Boddington's Pub Ale Clone

[NRB]

I was speaking to a mate of mine over the weekend and it turns out he's been thinking about brewing for a while. With 5 November 2005 being introduce a friend to homebrew day, I figured the opportunity MUST be taken to bring another into the HB world.

After living in England for a while, he's partial to English pub ales and Boddington's is his favourite. I would like to brew something similar to this, but speaking to a few of you in the chat room (thanks Jayse & BigD in particular), it's going to be a challenge given the nitrogen widget found in the commercial example. I know he's a fan of Kilkenny, but the same problem exists.

What I'm after is a recipe (AG or extract) for something that is likely to appeal to his palate as well as being very simple to create - I don't want him to think it's too much hard work. I have in stock WYeast 1335 British Ale II.

BigD kindly provided this as a basis of the recipe, which looks reasonable:

3kg trad
200g amber
200g crystal
20g fuggle 60min
15g ekg 60min
15g fuggle 15min
WYeast 1335

Fuggles could be a bit too earthy, but opinions seem to vary.

Anyone have any ideas or comments on what I should do?

Beers,
Nick

 

[delboy]

hi nrb
if you want to brew the boddington's from the ag recipe above take into concideration of where it is made .(MANCHESTER)now that is the Northwest of england so you would want to hopit with .hold on i'll get my book out
ok done some reserch on the hops commonly used here (from boddingtons thenselves
they use a cluster of hops fuggles, bramlingcross,goldings
the difference being here is the bramling cross so i would suggest to get the flavours sort of right

20gms fuggles @60min
20gms bramlings@ 60min
10gms goldings @ 15min

this is about right for 23 ltrs
any one can correct me if iam wrong here as this would be a guestamate on the hops /vol ratio
i would also dry hop with 15 gms bramlings at second ferment as well

if you are going to keg it in a corney get one of thought co bike pumps and when it is ready to serve inject it with 2 8 gms of no2 ummm creamy tops .

delboy

 

[bradmcm]

Well, Boddingtons is (was?)
1035 OG 14 EBC in colour

The commercial recipe is 92% pale, 5% crystal 3% sugar.
Supposedly 37 IBU of Whitbread Goldings
finished off with around 1/2g / litre mix of Goldings and Fuggles.

Easy.

 

[delboy]

so when would you use the bramlings then ?

well i guess my book is 30 years old and recipes do change as commercial they get bigger .but this was for there boddingtons pub ale .

unfortunatly inbev has closed down there real ale brew pub too and the brewery gose next year.
delboy

 

[sinkas]

Hi there,
There is a recipe for this in the book, "Beer Captured" which is only a few years ols, however is am too lazy to be arsed typing it out tonight, maybe later in the week.,

 

[Steve]

I was after the same thing recently as I grew up drinking Boddies. Found this recipe on the net.


Ingredients: (for 5 gallons)

* 6 lbs. (2720 g) English 2-row pale malt
* 1 oz. (28 g) black patent malt
* 3 ozs. (85 g) Cane (white table) Sugar
* 3/8 Cup (packed) soft dark brown sugar for priming
* 1 oz. (28 g) Fuggles hop pellets (4.5 alpha acid)
* 1 1/8 ozs. (38 1/2 g) E.K. Goldings hop pellets (4.6 alpha acid)
* 1/8 oz. (3.5 g) Northern Brewer hop pellets (7.6 alpha acid)
* 1 tsp gypsum added to mash water
* 1 tsp gypsum added to sparge water
* 1/4 tsp Epsom Salts added to kettle
* Wyeast #1968 Special London Ale (or other suitable ale yeast) made up to a 1 quart (1 litre) starter

Procedure:
Crush all grains and mash into 9 quarts of brewing water preheated to 130 degrees F (54 C). When grist is thoroughly mixed in with no dry spots, add 4 quarts of boiling brewing water and increase mash heat to 152 degrees F (66-67 C). Hold for two hours, stirring and returning to proper heat every 20 minutes or so. Mash out at 168 degrees F (76 C) for 5 minutes. Sparge with 3 1/2 gallons of 170 degree F (77 C) brewing water. Top up kettle to 6-6 1/2 gallons for full length boil.

Bring the wort to a boil along with the Fuggles hops and 3/4 ounce (21 g) of the E.K. Goldings hops. Boil 1 1/2 hours, adding the cane sugar during the boil. Add the balance of the hops for the last 15 minutes of the boil. If you use Irish moss, add 1 1/2 tsp. for the last 20 minutes of the boil.

Force chill the wort, rack it off of the trub into the fermenter being sure to aerate well, pitch the yeast starter and ferment to completion. Estimated FG of 1014.

Make up the dark brown sugar with a pint of water for priming, and bottle the brew. Sample after two weeks.

