This is my first attempt at a full-scale Durden Park brew. I picked in the 1880s Simmonds bitter recipe, as I have been told that it is probably the finest bitter recipe from the book. Certainly the recipe is simple enough, pretty much pale malt and Fuggles and Goldings hops. I was also lucky that Samarith wanted to come over there and watch a brewing process. so here is the recipe.
For 20L at 1.062 (64% Efficiency)
5230g Pale Malt
1000g Pale Amber Malt (Home Roasted)
94g Fuggles (Bittering)
21g Goldings (Late)
13g Goldings (Dry)
To me it was pretty much uneventful brew day. Apart from an extended gap during the mash which meant the matter the beer was mashed for three a half hours rather than my usual 90 minutes everything else went pretty smoothly, and for once I didn't end up with several litres of work all over the floor. Even better for me personally was that using the electric brewery meant I didn't try to set fire to my testicles again.
I was pretty pleased that we exceeded the recipes efficiency and ended up with close on 24 L of wort at 1.067. As the brewers at the time had no idea what the IBU of their beers were, or the alpha acid contents of the hops, then there is little point in trying to brew to to a particular level of bitterness, although with the hops I used the theoretical bitterness according to Tinseths calculation is 77 IBU.
Once the beer was cooled, it was run-off into a clean sanitised fermenter and tucked away for 24 hours to allow the hot and cold break to settle out. After this time the wort was poured into a new fermenter generating lots of froth, and pitched with a 2L starter of Brewlabs Thames Valley II yeast, which will be allowed to ferment at 20°C for 5 to 7 days.
I think the key to this recipe is the pale amber malt, which you have to produce by home roasting has no malt is produced that comes close, certainly upon opening the grain bag that I'd stored it in a wonderful nutty aroma was evident, hopefully this will carry on into the beer.
For 20L at 1.062 (64% Efficiency)
5230g Pale Malt
1000g Pale Amber Malt (Home Roasted)
94g Fuggles (Bittering)
21g Goldings (Late)
13g Goldings (Dry)
To me it was pretty much uneventful brew day. Apart from an extended gap during the mash which meant the matter the beer was mashed for three a half hours rather than my usual 90 minutes everything else went pretty smoothly, and for once I didn't end up with several litres of work all over the floor. Even better for me personally was that using the electric brewery meant I didn't try to set fire to my testicles again.
I was pretty pleased that we exceeded the recipes efficiency and ended up with close on 24 L of wort at 1.067. As the brewers at the time had no idea what the IBU of their beers were, or the alpha acid contents of the hops, then there is little point in trying to brew to to a particular level of bitterness, although with the hops I used the theoretical bitterness according to Tinseths calculation is 77 IBU.
Once the beer was cooled, it was run-off into a clean sanitised fermenter and tucked away for 24 hours to allow the hot and cold break to settle out. After this time the wort was poured into a new fermenter generating lots of froth, and pitched with a 2L starter of Brewlabs Thames Valley II yeast, which will be allowed to ferment at 20°C for 5 to 7 days.
I think the key to this recipe is the pale amber malt, which you have to produce by home roasting has no malt is produced that comes close, certainly upon opening the grain bag that I'd stored it in a wonderful nutty aroma was evident, hopefully this will carry on into the beer.
