Hawkshead - Windermere Pale

[Fingar]

Hi Folks,

Does anyone have a recipe for Hawkshead Brewery's Windermere Pale?

On draught it is only 3.5% ABV yet full of flavour.

Their website reveals '3 traditional English hops and the modern American hop, Citra'.

https://www.hawksheadbrewery.co.uk/beer ... ale--.aspx

Cheers... Fingar

[sbond10]

http://forum.craft brewing.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=63&t=5105

And

http://www.thehomebrew forum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=27698

These two links are all I could really find I know ones for there bitter but I was reading most large brewery's use a set amount of ingrediants so could give you an insight in what they use ?

[Fingar]

Hi Folks,

This beer is still very much intriguing me or rather frustrating me as I can't seem to find a recipe on the forums, so I thought I would try and cobble something similar - emphasis on 'similar' - of my own. The Hawkshead webpage says they use a blend of 3 English hops plus Citra, therefore, I am going to make the assumption that they use Challenger, Fuggles and Goldings for the first additions and Citra for flavour.

I am hoping to achieve 3.7% ABV - the cask version is 3.5% and their bottled version is 4%. I also think that an IBU of 30 may seem about right.

The grist will be as follows:

Maris Otter - 85%
Torrified Wheat - 10%
Light Crystal - 5%

Bittering hops at 60 minutes to achieve around 20 IBU - not sure how the 3 hops should be split; equally? Challenger as the main bittering ingredient?
Add the Citra at the last 10 minutes at around 1/2 gram per OG which is approximately 9 to 10g which will make the final bittering up to 30 IBU

With regard to adding the Citra at the last 10 minutes, I read somewhere on this forum about adding 1g of the hop at 10 minutes per each OG on another brew, but that seems a little extreme in this case... feel free to tell me otherwise. I like Citra, but don't think that I need a massive hit of it.

So that just leaves the yeast... in this instance I think I will go for Wyeast 1098 as that is what I have in the fridge at the moment. I would like to experiment with WLP002 as I have never brewed with it, however, I have read somewhere that Hawkshead use a Brewlab yeast. Any thoughts?

So that is the sort of thing that I am aiming for. What do you reckon?

Cheers... Fingar

[Clibit]

Found this snippet from someone who knows the brewer...

At Hawkshead, all of their brews have a 75 min boil and then 30 min steeping before cooling and moving to the FV. They then start the fermentation at 18 degrees raising it to 24.5 degrees over about 4 days.

The OG is 1036.

Also "Huge hop aromas from a medley of traditional and modern hops including tropical fruit flavours from the American Citra hop." So sounds like aroma is more than one hop.

And "Maris Otter Pale Ale malt with a bit of wheat. Loads of fruity hop flavours from a medley of traditional and modern hops. The signature aroma hop is Citra." From ratebeer commercial description.

So the malts are pretty clear.

[BeerShark]

Hi Fingar,

Apologies for the late join to this thread - I've just joined this forum....

Did you ever find a clone or perfect your own recipe for Hawkshead Windermere Pale?

I'm intrigued to know how your attempt below came out - it's a personal favourite of mine and I'd love to give it a go!

Cheers,

BeerShark

[charlie]

Enjoy your memories.
It will never be the same again.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cumbria-52294076

Coronavirus: Hawkshead brewery makes staff redundant

I've met Matt a few times and he is a thoroughly decent bloke.
I don't understand why they made everybody redundant instead of furloughing them and keeping an excellent team together.

Expect some indifferent beer for a while when they re-open.

[BeerShark]

Hi Charlie,

Yes - I'm aware and I can't understand what's happened - I suspect there is a back story that will come out in the fullness of time... We live in Cumbria (Eden Valley) and had only been across at the tap house the week before lockdown began and it was absolutely heaving. I'm following Matt and a couple of the other ex-team members on Twitter in the hope that the phoenix rises and the great beers they produce start to flow again from somewhere else...

Until then this is partly driving the project to try and recreate something close to Windermere Pale! I just can't seem to find the elixir!

Cheers!

[Bad 'Ed]

Just ask one of them for the recipe. I imagine they'll share it - partly because of the not working there any more thing, but also because recipes aren't really closely guarded secrets any more. It's very difficult to make the same beer with the same recipe because of the differences in the way breweries are put together.

Fuller's routinely publish theirs.

[BeerShark]

Thanks for the advice - will give it a try.

I've kind of put together a recipe based on the earlier posts and comment about 75min boil time / citra addition for the last 15 mins of boil. I'm just wondering about the comment about 30 min FO steeping - whether give it another blast of citra in a whirlpool at FO...?

[BeerShark]

Hi All,

I'm wondering if anyone can help? I'm not holding out much hope of getting a recipe for Windermere Pale from source so going to give Fingar's suggestion a go (above) but with a 75 min boil time and adding citra for the last 15 mins of boil.

I'm very new to this all-grain game (well, if you discount my juvenile attempts during the late '80s which generally gave me & my barely legal pals bad guts and stinking hangovers....)

There is a comment about a 30 min steep at flame out. I'm in a bit of a quandary here - do I forget the 15min boil with citra in favour of 30 min whirlpool or perhaps keep the 15 min boil, but add a 15 min whirlpool aswell (both with citra) - is this going to be overkill on the citra?

TIA of any suggestions!!

[BeerShark]

Well, I had an attempt at my version of Windermere Pale yesterday - following Fingar's original suggested recipe with a couple of tweaks.

Committed a few schoolboy errors (it's been a few years!) - forgot to activate the Wyeast liquid yeast until about 1.5 hours before transfer to the fermenter and when I did I failed to burst the nutrient pack (not slapped hard enough!!) which meant I probably compromised my pitch a bit - but that said, it had started doing its thing within 4 or 5 hours and it seems to be bubbling away happily now, 24 hours on..

Also, I misread my sparge water volume and ended up adding 1 litre more than intended (doh!). Not sure what the impact of this might be, but my OG was actually reading slightly over target at 1.040 rather than the 1.038 aimed for.

The new Grainfather was an absolute joy to use with the app / controller and the wort surprisingly clear. Encouraged by the colour of the wort - it's kind of in the Windermere Pale range and a cheeky taste pre-transfer to the fermenter similarly so. Let's see how it turns out!

[Pigster]

Well ... do tell!

[Pigster]

Quick newbie query - 30 minute steeping - is this a hop stand and if so at what temp?
Cheers!

[Fingar]

Quick newbie query - 30 minute steeping - is this a hop stand and if so at what temp?
Cheers!

Hi Pigster,

This is another hop addtion, applied at 'flame out' and when the wort has cooled down to about 80 degrees C or less. The hops are then steeped for the duration that the wort is chilled, in my case by an immersion chiller, so around about 30 minutes.

Cheers... Fingar

[Northern Brewer]

FYI after Halewood sacked 12 of the Hawkshead crew last April, the former head brewer Matt Clarke and a couple of others have set up with a 1600l kit in Kendal as the Lakes Brew Co. lakesbrewco.com


First beer scheduled for June, a taproom is also planned.