English Ales - What's your favorite recipe?

[Miraculix]

My condolences.
You guys never had to try mild in the UK in the late 60’s. Never drank or made it since.

I'm that fortunate. My first dark mild was a mild called ruby red and it was actually quite enjoyable. My next one was the dark mild from green king which was also surprisingly good. I am a dark mild fan. Smooth and compatible for during the week from time to time.

 

[Drinking Sensibly]

@Miraculix
Just poured a pint of that imperial malt ale I've mentioned, 50/50 GP/Imperial.
Drinks a bit like a contemporary 80bob like McEwan's or Belhaven.

I'm not sure the comparison to McEwans and Belhaven is selling it to me. I'm going to assume it's a lot better than those.

 

[user 246304]

My condolences.
You guys never had to try mild in the UK in the late 60’s. Never drank or made it since.

I'd never had a mild before having a multi-course beer-pairing dinner with my wife, Michael Jackson and Mark Dorber at the White Horse, Parson's Green. This was a web contest my wife had entered us in and of all things, we won - "The World Beer Tour." Michael Jackson himself called me at the regional brewery where I worked, and said "Hello Paul. What are you doing around February?" before identifying himself.

Michael chose a mild for the first quaff, wish I could remember it's name, thumbprint mug, at the bar, before dinner. I enjoyed it.

 

[Drinking Sensibly]

My condolences.
You guys never had to try mild in the UK in the late 60’s. Never drank or made it since.

Did someone say dark mild?
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/english-ales-whats-your-favorite-recipe.472464/post-10395293

 

[Ingo]

For me Best Bitter brewed well is the best beer in the World. But maybe I’m biased.

Agree 110%

 

[Cheshire Cat]

I'd never had a mild before having a multi-course beer-pairing dinner with my wife, Michael Jackson and Mark Dorber at the White Horse, Parson's Green. This was a web contest my wife had entered us in and of all things, we won - "The World Beer Tour." Michael Jackson himself called me at the regional brewery where I worked, and said "Hello Paul. What are you doing around February?" before identifying himself.

Michael chose a mild for the first quaff, wish I could remember it's name, thumbprint mug, at the bar, before dinner. I enjoyed it.

Brilliant but I still won’t drink Mild.

 

[Miraculix]

Brilliant but I still won’t drink Mild.

So you are not even mildly interested?

 

[Cheshire Cat]

So you are not even mildly interested?

Not in the very least it’s the pits any UK brewers around from the late 60’s won’t touch it. I’ll get a reply saying they would but don’t mention the slops and *** ash.

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

You just hade to didn't you? Well I won't be bitter.

 

[kmarkstevens]

Jeez, what ale's you, dude?

 

[duncan_disorderly]

For me Best Bitter brewed well is the best beer in the World. But maybe I’m biased.

Bitter has always been my go to beer too. Just hits the spot.

 

[wepeeler]

Made a Dark Mild which was a sleeper hit at a pour event I went to this past weekend. Stupid easy recipe.

88% GP/MO
4% Brown malt
3.5% Pale Chocolate
3% Crystal 120L
1.5% Blackprinz
Willamette/EKG for 20IBU
SO4 fermented at 67F

Tastes sooo smooth. Almost like a fully attenuated soda, for lack of a better description. Slight chocolate/roast, excellent malt profile, very smooth bitterness.

Soooo, update: this beer was chosen as the favorite in a little homebrew comp! I'll be brewing it on their system as soon as we can sort out the details! Here's the brewery: https://www.kinsmenbrewing.com/shop/

 

[Steve McDonald]

range

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

Strange.

 

[Miraculix]

Tomorrow will be split batch partygile day. Two times about 4 litres Belgian triple each with lallemand abbaye plus one with additional lallemand farmhouse.

This will be around og 1.09 and as I don't want to waste the remaining sugars I'm going to add pale chocolate malt and dark crystal to the remaining grains after extracting the liquid. I will pour enough water over it to create about ten litres of dark mild. Let's see what the freezer has to offer for yeast choice but my word guess is that it's going to be s04.

 

[DuncB]

On the partigyle theme.
Pint of ESB partigyled from my year 3 Thomas hardy barley wine clone.
Estery.

 

[AmarikinBrew]

Not in the very least it’s the pits any UK brewers around from the late 60’s won’t touch it. I’ll get a reply saying they would but don’t mention the slops and *** ash.

Hah! I once dropped my cigar butt in the boil! Turned out pretty good!

 

[user 246304]

On the partigyle theme.
Pint of ESB partigyled from my year 3 Thomas hardy barley wine clone.
Estery.
View attachment 861410

Extraordinary. Beautiful backdrop to have the pint too. Congratulations!

 

[Miraculix]

Tomorrow will be split batch partygile day. Two times about 4 litres Belgian triple each with lallemand abbaye plus one with additional lallemand farmhouse.

This will be around og 1.09 and as I don't want to waste the remaining sugars I'm going to add pale chocolate malt and dark crystal to the remaining grains after extracting the liquid. I will pour enough water over it to create about ten litres of dark mild. Let's see what the freezer has to offer for yeast choice but my word guess is that it's going to be s04.

OK the Belgian part went ok. Terrible efficiency (60%) but at least I got most of it out during the partygile sparge. Had some wort left from the Belgian experiment, which was intended. I wanted to throw it into the gyle.

