Burton Ale

Beer Recipe Design
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There is a house down the road that is always having a medieval party. I’ve finally made contact with the residents. We talked and I was told they actually do reanactmeants of actual battles. I gave him some of my Mead and now I would like to brew a Burton Ale for an offering. I’m hoping to be invited to play the Hermit/friar from the book Ivanhoe. Anyway I have a recipe that I’ll brew and am nervous about the Burton water profile. It seems I need to add a lot I mean a lot of gypsum. Anyone?

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Turns out Peter the Great and Catherine loved Burton Ale via the Baltic trade route. Found this.
http://allaboutbeer.com/burton-ale-ipas-shadowy-cousin

They talk about 3 teaspoon full of gypsum. Hermit.

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I’m calculating 20g or 4tsp in my 7 gallons of water

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Oh great… all that extra calcium… face full of teeth… :joy: Wait… I apologize… Being insensitive…
I wonder… Living on an island… You don’t get much water change?.. That’s where being creative with all sorts of acidit items come into play… I think…:mask:
Sneezles61

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If you look at the water above only the lactic acid goes in the mash everything else goes I the HLT

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I must be as smart as a box of rocks… It shows the “salts” in the mash… But then you say it’s only the acid… I understand to correct for enzymatic correction… But do the othe “salts” make that much of a difference? I’m very curious… I have done a few tests with finished brews to see what happens… But then I don’t do any adjustments after the mash… I very well could be missing something…
Sneezles61

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If you wanted to go for a more U.K. Version of medieval, I would possibly substitute brown malt( used extensively in porters and such for the past 300 years ) for chocolate malt. It would give it more of a archaic twang. Now don’t get me wrong I don’t absolutely love what brown malt brings to the table…but it could be more “accurate” zymologically speaking.

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Well I have chocolate malt and am happy with it. Never used brown malt

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Haven’t used it for a long time… But it did give a depth that I enjoyed… Like biscuit with alot more dark bread notes…
Sneezles61

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I treat the total 7 gallons with the all the salts I’m just adding the lactic to my mash water not the sparge/pour over. ( I don’t do full volume BIAB) the salts do affect the pH but I just let the app calculate that for me. I don’t do anything after the mash either. I’ve been treating my water with pretty good results. Was it a game changer. Not really because my water is very good as is. If your water is sub par I would say it could make quite a difference.

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Our water is very good here too… I do not understand why anyone would treat water for pH AFTER the mash is complete… maybe I should check that statement… I suppose when rinsing it “may” help keep the tannins and proteins in check… but hasn’t that been established DURING the mash?
You know, I’ll start playing with these salts… I can brew 5-ers on my system… More notes and tasting thoughts… maybe having more time to tinker, I can figure out how to use these “online” things… DONT HOLD YER BREATHE!!!
:mask: Sneezles61

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I guess if you know the pH of a beer you are targeting you could adjust the beer. Thats not something I’m concerned with. Actually this Burton water is the most adjustment I’ve done. I’m basically a bit of Gypsum or a bit of CaCl and call it a day.

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pH is all I do… Tried other stuff… but not understating ml/L has eluded me…
Sneezles61

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There’s probably a reason people don’t do a lot of brown malt forward beers LOL. They say more than 10 percent will overpower other flavors, I’ve used it in small amounts. It’s noticeable.

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I want this to be a more modern beer something drinkable. An old-school Burton would be alot stronger as well which I’m going to stay away from. I’m thinking now about carbonation and dryness

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I would treat it as you normally do and focus on adding enough salts to hit your pH and utilizing gypsum for a malt forward beer.
If you want it a little more dryness bump up your gypsum a bit. But I wouldn’t worry about really making your water too hard.

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I usually use CaCl for malty beer. Gypsum for hoppy. I’ve heard the Burton was the hoppy fore runner of the Burton IPA. It’s 60+IBU

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You’re right. I messed that up! Good catch! Focus on your CaCl for malt forward beers.

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You threw me fer a loop… Loopie!! It’s all good… We are all paying attention…
I still trying to get my head wrapped around ml/L stuff…
Sneezles61