Strong Bitter "Hogwash" - Prize Ale (Strong Bitter / English Pale Ale)

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HM-2

Life Begins at 10g/L
HBT Supporter
Joined
Jun 17, 2022
Messages
682
Reaction score
2,493
Location
UK
Recipe Type
All Grain
Yeast
Lallemand Windsor (1 Packet)
Batch Size (Gallons)
5.5 Gallons / 21 Litres
Original Gravity
1.054
Final Gravity
1.013
Boiling Time (Minutes)
30
IBU
45
Color
25 EBC
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)
6 days @ 20°C, 4 days @ 21°C
Tasting Notes
Nutty, Orange Marmalade, Crisp
Sharing the recipe for this, having kicked the keg in record time.

I grew up in a pretty small village (circa 1200 people) in the South-West of England. Despite being small, we had, at varying times since I was born, between 1 and 3 pubs, and since it reopened in 1984, our own brewery (still inhabiting the site of a traditional English tower brewery dating from 1833 that had closed towards the end of the 19th Century).

Uley.jpg


Earlier in the year I heard that Chas Wright, the man who revived the brewery in 1984 (and a regular feature at many local pubs within a 2 or 3 mile radius of the village) had died, and so I decided to try and design and brew something that acted as a bit of a homage to him and his beers. Of the core range put out by Uley Brewery, Pig's Ear was always my favourite, and something I drank a truly absurd amount of off the hand-pump in the village local during my late teens and early twenties.

Pig's Ear is a 5% "Prize Ale", variously described as a Strong Bitter and Pale Ale by other sources. It's a pretty typical British cask beer of 5% ABV, a lovely copper-amber colour, and a great balance between bitterness and sweetness. It's pretty much exclusively available in pubs within about a 30 mile radius of the Brewery. One of the most marked characteristics of Pig's Ear's flavour profile that I've seldom seen in other beers of its style is a very pronounced nuttiness- specifically, something like roasted hazelnut- which plays really well with the earthy and mildly orange-marmalade hops and decent whack of crystal malts they clearly use. I'm not 100% definite, but I'm pretty sure they're using no adjuncts/sugar in Pig's Ear and other than that and taking a sort-of-guess they're using Warminster malts based on location and occasional (and quite possibly misinterpreted) allusions...I have exactly zero insight into the actual recipe.

I set out to make, not a clone per se (probably a hard thing to clone given I've had maybe 3 pints of it in the last five years...) but a homage of sorts to my memories of Pig's Ear, that channelled the same sort of flavour profiles and tickled my amygdala in the same highly nostalgic way. And, in my humble opinion, I succeeded.

PXL-20231109-213407673-PORTRAIT.jpg


My version is probably a little darker than the real thing, erring more towards Old Spot (Uley's other 5% Strong Bitter) in colour, but I'm very happy indeed with the flavour. A fantastically sessionable English pint with that characteristic nuttiness shining through.

Vital Stats:
ABV: 5.4%
OG: 1.054
FG: 1.013
EBC: 25
IBU: 45
BU/GU: 0.83

Recipe as below for circa 21L/5.5 gallon fermenter volume:

MaltWeightPercentage
Floor Malted Maris Otter (Warminster)4.56 KG85%
Crystal Double Roast Caramel (Simpsons)0.268 KG5%
Crystal T50 (Simpsons)0.268 KG5%
Wheat Malt (Crisp)0.268 KG5%

Using Warminster Floor Malted Maris Otter is really important. It pushes the MO "nuttiness" extra hard compared to other maltsters such as Crisp. It'll probably be good with other MO or flavoursome pale ale malt, but not quite the same. Mash profile is extremely simple:
  • Mash at 65°C for 45 minutes.
  • Mash out at 75°C for 15 minutes.
Shoot for a balanced "ordinary bitter" type water profile of roughly 80mg Ca, 65mg Cl. 120mg SO and 40mg HCO.

HopsTypeAAWeightIBUTimingProcess
UK ChallengerT908.0%43.5g29.230mBoil
First GoldT907.0%30g9.710mBoil
Frist GoldT907.0%70g6.130mWhirlpool @ 75°C

Aim for circa 45 IBU with around 39-40 of that coming from boil additions. I did a modern 30 minute boil with UK challenger at 30 and a small hit of First Gold at 10m for a combined estimated 39.6 IBU followed by a beefier whirlpool of 70g First Gold done on the cooler side of the default 80°C. Yes, the bitterness is probably on the higher side for the style, but it balances exceptionally well and versions I brewed with IBUs in the 30s simply didn't present as well.

Fermentation is simple: you can do 10 days at 20°C with a single pack of Windsor, by which time it should have quite happily fermented out. You might want to ramp slightly towards the end to minimise diacetyl but honestly I think the risks are pretty low. My attenuation was bob-on 75% which IMO is perfect for this style of beer at this sort of ABV.

For fining, I dropped half a Protafloc in the boil at 5 minutes, and then 4ml BrauSol at kegging, but it could equally just be left to condition. The photo above is at around 3 weeks conditioning time at 6°C by which time it was beautifully crystal clear as you can see.
 
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I'm definitely working this one up. Plan on it right after my first brew back, a best bitter, then a first-gold-centric strong bitter, then this one. Many thanks for the recipe and the background, OP.
 
That looks fantastic. How much, would you guess, the particular choice of hops plays into the final product?
On the bittering side, I don't think choice is going to make a huge difference. As mentioned I'd keep to a target of around 45 IBU total for the best balance.

You'll probably get a slightly different outcome trading in the First Gold for something that pushes less of thr orange marmalade but I don't think the difference would be huge if you traded in EKG or Fuggle aside from probably having to use a bit more.

It could be fun to try something like Opus, or one of the other higher AA modern Charles Faram hops like Olicana in the whirlpool but I expect that would push you towards something more pale ale in the overall profile instead of something equidistant between a strong bitter and pale ale.
 
So I brewed a version of your recipe in middle of December, it's been conditioning for 16-17 days now and this is the result. A few tweaks from the original recipe:

I don't have access to Warminster floor malted MO so I had to stick with my usual Simpsons MO,
I used my usual bittering hop Admiral in place of Challenger,
I used a blend of Windsor, Verdant and AEB AY3

It's a very nice bitter, mine look a tad lighter in colour than the original. I'm absolutely going to brew it again!

1000003557.jpg
 
I think your colour is actually pretty close to mine, just in different lighting. Glad you enjoyed it! Great tablecloth too 😂

Keen to hear whether you got any fruit esters from that tri-co-pitch. Despite regularly using Verdant, I've not used it for traditional British beers at all but could see how it might play nice in a strong bitter or pale ale with the right hops.
 
I think your colour is actually pretty close to mine, just in different lighting. Glad you enjoyed it! Great tablecloth too 😂

Keen to hear whether you got any fruit esters from that tri-co-pitch. Despite regularly using Verdant, I've not used it for traditional British beers at all but could see how it might play nice in a strong bitter or pale ale with the right hops.
There's definitely some esters and fruitiness there but not overwhelming, I'm rather pleased with it. This was the slurry of a previous batch, another bitter, and I'm not sure if it's just my imagination but I think this "second generation" performs better than the first dry pitched.
 
You inspired me to brew this so I created this recipe based on my ingredients.

PIG’S EAR

Vitals​

Original Gravity: 1.049
Final Gravity: 1.011
IBU (Tinseth): 42
BU/GU: 0.85
Colour: 10.5 SRM


Mash​


Temperature — 67 °C60 min

Malts (4.6 kg)

4 kg (87%) — Crisp Finest Maris Otter® Ale Malt — Grain — 3.3 SRM
200 g (4.4%) — Castle Malting Chateau Biscuit — Grain — 25.5 SRM
200 g (4.4%) — Crisp Medium Crystal 240 — Grain — 135 SRM
200 g (4.4%) — Crisp Wheat Malt — Grain — 2.1 SRM — Mash — 60 min

Hops (95 g)

35 g (27 IBU) — Challenger 6.5% — Boil — 60 min
25 g
(10 IBU) — First Gold (Whole) 6% — Boil — 15 min
35 g
(5 IBU) — First Gold (Whole) 6% — Aroma — 20 min hopstand

1 pkg
— Crossmyloof CML Midland 79%

Fermentation​

Primary — 20 °C7 days
Carbonation: 2.4 CO2-vol

 
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