Greene King Abbot Ale

Brewing beer can get too technical, look at me..... I brew in an 8x6 shed with DIY brewing utensils, most of the recipes I guess from previous knowledge of what tastes like what. Bit like Paul Hollywood making a new fruit cake... Dunno what it'll be like but he know's it'll be good!!

But I will say the main thing for me is 1/2 a campden tablet and CRS.
BB

As an addendum to my major diatribe on page 2:


Where I mentioned that Crookedeyeboy's beer was tested at 48 EBU and that the Tinseth prediction was 80EBU, well I forgot to say that it now seems clear that anything above about 60 EBU will just not happen with conventional brewing, no matter how many hops are added. The maximum achievable seems to be somewhere around 60EBU. I have long suspected that something like this was going on and that the bitterness claims of the beers of some micro-brewers was pie in the sky. The Basic Brewing Radio IBU Ceiling Experiment confirms this and data supplied to me by Wallybrew, upon analysis, also confirms it.

There is a paradox inasmuch as a beer that had an obscene amount of hop pellets steeped after the boil, a kilogramme in 20 or 25 litres, produced a beer that measured around or above 100 EBU. This is so unconventional that it may be a measurement artefact. The common absorbence method of measuring bitterness is not very selective and just measures hop "stuff". It is also highly subject to interference by other things incidentally present, certain chemicals particularly, and in this case, I suspect, bits of hop powder floating around. Until an explanation is elicited for this apparent parodox, and because a kilogramme of hops is so unconventional, it is probably better to disregard it. It apparently did not taste like a 100EBU beer, not that anybody knows what a 100EBU beer should taste like.

So it is fair to assume that if Tinseth says anything above 60EBU, you can be sure that he is telling fibs.

Of course there is a maximum level of solubility of alpha acids in wort, and I certainly think that high alpha hops hit this very quickly. I don't think it matters what formula you use, once you start hitting maximum solubility levels then there is no way any of them are capable of being very accurate. I recall talking about something else and saying that as long as you are within a certain range things work as expected (Sort of), the same must be true of utilisation. I suspect that Tinseth works (ish ) at predicting wort IBU's when the wort is 1.050, it's a 60 minute boil and you use low to moderate alpha hops.

Pauls beer used a lot of high alpha hops (50% of hopping by weight) in the last 15 minutes

Well this one is going down the drain. It smells like it was made in an acid factory and taste like something's died in it.

Went and got some fresh yeast from the brewery so will try it again after a couple of other brews.

Might split the yeast into some vials to store in the fridge.

After my diabolical attempt at brewing this a few weeks back, I have picked up some fresh yeast to grow and use, I will attempt this for a second time, but rather I will stick to the recipe given to me by my local club this time, it is pretty much the same just a little weaker at 5% ABV, although I did see a 1980's beer mat that listed the ABV as 5% and the O.G. at 1.046 - 1.052.

So, here is the second attempt:

1970's G.K. Abbot Ale
11C. Strong Bitter (English Pale Ale)

Recipe Specs
----------------
Batch Size (L): 23.0
Total Grain (kg): 4.530
Total Hops (g): 82.00
Original Gravity (OG): 1.050 (°P): 12.4
Final Gravity (FG): 1.012 (°P): 3.1
Alcohol by Volume (ABV): 5.01 %
Colour (SRM): 12.1 (EBC): 23.9
Bitterness (IBU): 36.2 (Tinseth)
Balance (BU:GU): 0.72
Brewhouse Efficiency (%): 80
Boil Time (Minutes): 60

Grain Bill
----------------
3.750 kg Pale Malt (82.78%)
0.285 kg Invert Sugar No. 3 (6.29%)
0.285 kg Torrified Wheat (6.29%)
0.170 kg Crystal 30 (3.75%)
0.040 kg Chocolate (0.88%)

Hop Bill
----------------
38.0 g East Kent Golding Leaf (5% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil) (1.7 g/L)
32.0 g Fuggles Leaf (5.6% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil) (1.4 g/L)
12.0 g East Kent Golding Leaf (5% Alpha) @ 14 Days (Cask) (0.5 g/L)

Misc Bill
----------------
½ Protofloc Tablet @ 15 Minutes (Boil)

Step Mash for 125 Minutes.

Mash Profile:

Step 1: 55°C @ 5 Minutes.
Step 2: 63°C @ 30 Minutes.
Step 3: 67°C @ 60 Minutes.
Step 4: 78°C @ 30 Minutes.

Fermented at 21°C with Wibblers yeast for 7 days.
Lower to 13°C 24 hours after skimming yeast.
Lower to 10°C 24 hours before racking. 

Recipe Generated with

[Dennis King]

Out of interest Kyle the invert sugar you gave me is it No.2 or No.3.

It is No. 3 Dennis, EBC 130.

[Dennis King]

Thanks again

No problem. If this one works out I'll drop you a sample over.

Well, as my next brew is the half century since I started AG, I felt it time to revisit this beer as it has alluded me twice before now, once suffering from DMS and the other old yeast. This time I have fresh ingredients and yeast straight out if the brewery.

Dennis made this previously so I now also have a good benchmark of what the end product should be similar to, here is the updated recipe:

Abbot Ale
11C. Strong Bitter

Recipe Specs
----------------
Batch Size (L): 23.0
Total Grain (kg): 4.530
Total Hops (g): 90.00
Original Gravity (OG): 1.048 (°P): 11.9
Final Gravity (FG): 1.010 (°P): 2.6
Alcohol by Volume (ABV): 5.04 %
Colour (SRM): 13.1 (EBC): 25.7
Bitterness (IBU): 36.0 (Tinseth)
Brewhouse Efficiency (%): 75
Boil Time (Minutes): 90

Grain Bill
----------------
3.750 kg Maris Otter (82.78%)
0.285 kg Invert Sugar No. 3 (6.29%)
0.285 kg Torrified Wheat (6.29%)
0.170 kg Crystal Malt (Pale) (3.75%)
0.040 kg Black Malt (0.88%)

Hop Bill
----------------
38.0 g East Kent Golding Leaf (3.67% Alpha) @ 90 Minutes (Boil) (1.7 g/L)
40.0 g Fuggles Leaf (4.42% Alpha) @ 90 Minutes (Boil) (1.7 g/L)
12.0 g Styrian Golding Leaf (4.40% Alpha) @ 15 Minutes (Boil) (0.5 g/L)

Misc Bill
----------------
1/4 Protofloc Tablet @ 15 Minutes (Boil)

Single step Infusion at 65°C for 90 Minutes.
Fermented at 21°C with Wibblers Ale Yeast


Recipe Generated with

[Dennis King]

I saw you put this recipe on Jim's, I'm thinking of brewing it myself this weekend.

Abbot-off!

[Dennis King]

I believe the original used Invert No. 1 whereas I'm still chomping through No. 3