO4) — Mash
0.5 items — Campden Tablets — Sparge
2.46 g — Calcium Chloride (CaCl2) — Sparge
2.5 g — Gypsum (CaSO4) — Sparge
1 ml — Phosphoric Acid 75% — Sparge

Yeast​

1 pkg — Crossmyloof CML Midland 78%

Fermentation​

Primary — 20 °C — 14 days
Carbonation: 2.4 CO2-vol

Water Profile​

Ca2+ 150
Mg2+ 16
Na+35
Cl- 123
SO42- 138
HCO3-87

 

[balrog]

My current favourite

5 Points Best Bitter​

Best Bitter
4.6% / 11.3 °P
Recipe by
David Edgeley
All Grain

Mundschenk Mash Kettle 30 L​

75% efficiency
Batch Volume: 22 L
Boil Time: 60 min
Mash Water: 19.75 L
Sparge Water: 12.13 L
Total Water: 31.88 L
Boil Volume: 28.96 L
Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.038

Vitals​

Original Gravity: 1.045
Final Gravity: 1.010
IBU (Tinseth): 35
BU/GU: 0.78
Colour: 7.8 SRM

Mash​

Temperature — 65 °C — 60 min

Malts (4.25 kg)​

3.6 kg (84.7%) — Muntons Pale Ale Malt — Grain — 3.2 SRM
200 g (4.7%) — Crisp Extra Light Crystal 100 — Grain — 56 SRM
200 g (4.7%) — Crisp Wheat Malt — Grain — 2.1 SRM — Mash — 60 min
150 g (3.5%) — Castle Malting Chateau Biscuit — Grain — 25.5 SRM
100 g (2.4%) — BESTMALZ BEST Melanoidin — Grain — 35.5 SRM

Hops (100 g)​

40 g (25 IBU) — Fuggle 5% — Boil — 60 min
20 g (7 IBU) — Fuggle 5% — Boil — 15 min
40 g (3 IBU) — Fuggle 5% — Aroma — 20 min hopstand

Hopstand at 80 °C

Miscs​

3.94 g — Calcium Chloride (CaCl2) — Mash
0.5 items — Campden Tablets — Mash
4 g — Gypsum (CaSO4) — Mash
0.5 items — Campden Tablets — Sparge
2.46 g — Calcium Chloride (CaCl2) — Sparge
2.5 g — Gypsum (CaSO4) — Sparge
1 ml — Phosphoric Acid 75% — Sparge

Yeast​

1 pkg — Crossmyloof CML Midland 78%

Fermentation​

Primary — 20 °C — 14 days
Carbonation: 2.4 CO2-vol

Water Profile​

Ca2+
150Mg2+
16Na+
35Cl-
123SO42-
138HCO3-
87

Just curious, not easily googlable, is there a similar Fermentis or Lalemand dry like the CML Midland yeast?

 

[Colindo]

Just curious, not easily googlable, is there a similar Fermentis or Lalemand dry like the CML Midland yeast?

It says "similar to Nottingham" here

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Nottingham yeast is the same.

 

[balrog]

Nottingham yeast is the same.

Thanks. Also, that's a hefty Mg number. 150? And you're not adding Epsom (MgSO4) so I presume your base water has that high Mg?

 

[DBhomebrew]

Thanks. Also, that's a hefty Mg number. 150? And you're not adding Epsom (MgSO4) so I presume your base water has that high Mg?

Formatting is off. Value follows category.

 

[balrog]

Formatting is off. Value follows category.

Crap. Should've noticed that. Thanks

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Thanks. Also, that's a hefty Mg number. 150? And you're not adding Epsom (MgSO4) so I presume your base water has that high Mg?

No it’s the way I copied it I’ll edit it.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Now view it.

 

[balrog]

Now view it.

Yeah that was just sheer stupidity on my part for not noticing.

 

[eshea3]

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)

What do you find the 2 hour mash provides to the final beer?

 

[DuncB]

@Cheshire Cat
That 5 points recipe quite different from the recipe formulated by the brewery with the craft beer channel.
A lot less hops. No melanoidin.
See Five Points Best – Best Bitter - The Malt Miller
Sure it tastes great though.

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

What do you find the 2 hour mash provides to the final beer?

With 20% roast, a long mash gives the beer a chance to attenuate somewhat.
Keep in mind even with a long mash, sugar and a fairly attenuative yeast I still only got it down to 1.017.
Looked in my notes also, the mash was begun at 67c.

 

[Galena]

@Cheshire Cat
That 5 points recipe quite different from the recipe formulated by the brewery with the craft beer channel.
A lot less hops. No melanoidin.
See Five Points Best – Best Bitter - The Malt Miller
Sure it tastes great though.

I was going to comment that this recipe is somewhat different from the original, I developed this recipe myself independently as soon as the video was out and was pretty close to what others developed. Cheshire's water profile is more balanced as well, no criticism merely observation.

Here is my recipe for 5 points best Bitter 21 Litre batch

Targets
ABV: 4.3% OG: 1.045 FG: 1.012 EBC: 17.3 IBU: 39

Fermentables
3.4 kgs Thomas Fawcett Maris Otter
160g Amber
160g Crystal Medium
160g Wheat Malt

Hops
48g Fuggles @ 60
24g Fuggles @ 15
80g Fuggles 20 minute hopstand at 80C

Water Profile
Ca: 154, Mg: 7, Na: 9, Cl:128, SO4: 220

Yeast
WLP013 London Ale yeast

Fermentation
4 days at 20C , 1 day at 21C, 1 day at 22C, 8 days at 23C

 

[Shenanigans]

Xocoveza is one of my favorites. Only comes out in the fall for a short time. There is a thread on here about making it. Not an English beer but it is recommended to use an English yeast.

Yeah I first found reference to it on Brewer's Friend and the recipe there uses quite a lot of British ingriedents that I have on hand and would like to use up.
However looking at the dedicated HBT thread it's a lot more US-based.
I would trust the HBT recipe more as there was active discussions in the thread with feedback on how it turned out.
The BF one might be good too but it's just posted without comments or feedback so I'm not sure.

Sounds like an awesome beer that I would like to try sometime though.

 

[HM-2]

Quiet day at work today (I work from home) so brewing a beer around the few tasks I need to complete.
Kind of a single-hop riff on one a typical-ish Strong Bitter recipe for me.

Grist
"House Pale Ale blend" (1/3 Crisp Chevalier and 2/3 Crisp Finest MO Ale malt) - 84%
Crisp Extra Light Crystal 100 - 7%
Scottish Heather Honey - 5%
Crisp Wheat Malt - 4%

Hops
2.3ml Flex bittering extract (30 IBU) at 60 minutes
30g CF185 (11.9% AA) at 15 minutes
70g CF185 (11.9% AA) 20 minute whirlpool at 75°C

Yeast
Mangrove Jack's M15 Empire Ale / Fermentis S-04 copitch (mostly as the S-04 is an expired pack from the back of the freezer)

OG 1.057
FG 1.012
ABV 5.9%
IBU 45
BU/GU 0.79


I've used CF185 a few times before and it gives a nice stone fruit / marmalade flavour combination that works well in English pales and IPAs. I'm just hoping the M15 doesn't throw too much dark fruit into the mix, but I'll ferment it pretty cool.

 

[BongoYodeler]

Brewed a Best Bitter a few months ago that I really enjoyed,

Maris Otter 86.2%
Biscuit 4.8%
Crystal 120 4.8%
Special Roast 2.3%
Table sugar 1.9%

Target 12.8% aa @60mins 21.2 ibu's
Fuggles 4.5% aa @10mins 5.8 ibu's

Lallemand London ESB dry yeast 1 pk

OG 1.046 (actual 1.047)
FG 1.013 (actual 1.016)
ABV 4.3% (actual 4.1%)
SRM - 10

Fined with gelatin. Quite cloudy for a while but eventually dropped clear.

