I always have some didactic point I'm trying to make with these recipes. Today's is a good example. Export beers. To me an Export version was by definition stronger than the domestic beer. But, as you may have noticed with beers like Export India Porter this wasn't always the case. It's very much a 20th-century development. More specifically, it dates from WW I and its aftermath.
As I'm sure you're now all aware, WW I had a dramatic effect on the gravity of British beers. Well at least the ones consumed in the UK.The same wasn't true of beers for export. The constraints of taxation and consumer reluctance to pay more for their beer didn't apply to export beers. Pre-WW I the difference between domestic and export versions of a beer was the hopping. It being rather more heavy in the export beer. After WW I the export versions remained at their old gravities. Effectively, they became stronger than the standard version.
Guinness is an excellent example. Until 1916, Guinness Extra Stout and Foreign Extra Stout had the same gravity, 1075. In the 1920's, Extra Stout was 1055 and FES pretty much unchanged at 1074. WW II knocked ES down to 1045, while FES was 1072. You get the idea.
It's the same story with Barclay Perkins PA. Before WW I, the domestic version, at 1060, was stronger than the export, at 1058. In the 1920's, BP's domestic PA was 1053, while the export remained at 1058.
Wasn't that fascinating? I can now remove my mortar board and pass you over to Kristen . . . . . . .
Barclay Perkins - 1928 - Export PA | |||||||||
General info: Back to the good old ripping strong hoppy ales. This is one of a set of what people today would say was a 'proper' IPA. A lot of flavors similar too Meantime IPA but with much more graininess that is given by the American 6-row grain. Just enough invert to dry out the finish to keep it from being overly sweet. The high finishing gravity lends a much fuller, richer beer that the gravity should make it. The flavors are halfway between an IPA and a Barley Wine...a baby Barley Wine if you will. | |||||||||
Beer Specifics | Recipe by percentages | ||||||||
Gravity (OG) | 1.058 | 31.6% American 6-row | 0% | ||||||
Gravity (FG) | 1.017 | 60.3% English pale malt | 0% | ||||||
ABV | 5.50% | 7.7% Invert No1 | 0% | ||||||
Apparent attenuation | 71.26% | 0.5% Caramel colorant | |||||||
Real attenuation | 58.38% | ||||||||
IBU | 62.0 | Mash | 90min@149.5°F | 1.24qt/lb | |||||
SRM | 14 | 90min@65.3°C | 2.59L/kg | ||||||
EBC | 28.1 | ||||||||
Boil | 2.5 hours | ||||||||
Homebrew @ 70% | Craft @ 80% | ||||||||
Grist | 5gal | 19L | 10bbl | 10hl | |||||
American 6-row | 3.45 | lb | 1.572 | kg | 187.30 | lb | 72.37 | kg | |
English pale malt | 6.59 | lb | 3.001 | kg | 357.58 | lb | 138.16 | kg | |
Invert No1 | 0.84 | lb | 0.381 | kg | 45.41 | lb | 17.54 | kg | |
Caramel colorant | 0.05 | lb | 0.024 | kg | 2.84 | lb | 1.10 | kg | |
10.933 | 4.978 | 593.12879 | |||||||
Hops | |||||||||
Goldings 4.5% 150min | 0.74 | oz | 21.1 | g | 46.13 | oz | 1.114 | kg | |
Goldings 4.5% 90min | 0.95 | oz | 27.0 | g | 59.10 | oz | 1.428 | kg | |
Goldings 4.5% 60min | 1.91 | oz | 54.0 | g | 118.20 | oz | 2.856 | kg | |
Goldings 4.5% dry hop | 0.53 | oz | 15.1 | g | 33.10 | oz | 0.800 | kg | |
Fermentation | 72°F /22.2°C | ||||||||
Yeast | |||||||||
1028 | |||||||||
Tasting Notes: Hops. Check. More hops. Double check. Spicy orangina nose. Mouth full of hop resins and strong barbarian tea. Sweet malt and lady fingers, toffee covered biscuits and golden syrup. Sweet finish dries up rather well. Nearly has an 'old fashioned' bitters, sweet and whiskey character. This is currently aging in a ex-bourbon barrel. We'll see.... | |||||||||
Kristen's notes say "Just enough invert to dry out the finish to keep it from being overly sweet."
ReplyDeleteI suspect he means this beer will taste drier than the equivalent all-malt version brewed to the same gravity (1.058). And of course it's widely accepted that replacing malt with highly fermentable sugar will have this effect.
