English Ales - What's your favorite recipe?

[bwible]

I just ordered some verdant and some mo and I have a best bitter up next. Thanks for the recommendations

 

[Miraculix]

I just ordered some verdant and some mo and I have a best bitter up next. Thanks for the recommendations

I'd recommend something simple first. 5% medium-dark British crystal, rest mo. Single infusion mash at 65c, simple is king. Medium to low carbonation.

If I wouldn't have a pack of omega jevaru in the fridge that really needs to be used, I'd brew exactly that beer next.

 

[bwible]

Whilst dry yeasts have got a lot better, British strains are one area where they still generally lag behind what's available elsewhere. Verdant seems to be a significant step up on the others, although Notty and S-04 do get used by a lot of small breweries here.



Acid malt only exists to let our friends with Mutti issues contort themselves with acid additions that comply with the Reinheitsgebot - British brewers ignore such nonsense and use AMS/CRS (a HCl/H2SO4 blend) as God intended. A bit of CRS is completely normal - see these articles from one of the main providers of technical services to British brewers :
https://www.murphyandson.co.uk/technical_article_category/ph-values/

I just use acid malt because its so much easier for me. I’m brewing 3 gallon batches and I’m usually only including 1.5 - 2.5 oz. So a pound even lasts awhile. I don’t have cylinders marked in ccs to measure. I also don’t like the idea of storing a bottle of strong acid and wearing rubber gloves to handle it. Had great results since I started using it.

 

[Miraculix]

I just use acid malt because its so much easier for me. I’m brewing 3 gallon batches and I’m usually only including 1.5 - 2.5 oz. So a pound even lasts awhile. I don’t have cylinders marked in ccs to measure. I also don’t like the idea of storing a bottle of strong acid and wearing rubber gloves to handle it. Had great results since I started using it.

Same for me. Adding 1-2% of the grist as acidulated malt is so convenient, and it just does the job.

 

[shoreman]

Has anyone here brewed this JW Lees Mild?

https://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2010/07/lets-brew-wednesday-1952-lees-best-mild.html?m=1
I have just about everything except the caramel colorant and will use turbinado sugar for the invert.

im going split the batch into a 2.5 gallon Cubitainer and 2.5 gallon keg. I prime my kegs and just use a co2 injector to replace the head.

Im curious to see how long it will last in the Cubitainer.

 

[cyberbackpacker]

Has anyone here brewed this JW Lees Mild?

https://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2010/07/lets-brew-wednesday-1952-lees-best-mild.html?m=1

I’ve brewed it a few times with great results, but I’ve used homemade invert and used Sinamar in lieu of caramel on a couple occasions (other times I’ve just skipped the coloring.

As for cubitainers, I treat them like growlers— best consumed in one evening but definitely within 24 hours.

 

[bwible]

I have to try Verdant. I've got too many yeasties in the bank and trying to winnow down the herd.

I love Notty. It's prolly my "if you could only have one yeast forever yeast." Has a wide temperature range, flocculates well, clean, makes a good cyser, easy to work with, etc.

FYI, anyone that wants to try the vault strain WLP022 Essex Ale yeast, then ping White Labs. It's in production and some is still in stock. I signed up for two vials 6 or 9 months ago as my local HBS dude loves this yeast. Now, go figure, a homebrewtalk member cleaning out his yeast bank gifted me Essex ale and Manchester yeast slants. I recultured the Essex pretty much the day I figured out that White Labs had gone into production. Anyhoo, White Labs takes a vault strain into production when there are ~200 orders, but white labs actually makes more than 200 so whenever a vault strain is in production, there should be an opportunity to order.

White Labs has a couple strains I would love to get out of their vault. WLP025 Southwold Ale Yeast and WLP026 Premium Bitter Yeast. I’ve been trying to get either of these for 2 years.

 

[ba-brewer]

I got WLP026 and WLP025 from the last vault purge. WLP025 was OK but the slants of it went bad for me. WLP026 is still working, I just made a starter of that which is crashing in the fridge now. It is an interesting yeast but the STA1 gene seems active as it attenuates quite low.

I have part of a tin of Black Treacle so my current plan is make a treacle flapjack oatmeal stout with the WLP026. It has a light vanilla like flavor so I plan to add some wheat and maybe do a ferulic acid rest to see if I can get it be stronger.

The follow up to use the rest of treacle will be a Parkin porter fermented with WLP038 to add the spice notes to the porter.

 

[UdonPete]

I’ve brewed it a few times with great results, but I’ve used homemade invert and used Sinamar in lieu of caramel on a couple occasions (other times I’ve just skipped the coloring.

