The Black Pig Brewery presents -
Bitter (1880) Simond's of Reading
4.56kg Pale malt
1.74kg Low Colour Pale Malt
1.20kg Diastatic Amber malt
112g Fuggles 90 mins
25g Goldings at switch of.
15g Goldings dry hops
3 x Danstar Windsor yeast - rehydrated as per pack instructions
OG was on target at 1062, 24L brewed in the FV. The original recipe calls for pale malt, and the pale amber only. I didn't have enough pale so made up the shortfall with low colour pale - it won't make much difference.
It's a heavier weight of grain than required and I batch sparged deliberatey inefficiently - second addition was only 10L of which I only used 8L (should have been 17L for max efficiency).
The original recipe, per Imperial gallon, is
2lb 10oz pale malt
8oz pale amber (diastatic amber)
3/4oz fuggles
1/6oz goldings late
1/10oz goldings dry
It is a great bitter recipe - "The best bitter recipe in the world" - James McCrorie. I've tasted one or two examples, and I hope I can do it some justice. In common with a lot of Durden Park recipes (which this is) they look so simple that you wonder what the fuss is about - but if you brew them well, and then mature them properly - they're bloody good.
Mashed in at 1.30pm, dinner prepared by missus, ate a fab roast during the boil, cooled to 19c in about 30 mins, yeast in at 7.20pm. Thought I'd give Windsor a go for a bit more of a fruity less well attenuated beer than what Nottingham might produce. Brewday went without hitches - not a normal day then!!
Had a new Brewers' Acolyte with me today. The beer in the glass is 'The Bishop's Bumhole' - just testing
Crappy weather - Boil and cool under the brolly.
