Advice needed to re-create "David's Beer"

[rocketman_k]

I’ve recently returned to home brewing after a long absence and have only used kits so far.

I want to re-create a family beer recipe that has not been brewed for about 40 years and as a novice I’m having trouble interpreting some parts of the recipe. (There is a mixture of imperial and metric in the recipe but I can deal with that) I’ve put the recipe below with my comments/questions in brackets.
Hopefully someone more experienced than me can comment on how to interpret this recipe!.

Here’s the recipe:

“David’s Beer”
3.5 lbs light dried malt [Is this the same as DME or Spray Malt?]
8oz crystal barley
4 Oz Goldings hops
Citric Acid
3.5 lbs Sugar
4 Vinotex Lager yeast tablets. [I can’t find this yeast so plan to use the one lager yeast I have which is Brewferm Lager yeast that states it is “especially for Pils”. There is 12g in the sachet which states it is for 20 litres so I guess I should scale the recipe down to accommodate that. As the (long dead) originator of this recipe hated lager it seems strange that he chose a Lager yeast]
Method:
Put malt and 2 level tsp salt into pan, top up with 6 litres hot water and stir. [What is the purpose of the salt? I know he was brewing in an area of very hard water if that is relevant. I usually use bottled spring water, would that be a better choice and leave the salt out or use our local tap water which is also very hard ?]
Liquidize 8 Oz crystal barley, put into a boiling bag and drop into the hot malt
Cook at 150 F for 3 hours, remove bag, squeeze and discard.
Boil hops for 30 mins, strain water into mash and discard hops.
Boil for 20 minutes.
Dissolve 3.5 lbs sugar in boiling water, add to mash in a 5 gallon barrel and top up with cold water.
Add 4 yeast tablets , dissolve 2 level tsp citric acid and add.
Make 1 pot of tea for 1 and pour in.
Close lid and wait for it to clear (approx 5 days)
Syphon into another barrel, close top and leave for 2 days
Bottle using ½ tsp sugar per bottle.
Leave in a warm place for 1 week then move to a cooler place.
Any help/advice on the malt and yeast would be very welcome before I attempt this, the rest seems clear enough.
Thanks!

 

[strange-steve]

That's one of the maddest beer recipes I think I've seen, @Drunkula will love it. I'm also very curious how this would taste though

Anyway to answer some of your questions:

It's hard to know what light dried malt means, it could mean light spray malt or DME or it could mean light pale malt or lager malt but since it's mashed (cooked) at 66° I'd be inclined to think it's crushed malt rather than malt extract maybe?

You could scale down the recipe to suit or add the appropriate amount of yeast. What is the batch size of the recipe?

Not sure what the salt is for but I don't think I'd want to add 2 tsp of salt to my beer. It's probably for flavour, in which case you'd be much better off using calcium chloride rather than table salt (depending of course on how closely you want follow the recipe).

I also have no idea what the citric acid or tea is for. Tea is sometimes added to homemade wine as a source of tannins, but tannins are generally avoided as much as possible with beer.

 

[An Ankoù]

it's an amazing recipe it's like a kit-but-not-a-kit to make something which would have gone down well in the 70s. It's going to be terribly thin, but not at all undrinkable. Think Whitbread Trophy (light).
Did you drink this beer 40 years ago? Did you like it?
Things have moved on a bit since then and would seriously recommend you go down to Wilkinson's and get a 2-can Woodford's Wherry and brew that up according to the instructions.
Hat's off to the resourcefulness of home brewers of yore, but that round has been won- we don't need to fight it again. :hat:

Who was David, by the way?

 

[Drunkula]

That's one of the maddest beer recipes I think I've seen, @Drunkula will love it.

I've got some charity-shop beer and wine books with recipes like that in them. I was going to post pictures because in today's terms they're like Whoah, whoah, whoah! Where's the beer bit in that 'beer'???!

They're the sort of thing you could imagine someone sat in an old chair in a fine dressing gown reading them aloud in a grand voice.

I'll post pix if I remember.

 

[An Ankoù]

I'm also very curious how this would taste though

Only one way to find out.

 

[Clint]

I would love to see Drunkula in a grand chair reading aloud...

 

[terrym]

As far as I can remember 40 years ago 'malt extract' was LME and that was it. I don't remember seeing DME and certainly never used any. And DME not mentioned in David Line's book (my copy 1985). Anyone with a Ken Shales book?

 

[RichardM]

As far as I can remember 40 years ago 'malt extract' was LME and that was it. I don't remember seeing DME and certainly never used any. And DME not mentioned in David Line's book (my copy 1985). Anyone with a Ken Shales book?

Page 19 of my 1973 edition of Ken Shales' Brewing Better Beers says "Malt Extract can be purchased as a syrup containing 20% water, or as a dry powder." The recipes list D.M.S or Malt Extract as an ingredient, without specifying if it is liquid or powder. Page 19 also says "A good grade of home brewing malt extract, such as Edme Ltd's DME, contains enough disastase to convert about 20% of it's weight of added starch".
I wondered about the liquidizer for the crystal malt. I assume that was a way of crushing whole grains. Ken, suggests a wine bottle, a coffee mill, a rolling pin or, what he calls, a juice extractor or food mixer, but the illustration looks like a liquidizer.

 

[terrym]

Page 19 of my 1973 edition of Ken Shales' Brewing Better Beers says "Malt Extract can be purchased as a syrup containing 20% water, or as a dry powder." The recipes list D.M.S or Malt Extract as an ingredient, without specifying if it is liquid or powder. Page 19 also says "A good grade of home brewing malt extract, such as Edme Ltd's DME, contains enough disastase to convert about 20% of it's weight of added starch".
I wondered about the liquidizer for the crystal malt. I assume that was a way of crushing whole grains. Ken, suggests a wine bottle, a coffee mill, a rolling pin or, what he calls, a juice extractor or food mixer, but the illustration looks like a liquidizer.

I remember EDME DMS (Diastatic Malt Syrup), blue label. Its counterpart was SFX (Superflavex) yellow label, which was slightly darker with no diasaste. I used both. Sadly diastatic malt extract appears to be no longer available to UK homebrewers. I no longer have my copies of Ken Shales two books but if he is mashing grain with no diastatic power like wheat or oats and using malt extract it is probably DMS specified.

 

[rocketman_k]

Thanks to all that have replied! To answer specific questions that various respondents have raised:

strange_steve: The batch size was 5 gallons so 23 litres

An-Ankou: I have never tasted this beer. It is from my partner's family, her step-father David who died long before I met my partner.........she does remember drinking it and said it was a reasonable beer, light in appearance, not really like lager, and lightly carbonated but no real head. My partner's 90- year old mother told me it was "flat" I do know it was bottled into large glass fizzy drink bottles so the 1/2 tsp priming sugar may have been a bit on the light side?

Thanks to others for comments on the malt.

I think I will give it a go with a small batch, perhaps using spray malt. We still have the large pan that David used for cooking it so it seems appropriate to use that!

I'll let you know how it turns out, to be honest it doesn't sound like a style I will much enjoy but I think my dad will drink it.