Recipe Suggestions For Real British Ales

[milestron]

Hey all

I've recently decided that the English-style ales are my personal favourite. I mean, I like all beer really but we've been hitting up the British pubs recently and I've been venturing into the more wacko section of the bottleshop and discovered this stuff really is the shit in my opinion.

Anyway, I was wondering if anyone had some recipe recommendations, I'm not at all fussy because like I say I pretty well like all beer, but some of the ones I've particularly liked were

Tetley's Bitter
Marstons Pedigree
Hobgoblin Ale
The Bishop's Finger
Old Speckled Hen

to name a few. I'm lucky enough to live close to a First Choice bottleo and they stock all this kind of stuff but it tends to be a bit pricey. My experience level is pretty low and I'm looking for something I can do at extract-level (or K&K if someone has a particular recommendation)

Cheers all much appreciated hey

 

[michaelcocks]

Try esb and tcb who both do English bitter k + k
Also Morgans and muntons
Then move on to extract w specialty malts
Then grain

 

[Bribie G]

If you have $23.70 to spare you can get "Brew Your Own British Real Ale" post free ex UK, it's compiled by a master - Graham Wheeler - and there are extract versions of each recipe printed under the all grain recipe for each beer.
Mine arrived in about 5 wd which was spectacular service.

 

[Scruffy]

Bitter eh?
Using extract; 2.5 kilos. And steep these
100g Honey malt
200g English crystal malt, 80 Lovibond
100g Belgian aromatic malt
100g Cara-wheat malt
100g ESB malt
For 45 minutes in 70C water. You want it malty!

Use Fuggles or East Kent Goldings, or both! You want some bitterness, but not too much - enough to balance the malt...

Use a London Ale yeast.

 

[petesbrew]

Going off the top of my head at a rough guess I'd base an english round something like:

Coopers Real Ale
1kg LDME
150g Crystal grain (steeped) - info on steeping grain
20g Goldings (or a goldings hop teabag) thrown in the fermenter
S-04 yeast.

You'll be able to pick all the stuff up from a homebrew shop, but I'd get the coopers tin from the supermarket (cheaper)


Also, Coopers have an ESB kit available at the supermarkets.

 

[felten]

Have a look over the the brewing network jamil show recipes, they have a fullers episode there with an interview from the head brewer.

Some of the earliest episodes can be a bit iffy, but the latest stuff is good.

 

[earle]

Have been doing some extract british ales but was short for time lately so did

Coopers English Bitter
BE2 equivalent
15g Goldings steeped in hot water then into the fermenter
Windsor yeast

Turned out OK but next time I need to do a very quick batch will do

Coopers English Bitter
1.5kg Morgans Caramalt
20g Goldings
Good ale yeast

While the caramalt adds extra sweetness, at 43.6 IBU the kit is actually more bitter than an ordinary or special bitter needs to be, so should handle it without addition hop bitterness.

 

[Rod]

If you have $23.70 to spare you can get "Brew Your Own British Real Ale" post free ex UK, it's compiled by a master - Graham Wheeler - and there are extract versions of each recipe printed under the all grain recipe for each beer.
Mine arrived in about 5 wd which was spectacular service.

I am a stove top brewer , extracts plus some grains and hops up to about 10 litres

any chance of you posting the Old Peculier recipe , I have just bottled mine and would like to comapare

the book looks a good price

I have purchased some books from overseas , but sometimes the ingredients do not translate here , not available or do not know an equivalent

The books I got from the US remain on the shelf

 

[cdbrown]

If you have $23.70 to spare you can get "Brew Your Own British Real Ale" post free ex UK, it's compiled by a master - Graham Wheeler - and there are extract versions of each recipe printed under the all grain recipe for each beer.
Mine arrived in about 5 wd which was spectacular service.

