English Ales - What's your favorite recipe?

[lowtones84]

Yeah, I've got the MO. Dialing it down is a good idea, otherwise it would have been like over 25% of the grain bill, haha. I've been interested in seeing how a bitter would play out with a significant portion of oats though, so I'm going to keep it at 12 oz. which will be something like 13-14% of the grain bill. I think it can be dry but still have that silky mouthfeel, so we shall see!

 

[TastyAdventure]

Does anyone have a recipe similar to Laughing Bog Brewery's CSB?

 

[JKaranka]

Never heard of them

 

[lowtones84]

Well, one nice thing about BIAB is no worries of stuck/slow sparge with lots of oats! Even though I do two vessel BIAB, the sparge is more of a dunk sparge and simultaneous mash out. No issues draining.

And even better, the old Centennial hops from the back of the freezer smell great in the boil actually!

 

[Hanglow]

Well the Gervin ale yeast belted through that, krausen went mental then dropped back today. I'm fairly sure it got too warm as it was so aggressive, but I am hopeful that I kept the temp low enough for the first day and a half so probably no off flavours. I did taste a spoon full and it is promising if a bit green. Just added the invert, unfortunately my oven decided to act the **** and not heat properly so at best I have inverted demerara, worst just demerara syrup. No no3 for me. Should still be ok.

 

[balrog]

Well the Gervin ale yeast belted through that, krausen went mental then dropped back today...Just added the invert

Quick question: Why are you adding the invert AFTER fermentation instead of end of boil? I've made some invert (I think) and wonder when folks add it.

 

[Qhrumphf]

Quick question: Why are you adding the invert AFTER fermentation instead of end of boil? I've made some invert (I think) and wonder when folks add it.

Depends on the amount you're adding, but when you use a high sugar percentage pre fermentation the yeast will attack the sugar first and can undergo a mutation causing them to lose the metabolic pathway needed to ferment maltose. End result is underattenuation or worse a stuck ferment.

I do this regularly with Belgians. For English beers if I'm adding sugar it's usually a lower percentage so i don't worry about it.

 

[balrog]

For English beers if I'm adding sugar it's usually a lower percentage so i don't worry about it.

I looked at your bitter and Sandy mild but see no invert -- into what English styles would you add invert, and how much is "low percentage"? Somewhere between "fistfull" and "wheelbarrowload"?

 

[Qhrumphf]

I looked at your bitter and Sandy mild but see no invert -- into what English styles would you add invert, and how much is "low percentage"? Somewhere between "fistfull" and "wheelbarrowload"?

I usually don't use sugar in my English ales (and when i do it's on a whim). But i would go maybe 5% of fermentables from sugar. I don't usually worry about doing it post fermentation until i get above 10%

 

[Qhrumphf]

Not that there's anything wrong with using invert.

 

[balrog]

I usually don't use sugar in my English ales (and when i do it's on a whim). But i would go maybe 5% of fermentables from sugar. I don't usually worry about doing it post fermentation until i get above 10%

Thanks!

 

[Hanglow]

I tend to use between 5 and 10%, mostly the darker inverts otherwise I'd just use normal plain sugar

and yeah I added the sugar later to allow the yeast to get going on the rest of it, I would also have been slightly underpitching had I added it to the boil for that beer as I only had one sachet of yeast. Which I didn't really want to do as it'll come in close to 8%abv I think

 

[lowtones84]

Damn, first time using the cubitainers and one of them sprung a little leak. I stayed at my girlfriend's place and came home to a collection of tiny splatters on the floor under where I was storing them. I'm kinda surprised, I carbed to 1.4 volumes and vented them both twice, but only until I just heard a very small escape, I didn't vent them all the way.

Anyhow, it still seems to be holding pressure alright honestly. I might just tap it tonight and chalk it up to learning experience. Hey, it was only like $3 or something

 

[Tinpanharry]

Damn, first time using the cubitainers and one of them sprung a little leak. I stayed at my girlfriend's place and came home to a collection of tiny splatters on the floor under where I was storing them. I'm kinda surprised, I carbed to 1.4 volumes and vented them both twice, but only until I just heard a very small escape, I didn't vent them all the way.

Anyhow, it still seems to be holding pressure alright honestly. I might just tap it tonight and chalk it up to learning experience. Hey, it was only like $3 or something

Can you share a pic of the cubitainers? Do you use the for primary, secondary or serving?

 

[lowtones84]

For serving, it's basically (or is) what people call a "polypin." I don't have a smartphone so sharing a picture of my personal ones would be kind of laborious, but here ya go:

http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/item.aspx?itemid=23286

I didn't get the cardboard box because it's like twice the cost of the functional part anyhow. I built my own box out of scrap plywood at work, which looks much better

After cleaning up the small mess I put a couple of paper towels under it and I really can't find the leak and don't see any more coming onto the paper towel...very odd. Doesn't look like it was leaking from the spigot or anything either.

 

[lowtones84]

Well, my mild in the cubitainer went over pretty well at the game. Only three of us were drinking beer at all, but between the three of us we took down the whole gallon from halftime to the end of the game. I think it could have used a bit more time to carb and condition, but no complaints other than that.

The beer itself was nice and malty and toasty

 

[JKaranka]

I often drink an imperial gallon of the stuff. On Saturday we went on a pub crawl and I had four pints of bitter, three of mild, some RIS and a couple of other beers. Mild is utterly brilliant as a session drink. Enough character to make you want more but not so much that you think twice about having another of the same.

 

[lowtones84]

Absolutely, I drank the majority of that gallon. We got more pints out of it than I thought we would, at least around 10 until it got to be pretty yeasty toward the end. I still have some learning to do with these, but what I'm planning now is to just keep brewing simple bitters and milds every two weeks or so, packaging two gallons in the cubitainers and having some friends over to help empty them. I don't think it will be hard to find volunteers.

