Winter beer. ..Old Tom or Sarah Hughes?

[fbsf]

As winter approaches ( :lol: ) I'm getting ready to do a winter brew to make those long cold nights a little more bearable.

As I don't have a massive tun (missus) it'll either be 20L of Sarah Hughes Dark Ruby or 15L of Old Tom, both from BYOBRA.

Has anyone done either? I've seen some threads about brewing SHDR, but not much about how it turned out...

 

[PD]

My brews for SH are divided. One good one not so good.
I've got Old Tom thats just been put into secondary and it smells delicious I'm looking forward to that at Christmas.

Sorry I can't be of any more help....

 

[graysalchemy]

never done SH but old Tom is the danglies. :thumb:

 

[mattrickl06]

My Old Tom is in the airing cupboard carbonating, it was mainly based on the GW recipe but I swapped out the black malt for more chocolate malt, used a bit of dark brown sugar in with the priming, and used Wyeast Trappist HG.

Had a sneaky taste out of the fermenter and its gonna be blummin lovely by xmas time for sure, I am shocked at how near to the real thing it tastes already

 

[fbsf]

3 votes to 1.5 in favour of OT so far then...

 

[BlakenhallBrewer]

I've brewed the Sarah Hughes from the recipe in Grahams book a couple times now and both times I've been really pleased. I don't live far from the Beacon in Sedgley where it's brewed so I can get decent comparison and I'd say Graham's recipe is pretty spot on. Saying that I was looking at the Old Tom recipe for my Christmas ale this year.

 

[BIGJIM72]

Sarah Hughes all the way-a cracker. The Gales Festival mild is worth mentioning as well

 

[dennisking]

I had a bottle of Sarah Hughes brewed by Rokdoc at the spring thing and it was one of the best I drank all weekend.

 

[Good Ed]

SHDR all the way, I did this for my first AG, and followed GW's recipe and used a Brewlab TV2 yeast, turned out very nice and fruity, caramel, liquorice and raisins. Managed to keep a bottle for 18 months, but by that time it had lost some of the good flavour. I keep saying to myself that I should taste the actual thing... one of the days

 

[fbsf]

So, SH a slow starter but overtakes at half distance... This could go all the way to the line!!

 

[JimmyB78]

I think there's only one solution to this ... You're going to have to brew both of them for proper comparison and testing!

 

[fbsf]

...is the correct answer :lol:

Having heard no negative comments for either, I think I'm going to have to do just that.

Although I will have to check I have enough MO in. My storage tub isn't as full as it was, but I don't fancy shelling out for another sack just yet. Ah well, will report back in due course!

 

[PD]

yup....7.0kg of Malt for my brew of Old Tom.... he hee biggest grain bill for me so far, at just over 8kg.

 

[fbsf]

It might have to be a 10L of OT I reckon, but that's still 30 x 300ml bottles or thereabouts after trub, so should be fine.

I certainly haven't enough for 20L of each...

 

[mattrickl06]

Tried a couple of my carbonated OT clones on Saturday and it really is amazing - tasted it next to the real thing and can honestly say that mine had a much better mouthfeel and taste than the Robinsons one.

Just a shame that its for xmas :nah: