1954 Whitbread Double Brown

In my attempt to recreate the brown ales from my youth I thought I would start by brewing a Ron Pattinson researched historic recipe, either from his blog or his guide to vintage ales. Eventually, I settled on the 1954 Whitbread Double Brown here

It looked a good start because it appeared to have a reasonable abv, and didn't just rely on brewers caramel for colour ~ I'm not sure why the latter is important to me, it just is. I will not doubt brew one that is coloured in this manner soon to compare.

The recipe, when scaled down to my 20L batch size, needs 740g of number 3 brewers invert for the batch size I'm planning. I'm going to use the dilution method to create this using golden syrup and black strap molasses. However, its brew day and my golden syrup bottle only holds 680g, not the 780g I thought it did. So a bit of jiggling with figures, and I'll be using the following as my #3 invert substitute;

Golden syrup 680g

Meridian molasses 26g

Demerara Sugar 39g.

I'm also going to use EKG instead of fuggles, because I've got loads, and have adjusted the hop additions to give the same IBU. Oh, and I'll be using Mangrove Jack's Liberty Bell yeast instead of the Whitbread yeast recommended by Ron.

So, all things considered, it will probably turn out nothing like the original! The mash is on, photo's later.

Update: Well, the good news is the first runnings are brown, even before the late sugar additions, that should darken it further.

Update 2: OG is 1049, which is down on target but some of the golden syrup refused to dissolve in the wort, so I sieved it out when pouring the sugar mixture into the boiler, as I didn't want the lumps scorching on the boiler element. That, and the fact my efficiency is pants! The sample doesn't look that brown to me. The sample tasted OK, not too bitter. Once the wort was cooled to 24 degrees, the yeast was spinkled on the top of the foam that had formed on the wort surface when transferring from the boiler, and its been placed in the brew fridge set at 22.5 degrees. Now the wait begins.....

Update 3: Fermenting away nicely. Smells lovely, which is often the case with Liberty Bell yeast, especially when it's working at the top end of it's temperature range.

Brown Ale

Back in my youth, the drink of choice for my crowd was either Bateman's XB or XXXB. However, in the late 1980's, there were many a pub that limited, sometimes no, real ales and also many that had real ale, but it was kept appallingly. So the budding drinker needed a back up plan. For us, it was brown ale. Now, in 1987, Newcastle Brown ale was a very different beast to what it is today, and this was the bottled brown that most likely to be found in a pub that was otherwise a fine ale desert. Today's Newkie is a shadow of its former self, in the late 80's it was actually worth drinking. Sometimes, however, there were occasions where something else was on offer.

One such occasion was in Louth trad jazz club. A club that was open once, possibly twice, a week, and probabally had no opportunity to offer anything from a cask. In fact, I'm not entirely sure that they had anything on tap at all, although I may be wrong. They did, however, have brown ale. Another such occasion was a Northern Soul do in a working mans type club somewhere around Chapel St Leonard's (I have hazy recollections of this evening, other than the music being a revelation, I may even be mixing up several different similar evenings in different places, such were the heady days of my late teens). On one of those occasions I had a pint bottle or ten of a really fine brown ale that wasn't Newkie brown or the dreaded Manns; and it is to my great shame that I don't know which establishment, or remember what ale it was.

Fast forward to 2018 and my better half and I have a weekend in lovely York; a place I really like and one of the few cities in the UK that I actually enjoy visiting rather than just tolerate. One of the pubs we visited was the Sam Smiths pub, the Kings Arms. A bottle of Sam Smiths Nut Brown ale got me thinking nostalgic thoughts. What were those other brown ales I sometimes used to come across?

It was possible, maybe, that Bateman's might have still been brewing and bottling their Double Brown and Nut Brown ales, although I have my doubts ~ I think I would have missed them by a couple of years. Double Maxim possibly? Shipstones perhaps?

Why am I telling you all* this? Well, I have decided to try and recreate a brown that 1980's mod JJSH would have enjoyed. In order to do this, I'm going to search out every brown ale I can that is being commercially brewed, review them, and then start from there. If anyone has any ideas of UK brown ales for me to try, pop them in the comments.

So far, my list is;


Cat Asylum Brewery ~ Nutty Brown
Cat Asylum Brewery ~ HB - A Newark Brown Ale
Ashover Brewery ~ Thor Cake
Blue Monkey Brewery ~ MonkeyNuts
Sam Smiths ~ Nut Brown Ale
Shipstones ~ Nut Brown Ale
Maxim Brewery ~ Double Maxim
Heineken International ~ Newcastle Brown Ale
Marstons ~ Manns Brown Ale



* I use the term 'all' but am not actually sure anyone reads this blog at all, looking at my stats.

