TTL Recipe Critique Please

[aus069]

O.K. after some searching and thought , this is what I have come up with . Melbourne water is soft so I thought I may just leave it the way it is.


4.74 kg Golden Promise
190 gm caraaroma
70 gm choc

42 gm Fuggles 90 min boil
30 gm Styrian 90 min boil
30 gm EKG 15 min boil
30 gm Styrian 0 min

90 min mash and 90 min boil
If I can get Wy 1469 I will use this , If not how about WLP 028 ?



Brew Well
aus069

[sammy_oz]

I really like the look of this recipe, which has received favourable reviews on some US forums:

http://pivo.northernbrewer.com/docs/kis-html/1813.html

Whereabouts in Australia are you, and do you have the ability to build yeast from a slant? I've got 1469 slanted and i'd be happy to post you one.

[mysterio]

Hmm i'm not sure about the choc malt. There's no roasted flavour in TTL, not even a hint.

[mysterio]

I used brewers caramel in my last attempt, there was something definitely lacking in the malt character. I even tried the trick of boiling down the first runnings to get some kettle caramelisation. I think some kind of crystal malt is a good idea. Never heard of caraaroma either I assume it's a German crystal malt?

[flything]

The thing with cloning beers is that we're rarely going to do it by following exactly what the commercial brewer does. Having the right grain, hops, yeast and water will get so far but their process will have an impact on the final beer that we will always find difficult if not impossible to replicate, therefore, we might have to caramalise the wort, add chocolate malt etc, to try to find a way to get closer. I don't think it's heresy at all, it's finding a solution with the tools and ingredients available to us.

[chris_reboot]

from what I know, many brewers do the caramel trick to deepen colour, but if that's not your concern, keep the malts simple.
maybe just pale malt (possibly a small amount of black malt for colour depth).
as the others have said, crystal, choc etc will change the flavour profile away more from the original.

[aus069]

Sammy I am in Melbourne in the outer east where are you ?


cheers

aus069

[aus069]

Thanks guys for your informative views . This is my 2 cents worth :- I was thinking of dropping the crystal anyway . I have actually added 50gm of black patent malt to give it the colour and possibly some of the flavour that it needs . Sometimes you have to move slightly off centre to get the flavour you are looking for . I have heard of other brewers caramelising their first runnings but it still lacks the colour and body that the TTL has . Unless you know someone like the head brewer you are not likely to get the correct recipe for there is always some little additive or step or grain or secret that they keep and you will get close to the recipe but not quite , as it always lacks this or that, so sometimes you have to go out into left field and try these things to get even remotely close to the flavours and colours that the breweries produce . Even though this recipe doesn't have black patent malt or chocolate malt I am willing to give it a go and if I get close enough to the flavour I will be happy otherwise I will try something else in the recipe until I am satisfied with it , who knows I may well go ahead and take the first runnings and boil the crap out of it until I get toffee and maybe then I will get close to this recipe but that is what home brewing is all about experimenting .


Brew Well

aus069

[aus069]

Yeah I see and that is probably the correct recipe for TTL but I am only on my 8th beer so I have got a loooooong way too go . But other than the yeast how do you get the flavour ?



Brew Well
aus069

[flything]

GP is a malty base malt and the yeast will go a long way to contribute to the flavour. It's a nice beer but the taste isn't that special.

I find that it's incredibly variable and the bottle isn't anywhere as good as cask, however, best pint of bitter I've ever had was a pint of TTL in the Crown Posada, Newcastle, it was beautiful. Stunning. I've never tasted it like that again since, I guess it was really fresh and the late addition hops hadn't started to fade. Every time I see it on draft I have a pint but it's never been as good

Seems that for some reason it's a bit of a holy grail, I've had two goes and both times it's been good beer but not as good as that pint.

[WishboneBrewery]

Seems that for some reason it's a bit of a holy grail, I've had two goes and both times it's been good beer but not as good as that pint.

Whereas I live in Keighley... Just pop to the Brown Cow for some very well kept beer

[aus069]

The thing with cloning beers is that we're rarely going to do it by following exactly what the commercial brewer does. Having the right grain, hops, yeast and water will get so far but their process will have an impact on the final beer that we will always find difficult if not impossible to replicate, therefore, we might have to caramalise the wort, add chocolate malt etc, to try to find a way to get closer. I don't think it's heresy at all, it's finding a solution with the tools and ingredients available to us.

I agree with you flything for all it is , is experimenting to try and get close to the clone.