Gales Best Bitter revival

[hambrook]

HSB is my favourite beer and since starting brewing 5 months ago I have brewed 6 batches. I live 5 miles from the original brewery; I have done a brewery tour of the Fullers Brewery in January and last night did a tour of Irving Brewery in Portsmouth run by Malcolm Irving QC and brewer at Gales Ales Horndean when it closed. Some snippets of information:
- HSB had NO late hopping of any note
- It was fermented at 23.5 degrees for the first 24 hours
- Mash is at 64 degrees and not the 66 degrees in the Graham Wheeler recipe.
- it only used Crystal Light
- The yeast was Whitbread B
- Fullers do not use all the brewing steps that were used in the original.

I have brewed the Graham Wheeler Recipe as attached however the colour is 23.3 EBC when i put the recipe in Beer Smith and it is too light when brewed compared to the 37 EBC that Graham says it should be. I have tried boosting the Black Malt but, as commented, you do end up with a nutty edge. So I think the only option is swap out the Crystal for a Dark crystal which is against what I was told by Malcolm Irving last night. Does using a dark crystal malt impart any flavour changes?

I am brewing in a Braumesiter 20L and have just brewed an HSB clone a couple of days ago with (for the first time) proper water treatment with CRS and DLS. All of my HSB brews have been using Safale S-04 but I have just ordered some WYeast 1322 to TRY and get nearer the end result. The beer I am producing is highly quaffable just I'm set on not letting this one beat me - however; one word of caution - Malcolm has tried to re-create HSB but can't get the Yeast to produce the Esters, and frankly if the guy who once brewed this can't recreate it; I may step away in 2 or 3 brew time !

I'll keep you updated.

[Goulders]

And you need to finish at 1013/1013.5

[Hanglow]

See for the sugar, did Malcolm Irving mention what type it was? If it was one of the darker brewers syrups that might account for it being darker than the ingredients suggest

it would also give flavours that the different malts don't

[Goulders]

Invert sugar

[Hanglow]

Yeah brewers syrup is invert, did he say which number? No2 or No3 especially would darken it up a fair bit

No1 is about 30 EBC
No2 is 65 EBC
No 3 is 130 EBC

I don't know what that would do to the total colour as its only 5% or so Should make a difference though

[Goulders]

He didn't say. But he said he told fullers 6 bullet points. He didn't tell us all of them, but the key ones in order were:
1. 23.5c for 24 hours
2. Finish at 1013/13.5
3. No late hops
4. Yeast he thought was Whitbread B
5. Gales propagated their yeast every 2 weeks.

Sugar was mentioned in passing and he said you could get away with using normal sugar but recommended golden syrup as an alternative.

He uses a different yeast nowadays so he couldn't replicate HSB when he tried.

I'm not bothered about cloning this beer but if I was I would probably ask brewlab. He definitely said that the first 24 hours was key to getting the fruity esters the beer was famous for.

[Hanglow]

I love stuff like this and I've not even drunk the original

[orlando]

2. Finish at 1013/13.5

I may be wrong but this might be what they cask the beer at so technically it isn't finished as it will continue in cask to clear up after itself and create condition, probably nearer to 1.010 by the time it is served. This is an educated guess though, did he clarify that?

[Goulders]

I'm brewing with him on Tuesday so I will ask him

[hambrook]

I'm brewing with him on Tuesday so I will ask him

If you can find out HOW they get the 37 EBC colour that would be great. I got some Dark Crystal yesterday as boosting the black malt impacted flavour too much

[BrewerBen]

I'm also interested in the gales beers and theres some great tips here. I was also told the SG was 1.052.
Also this arrived today to help things along:

[Flaneur]

I am following this with interest but am confused. I thought the original was about Gales GB, but we are now talking about HSB?

Anyway, my tuppence worth. I have been living in South Hampshire since 2001. My local was a Gale's pub (now Fullers ). I worked there for some years with a very experienced landlord. Before the demise of Gales, the beer was very variable. I guess this was due to years of under-investment at the brewery. It was very frustrating. HSB was a big seller, and on form was nectar.
After the Fullers take over (and with a new landlord) we, as a pub, went to the Fullers brewery on a tour. They were very dismissive of Gales beers, and the HSB in particular. Couldn't understand why we weren't overnight London Pride enthusiasts.
The chap doing the tour basically said that HSB was a basic brew (LP? ESB?) then for colouring and to make it sweet (as straw-chewing yokels, we likes our beer sweet, roit?) they added two enormous buckets of dark caramel to the kettle. I did see the plastic containers in question but did not see the process, so cannot confirm or deny the tale. I only know what I was told. I have been on a few brewery tours so I am quite aware that BS is rife in the trade

Blast Fullers and their ilk. HSB is undeniably more consistent now, but nothing like its former self.

[Hanglow]

Well fullers used to use caramel too so it's a bit rich of that guy to slag it off

[orlando]

Are you sure it wasn't invert sugar, a perfectly respectable "adjunct" known as malt substitute. When I think of the classic English Bitters, beers that define our tradition a lot, if not most would have used it. Either as a response to, greed, taxation or War. Turned out nice again. (one for the Old Folks)

[Goulders]

Well brewed my competition winning brew today.
Gales (and indeed Malcolm himself does now) racked at 1/2 degree above FG.
HSB and the bitters used light crystal (70L?). Colour came from black malt (~1%-1.5%)