WTF!!

[Aleman]

I've just found out that one of my recipes is going to be brewed by Greene King!! :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock:

American Dark will be available across the Greene King estate in a few weeks :party: :party: :party: :party:

Caution You Are now entering the <Smug Zone>

 

[iceo]

:clap: :party: :grin:

 

[Rwilts]

Commission of 1p a pint sold?

 

[chrig]

I'll have a go on one of these if i find a bottle / pump, to see if your recipes are what they are cracked up to be.... :lol: :lol: .

And to be more serious, congratulations. I'm totally unaware of how the comercial brewing industry works but that's a great achievement.

 

[calumscott]

F**k's sake Tony. Now I'm going to have to go into a Greene King pub... :lol:

Well done though, no mean feat that.

 

[swiggingpig]

Well done :thumb:

 

[Jeltz]

Nice one Tony!

Was it some kind of competition to design a beer or did they just try it and think it was awesome?

 

[bobsbeer]

Well done. I hope it's popular. :thumb:

 

[dennisdk2000]

Congratulations! That is indeed exciting news! Look forward to trying it. :

Dennis

 

[dennisking]

Well done Tony, do you know if it will be bottled or draught.

 

[markmark]

That's great

 

[mattyhall22]

Congratulations :

 

[artyb]

nice one tony ... :party:

how cool is that ... :hat:

 

[Aleman]

I'm still sitting here with a great big grin on my face. I haven't yet pestered Phil for the details of what went on, but I can give you the bits that I was involved in.

Each year a group of us from UK Homebrew and the CBA meet up to drink beer and eat meat, which has been going on for more years than I really care to remember. This used to happen in a field near Coventry/Rugby, but when Phil went commercial (or Just before) he invited us down to his place, and offered us the change to brew beer on his big rig (A measly 2.5 BBL at the time). It has always been a challenge to come up with a recipe, and initially we brewed beers from the Durden park book, or directly from historical brewing ledgers.

Phil's equipment grew from the paltry 2.5BBL up to 20BBL, and we set about rising to the challenge, where we would brew 2 beers from one mash tun 2.5BBL of something insanely strong from the first runnings (The rule is nothing less than 10%), and then 10-12BBL from sparging the grist. While coming up with a recipe has been interesting the hard part (that involves a lot of sums :wha: :wha: :hmm: ) is to work it out based on a partigyle. The last couple of years it has fallen to me to do, and this years was a red ale formulated by me . . . . as it happened the colour calculation was wildly out and we ended up with a much darker beer than predicted . . . . it was also quite a bit stronger than expected as well So Phil had to 'let it down' from 14BBL to 18BBL (for Wibblers Crafty Croc).

Anyway it looks as though someone at Wibblers has done a deal with Greene King to brew the recipe (to a bigger scale) and it will be available from Greene King establishments as American Dark, AFAIK it will be on draft . . .can't wait to see what the brewers at Greene King do to it . . . who knows they might double the hopping rate and actually put 2 hop cones in the kettle . . . Yeah it ended up slightly under bittered what with all the additional liquor Phil had to add.

I think the lesson I've yet to learn is that when it comes to hopping a big batch is that you can't simply think of a number and then double it . . . . It's more like 4 or 5 times the amount :rofl:

 

[CaptainMallard]

Well done! :clap:

Let us know when they start shipping - I'll track it down and get some. :drink:

 

[EskiBrew]

Wow, well done Tony :clap:

 

[Hawks]

Exciting times.. well done :hat:

So... American Dark.... sounds like a black APA, but surely not :whistle:

 

[Aleman]

So... American Dark.... sounds like a black APA, but surely not :whistle:

No We did the Cascadian the year before . . . Another of my recipes.

I couldn't believe the colour that we got out of the roast malt . . .IIRC it was only a 25Kg sack . . . . In 550Kg of Grist! Consequently it ended up a dark amber colour . . . almost brown, where I was aiming for a mid red

Big Nig the sales manager has pleaded with us for something Pale this year, so I'm thinking 50/50 pale and lager malt with the Big beer being around 1.080, but bunging in a shed load of Cherry Syrup to take it to 1.120, and fermenting with a 'mild' Belgian strain.

The small beer will be around 1.040-42 hopped with stryian goldings and saaz . . . probably . . possibly some riwaka

I love playing on big kit :party: :party:

And the good news is . . . I'm doing small batches to dial in the colour and bitterness

 

[morethanworts]

:clap: Congratulations

I wonder why things don't just scale-up the same :hmm:

 

[oldjiver]

Well thats my Saturday sorted Aleman. Wibblers (hadn't heard of them before) are not too far from me, and have an open day Saturday. I should be able to pick up a few goodies and see how a brewery compares to the Tolly brewery I worked in in 1967.
Congratulations on having your recipe mass produced, bit like winning X Factor, instant fame! :thumb: