I have more left of the first batch for some trades. Gotta get the barleywine version of my Burton ale going soon too. And the Cooper's English bitter so I can use a gallon of it for malt vinegar. Maybe re-brew next month?
Looks like you used more wheat malt & oats than I did. And instead of souring the mash, I added 4ozs acidulated malt. This gives that slight tartness that seemed to have been mistaken for souring in my opinion. I used 12ozs flaked oats & 1.3 ozs honey. Sugar was sometimes used, rather than the bit of molasses I did. I used unsulphured golden molasses in mine, .6oz. Also in my case, I used bohemian pils malt, while the regular pils malt was 3lbs of LME, being the pb/pn biab style I do. Rehydrated WL029 yeast along with the acidulated malt gave the bit of tartness the ale was said to have. You can look back at barley-bob's comparison of the flavors, etc of mine vs his for some good descriptions. I thought he described them quite well! Further comparisons would be nice, but I gotta re-brew this one!Here ya go!
1850 Kotbusser from Pattinson's "The Home Brewer's Guide to Vintage Beer", which I recommend buying if you're interested in historic beer recipes.
Ingredients for 5 gallons:
7.5 lbs. Pils malt
4 lbs. pale wheat malt
1 lb. oats
.10 lb. honey
.10 lb. sugar
1 oz. Spalter, 90 min.
OG 1057
FG 1016
ABV 5.42%
Apparent attenuation: 71.93%
IBU 13
SRM 5
Mash at 150F (mash time not specified)
Sparge at 165F
Boil Time 90 min.
Pitching temp. 64F
Yeast: Kolsch and lactobacillus
Notes: The original "historic" mash method consisted of an initial mash with water at 113F, followed by a second mash with boiling water. Hops were boiled separately in a small amount of water for 8 to 10 hours, then added to the wort just before it was cooled. When fermentation reached its peak, the wort was transferred from fermentation vessels to barrels with open bungs. When yeast stopped coming out of the bunghole (heh heh...heh), the barrel was bunged and left to condition for 3 to 4 weeks.
Looks like you used more wheat malt & oats than I did. And instead of souring the mash, I added 4ozs acidulated malt. etc.
One of us... One of us...
I'd be real surprised if the 4 oz of acid malt made any sort of noticeable flavor contribution.
I use 3-5 ounces of acid malt in every batch for mash pH adjustments without affecting the flavor or aroma.
Exactly. a few oz of acid malt is just to adjust mash pH. I also use it in almost every brew to get pH where it should be. No flavor difference using a few oz.
Specifically, the yeast may've been stressed. I brewed this beer & fermented it starting 2/11/15. I made a starter for the WL029 kolsch yeast in 800ml spring water with .17lb pilsner LME @ 85.1F. Developed a finger of krausen the next morning. Cold crashed 2/5/15. Mashed 7 1/2lbs of grains in 2 1/2 gallons spring water @ 154F. Batch sparged 10 minutes with stirring @ 168F.
Having said all that, it was a hard winter & I had trouble getting the fermenting wort much over 63-64F. The range for WL029 is 65-69F. So the yeast was cold stressed till I could warm the fermenter, which produces certain phenols that could be responsible for the tartness. Obviously, in a good way. Something to consider next time.
I used .65oz magnum @ 60 for bittering, & .60 oz hallertauer @ 3 minutes. That seems to be what hop was used, due to the beer allegedly coming from that region of Germany. But it seems to me that German tradition hops could also be used, as they grew wild in those days & were commonly used. Gettin' about time to brew some more myself.
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