Damn you BribieG. If you didn't provide that link I wouldn't be forced into buying that and a few other books. Now I've got to wait impatiently for my latest internet spend. :huh:

 

[Wolfy]

Anyway, I was wondering if anyone had some recipe recommendations, I'm not at all fussy because like I say I pretty well like all beer, but some of the ones I've particularly liked were

Tetley's Bitter
Marstons Pedigree
Hobgoblin Ale
The Bishop's Finger
Old Speckled Hen

If you have $23.70 to spare you can get "Brew Your Own British Real Ale" post free ex UK, it's compiled by a master - Graham Wheeler - and there are extract versions of each recipe printed under the all grain recipe for each beer.

Unfortunately, not even 1/2 the beer's listed make it into BYOBRA, in my mind there as a bit of politics (From CAMRA not the author IMHO) in regard to why some very popular and famous beers were left out of the book. There is no doubt the book is good, but I'd suggest you read my review of it in the 'articles' section of this website before you rush off and buy it.
However, to my mind, it did not live up to what I expected - which maybe was too much - I'm not sure, others like it well enough.

any chance of you posting the Old Peculier recipe , I have just bottled mine and would like to comapare
...
I have purchased some books from overseas , but sometimes the ingredients do not translate here , not available or do not know an equivalent

BYOBRA is very 'vague' on ingredients, it lists only Pale and Crystal malt for example, nothing more specific than that so in general translations are very easy. The hops are well explained however there is no specific recipe information about yeast.

As for Old Peculier (extract method) the recipe provided is as simple as:
3.52 LDME, 395g Crystal, 215g Chocolate for a 23L batch.
Challenger 29g, Fuggles 14g at start of boil, 14g Golding @10mins and dry hopped with Styrian Golding.
OG 1058, FG 1015, 29 EBU, 95 EBC

 

[milestron]

cheers all for the replies. I'm leaning towards scruffy's recipe because I'm pretty keen to get into the extracts and out of the K&K safezone. Just a few bits:
2.5 kg extract - so that would be a 1.5 kg LME and 1 kg pack DME? also what type do you reckon - amber LME and light DME (I'm just basing that on errr...colour i guess) - i suppose that's just up to my preference and there's no hard and fast rules.

For the grains - i went on the website for my LHBS and they didn't seem to have alot of the grains listed, i had a look at craftbrewer who seem to have a pretty epic range but i still had trouble tracking everything down eg honey malt, esb malt - are these what you'd call specialty items? (possibly i'm just not looking hard enough)

also the hops you mentioned - they would be bittering hops right? so I'd leave them in for the 45 mins?

I think I may have to invest in that book also, even if they don't have the specific beers i've tried it's probably still a good starting point.

Next I just have to think of some weird British name for my brew (Bishop's Finger - awesome name)

 

[Wolfy]

also the hops you mentioned - they would be bittering hops right? so I'd leave them in for the 45 mins?

It was my understanding the 45mins @70 was the time/temp for steeping the grains.
To extract the hop bitterness you'll then need to boil everything (probably for 1hr) after that.

 

[petesbrew]

cheers all for the replies. I'm leaning towards scruffy's recipe because I'm pretty keen to get into the extracts and out of the K&K safezone. Just a few bits:
2.5 kg extract - so that would be a 1.5 kg LME and 1 kg pack DME? also what type do you reckon - amber LME and light DME (I'm just basing that on errr...colour i guess) - i suppose that's just up to my preference and there's no hard and fast rules.

For the grains - i went on the website for my LHBS and they didn't seem to have alot of the grains listed, i had a look at craftbrewer who seem to have a pretty epic range but i still had trouble tracking everything down eg honey malt, esb malt - are these what you'd call specialty items? (possibly i'm just not looking hard enough)

also the hops you mentioned - they would be bittering hops right? so I'd leave them in for the 45 mins?

I think I may have to invest in that book also, even if they don't have the specific beers i've tried it's probably still a good starting point.

