Adnams Southwold Bitter

[djs]

Hi Guys

I am planning to brew an Adnams clone tomorrow using the recipe from GW's BYORAAH but I have a couple of issues.

For a 23l brew length the fermentables per the book are:
3400g Pale Malt
75g Chocolate Malt
470g Maltose Syrup

As we know, nowhere sells Maltose Syrup (except some Chinese supermarkets) I have read that flaked wheat or other grains can be used.

What do people suggest to use and how much?

My 2nd problem is:

I expect somebody to reply to my first issue and say "use so-and-so grain to the quantity to hit your OG", I have transferred the GW recipe into Beer Engine and BrewMate and both give me an OG of 1035 without any syrup/sugar! Adding any sort of copper sugar sends the OG well over the 1036 OG in GWs recipe.

Why is there so much difference? If I ignore the Maltose Syrup completely it looks like I should be close to the OG and Alcohol% but will have left 12% of the fermentable bill out of the recipe!!!

I have checked the Beer Engine defaults and these all look standard.

Help!

[dave-o]

Isn't maltose syrup just maltodextrin in syrup form? That's easy enough to get.

[jubbo11]

You could try the recipe in GW Brew your own British Real Ale 3rd Edition

Which for 23l is
3050g pale malt
340g white sugar
49g Black malt

35g Boadicea hops

15g Goldings for 15mins

I have never done the above recipe but have tried Dave Lines version which is below (approximate weights as i have lent the book to someone)

Pale malt 3kg
Crystal malt 120g
Roasted barley 60g
Sugar 500g

Fuggles 60g
Goldings 30g

15g goldings for last 15 mins

It didn't quite taste of Adnams but it was a really nice session beer

[steve_flack]

You could try this which is my version based on discussions with the head brewer at Adnams

For 40L

OG 1.037
IBU 37 (Tinseth)

Pale 6.5kg
Brewers Caramel 15ml (added in boil)

Goldings (whole, 5.2%) 100g all of boil
Fuggles (whole, 3.8%) 50g 10 frpm end
Fuggles (pellet, 5.5%) 30g dry hop after fermentation

Mash at 65C 1 hour
Boil 1hr

Ferment WLP-002 at 20C

The yeast isn't quite right but does work well. You could raise the mash a degree or two and use Nottingham instead

[djs]

Thanks guys, its wonderful that there are so many and such different recipes for the same beer!

I'm never looking to hit a perfect match so I will mix and match the recipes above to fit the grain and hops I have.

The brew is specifically for drinking at my daughters 1st birthday party, so I am hoping for something really good to show everyone how good homebrew can be. Fingers crossed!

[steve_flack]

Start 'em young eh?

[jubbo11]

Just to update you. I did the Dave Lines recipie for Adnams (again) and it has turned out really well. It fermented for 5 days, 2nd ferment for an further 5. This picture is just after 2 days conditioning. The taste is really really good. The after taste is just slightly the bitter side of perfect, but this will mellow within a week.

[djs]

I feel very thirsty after looking at that picture!

The brew is done and in the fermenter, I kept mostly to my original recipe above just replacing the maltose syrup with some Golden Syrup that I had left over. Also changed the hop bill quite a bit so that the majority went in very late in the boil.

Now we wait and see, if its lovely I will post the full recipe... if not, I won't.

[jubbo11]

I would be very interested to find out how it tastes

[v-zero]

Adnams beers are all about the yeast, and the only way to get the true dual-strain yeast is to buy yourself a mini-cask of an Adnams beer for £18. If you like Adnams, then it's worth so much more than the beer inside... Collect the yeast from the cask and be on finally get beer that tastes like Adnams.

The 'Southwold ale yeast' is only one of the two strains...

[Monkeybrew]

You could try this which is my version based on discussions with the head brewer at Adnams

For 40L

OG 1.037
IBU 37 (Tinseth)

Pale 6.5kg
Brewers Caramel 15ml (added in boil)

Goldings (whole, 5.2%) 100g all of boil
Fuggles (whole, 3.8%) 50g 10 frpm end
Fuggles (pellet, 5.5%) 30g dry hop after fermentation

Mash at 65C 1 hour
Boil 1hr

Ferment WLP-002 at 20C

The yeast isn't quite right but does work well. You could raise the mash a degree or two and use Nottingham instead

Hi

I want to brew this recipe, and just wondered what the benefit of dry hopping with pellets is?

Cheers

[seymour]

I want to brew this recipe, and just wondered what the benefit of dry hopping with pellets is?

Just an assumption, but probably simply because pellets are cheaper and more commonly commercially available, and thus was the form used for the brewer's calculation. It's important to indicate pellets vs. whole hops because they will depart differing amounts of flavor and aroma, but that doesn't necessarily mean pellets were first choice. I find that dry-hopping with whole hops is easier to filter out on my setup, but plenty of brewers successfully use pellets instead.

...The 'Southwold ale yeast' is only one of the two strains...

v-zero, what do you mean by that, is one of their two strains available for sale?

[Trefoyl]

...The 'Southwold ale yeast' is only one of the two strains...

v-zero, what do you mean by that, is one of their two strains available for sale?

I have no idea, but the range of English ale yeasts from White Labs has grown a bit since I last paid attention. I'll need to try a couple.
WLP025 Southwold Ale Yeast
From Suffolk county, England. This yeast produces complex fruit, citrus, and spicy flavors. Great for British bitters and pale ales. Slight sulfur is produced during fermentation, which will disappear with aging.
Attenuation: 68-75%
Flocculation: Medium
Optimum Fermentation Temperature: 66-69°F
Alcohol Tolerance: Medium

There are threads here that discuss two strain yeasts available on agar slants but I don't know what's available in the US, and I'm not that adventurous. I wonder what might happen if you mix a couple different White Labs vials? The problem would be that after the first beer or two one strain may dominate the other and you are back to one strain essentially. Way beyond my knowledge or ambition, currently.

[phatboytall]

good recipe discussion here! This is on my list to try...

[Goulders]

I want to brew this recipe, and just wondered what the benefit of dry hopping with pellets is?

Just an assumption, but probably simply because pellets are cheaper and more commonly commercially available

Not in the UK. Pellets are expensive and not as widely available as whole hops, but apparently pellets are better for dry hopping