A Quest for Sussex Best

[StrangeBrew]

Hi all,

I've recently been searching for a recipe for Harvey's Sussex Best without much luck.

I would really appreciate it if anyone has a tried and tested recipe that comes close to the original that they'd be happy to share.

Search results have thrown up a few different recipies but results are a bit vague.
There's probably more recipies out there, just need to dig deeper to find them.

Here's what I've found so far followed by a link to Harvey's website and a link to a video clip of the Brewery.

Harvey’s Sussex Best Bitter Recipies

Bitter-Dave - JBKF
3,800g Pale malt
225g Crystal
225g Flaked maize
225g Soft brown Sugar

65g Goldings (full 90 min boil)
20g Goldings (20 mins)
15g Goldings (steeped for 20-30 mins after boil).

1.041 and 31-ish IBUs.
______________________________________________________________

Dave Line
3.8kg Maris Otter
300g flaked maize
250g light soft brown sugar

Mashed for 90min at 66C

Goldings 50g (4.1%) 90min
Northern Brewer 20g (7%) 90min

OG – 1.041 (23L)
_____________________________________________________________

Benjy Edwards - JBKF
5900g Golden Promise
454g dark crystal (80L)
340g flaked maize
70g Fuggles at 60 mins
28g Challenger at 60 mins
56g EKG at 30 mins
28g Bramling Cross at 30 mins
28g Fuggles at 0 mins
28g EKG at 0 mins.

OG 1.041
40 IBU
Brew Length 40ltrs
_____________________________________________________________

SiHoltye - JBKF
3.86 kg Pale Malt, Maris Otter (5.9 EBC) Grain 83.90 %
0.29 kg Maize, Flaked (2.6 EBC) Grain 6.23 %
0.12 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (78.8 EBC) Grain 2.67 %
0.05 kg Black (Patent) Malt (1160.0 EBC) Grain 1.08 %
51.12 gm Goldings, East Kent [5.60 %] (90 min) Hops 27.7 IBU
17.04 gm Goldings, East Kent [5.60 %] (15 min) Hops 4.3 IBU
0.28 kg Brown Sugar, Light (15.8 EBC) Sugar 6.12 %
_____________________________________________________________

Harvey's Brewery Website

Harvey's Video Link

[StrangeBrew]

Harveys Sussex Best

I'm going to give this a go sometime in the new year so would appreciate your opinions.
Does this look OK?
Using the various recipies found posted above I've put together the following.

Fermentable Colour lb: oz Grams Ratio
Pale Malt 5 EBC 8 lbs. 6.0 oz 3800 grams 84.7%
Flaked Maize 0 EBC 0 lbs. 10.5 oz 300 grams 6.7%
Sugar, Light Brown 30 EBC 0 lbs. 7.0 oz 200 grams 4.5%
Crystal Malt 130 EBC 0 lbs. 5.6 oz 160 grams 3.6%
Roasted Barley 1350 EBC 0 lbs. 0.9 oz 25 grams 0.6%

Hop Variety Type Alpha Time lb: oz grams Ratio
Progress Whole 5.6 % 90 mins 0 lbs. 1.4 oz 40 grams 33.3%
Golding Whole 4.5 % 15 mins 0 lbs. 1.1 oz 30 grams 25%
Bramling Cross Whole 5.2 % 15 mins 0 lbs. 0.7 oz 20 grams 16.7%
Fuggle Whole 4.8 % 0 mins 0 lbs. 0.5 oz 15 grams 12.5%
Golding Whole 4.5 % 0 mins 0 lbs. 0.5 oz 15 grams 12.5%

Final Volume: 25 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.041
Final Gravity: 1.009
Alcohol Content: 4.2% ABV
Total Liquor: 34.8 Litres
Mash Liquor: 10.7 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 75 %
Bitterness: 35 EBU
Colour: 24 EBC

Quote from Harvey's website
Local whole hops from Sussex, Kent and Surrey comprising such long established varieties as Fuggles, Goldings, Progress and Bramling Cross combine to produce a distinctive hop character: Some of these varieties date back to the 1870s.

[Benjy Edwards]

I'd say that recipe looks pretty good. I use more crystal but omit the roast barley, but yours should turn out well. Maybe make it a little more bitter? The genuine article is pretty well-hopped. My last batch was targeted to be 40IBU, but I think the Bramling Cross I used were rather past it, and so therefore I probably didn't get as much bittering power from them.

Let us know how it turns out.

[StrangeBrew]

Thanks for your input Benjy!

The small amount of roast barley was mainly added for colour adjustment, black could just of easily been used. I didn't want to go too heavy on the crystal but I'll have a play with the recipe, leaving out the roast barley, reducing the sugar a little and uping the crystal a fraction more. I'll also raise the bitterness to around 40 as you suggest and see how it looks.

How did your last Sussex Best brew turn out, anything near to where you wanted it?

[GARYSMIFF]

I expect I'm late on this but see that Dave Lines BBLTYB ON PAGE 93 of the 1978 publication has a Best Bitter from Harvey, Lewes.

OG1040 25 LTRS
Pale Malt 3kg
Flaked Maize 250gms
60gm golding @90min
30gm Northern Brewer @90min
60gm Brown Sugar @90min
15gm Gelatine
yeat and Moss

mash in at 60º then raise to 66º 1 1/2 mash


Intresting? just read ALL the post and see the Dave Line entry!, what year is your book StrangeBrew?

Dave Line
3.8kg Maris Otter
300g flaked maize
250g light soft brown sugar

Mashed for 90min at 66C

Goldings 50g (4.1%) 90min
Northern Brewer 20g (7%) 90min

OG – 1.041 (23L)

[StrangeBrew]

Cheers Gary.

That differs a little from the Dave Line recipe mentioned above that I found posted on the forum, maybe from another edition?

Have you had a go at this one yourself?

[StrangeBrew]

Intresting? just read ALL the post and see the Dave Line entry!, what year is your book StrangeBrew?

I don't have DL's book, I found that recipe while searching the forum.