English Ales - What's your favorite recipe?

[Erik the Anglophile]

That sounds like a very long delay for hops already on the home brew market. Wholesalers like 'craftco' are possibly manipulating Nordic supplies to latch on, like parasites, to LHBSs. I used to use maltmiller.co.uk. Excellent quality and service for a reasonable price. If you order enough hops shipping isn't too bad and I think they might even take care of Sweden/EU VAT charges at the point of sale. I only stopped using them because of import shenanigans with Norway's new rules, propping up Norwegian wholesalers, it seems.

To be fair it seems to be because the general bulk cargo F-ery going on in the wakes of Corona lockdowns, they have some varieties of the 2021 harvest in stock but far from all.
I'll try maltmiller, hopefully the international mail system is not as messed up...
Edit: the 2021 harvest seem to be in short supply in the UK aswell...

 

[Shenanigans]

So the hops I look for seem to be delayed 2-3 months at Humlegården. I am now contemplating going directly to the source.
Any Brits here know about british homebrew shops with a good selection of English hops who will ship to Sweden?
Looking for Fuggle, Bramling X, First Gold and Challenger.

Might be less hassle importing from Ireland.

www.thehomebrewcompany.ie

They have the 2021 harvest of all those hops.
Most 100g packs actually have a 10% discount at the moment and the 1kg prices are fairly good.

Earlier this morning the website was working perfect but there seems to be something wrong at the moment though. It looks like its working but showing some background links to their website domain provider rather than the normal front page but would expect them to fix that once they realise it.
So maybe check back later but you can still check the prices and so on with the search box at the top right.

Shipping to Sweden is €23 up to 31 KG so you could add some malt to your cart to make it worth your while. They have Maris Otter and some British crystal malts.
I usually add some Honey Malt and Simpsons Naked Oats for some American recipies as these are not available at the other shops I normally order from. Also check out what liquid yeasts they have on discount, sometimes you can get a good deal there.

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

Might be less hassle importing from Ireland.

www.thehomebrewcompany.ie

They have the 2021 harvest of all those hops.
Most 100g packs actually have a 10% discount at the moment and the 1kg prices are fairly good.

Earlier this morning the website was working perfect but there seems to be something wrong at the moment though. It looks like its working but showing some background links to their website domain provider rather than the normal front page but would expect them to fix that once they realise it.
So maybe check back later but you can still check the prices and so on with the search box at the top right.

Shipping to Sweden is €23 up to 31 KG so you could add some malt to your cart to make it worth your while. They have Maris Otter and some British crystal malts.
I usually add some Honey Malt and Simpsons Naked Oats for some American recipies as these are not available at the other shops I normally order from. Also check out what liquid yeasts they have on discount, sometimes you can get a good deal there.

Thank

Might be less hassle importing from Ireland.

www.thehomebrewcompany.ie

They have the 2021 harvest of all those hops.
Most 100g packs actually have a 10% discount at the moment and the 1kg prices are fairly good.

Earlier this morning the website was working perfect but there seems to be something wrong at the moment though. It looks like its working but showing some background links to their website domain provider rather than the normal front page but would expect them to fix that once they realise it.
So maybe check back later but you can still check the prices and so on with the search box at the top right.

Shipping to Sweden is €23 up to 31 KG so you could add some malt to your cart to make it worth your while. They have Maris Otter and some British crystal malts.
I usually add some Honey Malt and Simpsons Naked Oats for some American recipies as these are not available at the other shops I normally order from. Also check out what liquid yeasts they have on discount, sometimes you can get a good deal there.

I tried making an account, but I can't choose a province for Sweden and that's required info... Might try tonight with the PC since the web version of the website might work better than the mobile version.

 

[McMullan]

None of the Ireland based HBS ship to Norway. Too much hassle with craftco's cousins in customs, if you know what I mean.

 

[duncan_disorderly]

So the hops I look for seem to be delayed 2-3 months at Humlegården. I am now contemplating going directly to the source.
Any Brits here know about british homebrew shops with a good selection of English hops who will ship to Sweden?
Looking for Fuggle, Bramling X, First Gold and Challenger.

I think maltmiller is likely to be your best bet. Shipping around £20.

https://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/product-category/ingredients/hops/?subcat=british-pellet-hops

 

[monkeymath]

So the hops I look for seem to be delayed 2-3 months at Humlegården. I am now contemplating going directly to the source.
Any Brits here know about british homebrew shops with a good selection of English hops who will ship to Sweden?

