Harvey's Old Ale (XXXX)

[SiHoltye]

1.040-44 to 4.3%
Pale Malt
16% 400EBC Crystal (brewery will give me some)
Brewers Caramel
Guessing bitterness to about 25 since it's reminiscent of old milds, but before that what d'ya reckon about that much big crystal? Be good to know how long this is aged.

That's the grain bill, any thoughts cos I want to brew this drink. Not a diacetyl ridden after 4 weeks disapointment.

Cheers

[SiHoltye]

I think Mr Burns at Cheam Homebrewing and Winemaking has a malt mill and with a bit of sweet talking hopefully the gent may let me mill my generously donated malt. Don't have a mill myself, don't want to prat around with a rolling pin or fork out now for a mill for this trial brew so it's the kindness of others that's required.

The Harvey's website says some pap about punters looking forward to the annual release of this beer come winter. I know why, perhaps it's my palate but this is really worth having a pint of if you're around the SE.

[Benjy Edwards]

I wondered if SiHoltye or anyone else had brewed this yet, I wanted to see how it turned out. I am planning on doing a batch but am concerned about what effect such a large amount of crystal malt (1/6th of malt bill or 16%) will have.

[SiHoltye]

I will try this brew once I have organised a crush for myself. However back in April I cobbled this effort:

AG#059 - Howard's Old Ale
Type: All Grain
Date: 17/04/2009
Batch Size: 23.00 L
Boil Time: 120 min
Brewhouse Efficiency: 83.00

Ingredients
Amount Item Type % or IBU
3.13 kg Maris Otter (5.9 EBC) Grain 83.33 %
0.63 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (236.4 EBC) Grain 16.67 %
60.00 gm Fuggles [4.30 %] (90 min) Hops 28.3 IBU
20.00 gm Fuggles [4.30 %] (5 min) Hops 1.8 IBU
1 Pkgs Slurry - Hopback Yeast-Ale

Beer Profile
Measured Original Gravity: 1.042 SG
Measured Final Gravity: 1.012 SG
Actual Alcohol by Vol: 3.90 %
Bitterness: 30.1 IBU
Est Color: 30.8 EBC

Taste Notes: No roast flavour like the Harvey's Old Ale I was trying to emulate. Too caramelly (cloying), use their 400EBC crystal and crush myself. Also yeast too zingy, use Harvey's. Yuck.[/img]

Bloody awful stuff Though the yeast was wrong and grossly underpitched and the wrong grains were used

[simple one]

Looks like a similar recipe to my bonfire porter. That took a good 4-6 months to lose the cloyish texture from the crystal.

[Benjy Edwards]

Taste Notes: No roast flavour like the Harvey's Old Ale I was trying to emulate. Too caramelly (cloying), use their 400EBC crystal and crush myself. Also yeast too zingy, use Harvey's. Yuck.[/img]

Bloody awful stuff Though the yeast was wrong and grossly underpitched and the wrong grains were used

Thanks! This helps me a lot. I think I will back down from 16% dark crystal, since I don't want to age this beer for a long time. I wonder how long Harvey's age their Old...the Head Brewer didn't happen to tell you that, did he?

[SiHoltye]

No, wish I'd asked

[Benjy Edwards]

With that much dark crystal I would think Harvey's must age it quite a while for the sweetness to mellow. On the other hand, you'd think they'd need to keep the beer moving through the brewery for production purposes. Even though it's only available seasonally, I very much doubt they could brew and store the total volume to be sold that season for any appreciable length of time. My instinct tells me it's a running beer, just as with the others (except for the Lecoq imperial stout). They must have a trick with the brewing process, the crystal or the sugar to make it so good without extensive aging.