Sugar and other non-malt ingredients are not uncommon in many UK ale recipes. I wouldn’t characterize the amount as “quite a bit” since in my experience the recipes that have sugar seem to put in at about 10% or so. At that percentage it will lighten the color some and dry the beer slightly but it won’t be enough to make it taste like a fifty year old homebrew recipe. I do a Bateman’s XXXB recipe based on the information in Protz’ book and for ten gallons I use 2 lbs of sugar. Just speculating but I think a lot of the non-malt ingredients in older UK recipes stems from trying to save money. The ingredients were a little cheaper than malt and just as important they were taxed less than barley malt. The bookkeepers have had a hand in brewing for quite some time. In addition to sugar flaked maize, invert sugar syrup and torrified wheat all show up from time to time and they all have their place. Again with the quantity in the recipe @ ~10% they can add an interesting touch but not take over the beer in any sense. :cheers:
Brewday Friday Nov 17: It is a balmy 1 degree celcius here in Rockland Ontario, just outside of our nations capital. A fun fact about Ottawa : By avg year round temperature it is the second coldest capital city in the world - just behind Ulan Bator Mongolia - Take that Moscow, Oslo and Reykjavik.
I just mashed in at about 67 C
46 l Batch size
8.0 KG Marris Otter 78%
.75 KG Wheat 7.5%
.7 KG Crystal (30l) 7%
.5 Kg Amber 5%
.1 Kg Chocolate 1%
115 g EK Goldings (60 min)
10g EK Golding (20min)
4g EK Goldings (Steep)
2 packs Wyeast London ESB
Should get ABV about 4.6%
IBU 29
Steppedonapoptop, Try the Antwerp Ale yeast WLP 515. It has a clean lager like finish and works well with Saaz. It should be available now.
I stick with all malt for my Bitter/Pale Ale. I know 5-10% sugar is common, but the brewery probably needs its beer to be ready to drink in 2-3 weeks and then the cask/keg will be drunk quickly. I need my 5 gallon keg to last 4-8 weeks depending on how many other beers I have on tap and I want it to dry out slowly.
I use wyeast 1275 and find it’s a pretty solid yeast.
I used S-04 in a bitter early in the year that turned out pretty good.
for 5.5 US Gal. at the end of boil
7 lb Marris Otter
1 lb Munich Malt
.5 lb British 50-60 Crystal
Hops
60 min 1 oz EKG or = to 20 IBU
30 min 1 oz EKG or = to 14 IBU
O min 1 oz EKG
Mash at 150*F for 60 min.
Boil for 1.5 hours or what works best on your system.
Chill wort to 62F transfer to fermenter and pitch Wyeast 1968
Let temp slowly rise to 66F and let finish. Diacetyl rest at 68 for a few days. Cold crash. Keg. Carb to 2.1 volumes of CO2 and let rest for 2 weeks. Serve at 45*F. Enjoy. It won’t last long.
TOTAL IBU= 34
O.G. 1.043
F.G. 1.013
ABV 3.9%
I don’t add sugar now… years ago I would have put a lb of corn sugar in this recipe when it was extract. If I’m not mistaken, bitters are brewed as a parti-gile. It’s the seconds or thirds off a bigger, better batch. To mimic that taste, Treacle and golden syrup is used in the beer instead of a parti-gile. I find you don’t need that if you front load the beer with malts that can give that smooth, sugary mouth feel.
