AG#10 - Simmonds Bitter 1880 (Durden Park)

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Dr Mike

Landlord.
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Day off work today and to commemorate my 10th AG, doing something a bit special which will hopefully be ready for Christmas.

The original recipe is here : http://www.durdenparkbeer.org.uk/Recipe ... 9s_Bitter_

I don't have a malt mill so home roasting the Pale Amber was a non-starter. I've subbed it with a 50/50 mix of Belgian Diastatic Amber (smells lovely) and Munich Malt.
Only one packet of fuggles so making up the last 10g of bitterness editions with EKG.

Here's what Beersmith says (Efficiency adjusted to give the right OG although probably about right for a beer of this strength.

Simmonds Bitter 1880
Extra Special/Strong Bitter (English Pale Ale)
Batch Size (fermenter): 23.00 l
Boil Size: 32.59 l
Boil Time: 90 min Equipment: My Equipment
End of Boil Volume 27.04 l Brewhouse Efficiency: 66.00 %
Final Bottling Volume: 21.00 l Est Mash Efficiency 74.6 %
Fermentation: Ale, Two Stage Taste Rating(out of 50): 30.0

Ingredients
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
5950.00 g Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (5.9 EBC) Grain 84.0 %
565.00 g Diastatic Amber Malt (50.0 EBC) Grain 8.0 %
565.00 g Munich Malt (25.0 EBC) Grain3 8.0 %
100.00 g Fuggles [5.50 %] - Boil 90.0 min Hop 52.2 IBUs
10.00 g Goldings, East Kent [6.45 %] - Boil 90.0 min Hop 6.1 IBUs
25.00 g Goldings, East Kent [6.45 %] - Boil 20.0 min Hop6 8.7 IBUs
1.0 pkg Burton Ale (White Labs #WLP023) [35.49 ml] Yeast -
15.00 g Goldings, East Kent [6.45 %] - Dry Hop 10.0 Days Hop 0.0 IBUs

Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.062 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.015 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 6.3%
Bitterness: 67.0 IBUs Calories
Est Color: 16.7 EBC

Mash Profile
Mash Name: Single Infusion, Light Body, No Mash Out Total Grain Weight: 7080.00 g
Sparge Water: 16.23 l Grain Temperature: 20.0 C
Sparge Temperature: 75.6 C Tun Temperature: 22.2 C
Adjust Temp for Equipment: FALSE Mash PH: 5.20

Mash Steps
Name Description Step Temperature Step Time
Mash In Add 14.16 l of water at 74.7 C 66.0 C 180 min
Mash Step Add 9.29 l of water at 97.0 C 77.0 C 30 min

Sparge Step: Fly sparge with 16.23 l water at 82 C
Mash Notes: Simple single infusion mash for use with most modern well modified grains (about 95% of the time).
Carbonation and Storage

Created with BeerSmith

Grain Shot (Looks like all of one malt!)


Mash on at 9am
 
Should be ready for Christmas 2014!!

It is truly a cracking beer, get some bottled and stored away
 
Well that wasn't as easy as it should have been!

Mash (including the temp step) and run off went swimmingly. Then my Buffalo (which has done nine brews without a hitch) started cutting out before it even reached boiling.

Plan B was to jug across the hot wort into my Electrim (too small to take all the wort and llacking a Hop strainer). That reached a boil and then cut out (I only use the Electrim to heat sparge water so I don't bother to keep the element spotless.

In the meantime I'd given the buffalo element a clean and polish so tried to bring that to the boil and low and behold it worked. Jugged over all the wort back over and it held a rolling boil for 90 minutes apart from a bit of a wobble in the last 10 minutes.

So, fingers crossed, all's well that ends well. Just finishing cooling at the moment.
 
Collected 21L of wort at a hefty 1070. Liquored back to 1064. Now in the fermentation fridge chilling the last couple of degrees to pitching temp.

3EAF6BE9-9161-4F35-BE5F-ABD07D250C25-402-0000007303F18911_zps9d931290.jpg
 
Ferment is going nuts. Sounds angry - hissing and spluttering!

Glad I rigged a blow-off tube.
FA80C08D-DA7B-4C0D-B812-DC06AC84DE31-220-0000014CBC13C200_zps26969b17.jpg
 
Primary all done at 1015 (77% attenuation which is a little more than Whitelabs say for WLP023). Went like a train at first (down to 1020 in 4 days) and then took a couple more to knock off the last 5 points.

Cooling now to drop the yeast before racking to secondary with the dry hops.
 
Bottled this today.

Big tasting beer. Bitterness is big but doesn't seem out of balance. Some warming alcohol (it is 6.5% ABV) and some nice fruity notes from the yeast. Can't wait to see what this is like with age...
 
Just tried the first bottle 2 months in.

Tastes surprisingly mellow with the alcohol taste now diminished. It's hard to believe it is 6.5%! Bitterness sneaks up on you. Not immediately obvious but then you can still taste it minutes later.

Not totally clear yet. Not sure whether this is protein haze or wlp023 taking it's time to settle out.
 
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