First attempt at a JS Constable clone

[doctr-dan]

Don't be to critical guys cause I have no idea.
I quite like the constable I think it's got some good flavour and I could drink it all night so I thought I'd have a crack.
I'm lucky enough to have 2 home brew stores near by so I took a bottle to each and said drink this and sell me some gear to try make it.

The first is
1x Rapid creek lager can (said try this first see what it's like then maybe try the pilsner next)
150g Munich grain soak for 10-20mins in hot water
1kg body brew ( 600g dextrose, 400g maltodextrin)
60g of citra hop pellets,
Soak 20g in hot water for 10-20mins
Dry hop 20g in the fermenter when pitching the yeast
Dry hop 20g on day 2

And I haven't heard from the other guy yet.

Thoughts ?

 

[gsouth82]

I think you'd definitely need some crystal in there. It's a cooper ale so you'd need some colour in there.
Being an English ale, im not sure Citra would be the best bet but I cant remember what the beer tastes like. I don't remember it being very hoppy, more malty. 60g of Citra seems like a lot.

 

[pilgrimspiss]

'so I took a bottle to each and said drink this and sell me some gear to try make it.'

Love your approach!! The LHBS bloke would've been stoked I reckon!!

That recipe will give you a nice beer. Not sure how close to JS constable. Its a midstrength beer yeh? 3.5%?

The munich will give you a little bit more color and malt flavour. Body brew will give you more alcohol.
You could swap the body brew for 1kg of straight DME. 600g of dextrose will dry it out a bit.

Give it a brew and adjust from there. Its always interesting when you try and clone beers. Do a side by side.
What yeast are you going to use?

Cheers
Matty

 

[Funk then Funk1]

The JS website says the hops are galaxy and topaz.

 

[maaark]

'so I took a bottle to each and said drink this and sell me some gear to try make it.'

Love your approach!! The LHBS bloke would've been stoked I reckon!!

Yeah that is tops.

I attempted to make a Constable clone this year, it turned out way darker than the JS original. If I did it again I would use these ingredients instead:

Coopers English Bitter tin
500g Light Dry Malt
200g Crystal
15g Fuggles
30g Galaxy
Kit yeast
21 lt brew

The first time I used 50g Roasted Barley, 200 g CaraRed & 1kg Amber LME (instead of crystal & DME) but it turned out way too dark to be a Constable but it still tasted awesome. Photo below, original on the left hehe.

 

[doctr-dan]

'so I took a bottle to each and said drink this and sell me some gear to try make it.'

Love your approach!! The LHBS bloke would've been stoked I reckon!!

That recipe will give you a nice beer. Not sure how close to JS constable. Its a midstrength beer yeh? 3.5%?

The munich will give you a little bit more color and malt flavour. Body brew will give you more alcohol.
You could swap the body brew for 1kg of straight DME. 600g of dextrose will dry it out a bit.

Give it a brew and adjust from there. Its always interesting when you try and clone beers. Do a side by side.
What yeast are you going to use?

Cheers
Matty

I figure that's part of there job , I also thought it would be interesting to see there different approaches .

It is a mid strength so a little barzinga in there would be good.

Yeast is what comes with the can so not sure other tha it is a lager yeast

 

[doctr-dan]

The JS website says the hops are galaxy and topaz.

Forehead slap

 

[RobboMC]

I would be going for the flavour of the original and not worry too much about the colour.
The Coopers English Bitter kit is already quite dark, and when you add a bit of crystal grain to the recipe it all ends up with too much colour.

Perhaps try and start with a Pale kit, like Heritage lager and a can of Light Liquid malt.

Then steep in your crystal and boil the hops.

Ian's awesome spread sheet shows me this recipe fits into the English Bitter Ordinary Bitter range.

Volume 27 litres - abc 3.7% when bottle primed
1 can Coopers Heritage Lager
1 kg Coopers Light Liquid Malt
0.5 kg Medium Crystal grain
0.25 kg Munich grain
20g Galaxy Hops @ 15 min
20g Galaxy Hops @ 8 min
Add aroma hops at 0 min as you wish (Topaz if you can get it )

Yeast : I would use an English Ale dry yeast sachet from the LHBS

This recipe results in 31 IBU ( range 25-35 ) and 21 ebc ( range 8-27 )

Ian, your spreadsheet rocks.

Once you are able to make a decent clone of the JS original you are on your way to next aiming for a beer that is BETTER than the JS version.