Old British Ale

[hazard]

I found this site on the internet, with recipes for old (19 C and earlier british Ales.

http://www.countybeermakers.org.uk/oldbeers/book2-list.php

There is some interesting recipes here, but main thing appears to be - they sure drank their beer strong in those days. And hoppy.
#27 - a mild ale with OG of 66! Compare to Coopers Mild, which today has ABV of 3.5%.
Or look at #47 Stock Ale. 2oz of EGK per gallon - that's 10 oz, or 280g for a 23 L batch. And boiled for 90min. What is IBU on that! Maybe hops were cheap then.

Would be fun to make some, but must be difficult to get a beer this strong without lots of sugar and extract. Some of them just use the first runnings, so extract efficiency would be woeful.

Hazard

 

[Mantis]

Wow, scary :blink:

 

[flattop]

Yup there's just not enough Milfoil or Yarrow used in beers these days?????

 

[Tony]

Maybe hops were cheap then.

I think Ross only sold them for $4/90g back then

 

[Bribie G]

In those days they used a system called 'Parti-gyle' brewing. They would do a mash, run the wort off and do a really strong brew. Then they would run hot liquor into the mash tun, do a second mash and run off a weaker wort. Then believe it or not they would run off a third wort called "Table Beer" also called "Small Beer".

At a BABBs (Brisbane club) meeting last year one of the guys actually had a third runnings beer and it wasn't too bad :icon_cheers:

For a bit more info on Victorian brewing:

http://www.europeanbeerguide.net/beerale.htm