1937 Greene King AK

[Piscator]

I'm planning on brewing Ron Pattinsons 1937 Greene King AK in the morning - grains, hops and mineral additions are all weighed out and ready to go.
Not having any "real" invert #2, I have made mine by blending golden syrup and molasses in the requisite proportions. I do wish someone would have a go at supplying inverts #1 to #4 in homebrewing quantities though.

Just to illustrate the value of testing alkalinity each time you brew I found that mine had dropped from 248ppm (and around "normal" for my water) to a piffling 123ppm.

I'm really looking forward to this as I love AK's and I think this one looks rather nice.

See you in the morning.

Cheers
Steve

[Eadweard]

Excellent! I took the picture of the brewing records.

[Piscator]

Excellent! I took the picture of the brewing records.

Brilliant I'm really looking forward to trying this one.

Here's a gratuitous grain shot - mash is now on.

[Piscator]

All done now, here's how the brewday went...

Mashed in and doing its thing


Fly sparging


Late hops in - smelling good!


Running off into the fermenter, nice clear wort.


Lovely trubbly.


Ended up with 27 ltrs at OG 1.034 which was bang on target, so happy with that.
Yeast pitched and brew now sat in brewfridge.

Cheers
Steve

[Goulders]

What yeast did you go with?

[Piscator]

Good ol' Notty.

[sbond10]

Got a recipe please ? What does ak mean

[Piscator]

Got a recipe please ? What does ak mean

Now that's a loaded question which has been much speculated about - the truth is that nobody knows exactly what it stood for.

Essentially as far as I have been able to find (mainly through reading Ron's blog) AK as a style was a "fresh" running beer of low gravity and usually fairly mildy hopped.
The only other thing I have noticed is that the grain bills I have seen have all included some maize and sugar as an adjunct.

http://barclayperkins.blogspot.co.uk/20 ... ng-ak.html

It is a light, easy drinking style and is ready quickly without needing lots of maturation and makes a great summer ale, which is why I like AK.

[sbond10]

Cheers some good reading there

[Good Ed]

AK came about during the late 19th century as a result of demand for lower ABV beers and was the forerunner of todays bitter. However as gravities dropped due to war and government taxes all the beers (PA's and IPA's etc) dropped down and AK just faded away. They are fairly simple recipes but taste great.

[Fuggled Mind]

Looks like a good brew brew day. I've often thought about brewing one of the recipes for AK.
Keep us informed with how it turns out Piscator - maybe a pint of the finished product-

Cheers

Jason

[Dennis King]

McMullen in Hertford still brew an AK.

[Piscator]

McMullen in Hertford still brew an AK.

Hi Dennis - yes, I brew my take on GW's BYOBRAAH version of McMullens AK fairly regularly... in fact it's as close to a house brew as I have got (my other regular brew is a version of Gales Butser Bitter).

I'm toying with having a go at a take on the Kidd 1934 AK from Rons blog

http://barclayperkins.blogspot.co.uk/20 ... dd-ak.html

or, I might have a bash at an interpretation of Dave Lines version of Mitchell & Butler Dunkirk Pale Ale (DPA) which while not described by M&B as an AK, with a grain bill of pale malt, maize and sugar for an OG of 1.033 is pretty much an AK in style.

So many beers, and so little time

[Piscator]

Looks like a good brew brew day. I've often thought about brewing one of the recipes for AK.
Keep us informed with how it turns out Piscator - maybe a pint of the finished product-

Cheers

Jason

Hi Jason, you can rest assured I will be giving it a very thorough quality test when it is ready

[Good Ed]

I'm toying with having a go at a take on the Kidd 1934 AK from Rons blog

http://barclayperkins.blogspot.co.uk/20 ... dd-ak.html

The BX go very nicely in this beer