 

[hout17]

Brewed a Best Bitter a few months ago that I really enjoyed,

Maris Otter 86.2%
Biscuit 4.8%
Crystal 120 4.8%
Special Roast 2.3%
Table sugar 1.9%

Target 12.8% aa @60mins 21.2 ibu's
Fuggles 4.5% aa @10mins 5.8 ibu's

Lallemand London ESB dry yeast 1 pk

OG 1.046 (actual 1.047)
FG 1.013 (actual 1.016)
ABV 4.3% (actual 4.1%)
SRM - 10

Fined with gelatin. Quite cloudy for a while but eventually dropped clear.

View attachment 824167

That's a nice looking beer. Looks delicious!

 

[tracer bullet]

Crystal 120 4.8%
Special Roast 2.3%

What did you think of these?

I've been using the Double Roasted Crystal in that 120-ish range, wanting some sugary sweet fruity rain business out of it. I think I also accidentally got a lot of... nearly burnt white toast, rye perhaps, maybe whiskey flavors from it. I can't say for sure that's what it's from (the DRC) but I've swapped out all other aspects of the recipe except this one so far (base malt, yeast, hops, biscuit malt) and it's still there. And when munching on the DRC grain I think it does have that cooked flavor (I hesitate to call it roasted flavor, that makes me think more of a stout). It's a flavor I find very distracting and I don't like it. Just my opinion of course.

 

[BongoYodeler]

What did you think of these?

I've been using the Double Roasted Crystal in that 120-ish range, wanting some sugary sweet fruity rain business out of it. I think I also accidentally got a lot of... nearly burnt white toast, rye perhaps, maybe whiskey flavors from it. I can't say for sure that's what it's from (the DRC) but I've swapped out all other aspects of the recipe except this one so far (base malt, yeast, hops, biscuit malt) and it's still there. And when munching on the DRC grain I think it does have that cooked flavor (I hesitate to call it roasted flavor, that makes me think more of a stout). It's a flavor I find very distracting and I don't like it. Just my opinion of course.

Honestly at less than 10% combined I got more color than a definable flavor, other than a lightly sweet caramelized taste. Definitely didn't pick up much if any raisin, dark fruit, or sourdough, if it was there it was way in the background. Maybe a slight fruitiness that I attributed to the yeast used. But I haven't had a lot of bitters to compare it to so ymmv. This was a real easy drinking beer with light carbonation and stored around 50°f. I took some to my HBC meeting and it was warmly received. I also took a couple growlers to my friend's micro-brewery where it was shared with the brewers and customers and it got quite a few compliments.
I guess I need to brew this again soon.

 

[HM-2]

Honestly at less than 10% combined I got more color than a definable flavor, other than a lightly sweet caramelized taste.

I was about to come here and post pretty much exactly this.

I love DRC. Hand on heart, I think it's my favourite British crystal. BUT it needs to be used in surprising quantity to get the most out of it. Below maybe 8% of the grist, it really just adds caramel sweetness. Over that is where you get the dried fruit coming through pretty aggressively. IME, 12% DRC with zero other crystal and a base grain split of something like 85% extra pale MO or GP, with the balance of either simple sugars or wheat malt, with produce a beautiful amber-red ale with plenty of that raisin and prune coming through. This has become my go-to approach for things like Old Ales.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

I was going to comment that this recipe is somewhat different from the original, I developed this recipe myself independently as soon as the video was out and was pretty close to what others developed. Cheshire's water profile is more balanced as well, no criticism merely observation.

Here is my recipe for 5 points best Bitter 21 Litre batch

Targets
ABV: 4.3% OG: 1.045 FG: 1.012 EBC: 17.3 IBU: 39

Fermentables
3.4 kgs Thomas Fawcett Maris Otter
160g Amber
160g Crystal Medium
160g Wheat Malt

Hops
48g Fuggles @ 60
24g Fuggles @ 15
80g Fuggles 20 minute hopstand at 80C

Water Profile
Ca: 154, Mg: 7, Na: 9, Cl:128, SO4: 220

Yeast
WLP013 London Ale yeast

Fermentation
4 days at 20C , 1 day at 21C, 1 day at 22C, 8 days at 23C

Really strange Brewfather has merged the source water with target which is
Ca 150, Mg 16, Na 35, Cl 130, SO4 250, HCO3. 35