(Not quite) 1837 IPA

[gaunt_paul]

I based this recipe upon an 1837 IPA recipe printed in the CAMRA Homebrew Classics IPA book (p120 if you've got a copy). The recipe was apparently provided by Durden Park Beer Circle. My recipe is slightly different, so it' s not a faithful representation. The reason i went for this is that I helped a friend to make a similar beer last year and it was amazing! It's nearly gone now, so I thought I'd have a pop at a similarly themed beer. The theme was a simple pale-only malt bill, a huge bittering charge of traditional UK hops early in the boil, no late boil additions, and a relatively small dry hop. Over time the extremely strong bitterness seemed to turn into a thing of beauty, quite different to the modern US translation of IPA and different to almost anything else I've tasted. Hopefully this brew will have a similar effect!

My beer differs from the printed recipe as I added more IBUs (more to do with my hop stocks than anything else), mashed lower (I want a dry finish) and for less time (the recipe suggests 3 hours, but I was losing temperature).

Target OG 1.070 (actual OG was 1.069)
Predicted IBUs 201.4
19 litre batch

Water - Ca 174, Mg 2, Na 7, Sulph 397, Cl 17, Bicarb 22

My water (from an aberdeen tap) is fairly low in all minerals, i made a large gypsum addition to get this estimated profile. Target is to let the hops shine. I also added a campden tablet.

6kg pale malt
mashed at 64c for 2 hours 40mins, 75c for 30mins
mash ph 5.3

90 minute boil
90 minute addition - 150g East kent goldings (leaf 6.47%AA), 150g Whitbread goldings variety (leaf 6.67%AA)
15 minute addition - protofloc, yeast nutrient, small handful of table sugar

Ferment - WLP007 dry english ale yeast, started at 19c, slowly raised after day 5 to finish.

This beer is still fermenting right now, but I'm hoping it'll finish around 1.010.

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[charliemartin]

How's this one coming along? Got something similar planned for a future brew using pale malt and fuggles.

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[Sadfield]

Great recipe, and a real eye opener to drink something like this and discover how bold beers used to be. A couple of Worlds wars and centuries of taxation and legislation certainly brought British beer to a low point in the last 30 years. The American craft movement has been a massive kick up the arse, but these beers, as you say, provide an interesting contrast, yet satisfy the modern palate with their massive IBUs.

We recently had Ron Pattinson over at our homebrew club to taste and talk about his Scottish Shilling Ale recipes that we brewed, it was really interesting experience to learn how history and technology had more influence on beer than brewers did, how simple recipes were, and how very little is new, this gives a fresh perspective on recipe construction.

[gaunt_paul]

Ron Pattinson and his fantastic blog are partly responsible for my interest in these recipes too. Must have been good to pick his brains!

This beers going well so far. It reached 1.010 after all. I cooled it to try and get some more yeast out of suspension then added a dry hop. I went in harder than planned, though in line with many recipes I've seen from the period - 50g EKG and 50g wgv. I had exactly this amount left in each packet, so it seemed logical to use them up. I'll bottle this at the weekend.

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[Hanglow]

Are you planning on adding any brett?


When I can eventually brew again I'm going to do one of these too, as well as a an old school Burton

[gaunt_paul]

I hadn't planned to, but i do have some demijohns and some brett c. Also some oak cubes.

I recently tried a Little Earth Project IPA that was labelled as being a recreation of the historic style, with brett and aged in oak. I was excited about trying it. Sadly it was terrible, a very bland disappointment. I have no idea how they managed it. I might try a one gallon attempt to beat that one!

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[Sadfield]

That surprises me about the Little Earth Project beer, as they are generally quite good. Although I've not tried the Organic East India Pale Ale, the Organic Stock Ale is very good. I think the authentic techniques they use, may create an unpredictable product given that they harvest wild yeast from their own environment and rely heavily on how that reacts with the character of the barrel. Even the best Lambic brewers have to blend between good and bad barrels, I don't think LEP have the benefit of scale. Authentically unpredictable? we will never know.

Worth a go, you'll possibly have more luck pitching a carefully selected and cultivated strain of brett.

