Brown Ale. Yet another topic I like to bang on about. (That makes 3,229 and counting.) You know that stuff about "Northern" and "Southern" Brown Ales. I'd like to know where Whitbread Double Brown fits into that simplistic scheme of things. It was too strong to be a "Southern" Brown and too dark to be a "Northern" Brown. And it was brewed in the South.In the 1950's Whitbread brewed two very different Brown Ales. Double Brown and Forest Brown. The former was Whitbread's first Brown Ale, introduced in 1926. Below are the recipes for both. The originals were, coincidentally, brewed on the same day.
Double Brown's gravity had changed little since its birth. The 1926 version was 1054, the 1955 one 1051. With a base of PA malt, its grist was quite different to Whitbread Milds of the period and was similar to that of PA or IPA. Forest Brown, on the other hand, had a base of Mild Ale malt and very closely resembled the grist for Best Ale, Whitbread's Mild. Though it is not identical. Forest Brown is slightly stronger at 1033 as opposed to 1031 for the Mild.
I've just taken a look at which ingredients the BJCP claim go into a Southern English Brown Ale:
"English pale ale malt as a base with a healthy proportion of darker caramelAll I can say is that the malt stuff is total fantasy. The weaker types of Brown Ale I've seen recipes for all got their colour from dark sugar or caramel. And the base malt was mild not pale ale malt. Where do they get crap like this from? Just make it up?
malts and often some roasted (black) malt and wheat malt. Moderate to high
carbonate water would appropriately balance the dark malt acidity. English hop
varieties are most authentic, though with low flavor and bitterness almost any
type could be used."
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Another clutch of interesting recipes. And great news! There is a hop variety which, I think, we can identify!
OR55 is Keyworth's Midseason. This variety was released for growing in 1947-48 and was wilt resistant.
Have a look at:
http://www.cps-scp.ca/download/cjpp-archive/Vol9/CJPP9(1)68-77(1987).pdf
Of course I doubt that anyone still grows OR55 :-(
MentalDental, I'd wondered what the hell OR55 meant. My guess was a batch number.
Yet another proof of why publishing and discussing these old recipes is so useful. Everybody wins.
I have read the article I referred to a little more and found these nuggets:
OR55 was breed by Salmon and Keyworth using an American wild hop (Humulus lupulus neomexicanus) and a Canadian wild hop.
It had the much derided "American aroma"/"tomcats" characteristics. This aroma was due to a high level of myrcene. In addition it had a, for the time, high alpha level of about 7%.
The growers liked the variety for it's wilt resistance but the brewers didn't because of that aroma. They basically wanted a Fuggle that was wilt resistant. Further development to overcome this objection led to Bramling Cross and WGV.
Ron, thanks so much for these. It's really appreciated. It's great to get a contrast between two beers of similar stye from the same brewery and brew date. It really lets you see the differences between them. It's also interesting to see that the hops are only a year old in these, and that subsequently the quantities are a lot lower. Were other breweries moving to newer hops for their beers in this same time period? I'm wondering when the use of two year old hops diminished or if this is just an aberration.
Great recipes! Heavy uses of dark sugars. It's a shame it's hard to find some now, or at least that it's hard for me to find some...
I have a little suggestion for the next recipes. What about Russian Imperial Stout, or even the mysterious Imperial Mild, i'm curious to see the recipes of big bold ales of old.
Thanks!
Great stuff - keep them coming. Any idea about the type of crystal malt light 110 EBC medium 145 EBC or dark 250 EBC? used in the FB?
Cheers
Is there a typo total hops type 1.66 but boil total 2.66?
Cheers
Bill, you still see old hops in post-WW II logs. Whitbread 1955 IPA had a third 1953 season hops.
Korev,
to be honest, I've really no idea which type of crystal it was. Lloyd Hind gives examples of crystal malt with wildly differing gravities: 85, 120, 150 and 190 Lovibond. I'd say just plump for the middle one.
Yes that was a typo in the hops. I've corrected it now.
Just had a thought about the whole double brown, southern brown, northern brown thing. Darwin Brewery in North East England produce a beer called Richmond Ale. On the bottle I had it was described as a double brown ale, though to me it tasted and looked more like a North East style brown ale. Darwin claim that it is brewed to an historical recipe. Thought it might be of interest.
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