Home Brew Forum

No work today so an opportunity to get a brew in. Been meaning to do a Durden Park recipe for ages, and have (more or less) the ingredients for the legendary 'Simmonds' recipe so thought I'd give it a trial-brew before going the whole hog and home-roasting some pale malt to pale amber to make the real deal sometime in the future .

Along the lines of Simmonds Bitter...

1880 n' all that
Size: 24.0 L
Original Gravity: 1.063
Alcohol: 6.24%

Ingredients:
6400g Maris Otter Pale Ale Malt
1025g Amber Malt

113g Fuggle [90 min]
20g Goldings [15 min]
1 Whirlfloc Tablet [15 min]
15g Goldings [steep at flameout]

2 x Safale S-04, rehydrated with cooled wort starter

maybe 15g Goldings dry hop

Mashing away nicely at 65°c, pH 5.5

Back to water treatment with this brew - I used a palintest total alkalinity kit and worked out the real alkalinity of my water - 260. Treated the mash liquor with 10ml Lactic Acid (60% conc) and 9g DLS so will be interesting to see how it turns out.

[EDIT: recipe tweak to match what actually happened]

There is quite a big difference in colour and flavour between pale amber and commercial amber malt.

I done something similar two week ago, very tasty all ready

steve_flack wrote:There is quite a big difference in colour and flavour between pale amber and commercial amber malt.

I'm guessing there will be, pale amber will be lighter and less roasty than commercial amber.

Hope it all goes well SW. How long do you store this before its drinkable?

Matt

Good luck SW
Something for the Autumn then sir?

Its ready from 3-4 months, so mid- to late-June

And it'll be worth the wait

Hope it went well

Got 24l of 1.062 sitting nicely in the fermentor at 18°c . It will be interesting to see how this one turns out as I did an amber malt beer at the end of last year and didn't care for it much to begin with, then after a few months maturing it became really good so hopefully this will be the same, only more so . Got some running beers kegged that should see me through in the meantime...

Hey up SW,

Where is that amber beer you spoke of, can I have a look at the recipe.

I'm thinking of doing a best bitter but using dia amber instead of crystal. Wanted to have a nose at your findings.

Si - here's the recipe, from GW's BYOBRAAH

Smiles Brewery Bitter

Original Gravity: 1.045
Terminal Gravity: 1.008
Alcohol: 4.85%
Bitterness: 30.24

Ingredients:
4kg Maris Otter Pale
500g Amber Malt
250g Torrified Wheat
40g Goldings (5.8%) - 60 min
20g Goldings (5.8%) - 15 min
1 Whirlfloc Tablet (Irish moss) - 15 min
20 g Goldings (5.8%) - steeped after boil
Danstar Nottingham

When properly matured it had a nice biscuity malt flavour that worked well with the hops.

I've never seen S-04 so unruly... the yeast head's been climbing 4-5" and out of the fermenter all day! Finally I think the attack of the single-celled organisms has been repelled and yeast-curfew is resumed

Thanks SW,
Reassured now that I will replace Crystal with Amber in a Best Bitter 20:1 Maris Otter:Crystal grain bill. Not next though.

Oh and stop avoiding the issue, you've hinted back and forth long enough....

ARE YOU COMING TO DERBY OR NOT!?!

did an amber malt beer at the end of last year and didn't care for it much to begin with, then after a few months maturing it became really good

Ditto...hope this brew turns out well