So here's the vote for the AK recipe. If you don't know what this or want to see what has been discussed so far you can visit the main thread here.. http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/group-brew-ak-comments-volunteers.196598/page-2 I've attached the summary here for reference. You can vote even if you don't plan to brew it. But please pick the appropriate radio button, so we can get an accurate count of who plans to brew this. I added the 'not brewing' votes because I'm still interested in hearing your reasons for liking one recipe over another.
Voted for Russel for the following reasons... - Have never used caramel and want to try it - Only requires one type of Invert sugar - Middle of the Road Gravity - Middle of the Road Year - Don't really know yet how to limit the attenuation to 73%, but it sounds like a good challenge - I had a grandfather named Russel
Copied and pasted from the other thread. Here's why I like Pope: No caramel - while this may not be extremely difficult to get, if I can get everything (besides invert sugar) in one stop at the LHBS, I'd rather do that. No 6-row - I have nothing against 6-row malt, but as has been mentioned, today's 6-row malt is likely to not be the same in historical context; or maybe I'm wrong on that. I guess technically all the ingredients are likely not exactly the same now as they used to be. Perhaps this is a moot point then. Invert #2 - If I'm taking the time to make invert sugar, I'm going to make a sizeable batch of it so I can use it again. And if I'm making a bunch, I'd rather have a "middle of the road" version, as it seems more versatile to use in future recipes.
What carteravebrew said basically. I can't get 6row, less messing around with using brewers caramel etc
Fullers, it looks to be the easiest. Unless we can find brewers caramel, some of the others are out. Not sure I want to try making it. As far as invert sugar goes, I would probably make it using Lyle's Golden Syrup and Blackstrap. You can find the Golden Syrup at a good grocery store, often in the baking section. Edit, Another consideration is that we can get Fuller's yeast, only one of the strains they were using back then, but still Fullers. Edit 2 We can get 2 Whitbread yeasts,
Of course Marris Otter is different from the Pale Malts used in any of these recipes, as it was introduced in 1966. I don't think we will get any Plumage Archer, which would have been around for some of these, but not the Pope.
I voted for the Pope because I don't want to bother with caramel, because I like/love Goldings (easy to buy a pound), and because only one type of invert sugar to make. To me, the big difference between the Pope and Fuller's are the multiple hops and sugars in the Fuller's. What is everyone thinking for English malt and Continental malt? Marris Otter and Pils (German or Belgian)?
Interesting that you've gone for the Eldridge Pope AK. Did you know that the bottling versiont, BAK, was parti-gyled with the very first brew of Hardy Ale?
I would target Fullers for the high percentage of the darker, more flavorful invert syrup and for the being at a gravity I like. But I'm on the fence about brewing it anytime soon, which I neglected to consider in my vote.
So it's Pope by a nose. I was curious about the caramel, but I'm also up for the challenge of trying to hit such a high FG for this AK and making the No 2 invert. Like pweis90 I probably won't get to brewing this beer until the end of summer, I have a number of other batches planned already. But I think it will take us some time to decide on some of the details any way. So what do we talk about next? Invert? Attenuation? Malt choices?
I interested in starting the invert thread too, but after some thought, I want to start at the top of the sheet and discuss the malt bill first. New thread http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/pope-ak-malt-bill-discussion.200115/
