Water profile for Hook Norton?

(That's water to the rest of us!) Beer is about 95% water, so if you want to discuss water treatment, filtering etc this is the place to do it!
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Galena
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Water profile for Hook Norton?

Post by Galena » Wed Jun 17, 2020 10:31 pm

I have a couple of variations of a recipe for Old Hooky based on the Wheeler recipe, though from a thread on here the ingredients are a bit different and I would like to see over a few brews how close I can get.
Afaik, HN keep their water profile pretty close to their chests but is there any wisdom out there that may suggest a close proximity?

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Northern Brewer
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Re: Water profile for Hook Norton?

Post by Northern Brewer » Thu Jun 18, 2020 11:34 am

I'd imagine that they're pretty old-school, so will be doing a pretty traditional Burtonisation with lots of gypsum, and a decent slug of AMS/CRS to get the alkalinity down.

There's various pics kicking around the forums from visits to HN of tables of recipe ingredients like here.

Galena
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Re: Water profile for Hook Norton?

Post by Galena » Thu Jun 18, 2020 12:32 pm

Northern Brewer wrote:
Thu Jun 18, 2020 11:34 am
I'd imagine that they're pretty old-school, so will be doing a pretty traditional Burtonisation with lots of gypsum, and a decent slug of AMS/CRS to get the alkalinity down.

There's various pics kicking around the forums from visits to HN of tables of recipe ingredients like here.
Thanks, I'm glad you included that link I had seen it before but could not find it again, it does show some difference in malt from GW's recipe, so that will probably help me with developing it.

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Dennis King
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Re: Water profile for Hook Norton?

Post by Dennis King » Thu Jun 18, 2020 1:09 pm

Galena wrote:
Thu Jun 18, 2020 12:32 pm
Thanks, I'm glad you included that link I had seen it before but could not find it again, it does show some difference in malt from GW's recipe, so that will probably help me with developing it.
GW would always say his recipes were not scaled down copies of the original brewery recipe just his interpretation of how to create a beer comparable to the original.

Galena
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Re: Water profile for Hook Norton?

Post by Galena » Thu Jun 18, 2020 1:19 pm

Dennis King wrote:
Thu Jun 18, 2020 1:09 pm
Galena wrote:
Thu Jun 18, 2020 12:32 pm
Thanks, I'm glad you included that link I had seen it before but could not find it again, it does show some difference in malt from GW's recipe, so that will probably help me with developing it.
GW would always say his recipes were not scaled down copies of the original brewery recipe just his interpretation of how to create a beer comparable to the original.
Yes I do believe he says that, it wasn't a dig at his recipe just that I want to try and get as close as I can. I just got GW's book today as it happens and I went for the 2009 edition, a bit disappointing that there are no yeasts on the recipe's though.

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Dennis King
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Re: Water profile for Hook Norton?

Post by Dennis King » Thu Jun 18, 2020 1:30 pm

He left out the yeast on purpose as the yeast the brewers use is generally not available to the public. Brewlabs would supply specific yeasts but they have changed the way they trade recently so not sure if that is still an option. Personally if using liquid yeast I would go for any of the British strains. Don't use dried yeast much but would have thought Nottingham or Windsor.

Galena
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Re: Water profile for Hook Norton?

Post by Galena » Thu Jun 18, 2020 1:45 pm

Dennis King wrote:
Thu Jun 18, 2020 1:30 pm
He left out the yeast on purpose as the yeast the brewers use is generally not available to the public. Brewlabs would supply specific yeasts but they have changed the way they trade recently so not sure if that is still an option. Personally if using liquid yeast I would go for any of the British strains. Don't use dried yeast much but would have thought Nottingham or Windsor.
Good point, yes Brewers yeast would be their own strain I guess. A mate of mine works for Marstons and said that Coors killed off the Draught Bass yeast, so the original ale is lost forever.

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