AG#14 - 1915 Courage X Ale

[Dr Mike]

Brewing a historic recipe today from Ron Pattinsons Blog :

http://barclayperkins.blogspot.co.uk/20 ... age-x.html

X Ales were mild ales and the best selling beers/ales of the time. Although the OG of X ales had drifted down during the 1800s, this one is from before the big gravity drop caused by WW I shortages from which mild OGs never really recovered.

This is what it looks like in Beersmith

Courage X 1915

Type: All Grain
Batch Size: 23.50 l
Boil Size: 35.56 l
Boil Time: 120 min
End of Boil Vol: 27.56 l
Final Bottling Vol: 21.50 l

Equipment: My Equipment
Efficiency: 72.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 82.9 %
Taste Rating: 30.0

Ingredients

1814.37 g Mild Malt (7.9 EBC) Grain 1 36.2 %
1814.37 g Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (5.9 EBC) Grain 2 36.2 %
533.64 g Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (3.9 EBC) Grain 3 10.7 %
260.89 g Crystal Malt (150 EBC) (150.0 EBC) Grain 4 5.2 %
587.00 g Invert Sugar #3 Syrup (130.0 EBC) Sugar 5 11.7 %
23.00 g Goldings, East Kent [6.50 %] - Boil 120.0 min Hop 6 16.9 IBUs
11.00 g Fuggles [5.60 %] - Boil 120.0 min Hop 7 6.9 IBUs
8.00 g Cluster [8.60 %] - Boil 120.0 min Hop 8 7.8 IBUs
10.00 g Goldings, East Kent [6.50 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop 9 3.7 IBUs
5.00 g Fuggles [5.60 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop 10 1.6 IBUs
4.00 g Cluster [8.60 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop 11 2.0 IBUs

Gravity, Alcohol Content and Color

Est Original Gravity: 1.049 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.009 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.3 %
Bitterness: 38.9 IBUs
Est Color: 25.1 EBC

Mash Steps

Mash In Add 7.74 l of water at 70.6 C 62.0 C 90 min
Mash Step Add 2.60 l of water at 85.1 C 67.0 C 90 min

Created with BeerSmith

The original recipe called for 6-row malt which I've subbed with contintental pilsener malt which seems to be the closest match easily available in the UK. For the #3 invert I'm using a mix of Golden Syrup and Blackstrap molases as per the instructions here :

http://www.unholymess.com/blog/beer-bre ... ers-invert

Mash on at 9am. It'll be a long day. 3 hour mash with a temp step and a 2 hour boil.

Grain shot

 

[pittsy]

Morning ,do you do an iodine test on the mash (end) i would think all starch will have converted before switching to the high mash temp :hmm: from when i start mashing in the 60's my grains have finished in the 70 min area .

 

[Dr Mike]

Just following the recipe, which comes from the original brewing records. You're probably right that there won't be any starch left after the first step although there might still be some sub-starch complex carbohydrates left.

 

[pittsy]

Well either way i hope it's a great beer , would be interested in your tasting results . Think i'd like this .

 

[Dr Mike]

Thx. I'm interested to see what the dark sugar syrup does for the flavour.

For yeast I'm using Wyeast 1469 West Yorkshire. Allegedly the Timothy Taylor yeast which, apparently, started off at Courage.

 

[Good Ed]

Looks good Dr M, good luck with it.

I only discovered an unholymess yesterday, I'm assuming it is by Kristen England, and an easy way to access the recipes on Ron's blog

 

[Dr Mike]

Mash step didn't quite go to plan. Temp at the end of first step had dropped to 60C and adding hot water (including an extra kettle of boiling water) only got it back up to 63C.

Still got good extract (pre-boil 36L at 1031) so hopefully should be OK.

Now boiling away.

 

[Dr Mike]

All done and tucked up in the fermenting fridge.

Got within a point of target OG at 1048 and had a couple of litres extra so better than expected efficiency.

Here is the #3 syrup ready to go in. EBC 130ish so about the colour of Guinness.


Final wort sample

 

[Good Ed]

well done :thumb: you deserve a beer or few after that :drink:

 

[pittsy]

looks good to drink now lol , nice .

 

[Dr Mike]

Thanks.

Just tucking into one of my Amber Bitters now and fingers crossed that fermentation gets off to a strong start.

 

[Dr Mike]

Bottled today.

V Promising taste with that noticeable toffe-caramel charcter you get in TT beers. Looking forward to how this turns out.

 

[paolocalore]

Hi Dr Mike,

When i was much younger we made wine in Italy. My family had the vineyards there, and still do. I have been living in the UK now for 14 years, but of course wine making here is a bit trickier. I'm in the automobile business and my colleagues are beer fanatics. They have asked me whether i could lay my hands on beer making. What are your views? what would be the approximate cost for a startup? Have you ever produced your own recipes, or is it easier to stick to recipes tried before (from books or online)? How worthwile is it? can you sell to the trade or not?

kindest regards
Paolo :drink:

 

[Dr Mike]

Lots of questions there. Probably belongs in one of the other forums.

Like most on here I just brew for my own drinking and for friends & family.

You need a licence to sell commercially and some pretty serious kit to do the sort of volumes that you'd need to earn a living at it!

 

[Dr Mike]

Tried the first few bottles if this now. Nice beer and I think it will improve with a bit of age. Smells quite malty/toffee and has an initial sweetness which then turns into a dry finish with quite a bit of bitterness.