Malt Extract Recipe:

Substitute 5 pounds (2270 g) of amber dry malt extract (not Laaglander's, too dextrinous) for the pale malt. No grains are needed. Bring 2 gallons (8 litres) of brewing water to a full boil. As soon as the water boils, remove it from the heat and add sugar and DME. Stir until they are completely dissolved. Only then can you return the wort to the heat, add the hops as above, and return to a boil. Boil 1 hour, adding the last batch of hop pellets for the final 15 minutes. Again, Irish moss is optional.

Force chill and make up to the full 5 gallons (19 litres) with brewing water, aerate well and follow the directions for all grain for fermentation and bottling.


Now because im not an AG'er I got Grumpys to make up an Extrabrew kit. Very simple to make, 30 min boil. I used W1098. Havent tasted it yet - its still carbing up. Hops this helps.

Cheers
Steve

P.S. No affiliation to Grumpys blah blah blah!

 

[Steve]

sorry - i used W1968

 

[delboy]

great one steve

yep i should have mentioned that the northern brewer hops is very similar to the bramlings i belive or they are the same and this would be there common variety name.??

delboy

 

[NRB]

Cheers so far guys... keep the replies coming

 

[Sean]

No promises that it's still true of the bastardized "Pub Ale", but c. 10 years ago when Boddies was still virtually all real ale I was taken around the brewery by one of the brewers. The bits I can remember:
1. Fuggles is the dominant (but not sole) hop.
2. All the hops go in at the beginning of the boil (60mins I think). Boddingtons added no late additions of hops at all, prefering to use large quantities of low alpha hops at the start of the boil to get all their flavour and aroma.
3. Boddingtons yeast is a proper 'Yorkshire' strain, that requires pretty violent rousing and aeration every 24 hours or so. The beer was fermented in open stainless squares.

 

[NRB]

I was waiting for your reply Sean! :chug:

 

[Lager Lad]

A terrific recipe for an english style bitter that I've had great success with is as follows:

1 x Muntons yorkshire Bitter Kit
1.5 kg Coopers light liquid malt
500g powdered corn syrup.

I've made this twice and am amazed at the head retention and the authenticity of the English flavour. All thanks go to the guys at the Asquith homebrew shop.

I kept the fermenter at a constant 18oC for 6 weeks before bottling after an initial 24oC at pitching. Best beer I've made.

Cheers!

 

[Jazman]

Lager lad i personally would not use so much maltidextrin or corn syrup in a beer,250 grams max and would not leave the beer on the primary for 6 weeks but i would leave on the primary for a week after fermentation finished then cold condition for a bout 2 weeks then bottle or keg

 

[sinkas]

From Beers captured:

for a 18.9 litre batch:
6.2lb british 2 row pale
113g British 55degreeL crystal
14g british Black patent

150g golden syryp

EKG and fuggles hops, up to 28 IBU,

2 additions 60 and 45 mins

7g whitbread goldings at 3 minutes for aroma,

wyeast 1098 or 1028


Cheers

Case

 

[bottlerocket]

how would you get that creamy head?
thats the best part of a can of boddingtons

 

[Steve]

How does this sound?

2720 g English 2-row pale malt
28 g black patent malt
85 g Cane (white table) Sugar

9.3g Fuggles hop pellets @ 60 mins & 30 mins
9.3g Bramlin Cross hop pellets @ 60 mins & 30 mins
9.3g EK Goldings hop pellets @ 60 mins & 30 mins

3.3g Fuggles hop pellets @ 15 mins and dry hopped
3.3g Bramlin Cross hop pellets @ 15mins and dry hopped
3.3g EK Goldings hop pellets @ 15 mins and dry hopped

Cheers
Steve

 

[NoIP]

1 x 1.7 kg Can Coopers Mexican Cerveza
1 x 1.5 kg Can Morans Master Wheat Malt
1 packet Morgans SAAZ finishing hops
60g mixed citrus peel from woolies
30g toasted chopped coriander seed
3 x fresh coriander plants
1 x Table spoon cumin seed powder.
Peel of one orange, pith removed.

My pathetic attempt at a wheat beer turned out very different.

Tried this after just 1 week in the bottle and although I wasn't expecting this flavour at all, it tastes like boddingtons to me.

Same colour, fine head allready, my wife agreed it tastes like boddingtons. It has fairly high alc (without testing.)

How could this be? Am I going mad?

 

[mwd]

Ah Ha a miracle very surprised it tastes like Boddingtons cream of Manchester with all those herbs and spices added.

P.S. the Boddies you get these days is nothing like the old fashioned beer before the big bad boys took over still O.K. though.

 

[Tim]

Talk about digging up old posts.
Anyhow, the question I have is why anyone would want to clone the English Ale version of Carlton Cold?

 

[Rod]

From the " Brew your own British real ale Book "

Extract recipe

2420 g of Malt extract syrup OR
2080 Dried malt extract

200 grams crystal malt
100 grams white sugar

boil for 90 minutes

add 39g of Whitbread Golding hops at start

add 13gr of fuggles at last ten minutes