maltose syrup- and more BYORAAH questions

[CanadianBrewer]

My mum just sent me over an old copy of brew your own real ale at home (1993 wheeler and protz) that she picked up at a carboot sale for me. Its a neat little book- I have a few questions for british brewers who are probably more familiar with this book. I appreciate I have a dated copy, i guess things have moved on a bit since this was first published. It might be fun to try out a few recipes though..

1. lots of the recipes feature maltose syrup- what is that stuff? does anybody still use it? is it totally fermentable or does it add flavour/color? I usually make my own invert sugar-can i just use that instead? is it more like invert #1 or #2 or #3?

2. wheeler recommends really long boils- 1.5 to 2 hrs- do british homebrewers still boil for that long?

3. the EBC (basically the same as IBUs), seem a bit off to me. he is usually suggesting at least 60gm of goldings, which using my software and the suggested 2 hr boil, is usually coming in at 50 or more IBUs, but the recipes usually state like 30 to 40 or so IBUs. I am thinking of probably just hopping to around 35-40 IBUs, 50 plus seems a bit high to me for a bitter?

4. recipes just call for crystal malt- im guessing thats medium eg ~70L?

5. equiptment section suggests they used to do the boil in a plastic bin- WTF?

6. favorite recipes?

 

[prog99]

He says what maltose syrup is on page 16 of my 1998 edition. Maize derived apparently with 20% of unfermentable sugars. Having said that it only seems to feature in a couple of recipes.
Also 90 minute boils are more the norm in this edition.

 

[Drunkula]

1. I've looked into the maltose syrup - pffft, maybe you could use some liquid malt extract or spraymalt instead, but it would add flavour.

2. People still do long boils but I wouldn't bother.

3. Is he listing the alpha acids for the hops?

4. Crystal 60 is what I always see when they just say crystal malt.

5. Could be a plastic bucket with kettle elements.

 

[prog99]

For the hops (forgot about that) there should be a table in the ingredients section with average alpha acids he bases his recipes on.

 

[An Ankoù]

You've got one of the better editions. Wheeler's method is fine and his recipes were better when informed by Protz. His latest edition has some really poor recipe formulations- more colour adjustments than anything to do with flavour- and they make no reference to water or yeast, if I remember right.
Crystal malt is around 135 ebc which is just a tad light of 70L.
I'd look elsewhere for recipes if I were you.

 

[CanadianBrewer]

Nice cheers folks

It does seem like a weird ingredient- he mentions it can be made from corn or rice somewhere in my 1993 ingredient, so corn/rice syrup? I'll be leaving that out- methinks!

I did see the alpha acid content page and they look "normal" to me me for example goldings are around 5 AA. when i plug that into my software im getting more like 50IBUs with these recipes, whereas the book states ~35. I was thinking maybe back in the day, bitters were more bitter? I like a firm bitterness, so maybe I will try it.

Yes this one doesnt mention yeast strain either. The finishing hops all seem a bit low to me as well- 1/2 oz at 15mins is about the hoppiest recipe in my version.

PLASTIC bucket with a heating element? That seems like a disaster waiting to happen. Wouldnt the bucket just melt?

Agree it doesnt seem a great place for recipes, I might try one or two tweaked versions. Its kind of neat to have all these recipes for beers/breweries that are now extinct. Any suggestions for a decent more modern book with a focus on british styles?

 

[Drunkula]

Bucket won't melt - imagine a kettle element, the ring around it isn't heated and it's that you plumb into the barrel.

I wonder what bitterness formula they use in the book - the diffrence between Tinseth and Rager is pretty hefty.