Home Brew Forum

Well, my brother and his family were due over today to eat Roast Beef of Old England with us and generally make merry, but today the weather in Colchester was atrocious apparently, snow, etc. He cancelled this morning as he didn't fancy the drive. So, while Jen does the roast dinner, I thought I'd brew up - a sort of symbiotic kitchen share.

The Black Pig Brewery presents -

Bitter (1880) Simond's of Reading

4.56kg Pale malt
1.74kg Low Colour Pale Malt
1.20kg Diastatic Amber malt
112g Fuggles 90 mins
25g Goldings at switch of.
15g Goldings dry hops

3 x Danstar Windsor yeast - rehydrated as per pack instructions

OG was on target at 1062, 24L brewed in the FV. The original recipe calls for pale malt, and the pale amber only. I didn't have enough pale so made up the shortfall with low colour pale - it won't make much difference.

It's a heavier weight of grain than required and I batch sparged deliberatey inefficiently - second addition was only 10L of which I only used 8L (should have been 17L for max efficiency).

The original recipe, per Imperial gallon, is

2lb 10oz pale malt
8oz pale amber (diastatic amber)
3/4oz fuggles
1/6oz goldings late
1/10oz goldings dry

It is a great bitter recipe - "The best bitter recipe in the world" - James McCrorie. I've tasted one or two examples, and I hope I can do it some justice. In common with a lot of Durden Park recipes (which this is) they look so simple that you wonder what the fuss is about - but if you brew them well, and then mature them properly - they're bloody good.

Mashed in at 1.30pm, dinner prepared by missus, ate a fab roast during the boil, cooled to 19c in about 30 mins, yeast in at 7.20pm. Thought I'd give Windsor a go for a bit more of a fruity less well attenuated beer than what Nottingham might produce. Brewday went without hitches - not a normal day then!!

Had a new Brewers' Acolyte with me today. The beer in the glass is 'The Bishop's Bumhole' - just testing


Crappy weather - Boil and cool under the brolly.

Nice one Steve, sounds like it went well even though the weather was pants.

You built that lovely brew shed Steve, why are you boiling outside? i know there has to be a totally logical reason but in my drunken state it's the only reply my beer soggy brain can muster

Great cat picture

Hope you...er...enjoyed the Bumhole

AT wrote:You built that lovely brew shed Steve, why are you boiling outside? i know there has to be a totally logical reason but in my drunken state it's the only reply my beer soggy brain can muster

The shed walls were plastered yesterday, and the ceiling is still unpainted, so I didn't want to fill it with steam when it should be drying out.

Tempted to give this one a try - I live a few miles from Reading and it's one of the '3 Bs' that Reading is famous for (Beer, Bulbs & Biscuits) and I should probably appreciate it for being brought up in the area.

Hey Steve you must have very full cellar with all these bigger beers conditioning.

It still amazes me how with time seemingly simple recipe beers develop such stunning long and complex flavours.

The boiler under the umbrella reminds me of most of the barbecue's I had last summer

Don't know why I hadn't thought of it myself... all-weather outdoor brewing with a 'brew-brolly'. Sunshade / raincover (snow today) all in one.

Hope it turns out well.

spearmint-wino wrote:Don't know why I hadn't thought of it myself... all-weather outdoor brewing with a 'brew-brolly'. Sunshade / raincover (snow today) all in one.

Hope it turns out well.

Me too. Get a big golf brolly, which is what that is. The boiler holds 63L, to give you an idea of scale.

prodigal2 wrote:Hey Steve you must have very full cellar with all these bigger beers conditioning.

9 cornelius, all in use. Better get some more, or I'll be using the three king kegs as well.

prodigal2 wrote:It still amazes me how with time seemingly simple recipe beers develop such stunning long and complex flavours.

Me too. Something simple like pale malt and goldings hops only, properly matured, is stunning.

nice recipe Steve, you can replace the pale amber with Munich malts at least accord to Durden Park

looks it will turn out a nice pint

Congrats Steve, brewing against adverse weather and a stonker of a recipe too

Steve,

Did you give this a 3 hour mash as specified in the Durden park recipe?

Or is 90mins adequate....might give this one a try.

Good luck with the brew shed, sounds like its making rapid progress.

The Bumhole looks to be a cracking pint

oblivious wrote:nice recipe Steve, you can replace the pale amber with Munich malts at least accord to Durden Park

My understanding is that you can use a blend of pale, munich and the diastatic amber. The reasoning being that the diastatic amber is a bit too dark and makes beers finish a bit too sweet.

Geoff Cooper posted on this on the UKHB forums

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