But consider a different question: does simply *adding* sugar to the recipe make the beer taste drier? For instance, if we left out the sugar in this recipe (resulting in an all-malt beer at about 1.053) would the resulting beer taste sweeter? Or drier?
Alternatively, if we added even more sugar to get up to 1.065, would the resulting beer really taste drier? Or sweeter?
Interesting to see the change in hop usage compared to modern IPA’s where there would be big 10 minutes and whirlpool additions.
ReplyDelete"does simply *adding* sugar to the recipe make the beer taste drier? "
I have a saison with French saison (Wyeast 3117) strain no sugar addation an fermented at 22.5c and with a final gravit was 1.002! but it dosent that that dry!
Kirsten any thoughts about a substitution for US 6 Row ? In Australia US 6 row would be a problem to source so any other descriptors other than grainy would be helpful Peter
ReplyDeleteThat's an interesting analogy of the whiskey-and-bitters taste. In some craft beers, indeed strong IPAs or barley wines, I get a distinctly similar effect. For non-Americans, the reference is to a bourbon or other classic American whiskey with a dash of Angostura or other bitters. Sometimes sugar or other fruity flavours are added. I always wondered in fact if the term bitters to describe Angostura and similar flavourings was taken from English beer terminology. There is a further connection between bitters and beer in that I have seen old ads for "lager bitters", one from Austria I recall, where such bitters were added to a (pale) lager beer.
ReplyDeleteGary
To the points on sugar, its not really just sugar but simple sugars and things that turn into simple sugars like corn/wheat starch, rice, raw sugars, No1 invert, etc. Basically you are adding gravity points without any sort of dextrins, tannins, proteins, etc. These will ferment nearly completely out. Malt of the same amount will always leave more behind.
ReplyDeleteRe dryness in general. Don't confuse remaining sugar content for dryness or sweetness. Alcoho, gycerol and esters made by yeast have a tremendous effect on mouthfeel and perceived sweetness. Think about Riesling. Even dry Rieslings, based on sugar, are not bone dry. They have an elegant sweetness that comes mostly from the fruity esters.
Matt,
More sugar can make things both drier and sweeter. Meaning that if you ensure that the beer finishes at the same finishing gravity, this one being quite high, then it will taste drier.
Peter,
Sure, I get this one a lot. Basically the 6-row adds a really husky, grainy malt character without the big biscuit malt depth. American/Canadian 2-row does a decent job at mimicking this trait. I'd give your run of the mill Convict base malt a try. If its cheap, it usually works well for this purpose. I have recently experimented with swapping 6-row for distillers malt and get nearly identical results. Distillers malt has a touch more protein but the same grainy husky character.
Gary,
Bitters has nothing to do with beer connotation. Look back through google books. Tons and tons of stuff on bitters since well back in time. Everything simple has to do with their alkaloid bitter character.
Kristen, I may have missed this, but how are you achieving a low attenuation with the sugar for these beers? Attemporation then straight to bottle without primings?
ReplyDeleteBrad,
ReplyDeleteThe hardest thing I find with recreating these recipes is recreating the exact means by which achieved the finishing gravity. Most times it is very straightforward and it works out well with the mash temp and yeast choice. Other times, like this one, you have to do some tinkering around. Dropping the yeast out with temp is the easiest way to go. The yeast is quite flocculant and is easy to rack off or drop. Nice bright clear beer. 1 week at 0C was more than enough.
To the point of bottle conditioning, I rarely bottle condition beers unless I'm going to lay them down for a while like the IBSt's or 3X's and the like.
Kristen,
ReplyDeleteSorry--I'm not sure I understand exactly what you're saying. Suppose I brew two beers:
A. the recipe in this post, with the Invert #1 replaced by dextrose (so we don't have to worry about any flavor in the sugar itself)
B. the recipe in this post, with the Invert #1 simply left out
and ferment them to the same final gravity. Which beer do you expect to taste drier?
I would expect beer B to taste slightly drier primarly because of lower ester levels. But I've certainly not done a controlled experiment to find out, and I wouldn't wager heavily on this intuition. I'm curious to know which beer you'd expect to taste drier--and whether you'd wager heavily on it.
For what it's worth I think for ale brewing the purpose of sugars (or those that are flavorless and 100% fermentable) might be best expressed as "to get more alcohol and yeast-derived products without adding as much sweetness as malt would." (But I have no idea why Kronenbourg 1664 uses glucose.)