[gaunt_paul]

That surprises me about the Little Earth Project beer, as they are generally quite good. Although I've not tried the Organic East India Pale Ale, the Organic Stock Ale is very good. I think the authentic techniques they use, may create an unpredictable product given that they harvest wild yeast from their own environment and rely heavily on how that reacts with the character of the barrel. Even the best Lambic brewers have to blend between good and bad barrels, I don't think LEP have the benefit of scale. Authentically unpredictable? we will never know.

Worth a go, you'll possibly have more luck pitching a carefully selected and cultivated strain of brett.

Authentically unpredictable or not, i don't think i'll be buying another. It tasted of oak, a tiny bit of brett character and nothing else. If some one poured it and told me it was an infected kit brew, i would have believed them.

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[Sadfield]

Authentically unpredictable or not, i don't think i'll be buying another. It tasted of oak, a tiny bit of brett character and nothing else. If some one poured it and told me it was an infected kit brew, i would have believed them.

I'll steer clear of that one then.

[Jocky]

I made a very similar recipe back in November (Maris Otter to 1.064, EKG to 135 IBU, S-04).

Roughly 1/3 of the batch went into bottles and the other 2/3 went into a keg with a single cube of oak and some brett C and was aged for 5 months before bottling.

A few months later and the regular beer is nice, slightly marmaladey maybe from the hop age. The brett beer has another layer of flavour and is slightly drier. It's nice, and I'm going to enjoy drinking it, but I'm yet to come to any strong conclusions about it.

[Cam]

Paul, will we be getting to try this at the Homebrew meet?

[jubby]

The theme was a simple pale-only malt bill, a huge bittering charge of traditional UK hops early in the boil, no late boil additions, and a relatively small dry hop. Over time the extremely strong bitterness seemed to turn into a thing of beauty, quite different to the modern US translation of IPA and different to almost anything else I've tasted. Hopefully this brew will have a similar effect!

That's spot on in my limited experience. The flavours become 3 dimensional in time (if that makes sense). I usually have one of these ready to drink at any one time and have tried a few experiments with different hops and yeasts but using the Durden park 3 hour mash with a 30 min mash out. I've never used brett so I can't comment but my favorites so far have been with Wyeast 1097 which in time gives a mellow smokey flavour. For hops, Goldings was one of my best attempts along with Styrian Goldings. Currently drinking an American hop attempt which is very nice but the Cascade hops give a harsh bitterness so I'll stick with English hops in future.

Final gravity for me is around 1.015 to 10.020 for 6 to 8% ABV.

I think you're in for a treat in a few months!

[gaunt_paul]

Paul, will we be getting to try this at the Homebrew meet?

This will definitely make an appearance once it's ready

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[gaunt_paul]

The theme was a simple pale-only malt bill, a huge bittering charge of traditional UK hops early in the boil, no late boil additions, and a relatively small dry hop. Over time the extremely strong bitterness seemed to turn into a thing of beauty, quite different to the modern US translation of IPA and different to almost anything else I've tasted. Hopefully this brew will have a similar effect!

That's spot on in my limited experience. The flavours become 3 dimensional in time (if that makes sense). I usually have one of these ready to drink at any one time and have tried a few experiments with different hops and yeasts but using the Durden park 3 hour mash with a 30 min mash out. I've never used brett so I can't comment but my favorites so far have been with Wyeast 1097 which in time gives a mellow smokey flavour. For hops, Goldings was one of my best attempts along with Styrian Goldings. Currently drinking an American hop attempt which is very nice but the Cascade hops give a harsh bitterness so I'll stick with English hops in future.

Final gravity for me is around 1.015 to 10.020 for 6 to 8% ABV.

I think you're in for a treat in a few months!

Your description of the change in flavour over time makes sense and matches what i think i tasted in the similar beer that i tried recently. Your yeast choice might be similar - my wlp007 is apparently a whitbread strain, as are wyeast 1098 and 1099 (not sure about 1097, couldn't find any info). Hopefully i'll get similarly tasty beer!

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[Cam]

Paul, will we be getting to try this at the Homebrew meet?

This will definitely make an appearance once it's ready

Sweeeeeeeeeeeet