It's always a cause for concern when "imperial" and metric measurements get mixed in the same recipe. Perhaps the OP is carefully avoiding confusing US and "imperial" gallons, but in the 60s, litres were reserved for laboratories. 5 gallons would have been the standard batch. This recipe is about a decade before my time and what makes it interesting is that we're talking about the point when home brewing became legal in the UK and it would have taken some time for companies to start making ingredients and equipment specially for the home brewing market. Malt extract would be extract made for the baking trade or for medicinal use (with a warning to avoid the one mixed with cod liver oil). Dried bakers yeast would be available since it has been produced since the 1940s. I dread to think what the hops were like or where they came from, but, in my late teens, I used to jump over the wall that separated Northam Rd from the Gasometers in Southampton and pick my hops from a bine growing there. Excellent hops they were and possibly an escapee from a brewery. Much later, when money was in short supply due to mortgage interest rates being around 13% and an infestation of kids, I'd buy a tub of "Brecon Malt Extract" from the health food store as it was considerably cheaper than the dedicated stuff and brew with that. It had a certain charm (twang) which characterised the house bitter of the day, but We'd still come back from the pub and finish on a homebrew before turning in.
In those days we made homebrew; now we try to copy commercial beers. I reckon "homebrew" should be a historic style of its own. Having devoted some time recently to reading up on so called "farmhouse" and Scandinavian/Baltic styles, this last comment is only half tongue-in-cheek.
If I can get hold of some generic malt extract, I'm going to knock up a half batch of the OP's recipe and send terrym a couple of quarts to reinvigorate his jaded taste buds.
Edit: I forgot to mention that I think gravy browning and brewer's caramel are much the same thing and are used in minute quantities to adjust the colour.
It wasn't the volume conversion that made me flinch, it was the suggestion to make a full batch. Far better to make up a half batch, as you mentioned above, and then only have to be half fed up when you debate whether you should be chucking it down the sink or not, if you have made it up using authentic 'heritage' ingredients.
When I started it was Boots to get your gear or very little else, although when I visited Burton later on I found a stall in the market place that sold homebrew gear including Ritchie products from the town who had only just started up. My LME came in big tubs, and I bought 14 lb perhaps 28lb at a time, and used it when I needed it, with no special storage in mind. But whole hops came in a perforated plastic bag probably 4 oz at a time, either Fuggles or Goldings. You had no idea how old they were, and grain was the same. And although one of my Uncles used bread yeast and started brewing before the Maudling budget of 1963, I think my yeast came from Boots apart from when I first started in Sheffield and our group used to get supplied from Tennants brewery. My first FV as I have said before was an orange plastic dustbin which lasted many years, scratches and all.
I was enthusiastic though, I even got offered a job as graduate brewer with Charringtons down the Mile End Road (remember them?), but the money was crap as I was restarting my career, so I declined.
But kits came later and they were appalling even against my stuff, and when I had to resort to kits because life had changed I tried a few and decided I'd had enough of homebrewing. And all the wisdom imparted from Ken Shales, David Lines and CJJ Berry came to nought
Anyway all this goes to demonstrate how brewing your own beer has moved on. Scores of hops to choose from all round the world, online water treatment calculators, multiple grain choices, specialist brewing equipment, premium beer kits, folks making brew fridges etc etc.
So do have a go at the half batch, and lets have some feedback. Failing that get hold of a Geordie 1.5kg bitter kit, a throw back to the 1970s, and make that up with 2kg sugar.
And your mortgage at 13% was a good deal, I remember paying 15% at one time.
Those were the days, or not.
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