As for cubitainers, I treat them like growlers— best consumed in one evening but definitely within 24 hours.

Can I ask if the 1.75 hour boil time is correct ?

 

[kmarkstevens]

I got the WLP026 in the great vault purge. It needs to go in a big beer. Don't use it for a mild

Regarding black treacle. It's been a couple of years but reviewing my notes:

1. 1/2 cup treacle in 5 gallons produces superior dense bubbles and no noticable treacle taste.
2. Use 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup for head but no noticeable taste
3. If you up this to 1 cup, then at least I noticed the taste impact. Then it becomes personal preference

 

[kmarkstevens]

A home brew talkee gifted me with WLP038 Manchester Yeast, that has been recultured and 2L on the stir plate, whilst at the same time I am mashing this beauty: Tony's Pre-1970 Boddington's Clone Recipe (boakandbailey.com)

Hopefully, in about 2 weeks, I will have a good indication if WLP038 is a good yeast to use. Tony's recipe goes for Notty, which is one I like and probably reasonably close in profile. Northern Brewer and taste tests have "proven" that London III isn't the "true" Boddington yeast. I'm hoping WLP038 gets me there.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

London III isn't the "true" Boddington yeast. I'm hoping WLP038 gets me there.

Remember that there are other breweries in Manchester - notably Holt's, whose yeast is arguably the closest we've got to Chico in terms of the influence it had in the early days of UK craft beer, it went to Kelham Island, then Thornbridge and then Brewdog.

Personally I wouldn't get too hung up on trying to trace a history, all that matters is that the beer in front of you "works". By all accounts both 026 and 038 do that.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Apropos of nothing in particular, the Ragus blog is always worth a look, their latest one is about muscovado sugar :
https://www.ragus.co.uk/muscovado-sugar/

 

[cyberbackpacker]

Can I ask if the 1.75 hour boil time is correct ?

i just go with a 75 minute boil myself.

 

[TheMadKing]

As for cubitainers, I treat them like growlers— best consumed in one evening but definitely within 24 hours.

I agree with this. I've also had a heck of a time getting the proper carbonation level in them because they are a bit stretchy and fiddly with the fill level. I have more or less given up on them to be honest because I don't tend to drink a gallon of beer in a sitting, and (while its not REAL ale) I can live with the compromise of force carbonated bitter for the convenience and shelf life

 

[shoreman]

I agree with this. I've also had a heck of a time getting the proper carbonation level in them because they are a bit stretchy and fiddly with the fill level. I have more or less given up on them to be honest because I don't tend to drink a gallon of beer in a sitting, and (while its not REAL ale) I can live with the compromise of force carbonated bitter for the convenience and shelf life

I had great success with them hooked up to a beer engine, carbonation was spot on (a few pages back you can see some photos).

Now I’ll be serving them via gravity, so I guess we’ll see how it works out.

I did notice if you had some sort of weight on the top to keep the “head” of the Cubitainer from filling with cO2 I got better results. I’m working out some sort of plastic box right now to hold it in.

I’m going to put 2.5gallons of mild in one soon and the other 2.5 in a primed keg with a cO2 injector. Will post results here.

 

[kmarkstevens]

Remember that there are other breweries in Manchester - notably Holt's, whose yeast is arguably the closest we've got to Chico in terms of the influence it had in the early days of UK craft beer, it went to Kelham Island, then Thornbridge and then Brewdog.

Personally I wouldn't get too hung up on trying to trace a history, all that matters is that the beer in front of you "works". By all accounts both 026 and 038 do that.

Wow, silly me, I have 026 in my library from the last Vault purge. Will have to re-culture that puppy and put it to work. I just pitched the WLP038. It's far too dark - probably because I did quite a long mash and boil. Anyhoo, it's the taste that counts.

 

[kmarkstevens]

I had great success with them hooked up to a beer engine, carbonation was spot on (a few pages back you can see some photos).

Now I’ll be serving them via gravity, so I guess we’ll see how it works out.

I did notice if you had some sort of weight on the top to keep the “head” of the Cubitainer from filling with cO2 I got better results. I’m working out some sort of plastic box right now to hold it in.

I’m going to put 2.5gallons of mild in one soon and the other 2.5 in a primed keg with a cO2 injector. Will post results here.

Let me know how this works out? I've got a couple of cubetainers but my first two tries didn't work out very well. They didn't carbonate fully.