What was not intended, is that I threw it into the fermenter without thinking.

I disinfect my fermenter straight before filling in the wort with about two litres of boiling water. I did so this time as well. I threw the wort on it. .....

First idea, throw it away.

Second idea, thanks for the additional two litres of dark mild that will be in that fermenter in about one week time.

So far, so good.

The dark mild wort tastes pretty boring btw. I guess that's just how a 1.03 wort tastes like.

 

[DuncB]

@Miraculix 60% efficiency isn't bad for a big beer. Last time I made a tripel I brewed a Tafelbier at 2.5% for the yeast to make the tripel, but I didn't then go on and make another Tafelbier with the second runnings of the tripel. This was a missed opportunity.
I've seen it suggested that you add a portion of the first runnings to the second runnings to give complexity and body. Never sure myself how much of this to do.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

I've seen it suggested that you add a portion of the first runnings to the second runnings to give complexity and body.

Definitely - the flavour seems to split in roughly the same proportion as the sugars if not even more so in the first runnings, so the second runnings make pretty dull beer.

Never sure myself how much of this to do.

See this thread and in particular the link to one of Ron's posts, where even the weakest 1.037 beer of the Fuller's partigyle in 1968 got 27% of the 1.093 first wort. Note also my comment that effectively you're putting two lots of grist in the mash, so it may be a good idea to knock the volume down a bit - it was a very tight squeeze when I did it!
https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/...sb-partigyle-rabbit-hole.104107/#post-1258321

 

[Miraculix]

Definitely - the flavour seems to split in roughly the same proportion as the sugars if not even more so in the first runnings, so the second runnings make pretty dull beer.

See this thread and in particular the link to one of Ron's posts, where even the weakest 1.037 beer of the Fuller's partigyle in 1968 got 27% of the 1.093 first wort. Note also my comment that effectively you're putting two lots of grist in the mash, so it may be a good idea to knock the volume down a bit - it was a very tight squeeze when I did it!
https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/...sb-partigyle-rabbit-hole.104107/#post-1258321

I agree and I took this considderation into account. I tried to compensate for this "dullness" by adding dark crystal, pale chocolate malt and a bit of high enzymatic base malt (Best A XL) to the leftover grains in the bag, after draining the bag the first time. I then added 70 C water to the spent grains plus the new grains and hit by chance about 65 C "re-"mashing temperature. I left the thing alone while boiling the triple wort and drained the grain bag after boiling the main beer´s wort. I think this was a good way of making the best out of it.

The resulting wort of the second sparge ended up to be around 1.03 OG after boiling. After adding the part of the main wort that I accidently cut with 2 litres of water to half it´s OG, I have hit 1.033 OG with about 24 IBUs and pretty dark colour. Pretty much spot on to what I was after.

There was not much calculation involved beforehand, except for the main beer. I was guessing me through the brew day but at the end, I have hit my numbers pretty much spot on. A bit of experience pays off sometimes.

 

[Colindo]

@Miraculix I don't think I ever heard of anyone adding additional base malt. It's probably a good way to boost the gravity of the second wort, but as soon as you want to do things more quickly you are stuck with waiting for saccharification a second time.

 

[DuncB]

yes but if you've got a space to park your first and addition grains whilst you do your boil then it's a no brainer.
I have to wait to put my partigyle in the same boiler after boil and cool of the first runnings.
I don't have a second boiler and cooling setup to parallel boil and cool.

 

[Miraculix]

yes but if you've got a space to park your first and addition grains whilst you do your boil then it's a no brainer.
I have to wait to put my partigyle in the same boiler after boil and cool of the first runnings.
I don't have a second boiler and cooling setup to parallel boil and cool.

Same situation here, only one stove to boil on and only one chiller. It's actually a Herrmann Verfahren which we are doing here with the second addition of the base malt. Wouldn't be too surprised if the second wort turns out to be extremely fermentable.

 

[DuncB]

Well worth noting if it is really fermentable, perhaps do a hot mash of the adjuncts/supplements to add to the partigyle.

 

[Colindo]

Same situation here, only one stove to boil on and only one chiller. It's actually a Herrmann Verfahren which we are doing here with the second addition of the base malt. Wouldn't be too surprised if the second wort turns out to be extremely fermentable.

Isn't Herrmann the one where the second mash temperature drops to 45°C to get maltase to work? I don't think it's the same when you just do a second beta-amylase rest, though that will increase fermentability for sure.

I always use two kettles when doing parti-gyle, so for me thinks are a bit more straight-forward, I guess.

 

[Miraculix]

Isn't Herrmann the one where the second mash temperature drops to 45°C to get maltase to work? I don't think it's the same when you just do a second beta-amylase rest, though that will increase fermentability for sure.

I always use two kettles when doing parti-gyle, so for me thinks are a bit more straight-forward, I guess.

I think it was removing some wort during beta rest, doing a hochkurz mash with the rest, dropping the temperature again to beta rest, adding the remainder of the wort and redoing the beta step again. It's a glucose booster.

 

[Colindo]

You only get glucose at 45°C. What you mean is an "beta-alpha-beta-alpha" scheme, where it is just maltose that is boosted.

 

[Miraculix]

Interesting! I always thought beta amylase would chop it down to glucose. Learned something today!