Unless things improved dramatically since last year, I *strongly* advise against that!
Imports of hop products into the EU are regulated rather strictly and anything above 500g will be difficult to import.

Hell, even just getting my parcel containing only 200g of hops through customs took ages. They requested a description of every single item in the package, thinking it might be hops.

It's really sad because themaltmiller has by far the best selection of more exotic yeasts and bacteria, but it's just not working.

 

[InspectorJon]

Road trip…

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

@Shenanigans it worked now on the computer, 1kg of challenger, 500g each of Fuggle, First Gold and Bramling X. now I should be able to brew through the year...
Thank you for the tip!

 

[Shenanigans]

@Shenanigans it worked now on the computer, 1kg of challenger, 500g each of Fuggle, First Gold and Bramling X. now I should be able to brew through the year...
Thank you for the tip!

Good stuff.
These guys will have to start giving me some discounts.
I've sent several people in their direction now since Brexit.
I'm back home next month so I might drop in for a visit.

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

I was able to get 500geach of Styrian Goldings/Bobek and EKG and now this so I'm all set for quite a while.
Will be interresting to see when the kilo of billingtons demerara sugar I ordered from vitaminsuk arrives, but that's not hops so it shouldn't be any problems.

 

[DuncB]

Just growing up the starter for a Five points malt base but using Fuggles to bitter and then EKG at flameout and my first year harvest ( will pick during the mash) of goldings. Will get about 50 cones so just using those in the hop missile as a hop back at about 80 degrees. Sunday is the brewday.

 

[Fuggledog]

Sounds Great! What yeast are you going to use DuncB? The Five Points sounds like a particularly good pint. Will you post some pics when it's ready for drinking?

 

[DuncB]

I'm going to use the WLP013 as that is their recommended yeast. I will definitely post picture of the finished Five points, heres a picture of an American Amber that I did as a test brew on the Guten with the new controller I fitted.

It's just a clone of a Trve brewery in Denver called Hellion a " lawnmower " beer. I hadn't cut the grass but had cut a tree down and pruned some others viciously to keep the view.

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

Are they TRVE KVLT?

 

[DuncB]

Are they TRVE KVLT?

I'm not sure

Have a look and decide for yourself and let us know whether they are.

https://www.trvebrewing.com/

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

They have a bunch of beers named after a bunch of really obscure songs you would never know unless a(real) metalhead, but their logo's are not nearly unreadable enough.
I am a bit ambivalent.

 

[DuncB]

@Erik the Anglophile
I'm no wiser as to what KVLT is, listened to a bit of death metal not by choice in the past and it wasn't that relaxing.

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

@DuncB
https://www.dictionary.com/e/pop-culture/kvlt/

 

[McMullan]

I'm a big metal fan. So-called 'death metal' is a Nordic thing. Apart from being utterly ***** it's based on the inevitable and predictable misery of latitude. Just to put things into perspective, they make Slayer sound like an 80s pop group, relatively speaking. Complete *****, in reality. Just another **** export from Norway, on the periphery of civilisation. Ah-*******-ha. They were **** too.

Edit: one of my favourite guitarists is Yngwie Malmsteen, btw. My first gig, Poole Art Centre, back some time in the 80s

 

[DuncB]

I listenend to The Architects but it didn't generate a good atmosphere in the operating theatre and we had to can it!

 

[Fuggledog]

Lovely looking beer there Dunc, and the view beyond isn't bad either!

 

[DuncB]

Lovely looking beer there Dunc, and the view beyond isn't bad either!

Lovely day that one, we do get the odd ones!
One picture of beer in focus and the other was view in focus. That was a grain to glass in 10 days as I hadn't brewed this year due to lack of controller.

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

We have had (mostly) daytime temps over freezing here the past week. But still almost a meter of snow, and likely one last cold snap to come, but we're getting there!

 

[Winslade]

Unless things improved dramatically since last year, I *strongly* advise against that!
Imports of hop products into the EU are regulated rather strictly and anything above 500g will be difficult to import.

Hell, even just getting my parcel containing only 200g of hops through customs took ages. They requested a description of every single item in the package, thinking it might be hops.

It's really sad because themaltmiller has by far the best selection of more exotic yeasts and bacteria, but it's just not working.