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

I agree with this. I've also had a heck of a time getting the proper carbonation level in them because they are a bit stretchy and fiddly with the fill level. I have more or less given up on them to be honest because I don't tend to drink a gallon of beer in a sitting, and (while its not REAL ale) I can live with the compromise of force carbonated bitter for the convenience and shelf life

How about naturally carbing in keg to about 1.8-2 vol and then serving at ~10c? That's what I plan on doing when I get to start kegging my beers. A compromise between getting a cask-like feel and actually getting a beer engine + everything else.

 

[Joggin]

Best so far is clearly verdant IPA. Notti is ok but is really clean, so wouldn't be my choice if your are into expressive yeasts. Verdant really delivers that British character, I know of no other dry yeast that does and I tried nearly all of the British ones.

English stouts that I've made came out with not enough residual sugar for me using 1968.
I tried Lallemand Windsor Yeast and happy with the result.
I do want to try Verdant though.

 

[shoreman]

How about naturally carbing in keg to about 1.8-2 vol and then serving at ~10c? That's what I plan on doing when I get to start kegging my beers. A compromise between getting a cask-like feel and actually getting a beer engine + everything else.

thats what I do here in New England in the fall/winter/spring when the temps in my basement are on par for serving. I use one of these to blanket the top of the beer in the keg, works well.

https://kegfactory.com/products/min...MIuZ6xrtur8wIVjDizAB0hIwMeEAQYCyABEgLZNPD_BwE
Just prime keg to style and let sit. You can dry hop the keg too which is nice.

I’ve had a full keezer setup in the past and prefer the simplicity of this.

The Cubitainers will hopefully allow me to have more than one beer option.

 

[TheMadKing]

How about naturally carbing in keg to about 1.8-2 vol and then serving at ~10c? That's what I plan on doing when I get to start kegging my beers. A compromise between getting a cask-like feel and actually getting a beer engine + everything else.

I would love to do this, but I don't have the ability to serve at 10C unfortunately. I live in the southeastern U.S. so it's barely that cold in the winter here, and I don't want to buy yet ANOTHER refrigerator just for that purpose

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

I guess keeping a kegerator at 10c will be easier when you brew almost exclusively brittish and other styles that benefit from slightly warmer serving temps...

 

[TheMadKing]

I guess keeping a kegerator at 10c will be easier when you brew almost exclusively brittish and other styles that benefit from slightly warmer serving temps...

Yeah definitely, I brew maybe 40% traditional British styles 30% German styles and 30% American styles

 

[Beermeister32]

Whatever happened to Timothy Taylor Landlord? I used to buy it at BevMo or Total Wine, now I can’t find it anywhere.

I’ve brewed three batches of it based on Northern Brewer’s recipe, one was so spot on I couldn’t tell the difference!

 

[shoreman]

Do you have the recipe that was spot on? They list the hops and Golden Promise in their website and I have a few recipes to go off of

West Yorkshire ale is their yeast from what I hear.

 

[Beermeister32]

3 lbs amber LME
1 lb Pilsen DME
1 lb Dextrose
Steeping grains 154F:
2 oz crystal 20
2 oz Munich light 10L
4 oz English extra dark or Crystal 80
2 oz 2-row
Nottingham yeast 1.5L starter
1 oz Fuggles @ 60
1 oz East Kent Goldings @ 45
1 oz Styrian Goldings@ 5
1.045 OG
Pitch at 61F
Ferment at 67F

 

[alexsnow555]

Thank you very much

Please! Hope you have a great drink!

 

[Derp]

Whatever happened to Timothy Taylor Landlord? I used to buy it at BevMo or Total Wine, now I can’t find it anywhere.

I’ve brewed three batches of it based on Northern Brewer’s recipe, one was so spot on I couldn’t tell the difference!

Shelton Brothers went out of business; they imported Landlord, as well as many other world-class beers. Their annual beer festival was amazing.

EDIT: I did some Googling and found that Lime Ventures appear to have picked up some of the Sheltons' distribution. Their website lists Timothy Taylor, but there's no further info, so maybe things are still in flux. Perhaps you could contact them and ask about Landlord's future?

https://lvbev.com/

 

[ba-brewer]

Yesterday's brews. One the right left a best bitter 94% golden promise and 6% homemade invert fermented with Brewlabs TT. One on the left right Treacle Flapjack oatmeal stout fermented with WLP026, only 5% treacle so should be subtle.

Picture taken ~14hrs post pitch, WLP026 is slow to start but working, it just does not want to unflock.

Fermenting in a square.

edit: fixed my lefts and rights