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Modernized London KXXXX

Modernized London KXXXX

Old Ale • All Grain • 19.50 L

bear2bear

A brochure titled "Old British Beers and How to Make Them", written by Dr, John Harrison and Members of The Durden Park Beer Circle, offers a detailed description of British old ales in 19C and 20C before WW2. I was inspired by the recipes in this brochure, especially those for Keeping Beers (precursor for Barley Wines). This recipe is based on the description of London KXXXX Ale (1868), 'Practical Brewings'by G.S. Amsinck, but has a lot of tweaks. The original recipe uses the White Malt (mimicked by half pale and half lager), while I use 3/4 Maris Otter Pale and 1/4 Munich to have even a heavier body wort. I consider it a modernization on the ground that yeasts in our time generally have higher attenuation and alcohol tolerance than those in 19C. The original recipe also uses only English hops (Fuggles and Goldings), but I use Zeus as base hops and Challenger for dry hop. The idea is that keeping ales can be modernized by using high-alpha hops. In reality, Zeus was short in my freezer so that 10g of the knock-out Zeus was substituted with 10g of Challenger.

January 6, 2014  06:24pm

5.0/5.0 1 rating

Ingredients (All Grain19.50 L)

  • 7.58 kg Maris Otter Pale

    Maris Otter Pale

    An English thoroughbred and a favored choice of malt for many brewers. Simpsons' Maris Otter has a rich and nutty flavor and despite its small, berry size has a strong husk. This malt delivers predictable brewhouse performance with modest, yet consistent extracts. Brewers can expect good runoffs with clear wort.

  • 2.30 kg German Light Munich

    German Light Munich

    For a desired malty, nutty flavor. Lagers, Oktoberfests and bock beer.

  • 0.23 kg Belgian Aromatic

    Belgian Aromatic

    Imparts a big malt aroma. Use in brown ales, Belgian dubbels and tripels.

  • 0.12 kg Belgian Special B

    Belgian Special B

  • 28 g Zeus -14.5 AA% whole; boiled 60 min

    Zeus

    Zeus is often grouped together with Columbus and Tomahawk® and labeled as CTZ. They are referred to as Super High Alpha varieties, having alpha acid content of between 14.5-16.5%. Together they make up approximately a quarter of the entire U.S. hop acreage.—usahops.org

  • 14 g Zeus -14.5 AA% whole; boiled 15 min

    Zeus

    Zeus is often grouped together with Columbus and Tomahawk® and labeled as CTZ. They are referred to as Super High Alpha varieties, having alpha acid content of between 14.5-16.5%. Together they make up approximately a quarter of the entire U.S. hop acreage.—usahops.org

  • 4 g Zeus -14.5 AA% whole; boiled 1 min

    Zeus

    Zeus is often grouped together with Columbus and Tomahawk® and labeled as CTZ. They are referred to as Super High Alpha varieties, having alpha acid content of between 14.5-16.5%. Together they make up approximately a quarter of the entire U.S. hop acreage.—usahops.org

  • 10 g Challenger -6.5 AA% whole; boiled 1 min

    Challenger

    Popular bittering hop used primarily in British ales and lagers. Mild to moderate aroma, but quite spicy.

  • 28 g Challenger -6.5 AA% whole; added dry to secondary fermenter

    Challenger

    Popular bittering hop used primarily in British ales and lagers. Mild to moderate aroma, but quite spicy.

  • 1tsp Irish Moss -Boil for 15 min. (omitted from calculations)

    Irish Moss

    A dried red-brown marine algae. Fining agent to remove large proteins. Negatively charged polymer attracts positively charged protein-tannin complexes (extracted from grain husks and hops) during the boil. This action is aided by the clumping of proteins in the boiling process. Irish moss settles to the bottom of the brew kettle with spent hops and hot break material at the end of the boil.

  • 0.5tsp Wyeast Nutrient -Boil for 10 min. (omitted from calculations)

    Wyeast Nutrient

    Although wort is a good growth medium for yeast, additional Wyeast Nutrient will reduce lag time, improve yeast viability and provide consistent attenuation rates. Low assimilable nitrogen concentrations (FAN) of grape must or wort have long been known as a cause of sluggish or stuck fermentations. Wyeast yeast nutrient, a blend of vitamin B's, minerals, inorganic nitrogen (DAP), organic nitrogen (amino acids), zinc, phosphates and other trace elements will benefit yeast growth and carbohydrate uptake for a more rapid, complete fermentation. Use 1/4 tsp per pint for beer propagation, 1 tsp per 5 gallons for wine or beer fermentation or 1.5 oz per 10 barrels for beer fermentation.

  • FermentisS-04Safale S-04

    FermentisS-04Safale S-04

    A well-known, commercial English ale yeast, selected for its fast fermentation character and its ability to form a very compact sediment at the end of the fermentation, helping to improve beer clarity. This yeast is recommended for the production of a large range of ale beers and is specially well adapted to cask-conditioned ales and fermentation in cylindro-conical tanks. Sedimentation: high. Final gravity: medium. Pitching instructions: Re-hydrate the dry yeast into yeast cream in a stirred vessel prior to pitching. Sprinkle the dry yeast in 10 times its own weight of sterile water or wort at 27C ± 3C. Once the expected weight of dry yeast is reconstituted into cream by this method (this takes about 15 to 30 minutes), maintain a gentle stirring for another 30 minutes. Then pitch the resultant cream into the fermentation vessel. Alternatively, pitch dry yeast directly in the fermentation vessel providing the temperature of the wort is above 20C. Progressively sprinkle the dry yeast into the wort ensuring the yeast covers all the surface of wort available in order to avoid clumps. Leave for 30 minutes and then mix the wort e.g. using aeration.

Notes

Treat each of the mashing water and the sparging water with 1/12 tsp of campden powder. Add 1 tsp of gypsum to the mashing water. Heat 26.68 litters of water up to 54C, mash-in at 50C and hold there for 30 min. (protein rest), then heat to 68C in 50 min. and hold there for 90 min. (saccharification rest), then heat to 76C in 40 min. and hold there for 10 min. (mash-out). Fly sparge with 11.21 litters of hot water at 76C. Boil for 120 min. Use either 2 packages of Safale S-04 or 1 package of S-04 and 1 package of a Champagne yeast. (Used the latter. ) Prepare a simple starter (150 ml water at 30C + 2 tbsp glucose) of the yeasts. Brewed on 1/5/14. The OG was 1.120.

Style (BJCP)

Category: 19 -Strong Ale

Subcategory: A -Old Ale

Range for this Style
Original Gravity: 1.109 1.060 -1.090
Terminal Gravity: 1.025 1.015 -1.022
Color: 16.9 SRM 10 -22
Alcohol: 11.2% ABV 6% -9%
Bitterness: 60.5 IBU 30 -60

Discussion

bear2bear

Couldn't wait

2015-04-06 11:47am

Racked to the secondary on 3/18/14. Bottled 4/14/14. FG was 1.058 (?). I was supposed to wait for a year before tasting, but couldn't resist to try out. This is a well-balanced barley wine, quite tasty especially in the cold winter time. The beer will improve the taste by ageing, by gaining maltiness significantly, if it is kept properly in a cool place. I reflect that the use of the challenger hop was superfluous. Zeus hop is good enough.

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