Vintage Beers

[Lesinge]

Hi all

Maybe there is already a thread on this and if so please let me know. I am embarking on brewing some vintage beers, some from the rather excellent Ron Pattison's website (shutupaboutbarclayperkins) (and yes I have also bought a book from there (Edwardian Beers or something like that)) and also from the Durdan Beer Club (again I have purchased the book - just waiting on both to arrive). I have in the fermenter a beer from the long gone Russell's brewery in Gravesend (1911) and plan on an 1862 Export and a 1944 IPA from William Youngers. I just wondered if anyone had tried brewing these and what they turned out like? I am especially interested in whether a high strength beer (>6%) with IBUs of over 122 is balanced enough to not have to wait for a year to drink? Also (I know I am greedy!) if anyone has made Invert sugars I would like to know their experiences.

Cheers!

 

[Hanglow]

I've made quite a few

My favourites have been the Burtons (strong, bitter) and Export stouts ( strong, bitter -see a pattern? :)) They take a lot of age if you want to lay them down, I bottled some Burton with BrettC that was excellent for a couple of years in the bottle.

They are very strongly flavoured beers, so you have to decide if you like that - I personally always like a good dose of bitterness to most of my beers.

As for the invert, I love using it and use it in most of the british style beers I make, burtons/strong ales/stouts/bitters etc.

I have made it before on the hob, but found that a bit of a faff having to constantly adjust the temperature to maintain it - it's very important not to go too high or you will burn the sugar. Instead I make a large batch in a pot in the oven - just add a bit of water and lactic acid, heat on the hob to dissolve then put in the oven @120c until I find it is done - this can take a good few hours in the oven as it's low and slow, depending on what colour I want, but it's easy as long as your oven maintains correct temperature.

 

[user 18729]

I've made quite a few

My favourites have been the Burtons (strong, bitter) and Export stouts ( strong, bitter -see a pattern? :)) They take a lot of age if you want to lay them down, I bottled some Burton with BrettC that was excellent for a couple of years in the bottle.

They are very strongly flavoured beers, so you have to decide if you like that - I personally always like a good dose of bitterness to most of my beers.

As for the invert, I love using it and use it in most of the british style beers I make, burtons/strong ales/stouts/bitters etc.

I have made it before on the hob, but found that a bit of a faff having to constantly adjust the temperature to maintain it - it's very important not to go too high or you will burn the sugar. Instead I make a large batch in a pot in the oven - just add a bit of water and lactic acid, heat on the hob to dissolve then put in the oven @120c until I find it is done - this can take a good few hours in the oven as it's low and slow, depending on what colour I want, but it's easy as long as your oven maintains correct temperature.

+1 for home made invert. Adds loads of complex flavours

 

[Sadfield]

I think using Chevallier malt on the heavily hopped beers makes a difference, it's a totally different beast to any modern malt. Other than being more authentic, it has more sweetness and flavour to it.

 

[Lesinge]

I think using Chevallier malt on the heavily hopped beers makes a difference, it's a totally different beast to any modern malt. Other than being more authentic, it has more sweetness and flavour to it.

I intend to get that for a Barclay-Perkins Mild - lots of hops and high %

 

[Lesinge]

I've made quite a few

My favourites have been the Burtons (strong, bitter) and Export stouts ( strong, bitter -see a pattern? :)) They take a lot of age if you want to lay them down, I bottled some Burton with BrettC that was excellent for a couple of years in the bottle.

They are very strongly flavoured beers, so you have to decide if you like that - I personally always like a good dose of bitterness to most of my beers.

As for the invert, I love using it and use it in most of the british style beers I make, burtons/strong ales/stouts/bitters etc.

I have made it before on the hob, but found that a bit of a faff having to constantly adjust the temperature to maintain it - it's very important not to go too high or you will burn the sugar. Instead I make a large batch in a pot in the oven - just add a bit of water and lactic acid, heat on the hob to dissolve then put in the oven @120c until I find it is done - this can take a good few hours in the oven as it's low and slow, depending on what colour I want, but it's easy as long as your oven maintains correct temperature.

I guess I am going to find out if I like the strong tastes! My only issue is that I store my beers in a garage and when the temp goes up like it did the other week I can sit back and listen to bottles exploding! Our house apparently has a concrete bunker buried somewhere under the patio and I think I should open it up as a brew store. Thanks for the tip on Invert in the oven!

 

[foxy]

I have just made a historical bitter (Terry Wheeler recipe) I added a fair bit of Munich to it cant get anything like the old style malts over here. I also favour the more bitter taste the one I made was 70 IBU and around 5.5% ABV. You will have to find somewhere to keep your beer under 20 C, even if they didn't explode they will deteriorate rapidly.

 

[MickDundee]

I guess I am going to find out if I like the strong tastes! My only issue is that I store my beers in a garage and when the temp goes up like it did the other week I can sit back and listen to bottles exploding! Our house apparently has a concrete bunker buried somewhere under the patio and I think I should open it up as a brew store. Thanks for the tip on Invert in the oven!

at my old house I used the shed and I worried a lot about this. I never had any bottle bombs in the shed but on a couple of occasions I dropped a bottle taking it out of the shed and it’s exploded.

My garage now seems to stay around the 12-15C mark most of the year, maybe slightly colder in the winter, so it’s ideal as a beer cellar.

 

[Hanglow]

I use the inspection pit in my garage, it topped out at about 16c when we had that massive heatwave a couple of years ago. It goes down to about 8c in winter.

 

[peebee]

Another source of old recipes is "Edd the brew's" blog. I've got one that'll be ready this month MORRELL & Co : BITTER 1889. A "Victorian" bitter; quite rare because Porter and Mild was king until after WWII. Not so heavy on hops (42IBU) so ready earlier (I've a 1850 Porter starting for Christmas, but it's 75IBUs needs 4 months to moderate). Interesting mash schedule (I compared to a modern day "Hochkurz" mash): I used Chevallier malt (love the stuff) and got 82% attenuation using this mash technique ("Ringwood" yeast which normally is only given up to 75% attenuation).

 

[steveinUS]

Our club brewed a vintage Kottbusser Ale last year as a collaboration with our local microbrewery to help celebrate our county’s Beer Week. I pieced the recipe together from a variety of sources. Though Ron Pattison describes the original versions as sour, we didn’t do that and stuck with a Kolsch yeast, and the beer turned out great. Here is the homebrew-scaled recipe:

https://beersmithrecipes.com/viewrecipe/2644420/kottbusser-collaboration

 

[chthon]

@Hanglow : also thanks for the tip of the oven! I regularly make my own invert sugar, but I have never let it color (except by adding cane sugar or dark brown sugar).