Group brew AK? Comments? Volunteers?

And here's another:

 

And another.

 

I didn't realise how many AK recipes I'd published:

 

This is a really rare one - Whitbread only brewed it twelve times.

 

These look very interesting. I'm still a bit lost on what this "invert sugar" is though.

 

Invert is made by taking sucrose and heating to break the bonds between the glucose and fructose. Acid is used to speed the process. You heat longer to get more color and flavor
http://www.unholymess.com/blog/beer-brewing-info/making-brewers-invert/comment-page-1

 

Very informative, thank you!

 

I've summarized Ron's AK recipes to help with with analysis...


Notes, Comments & Blather:
OG's all seem to be fairly consistent between 1.040 and 1.045 with the exception of the Whitbread at 1.028 (low) and Pope at 1.049 (high)
FG's are fairly consistent at 1.008 to 1.011 with Pope at the high end of 1.013.
Attenuation seems to be all over the map to me. IMO there is a big swing between 64% and 80%. I don't think I've ever hit a 64% attenuation. My process/techniques/tastes usually put me in the mid 70's to 80 range.

I've grouped the malt bills into base and adjuncts. It looks like the base malts are typically split 50/50 between and English malt and an inferior malt (my interpretation) except for Kidd, they lean a little more on the English malt and for Fuller who used 2-row and 6-row (is the assumption that both of these were US malts?). Ron, what is your take on this design? Were the brewers of the time trying to save costs by using 50% of some other malt? Was certain types of malt more expensive for them at the time? Or was is simply for taste or availability of malt?
The maize is fairly consistent at about 5%, except for Whitbread at 0 and Kidd at 9%.
The invert is fairly consistent at 17-19% for all except Kidd (Kidd is starting to stand out more and more as an odd ball)
Looks like the mild malt and crystal wasn't used until the 1930's, were these malts around prior to that period?
Question on the caramel, what was it? and was it used for color alone? or for flavor as well?

Now to the hops. Goldings seem to be the popular hop. And the schedules were fairly consistent, one or more bittering charges and then a charge mid way at 30min. Russel had the latest addition at 20min (they were ahead of their time, I wonder if they had a hop cannon). Another question for Ron. What alpha%'s do you assume when calculating the IBU's for the old recipes?

So after all of that rambling, I am now leaning toward Russel as my lead horse. I think that would be a fine example of an AK beer, and the recipe looks tasty to me. The only thing I don't understand is the caramel. And where to get some or how to make some. Any suggestions out there?

Oh and which recipe would others like to brew?

 

I made this one, roughly, last march. Turned out really good.

 

Is the dry hopping in the Russel recipe even worth bothering with?

 

The 2-row in English, 6-row US. British brewers liked to use a proportion of malt from US barley because of the nitrogen content. They thought it made better beer than 100% English malt.

Crystal malt was around in the 19th century, but wasn't generally used in Bitters until after WW II. You wouldn't use mild malt in a beer of this type. Whitbreas were unusual in not using unmalted adjuncts. Pretty much every other brewery did.

Having seen alpha acid analyses for British hops from the 1920's, they seem to have remained constant, at least for the last 100 years or so.

 

yep switching to make this 1 today.

 

I vote for a vote. Assuming that's the recipe, then perhaps a discussion of how to make Invert #1, i.e. personal experiences with the instructions at the link hopfenunmaltz posted, and what is meant by caramel? I know it doesn't mean caramel malt...is it, like, the Brach's caramels you buy at the grocery store? Or what?

Also, perhaps @patto1ro could share what '5 gallons' means in his recipes (i.e. measured at what point in the process) and his assumed mash efficiency. Since invert syrup will be used, the proportions (by weight) of syrup to grains would (should IMO) be different for each brewer, depending on mash efficiency (since the syrup isn't affected by the mash efficiency). i.e. it's the relative contributions to OG that matter.

ETA: I just noticed the "homebrew @ 70%." Assume that's mash efficiency?

 

I need to look at the procedure for making brewers caramel. That is really more a dark color addition, and seems to be more involved, and has a lot of judgement involved in making it.

If we don't want to make the caramel, I vote for the Fullers recipe as it just has invert sugars.

 

You can still get brewing caramel in homebrew shops in the uk, I think brupacks make it. I've never used it. It's E150

It has an EBC of around 42000 fwiw - should say that's from Ragus, I imagine they might all be different strengths depending on who makes it

 

How is it sold? can? jar? size? If someone would be willing to ship some (hint hint) I'd be willing to pay for it. I could then split it up into smaller portions and ship it to the people brewing this recipe.

 

I'd chip in for that too.

 

I also found this in some US homebrew shops online.

Ron or Hanglow, is this the same as brewers caramel?

 

This was the one that interested me the most, because I have enjoyed playing around with sugar in the kitchen.