Home Brew Beer - Cornish Tin Miner's Ale

[jezbrews]

Home Brew Beer by Greg Hughes is currently my first and only recipe book, I will get others in time but I want to work through this one first. This one, the Cornish Tin Miner's Ale calls for Pale Malt, Caramunich, Biscuit and Medium crystal (which I've calculated equates to Crisp's crystal 240, give or take). Maybe I'm exposing my ignorance of the history of such malts here, but I'm not sure Caramunich would have been a traditional ingredient in Cornish brewing all those years ago. Can I replace it with something more traditional, rather than just an approximate crystal malt?

 

[An Ankoù]

I've looked at this recipe many times, but I've never made it. First, I haven't been able to figure out what cornish beer style he's trying to emulate; St Austell do or did a Tinner's Ale, but that was only 3.7%. Next the target gravity seems wrong. I can't see that a mash at 65C is going to leave an FG of 1019 even with the recommended low attenuation yeast. That's only 66% attenuation with a yeast that'll do 70% and lots of fermentable sugars around. I certainly wouldn't bottle it with that FG. As for caramunich, Weyermann produce 3 grades: 1,2 and 3 so which one? I don't think this is meant to be a heritage beer, rather a modern beer celebrating tin miners. The beer's a showcase for brambling Cross hops, which didn't appear until 1951, while mining had fizzled out by the 1920s.
Crisp's have a strange way of classifying their crystal malts; their medium is everybody else's dark. I'd use Crisp's light crystal, nearer 150 ebc, if I were you.

Edit.
On p24 of his book, he says caramunuch is 200 ebc so you should be able to identify the right grade from that.

 

[Nottsbeer]

I made this brew last December. I didn't have Caramunich so I substituted in more crystal malt 150. I used CML Four as the yesat. Unfortunately I haven't recorded what the FG was, but I bottled it and noted that it was a nice brew. Good luck with your version

 

[jezbrews]

I've looked at this recipe many times, but I've never made it. First, I haven't been able to figure out what cornish beer style he's trying to emulate; St Austell do or did a Tinner's Ale, but that was only 3.7%. Next the target gravity seems wrong. I can't see that a mash at 65C is going to leave an FG of 1019 even with the recommended low attenuation yeast. That's only 66% attenuation with a yeast that'll do 70% and lots of fermentable sugars around. I certainly wouldn't bottle it with that FG. As for caramunich, Weyermann produce 3 grades: 1,2 and 3 so which one? I don't think this is meant to be a heritage beer, rather a modern beer celebrating tin miners. The beer's a showcase for brambling Cross hops, which didn't appear until 1951, while mining had fizzled out by the 1920s.
Crisp's have a strange way of classifying their crystal malts; their medium is everybody else's dark. I'd use Crisp's light crystal, nearer 150 ebc, if I were you.

Edit.
On p24 of his book, he says caramunuch is 200 ebc so you should be able to identify the right grade from that.

Every recipe I've plugged into Brewfather I've had to adjust, not just for hops (fair, you can't know the aa% of every variety every year in one book) but also the malts, I'm not sure what he based their potential on. I also had to add a crystal malt to a light lager because it was going to be much lighter than he expected! No worries, I can account for that.

That's a shame, I was hoping for heritage beer, as you say. I might "shop around" and find a different recipe. I didn't know that about Bramling Cross, so that's interesting.

Crisp do a 180 so I might use that and just accept it won't be *quite* as dark.

 

[Sandimas]

As above, I don't think it's meant to replicate a historic Cornish beer, it's "in the style of"....in fact, it's just a name.

I make this one regualrly and can recommend it. Bramling Cross is one of my favourite hops but doesn't appear in too many beers, Wye Valley Butty Bach is another that uses it.

With AG brewing all recipes are just an approximation and you need to adjust according to your ingredients (e.g. colour of the actual malt you have) and equipment/technique (e.g. mash efficiency).

 

[jezbrews]

I know that there won't be any singular "Cornish Tin Miner's Ale" just like there isn't a single beer drunk by all the ferrymen of London in the 18th century called "porter"... however if I was to create *a* beer that might be recognised historically, where might I find such recipes? The exact quantities don't matter as of course they'll vary by brewery or even household, and each brewer might have chosen different malts and hops, but I'm interested in malts relevant to the period and in this case, it would really be an ale made with ingredients available in the south west in the 19th century, or even earlier. Is there a book where someone has researched and put together recipes they've found from different eras and communities around Britain?

 

[RichardM]

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