I'm pleased to see how well 1914 Barclay Perkins X Ale is doing in my new poll. It's beer I've always wanted to try.There's just one snag. About the recipe. I had a hard enough time persuading Menno to use sugar in the Whitbread beers. I'm not so sure I'll be as lucky with raw maize. So, would you find it really terrible if I dropped the maize from the recipe? Not 100% authentic. But I'm sure the finished beer would be better for the change.
Is this acceptable, or should I stick to the letter of the original recipe?
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What was I thinking when I wrote that? I was missing the whole point. Apologies for bothering you with such stupid thoughts. It's been a long week.
Barclay Perkins 1914 X Ale wasn't a great beer. I'm sure of that. It was typical. A mainstream, mass-produced beer, brewed slightly on the cheap. It's what most people drank. In a way, isn't that more fascinating than Russian Stout?
Not sure if that will be enough to convince Menno.
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Isn't a major part of the point here to use authentic recipies? I think it takes away some of the point of the exercise, really. I'm a bit surprised Menno doesn't see it the same way.
On the other hand I'm not sure how much difference it makes for the taste. If it's like to taste much the same without I guess I wouldn't care that much.
I agree with you, in principle. The point is to stick to the originals as much as possible.
It's just a shame Barclay Perkins were such cheapskates. I'm sure the 15% raw maize must have had quite an noticeable affect on the flavour. And body.
I should have just stuck with Whitbread.
But Ron, the brown malt is not diastatic so you have to change the recipe anyway.
Maize though is easy to get and no different from former times so Menno could keep it in.
Convince Menno? Let Johnny Foreigner meddle with the Great British Pint? Remind him, loudly and in English, that if it wasn't for Tommies raised on brown ale he'd be brewing to the Reinheitsgebot now, and maize wouldn't even be an issue.
You could either use Flaked maize or corn starch or just cut out the middle man and use corn sugar.
Fatman, X Ale recipe has no brown malt in it.
Kristen, the brewing log, if I remember correctly, just says maize without any further explanation. I'm not sure exactly what form it should be in. Flaked maize might be right, I need to consult some old manuals.
Its probably not flaked as the use of 'hot rollers' wasn't until the later 20th century if I remember correctly. A lot of the early American brewers (read German immigrants) would take straight maize and boil it and then add it to the mash (e.g. Cereal mash). All the first American lagers were a good portion of maize (to to 30%) with a ton of IBU's.
The gelatinized starches made the mashing easy. I'd bet with the time period, thats what your peeps did also.
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