Clotworthy Dobbin MK III - 26/02/2008

[Jymbo]

I've revised my Clotworthy Dobbin recipe in an effort to get a bit closer to the real thing. Did a 10L brew as I only had 2Kg of MO left. Here's the recipe - I devised it for 23L and scaled down to 10L so some of the weights are a bit precise

Brewlength: 10L
Efficiency: 70%

Target OG: 1048
Bitterness: 38 IBUs
BU:GU ratio: 0.79

Mash: 90 mins

Maris Otter 1956g
Crystal Malt 196g
Chocolate Malt 22g
Black Patent 26g
Wheat Malt 65g

Boil: 90 mins

Challenger 8% 7g 90mins
Northdown 7.9% 5g 90mins
Cascade 7.3% 10g 15mins
Cascade 7.3% 10g 8mins
Cascade 7.3% 10g 0mins

Yeast: Nottingham

Ended up with 11 L @ 1043 - think I overestimated the amount of water lost to hops and trub.

[delboy]

Its a pity you didn't get a chance to brew it on sunday, that would have made it a quartet.
What changes have you made from MK II?

[Jymbo]

Del, I took the Challenger out of the flavour hops and upped the Cascade. I also upped the IBUs on the bittering hops. For the grist I increased the Black Malt and lowered the Chocolate. Also I'm using Nottingham to bring the Malt and hops out - I was going to use Fullers yeast but having used it in a London Pride I've decided that there are too many flavours in there that wouldn't be right in CD.

I still have a couple of bottles of MK I and I've just finished MK II so the other night I had a three way comparison between I, II and a real bottle of Clotworthy. I meant to take notes but I drank so much that I couldn't make any sense of what I'd written when I went back to read it.

[Garth]

I meant to take notes but I drank so much that I couldn't make any sense of what I'd written when I went back to read it.

good lad, that's the spirit

Jymbo, I used Nottingham as well, I hope it tastes as good as the last one, I did a 50 litre batch, it's smelling very good in the fv, racking into cornies on Sat/Sun

[Jymbo]

Any idea what the FG is like, Garth? I presume it's nearly there if you used Nottingham. I measured the real Clotworthy and it was 1010 so an OG of 1048 would give the required 5%. Unfortunately I used too much water and got 1043, so I imagine the FG will be somewhere around 1008 with Nottingham. That should get me a beer at about 4.6% ABV, so it's in the ballpark.

[Garth]

I'll let you know as soon as it's racked, probably tomorrow.

[Jymbo]

Cheers.

[Garth]

ok, I'm slack and was busy over the weekend, so I've only just racked this off tonight, the first cornie is filling as I type. Only two more to go.....

FG is 1.007, quite a low one for me, OG was about 1.045 so that gives practically 5% smack on the nose, it was in the mid 1050s at 45 litres so I added a few litres of cool boiled to the fv, I have far too many 5.5-6% beers in stock so wanted something a bit lower, plus I'd boiled too much off for some reason....

how's your's looking Jymbo?

[Jymbo]

Garth, I checked mine on Sunday and it had hit 1010 after 3 days so I reckon I'll be in the region of 1006-1007 by the time it finishes. It's stopped bubbling this morning so I'll check it out later. I've no keg space left so I'll have to bottle this one - only 10L so it shouldn't take long.

The sample I took on Sunday tasted really good - it had loads of cascade hop flavour which is a characteristic of Clotworthy Dobbin, bitterness levels were good too - I'm just hoping it keeps some of the sweetness from the Crystal Malt and I might have a decent clone. The Nottingham is definitely better that the US-04 that I used last time.

[Jymbo]

Ended up with twenty 500ml bottles @ 1008. I make that about 4.6% ABV. The sample had lots of Cascade flavour in it and maybe not as much rost malt flavour as I'd have liked but I'll reserve judgement until it's had time to condition. Colour is dark copper.

[Garth]

sneaky samples when kegging revealed mine to be very smooth and very malty, not really much hop coming through, but that's probably because I overhop everything, I stuck to the recipe this time......plus I'd just been drinking my dry hopped Nelson's Perle which can strip wallpaper.......

jymbo, did you steep/dry hop or anything?

[Jymbo]

I threw in 10g at the end of the boil, Garth - but I think it's the amount of hops I used that gave me the flavour:

Cascade 7.3% 10g 15mins
Cascade 7.3% 10g 8mins
Cascade 7.3% 10g 0mins

That's a fair bit for a small 10L batch - equivalent to about 70g for 23L. I used a fair bit of gypsum too which probably helped to bring out the hops. I need to get my head round water treatment properly, I seem to get either malt or hops but never both Been messing about with Graham's water calc - it'll take some getting used to.

[Garth]

I seem to get either malt or hops but never both

snap, same thing here mate, although it's not a bad thing as I like predominately hoppy beers, but I know what you mean.

[oblivious]

Nice work lads

[Jymbo]

I had a couple of these last night and they're tasting really good. I think the hops are just right. The malt is coming through too. Next variation of the recipe will have a fair bit less crystal. There is a fair bit of sweetness in Clotworthy but adding lots of crystal isn't producing the right type of sweetness- I think I'll try to mash at 67C the next time - that should also give me a bit more body too and get me closer to an FG of 1010. Reducing the crystal will allow me to add a bit more chocolate and black malts without darkening the colour too much. I thought the Nottingham was a good choice for this so I'll probably stick with it for the next time too. Might add a bit more wheat malt too - just to improve the head and body.

Even though this isn't an exact replica of CD it is a superb beer in its own right.