 

[patto1ro]

I often drink an imperial gallon of the stuff. On Saturday we went on a pub crawl and I had four pints of bitter, three of mild, some RIS and a couple of other beers. Mild is utterly brilliant as a session drink. Enough character to make you want more but not so much that you think twice about having another of the same.

Welcome to the wonderful world of Mild. How many gallons have I drunk of that stuff? Loads. But never more than one and a half in one sitting.

 

[lowtones84]

One and a half gallons? I think I had five pints last night...

 

[Qhrumphf]

Mild on cask is a wonderful thing. I've gone through a whole gallon cubitainer of Bitter or Mild in an evening many times. About a gallon and a half is my record as well.

Glad it's working well for you. I just put 4 gallons of that Bluebird clone recipe I posted into em over the weekend. I'd say the switch to 150L crystal was not the right move. Was closer both in color and flavor with the Crisp 77L. Next round I'll go back to my previous recipe, try a different maltster for the Crystal in the same color range (may have to mail order) as well as get some leaf Challenger instead of pellet (definitely have to mail order), and a little higher sulfate water.

 

[lowtones84]

Yeah, I see a lot of promise in them. Do you have any other tips? I let it go for 7 days but it was only around 64-65F ambient temperature. I know it will never be particularly carbonated, but it was almost totally flat. Didn't really bother me, but I'd like to see where I could get it. Have you ever tossed some whole leaf hops in a hop sack in?

Glad to hear that the clone you're working on is coming along nicely! I'm in the process of formulating a recipe for a house bitter that I can reproduce on the cheap with only 2-3 malts and 1 or 2 hops.

 

[Qhrumphf]

Yeah, I see a lot of promise in them. Do you have any other tips? I let it go for 7 days but it was only around 64-65F ambient temperature. I know it will never be particularly carbonated, but it was almost totally flat. Didn't really bother me, but I'd like to see where I could get it. Have you ever tossed some whole leaf hops in a hop sack in?

Glad to hear that the clone you're working on is coming along nicely! I'm in the process of formulating a recipe for a house bitter that I can reproduce on the cheap with only 2-3 malts and 1 or 2 hops.

Yeah, they're very, very low carbonation compared to bottle and draft beer. I recommend purging headspace in them initially (so there's basically none) so they have room to swell before you need to vent them. As I mentioned previously, I put 0.9-1 gallons (exact volume dependent on loss to yeast cake) in, primed to 1.4 volumes, and I've learned at that rate I do not have to vent them. If you're not purging the headspace then that might change, and you may be letting out more pressure than you want. But at 1.4 volumes, if I kill it in one night the carbonation is gentle but noticeable. If I go over 2-3 nights, there's much less residual carb over the 2nd and and very very low the 3rd. And then I've noticed after about 2-3 weeks they start losing pressure, so I consume them all pretty quickly. That's something I haven't yet figured out how to prevent. Not sure if it's the spigot or even just gas permeability of the cubitainer itself.

My house bitter is a little bit more complicated than Bluebird (a couple specialty grains in there), but not too much. Where Bluebird is on the cleaner hop-forward side, mine is on the more malt-forward side.

 

[patto1ro]

Here's a Mild Pretty Things brewed a couple of years ago:

1945 Barclay Perkins X Ale
OG: 1030
FG: 1009
amber malt 8.12%
crystal malt 5.80%
MA malt 20.89%
SA malt 22.05%
PA malt 22.05%
no. 3 sugar 10.83%
caramel 0.97%
flaked barley 9.28%
1.5 oz Fuggles
strike heat of 154º F, mash temp 144.25º F
sparge at 165º F
Boiled for 1.5 hours
Pitched at 61º F

It was one of a pair with an older version of the same beer:

1838 Barclay Perkins X Ale
OG: 1072
FG: 1016
53% white malt
47% pale malt
3 oz EK hops
3 oz MK hops

strike heat of 172º F
Boiled for 5 hours
Pitched at 59º F

Two pretty dissimilar beers.

 

[TastyAdventure]

I'm thinking of brewing a Southern English Brown and wanted some feedback on my grain bill. This seems like a great place for it...

The 2 row is just bc I don't have quite enough MO to get to my desired gravity
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1422994350.028015.jpg

 

[Qhrumphf]

Your gravity (its shows 1.061) is way to high for style. I'd cut the specialty malts a little bit and cut the base malt almost in half. Target maybe 1.035 or so.

 

[TastyAdventure]

I want a "high gravity Southern Brown"
What percentages of specialty malts would you suggest in a normal OG batch?

 

[Qhrumphf]

I would probably bump the wheat and brown malt up to 10% or so (basically leave em the same at normal gravity, maybe increase a bit for yours), put the crystal at about 7%, and leave the pale chocolate percentage about where it is. In other words, if you insist on brewing a higher gravity version, I'd cut your 2 row and replace it with some additional wheat, brown malt, and crystal.

 

[TastyAdventure]

Thanks a lot Q!

 

[lowtones84]

Well, I just packaged (1 gal in the cubitainer, the rest in bottles) my "Cabin Fever Bitter" from a couple of pages back. The Centennial is surprisingly present after being in the boil for 90 minutes, and the bitterness is higher than expected. Certainly not undrinkable though. Perhaps I shouldn't have assumed the AA% would drop, but I've had them for over 2 years, even if they have been in the freezer.

However, it's only 11 days old right now, so too early to pass judgement. If it smooths out in the next week or so I'll consider using Centennial in the future as a bittering hop as long as my supply holds out. Because I'm poor