Hobsons Town Crier

[louthepoo]

Anybody got a recipe for this fantastic beer?

[bitter_dave]

It's in the Real Ale Almanac, but the details are a bit scarce. This is exactly what it says:

OG 1043 ABV 4.5%
Marris Otter Pale Malt (99%), Crystal malt (1%). Fuggles, goldings and Progress whole hops mainly for aroma.

No IBUs, but is decribed as 'lightly hopped and dominated by delicious malt'. I would go a bit lightly on the bittering on this one then.

[PieOPah]

How does this look? Obviously not a lot to go on with the hops.... But

Original Gravity: 1.042 (1.000 - 1.100)
Terminal Gravity: 1.010 (1.000 - 1.100)
Color: 5.6 (0.0 - 50.0)
Alcohol: 4.1% (0.0% - 10.0%)
Bitterness: 33.57 (0.0 - 50.0)

Ingredients:
4.2 kg Maris Otter Pale
44.0 g British Crystal 55°L
20 g Fuggle (4.8%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min
20 g Goldings (5.0%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min
10 g Fuggle (4.8%) - added during boil, boiled 30 min
10 g Goldings (5.0%) - added during boil, boiled 30 min
10 g Progress (6.2%) - added during boil, boiled 15 min
20 g Progress (6.2%) - added during boil, boiled 2 min

[bitter_dave]

I've never had it, so it's hard to say.

It seems like the goldings and fuggles are for bittering, so you're right there, but I'm wondering if all those flavour additions might be a bit much if the emphasis is on the malt.

Also, whilst the bittering is not excessive in my opinion, for a beer described as 'lightly hopped' it might be a bit high. Perhaps 25 IBUs?

Still, I think your beer looks nice PoP...

Dunno, in the dark a bit with this one

[PieOPah]

I've never had it either so completely guess work

Looking at the OG and the ABV you would also need a high attenuating yeast (83% attenuation)

Knock the bittering hops down to 12g
flavouring hops down to 5g each
leave the aroma hops as they are

That may fit the beer profile a little better giving an IBU of 21.13

Something to play around with perhaps....

[bitter_dave]

... you could use Gervin/Nottingham yeast - they're quite attenuative, and emphasise the malt which might suit the description

[PieOPah]

Now all we need to do is brew the beer and taste the original to compare.

Would be interested to know how close our clone is considering neither of us have tasted the original

[bitter_dave]

Would be interested to know how close our clone is considering neither of us have tasted the original

Probably nothing like the original Having said that, it would probably be a pretty good beer.

.... in the unlikely event that I see this beer in my neck of the woods I'm going to have to try it now

[PieOPah]

I've posted the recipe....

http://ccgi.simonargent.plus.com/Recipe.php?RecipeID=38

[louthepoo]

cheers chaps, i'll give that a go, i've supped far too many pints of town crier over the years (and i'll be supping more!) so i'll be giving you my feedback on how similar to the original it is.

[louthepoo]

Well i had my first pint of this from my corni last night and i've got to say you have come up trumps on this one, it tastes almost exactly like the original, the hops are spot on and i only need to add a bit more malt to make it identical!

well done and many thanks, this is going to be reproduced on many occassions now!

[PieOPah]

Glad we could help Think I may have to make this myself just to see what it is like

[louthepoo]

I think its more of a hoppy beer than a malty one! i love it but then again its local and i'm biased! its the one drink in the local real ale pub thats almost always on