Old Peculier

[MHB]

Duncanbrewer, I would go with Medium Crystal - a UK one, and just regular UK chocolate malt.

Every time I read a description of TOP people say Fruity and Peppery flavours. Always wondered how T-58 would go as a yeast. I know it throws some phenolics but keeping it cool should suppress them some.
Mark

 

[duncbrewer]

Thank you for those tips. I suppose some pressure might suppress those phenolics as well.

 

[MHB]

Ya Think?

 

[duncbrewer]

I'd rather open ferment an ale, pressure seems to suppress everything the yeast makes both good and bad related to character.

 

[yankinoz]

@dkilleen
Thanks for that, I'll try the all grain, shame they don't suggest which type of crystal malt or whether light or dark choclate malt.
I suspect erring towards the darker for both really.
Will have to track down some challenger hops. Will update once brewed.
Just the weather for a pint of this by a warm log fire, windy cold and wet outside.

Unless otherwise stated or in pale beers, crystal malt in Brirish recipes usually means medium crystal. Dark chocolate malt gives quite a bit of roast. Old P has been around a lot longer than Challenger hops. I like Challenger in both UK and some US styles, but in that amount and in an early addition I suspect you could go with anything that provides smooth bittering and is not overwhelming.

Choice of yeast will matter more. Search some boards on that.

Disclaimer: I dislike OP and would never brew it.

 

[Eddy Monsoon]

Will have to track down some challenger hops.

Hoppy days have 10% off at the mo. Was looking at it yesterday

https://hoppydaysbrewingsupplies.com.au/product/challenger-hop-pellets-t-90/

 

[duncbrewer]

Thanks @yankinoz

Yeast choice I will ponder as well, mostly want to make it as haven't made it this century and to see what it's like all grain. I think the brewers have changed the recipe a lot over the years so I might be chasing an old rainbow if I did a comparison with a new bottled variant. I remember it being a very dark beer yet it looks more like an ESB colour now when I see it on the website.

 

[Coalminer]

 

[duncbrewer]

That's a nice looking glass, though I suspect the beer is a bit below cellar temperature. The cold filtered is a new thing on their bottles.

 

[Keatsy]

This fella has just carbonated in bottles and I had a taste last night. Only difference to the recipe posted is I got way more efficiency and its about 6.3% instead of the 5.6%. Its still very young but I'm thinking I should of gone with Roasted Barley instead of the chocolate, get a real chocolatey flavour that doesn't seem to blend with the fuggles and give the sweet flavours people talk about. Its a bloody nice drop and will go down well on cold nights but think I'd definitely swap out the chocolate for roasted barley next time. Also used the Windsor yeast as I couldn't get wlp002 or 005 from the LHBS cause of damn covid etc etc. Ferment got quite warm (24-26) by accident but this hasn't seemed to produce many esters like I would of thought. Its almost as neutral as Nottingham just less attenuative. Maybe the chocolate is covering some of them up, maybe some age will blend it all together.

 

[duncbrewer]

@Keatsy
That Windsor can't ferment maltotriose sugars I think so it leaves a sweeter beer. I think dudes brew fermented with windsor and kveik hot and didn't get many esters from the windsor. They expected an ester bomb in their stout.

 

[MHB]

Windsor is a great if much maligned yeast. The trick with it is to use 1g/L, do that and it behaves very well less can be problematic.
As with any yeast most of the flavours are produced early in the ferment, it’s the temperature at/around pitching and during the early reproductive phase that really impacts on your esters, cooler producing less, warmer more in general.

I would avoid Roast Barley, everything I can find says Roast Malt, Roast Barley is roasted Un-Malted barley and tastes very different. Black Patent is the same colour as roast barley and its flavour is much more in line with what I taste in the beer. Caraffa Special 3 would be worth a try; being de-husked it will be a little softer on the palate again just as black as roast barley and black patent (1000-1200 EBC).

Old Peculiar is something of a personal favourite, always called it my benchmark black beer, it’s been a while might have to dig one up and get reacquainted.
Mark

 

[duncbrewer]

@MHB
Agreed I remember it very much as a black beer, but that picture next to the bottle and the pictures on the web site hint at a bitter beer colour rather than a more to stout hue that the grey cells recollect.
Would Eclipse wheat malt be another option ?

 

[MHB]

Another malt I love (well the Weyermann version anyway), great in black beers, and like Carafa lacking a husk it is much more mellow than an equivalent roast husked barley.
That said I don’t taste it in TOP, I get black patent so if I were making a "Clone" would stay with Black Patent, if I were designing a black beer would be all over the Roast Wheat.
Bit like the discussion about Maris earlier in this thread, Maris is a great malt, I just don’t taste it in this beer.
Mark

 

[duncbrewer]

I agree it's also a bit too new a malt given the age of OP for that beer.

 

[Keatsy]

Windsor is a great if much maligned yeast. The trick with it is to use 1g/L, do that and it behaves very well less can be problematic.
As with any yeast most of the flavours are produced early in the ferment, it’s the temperature at/around pitching and during the early reproductive phase that really impacts on your esters, cooler producing less, warmer more in general.

I would avoid Roast Barley, everything I can find says Roast Malt, Roast Barley is roasted Un-Malted barley and tastes very different. Black Patent is the same colour as roast barley and its flavour is much more in line with what I taste in the beer. Caraffa Special 3 would be worth a try; being de-husked it will be a little softer on the palate again just as black as roast barley and black patent (1000-1200 EBC).

Old Peculiar is something of a personal favourite, always called it my benchmark black beer, it’s been a while might have to dig one up and get reacquainted.
Mark

I usually go through hoppy days for my ingredients, they have the carafas but not black patent. Any ideas who in Brisbane would do black patent in small amounts?