Keg that.com have a great selection and will deliver to Sweden, just put a note on the order saying Homebrew member.

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

Brewed up a stout yesterday.
Pitched the yeast around 16.00 yesterday, a while ago I checked on it (7 in the morning here)
There was some pressure starting to build up in the bucket but no kräuzen or bubbling yet, I ferment a little cooler for this one (18c) so a little sluggish start is expected.

 

[Shenanigans]

So to get back to the OP.
I brewed up a Youngs Special London Ale based on the BYO recipe and a few other websites.
I decided to add the Torrified wheat myself for a bit of head retention.
The crystal malt was actually from Warminister but I don't have it in Beer Smith.

Sulfate: Chloride was 110:50

OG was 1.067 and FG 1.017

Tasting really good after only 3 days in the keg, very impressed.
Will post a picture next week when it has cleared up a bit.

 

[monkeymath]

I'm planning to brew a sequence of English-ish beers soon: a bitter, a mild, a porter/stout. Based on the tireless educational effort on this forum, I want to try and incorporate some dark invert sugar (or rather: the bastardization of dark invert sugar that I am able to produce in my home kitchen) in my bitter and mild, but I have trouble finding recipes. I usually wing most of my beers, but I am willing to learn and using sugar in a low ABV beer seems sort of counter-intuitive to me, so I really need some guidance here.

I know there are a number of recipes on the "Don't mention another word about farclay merkins" blog, but I find it very hard to choose among the recipes and often don't even know what the beers are supposed to taste like, how they compare to one another, etc. Also, I think these historical recipes often (more or less silenty) reflect at least in economic and regulatory conditions that I am not affected by (I wouldn't add an ingredient just because it's cheaper than malt or because the government dictated its usage at the time etc).

 

[Miraculix]

I'm planning to brew a sequence of English-ish beers soon: a bitter, a mild, a porter/stout. Based on the tireless educational effort on this forum, I want to try and incorporate some dark invert sugar (or rather: the bastardization of dark invert sugar that I am able to produce in my home kitchen) in my bitter and mild, but I have trouble finding recipes. I usually wing most of my beers, but I am willing to learn and using sugar in a low ABV beer seems sort of counter-intuitive to me, so I really need some guidance here.

I know there are a number of recipes on the "Don't mention another word about farclay merkins" blog, but I find it very hard to choose among the recipes and often don't even know what the beers are supposed to taste like, how they compare to one another, etc. Also, I think these historical recipes often (more or less silenty) reflect at least in economic and regulatory conditions that I am not affected by (I wouldn't add an ingredient just because it's cheaper than malt or because the government dictated its usage at the time etc).

In this case, keep it really simple. 5% medium english Crystal, 10% medium invert sugar, rest Maris Otter. 30-35 ibis from goldings, one bittering addition, one ten minute addition and if you want a small dry hop, something like 1-2g/ litre.

Choose one of the English yeasts you like, my suggestion would be imperial pub but I'm a fan boy, so don't listen to me regarding the yeast. If you want dry yeast, verdant IPA is the only good one but it is massively fruity. I would probably try co-pitching with Nottingham now, to see if I could control the fruityness a bit this way. Ferment around 19c. Room temp after day two.

 

[ba-brewer]

@monkeymath there is some information in this thread about milds
Feedback on English Dark Mild Recipe?

edit
I recently brewed this one without the late addition hops and thought it tasted good
Machine House Mild Clong

 

[McMullan]

When I hit a brewing series it's mainly binge brewing and about repitching yeast as fresh as they come, batch to batch. I'll brew once or twice a week for a few weeks or so, to fill the empty kegs. I'll start with a (modern/low OG) Mild, often as a half batch starter for drinking and bumping up the yeast count. Then maybe a full batch of Mild. Then a Bitter or two perhaps followed by a Strong Bitter. Then my favourite, dark ales, a decent Porter or two. If the yeast have impressed, I'll bung a good crop in an Imperial Stout. Don't worry about adding brewing sugars to low gravity English ales. I'd say 10% of fermentables is a good place to start. It can range anywhere between about 5% to more than 30%. Play around with it and go with what suits you. The 'secret' is to use quality unrefined cane sugar, IME. That's how to nail the subtle 'luscious' thing it brings. Quality Demerara sugar doesn't need to be inverted, imo, although it does get even better inverted. It works very well in a Bitter and an English IPA.