Black Sheep *request*

[darkonnis]

I am deeply sorry if this has been posted before, however i had some black sheep ale for the first time in a long long time the other night and i couldnt believe how nice it was, my taste buds have changed it seems and it is possibly one ofthe best, easy to drink beers i've had in a long while.
I wondered if anyone had a recipe for it? I do mean "black sheep ale" and not Riggwelter or best bitter. Not to say they aren't nice but I wasnt a fan of rigg and i have a best bitter ingredients pack in situ along with a recipe.
Colchester brew shop has supplied:
A recipe pack containing all the ingredients to make a clone, all grain version of Black Sheep Ale.

This Pack Contains:
Crushed Maris Otter Pale Malt
Crushed Black Malt
Torrified Wheat
Crushed Crystal Malt
Challenger Hops, Progress Hops and Fuggle Hops - Primary Boil Hops
Goldings Hops - Late Boil Hops
Irish Moss
Muntons Gold Brewing Yeast

I just wondered if anyone had a tried and tested recipe for it was all?

Someone from the other forum posted this:
3.84kg marris
0.46kg torrified wheat
0.16kg crystal (135EBC)
0.07kg black malt

19g progress @ 90min
19g challenger @ 90 min
10g fuggles @ 90 min
17g EKG @ 10 mins

whirlfloc @ 15 mins
wyeast British ale

"Was aiming for 20L @ 1046 but ended up slightly over 20L @ 1048"

But this looks remarkably like the best bitter recipe to me.

Any help would be very much appreciated, thanks!
Dark

[Manx Guy]

Hi,
Looks like similar to a recipe I've seen for black sheep ale...
The one looks more like the ale recipe than the bitter, so does the colour...

I don't have the recipe to hand, but it is in BYOBRA...
Hope that helps..


Guy

[john_drummer]

there's a recipe for Black Sheep Ale on p123 of Graham Wheeler's book 3rd edition reprinted 2010; your recipe is very close to that if it helps, although the recipe in the book states 330g crystal for a 23l brew

although the brewery do say they only mash & boil for 60 minutes (I went on the brewery tour in March this year)

[The_blue]

I've done the Wheeler recipie and it's quite good

[Dr. Dextrin]

I've done a few experiments with this as it's also one of my favourites. My current recipe looks a bit like yours (in the original post), but I found out a couple of things:

1) Regular crystal (about 130 EBC) is too dark. It works better if you can get 100 EBC crystal, although it's harder to find. Alternatively, try mixing pale crystal with regular crystal to get an average colour of around 100 to 110 EBC. You'll need around 10 to 12% crystal in total.

2) Swapping around half the terrified wheat with wheat malt seems to work better.

My main remaining problem with this brew is getting a strong enough malt/toffee taste. I'm currently experimenting with different yeasts but can't seem to get it to finish sweet enough despite a high mash temp and lots of crystal.

[darkonnis]

Well im going to give this one a blast, so i have a bench mark, then i'll look into your suggestions dex. black sheep is one of my favoured beers and i'd really like to get a bang on clone if i can, if not ill just have ot keep buying it

[The_blue]

I found that the homebrew version made the real one/origional taste watery and weak. But then again many do to me now

[Kinley]

Wyeast 1768 (Edinburgh) has been brilliant at preserving caramel-maltiness although does suppress hop aromas . I have a Black Sheep Best lined up next to see how it fares.

FWIW this is my recipe with Gervin, which has evolved through 5 or 6 attempts. I suspect I'll drop the carapils when using 1768. Strength is upped to 4% for significantly better durability in cask.

Black Sheep Best Bitter

Black Malt 10 grams 0.2%
Crystal Malt 220 grams 4.8%
Pale Malt 3400 grams 74.9%
Torrefied Wheat 300 grams 6.6%
Munich Malt 210 grams 4.6%
Carapils 100 grams 2.2%
Flaked Wheat 300 grams 6.6%


Hop Variety Type Alpha Time lb: oz grams Ratio
Fuggle 10 grams 15.4%
Golding 10 grams 15.4%
Challenger 15 grams 23.1%
Progress 15 grams 23.1%
Fuggle 15 grams 23.1%


Final Volume: 24 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.041
Final Gravity: 1.010
Alcohol Content: 4% ABV
Total Liquor: 33.9 Litres
Mash Liquor: 11.4 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 74 %
Bitterness: 31 EBU
Colour: 19 EBC

[alfie09]

try caramilizing the first runnings of wort by boiling 1-2litres of it in a seperate pan until it goes like a thick "goo", then add that to the boiler 5 minutes to the end of the boil. works for me, might try this recipe my self its a bloody good beer

[Dr. Dextrin]

FWIW this is my recipe with Gervin, which has evolved through 5 or 6 attempts. I suspect I'll drop the carapils when using 1768. Strength is upped to 4% for significantly better durability in cask.

Black Sheep Best Bitter...

But the question was about Black Sheep Ale, which is a different beer.

[Kinley]

FWIW this is my recipe with Gervin, which has evolved through 5 or 6 attempts. I suspect I'll drop the carapils when using 1768. Strength is upped to 4% for significantly better durability in cask.

Black Sheep Best Bitter...

But the question was about Black Sheep Ale, which is a different beer.

Hence the 'FWIW'. I thought some elements may be added to the BS Ale recipe to get a better result.

[darkonnis]

Ive just done a best bitter recipe, so i think the ales up next. might do a double brew day (as once you start its actually very easy to put a second batch through so it seems) and do g.wheelers recipe followed by the one you suggest dextrin, then compare those 2 with the original and see how it gets on