Kentucky common finally packaged

This brew has now had 2 weeks fermenting at 17 degrees, 1 week to 10 days crashing / sort of

largering at 4 degrees then the remainder of the week gradually returning to ambient temperature. I packaged it today in a king keg that I cleaned using oxi, then bleached using unscented thin bleach, then treated with campden powder to remove any chlorine and finally sanitised with Videne. Why the paranoia? Well, my Lovibond  ale picked up a taint in its king keg, so I've decided it's not that much extra effort to do the above every time and the king keg smelt clean as a whistle!

The Kentucky common was super clear and stable at 1010, giving about 4.7%, maybe 5 after priming.

The taste was excellent, clean like a lager, but malty as well. However, there is a lovely black currant slight fruit flavour coming from the Bramling Cross hops. Very excited to try this one in a few weeks after it has carbed up and conditioned. I'm also keen to do the same recipe again, but with an English ale yeast, as I think it's a very promising grain bill and hop schedule. Colour is almost like a brown ale. Updates to follow.

A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a .... substitute for American 6 row?

Planning a brew to put down for Christmas, which is only 12 weeks away, so anything huge is out of the window as I don't have sufficient conditioning time. Enter, stage left, Ron Pattinson's blog, and his guide to Vintage beer, for a massive resource of suitable recipes.

The problem? Well, it's a problem I keep having with many of these historic recipes, mainly American 6 row pale malt. I can't get it here in the UK, and can't find any consensus on what would be a suitable substitute. Some say 'meh, don't worry, just use any pale malt', others say Vienna, others UK distilling malt. Arrrgggh! I suspect it may vary from recipe to recipe; if it was used for its huge diastatic power, maybe distillers malt, if it was used because it was cheap and neutral in flavour, maybe any old pale malt. But that is just my uninformed guess.

So I've settled on 1804 Barklay Perkins TT ~ a nice early porter that doesn't use any 6 row, and isn't crazy strong.

Brews update and stuff

The Kentucky Common has finished at 1010, giving a pleasing 4.73% abv and apparent attenuation of 78%, which is within yeast specifications. Tastes nice, but is hazy. No yeast taint whatsoever so this is one CML yeast I can get on with. It has a nice hop bitterness and taste, with a surprising amount of malt coming through. As I planned,  I've set the fermenting fridge to 4 degrees to cold crash it before I package it in a King Keg. On that front, I need to dismantle the S30 valve on my second keg, replace the rubbers, then check if for sealing, as it was leaking. I've got the kit for this, so I'll try and remember to take some photos to post.
My Lovibond XB has dropped clear, and tastes OK. The taint from the barrel appears to be subsiding, so I'll leave it a bit longer. Its very hoppy!

Kentucky common after 1 week

After a week, the experimental brew has dropped to between 1010 and 1012. It still looked fairly effervescent and active so it may have a couple of points to go. CML say it's Californian yeast performs in a similar manner to Mangrove Jack's Californian yeast. If that's the case, then brewers friend says it should finish around 1010, so I think it probably needs leaving another week to totally finish then clean up after itself. I am fermenting at the bottom end of its temperature range after all. Then I'll cold crash for a couple of days before packaging.

I tasted the sample and am quite hopeful for this brew. Firstly, and perhaps most importantly, it didn't have the yeasty tang that I detected with the other two CML yeasts that I have tried; US pale and real ale. Secondly, it had a malty, fruity taste that was nice. Not estery fruity from the yeast, but from the Bramling Cross hops; or actually had quite a clean finish.

A long way to go, and anything could happen, but a very encouraging start.

Some bad news; the Ron Pattinsons Lovibond XP appears to have picked up a taint from the king keg I used. My fault, I had lent it to a friend who told me he had used Milton to sterilise it, I must not have rinsed it out enough. School boy error. I'm hoping it will fade with time, as it hasn't cleared yet so there is hope!

Kentucky common update

Well, this is interesting. It's took off, with the Inkbird keeping the temp between 16 & 17. It must have been fairly vigorous, as it blew the top of the airlock off, but I've put it back on. Predictably, it isn't bubbling now but I can see activity. I think this is the air lock; the top part is too firm a fit so pressure builds up and it pops off.

It looks to be a proper bottom fermenting yeast, which as I understand it, is correct for the style; I read somewhere that some of these supposed Cali common yeasts were top fermenting ale yeasts that just happened to be quite clean, which isn't what they would have used in the gold rush era; they would have been bottom fermenting lager yeasts that could tolerate the higher temps. 

Either way, all the activity appears in the lower part of the fv with just a bit of crud on the top. 

All very interesting.

I've asked on the forum if a period of lagering will be required, as the packet and yeast specs say it may improve things. I'm hoping to get away with just a cold crash, and so far the wisdom of the forum suggests this will be OK. After all, the early American settlers wouldn't have had any means of doing this, so it will be true to style. I'll take the first gravity reading on Friday (after 1 week).


Update, Day 4 ~ OK, so no it has a think krausen and looks much like a top fermenting yeast, so who knows. I'll leave it alone now to see how it comes out.