Monday, January 27, 2014

#IHP2014 - The Recipe

1834, what a year that was.

The Spanish Inquisition officially came to an end, by royal decree. Charles Babbage began his conceptual designs for the 'analytical engine', a mechanical precursor to the computer. The Zollverein came into effect, abolishing customs duties between the German kingdoms, which would eventually lead to the creation of modern Germany.

The following people first saw the light of day:
And the following breathed their last:
And in Norwich they brewed porter.

According to Ron Pattinson, St Stephen's Brewery in Norwich, made a grand total of 4 beers, an X, XX, table beer and the following porter...
  • 72% Pale Malt
  • 21% Brown Malt
  • 7% Black Malt
  • 60 IBU of Fuggles for 120 mins
  • 22 IBU of Fuggles for 30 minutes
  • Nottingham Ale yeast/WLP002 English Ale Yeast/Wyeast 1968 London ESB
The vital stats for the beer are:
  • OG: 1.066
  • FG: 1.022
  • ABV: 5.9%
  • IBU: 82
When this beer was recorded in 1834, the mash lasted 2 hours, at a consistency of 1.4qt of water to a pound of grain, at 156°F. The boil was also two hours long, and in the words of Kristen England, the beer was:
Massively rich and chewy. Cocoa, burnt biscuits, graham crackers, coffee and carbonized sugars. Loads of raw grassy character with the mouth drying tannins to boot. Finishes thick but not sweet in the least. The dark acidic character of the malts really extend the finish that keeps going and going.
As I mentioned in the post announcing the style for this year's International Homebrew Project, the brewday is scheduled for the weekend of 15th/16th February.

For those that can't get hold of Brown Malt, here are some instructions to make your own.

If you are planning to take part, let me know either in the comments or drop me an email...

13 comments:

  1. Simple recipe and to the point. Should be tasty. Think I'm free that weekend.

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  2. It'll have to be the weekend after for me but I'm very keen!

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  3. Checking in and reporting for brewing Sir!

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  4. As long as the weather holds up, I am definitely on for this one.

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  5. I'll squeeze it in at some point, though brewing on valentines weekend might prove unpopular.

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  6. You've got at least two brewers in Israel for this year's brew! I've put out the call on my blog. Hopefully we'll get enough brewers to actually make a party of it. :)
    http://threecatsbrewery.blogspot.co.il/2014/02/pepsi-brings-your-ancestors-back-from.html

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  7. I picked up my ingredients today, including some WY1968. I have mixed feelings about this yeast. I've had it produce some truly great beers, but I've also had it produce the kind of off-flavours described by Will in a post he wrote on his blog a couple of years back (http://tinyurl.com/kue3z3k), and which he attributed to the yeast "waking up" after being exposed to oxygen and/or sugar during bottling.

    Has anybody else had similar problems with this yeast, and does anyone have a potential solution? My feeling is that I should probably hold it to about 68 degrees or so for the first 2-3 days of fermentation, but then let it free rise to room temperature (i.e. the temperature at which I'll be bottle-conditioning it) and let it sit there for a couple of weeks in order to make sure that it fully attenuates the wort.

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  8. Hi There

    I loaded the recipe into BeerSmith (with the help of two brewers) and they were concerned with the IBUs, stating that the beer will be extremely bitter.

    Have you tasted the beer? Is it balanced or over the top?

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  9. Jaco,

    Thanks for your comment, glad you planning to take part!

    I haven't tried the beer yet, but given Kristen's description of it having 'loads of raw grassy character with mouth drying tannins' I then extremely bitter would seem to be the ball park we are aiming for.

    Given my experience though with previous years' recipes, where measure IBUs have been north of 80 for similar strength beers, I am not overly concerned about it.

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  10. Done! Mashed, boiled and currently fermenting. Cheers!

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  11. I'm only mashing in now at 68c for 2 hours.
    Will do a 2 hour boil too.

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