Next I just have to think of some weird British name for my brew (Bishop's Finger - awesome name)

Okay, from memory, Liquid Malt contains a small percentage of water, so 1kg LME will add less gravity to your beer than 1kg DME. I'm sure someone else can elaborate.
But LME is easier to dissolve than DME... you know all those malteser balls you can't dissolve! I reckon a combination of amber and light will work well in a british ale.

Hops-wise when it says:
20g @ 60min,
10g @ 30min, etc,
it works off an egg timer method. So once you get your wort dissolved and get all the runnings off your grain, you get it in a large pot (grab a Big W 19L job), bring it to the boil, then start an egg timer at 60min.
Add the 20g addition @ the 60min mark.... ad your 10g addition at 30min to go, and so on.
When you add your hops, watch out for boil overs... the hops make it foam massively, so I let the boil drop a bit, and add them slowly.

I've been using this book as my recipe guide.
http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/book/97809...-Classic-Styles
Have fun!

It was my understanding the 45mins @70 was the time/temp for steeping the grains.
To extract the hop bitterness you'll then need to boil everything (probably for 1hr) after that.

Never really seen it written like that, but that's about right. I do 30minute steeps as a bare minimum.

 

[cdbrown]

LME is 20% water so make sure to take that into consideration if you choose to use the cans of unhopped goo. I personnally like dried malt as it's easy to measure and it dissolves easy enough. Pete - I just ordered that book as well yesterday!

 

[Bribie G]

I am a stove top brewer , extracts plus some grains and hops up to about 10 litres

any chance of you posting the Old Peculier recipe , I have just bottled mine and would like to comapare

the book looks a good price

I have purchased some books from overseas , but sometimes the ingredients do not translate here , not available or do not know an equivalent

The books I got from the US remain on the shelf

Rod, sorry I've donated my copy to BABBs club library and if I need a recipe I can consult the book there or borrow it for a month, so can't assist unfortunately.

 

[petesbrew]

LME is 20% water so make sure to take that into consideration if you choose to use the cans of unhopped goo. I personnally like dried malt as it's easy to measure and it dissolves easy enough. Pete - I just ordered that book as well yesterday!

It's a GREAT book, cd!. I've based a lot of my recipes round them, and they've all turned out winners.

 

[RobboMC]

Coopers English Bitter
BE2 equivalent
15g Goldings steeped in hot water then into the fermenter
Windsor yeast

Turned out OK but next time I need to do a very quick batch will do

Coopers English Bitter
1.5kg Morgans Caramalt
20g Goldings
Good ale yeast

Plus 1 to this, someone been looking at my recipe list!!!
A simple and effective recipe for bitter and a great bottle filler when short of stock,
I'm drinking this batch now; made it up to 22 litres.

I added 25g of Fuggles as well as the Goldings, but don't boil for more than 10 min,
you want flavour, not bittering as the kit has plenty. Even might add another 500g of dme next time

I used the Brewcellar English Ale dry yeast from the HBS, lazy I know.

 

[earle]

Plus 1 to this, someone been looking at my recipe list!!!
A simple and effective recipe for bitter and a great bottle filler when short of stock,
I'm drinking this batch now; made it up to 22 litres.

I added 25g of Fuggles as well as the Goldings, but don't boil for more than 10 min,
you want flavour, not bittering as the kit has plenty. Even might add another 500g of dme next time

I used the Brewcellar English Ale dry yeast from the HBS, lazy I know.

What fermentables have you been adding to the kit?

 

[milestron]

Just ordered the British Ales book, if anyone wants the 10% off voucher (to save yourself the trouble of you know, making up a fake email address, using the fake email to send a referral to your real email address) then here's my link

http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/claimCode/...n=SpreadTheLove

coupon code is YBSJSZ

 

[Pennywise]

Have been doing some extract british ales but was short for time lately so did

Coopers English Bitter
BE2 equivalent
15g Goldings steeped in hot water then into the fermenter
Windsor yeast

Try chucking 30g of Styrian Goldings in the fermenter :icon_drool2: and Wyeast 1968. Double :icon_drool2: A bit of CaraAroma in there goes well too