I'm just polishing off the last few recipes. While I was, I noticed that I'd not properly looked at some of the late Drybrough records. That's when I spotted this.
It's also a little preview of the book, this being a featured recipe. The rest in the book text. Enjoy.
This beer started as a bit of a puzzle. Mostly because I couldn’t read the name. Something ending in “–tal” was about all I could make. I had to go through just about every photograph before I found a legible one.
Looking in the ingredients, it was obviously a Lager. Which was dead pleasing, as I’m a bit short on Scottish Lager recipes. It’s the watery, bland type of Lager I avoided like the plague in my youth. But which now fascinates me.
Drybrough really changed the way they brewed in the late 1960’s. They stopped parti-gyling and they started brewing multiple recipes. Funnily enough, it’s just after the company was acquired by Watney Mann. I’m sure the two events can’t have ben unconnected.
They also started brewing some new beers: a Brown Ale, what looks like a Mild Ale and this Lager. Quite a big change for a brewery that had basically only brewed Pale Ale for three or four decades. They also simplified their recipes, doing away with most proprietary sugars.
There’s not a lot to this recipe. Just lager malt, flaked maize and English hops. Oddly, some of their other beers brewed around this time contained Hallertau. While the Lager had all English hops. I’ve guessed the varieties. You can substitute any English hop that was around then, like Northern Brewer or Bramling Cross.
As for the mashing scheme, I’ve reproduced it exactly as in the brewing record. It lists four temperatures which are presumably a complex step mash. I’m not sure they had the right equipment to decoct. If you fancy having a go at a decoction, please do.
This period of Drybrough’s records don’t give any fermentation details. My guess is that they pitched in the mid 50’s F and cooled it down. Though given that the fermentation only lasted 6 days, they might have fermented it quite warm.
| 1970 Drybrough Continental Lager | ||
| lager malt | 6.25 lb | 86.21% |
| flaked maize | 1.00 lb | 13.79% |
| Fuggles 90 min | 0.50 oz | |
| Goldings 30 min | 0.25 oz | |
| OG | 1032.8 | |
| FG | 1007 | |
| ABV | 3.41 | |
| Apparent attenuation | 78.66% | |
| IBU | 10 | |
| SRM | 3 | |
| Mash at | 120/146/165/210º F | |
| Sparge at | 175º F | |
| Boil time | 90 minutes | |
| pitching temp | 54º F | |
| Yeast | WLP800 Pilsner Lager | |
To be fair, with another three pounds of malts and twice the hops I bet it would be fairly drinkable. 10 IBU just seems very insipid for my palate these days...
ReplyDeleteOh, I don't know about that.
ReplyDeleteIt might be insipid you because your palate has been totally burnt out by an overload of hops.
To me, it seems like it might be really refreshing.
would it be a good idea to substitute the goldings for hallertau.by the way in the book the drybrough 80/- only goes upto 1940,was it still brewed after that.brewed the 1970 drybrough export and its as i remember it to be.very nice.thanks GORDON BROWN.
ReplyDeleteGordon Brown,
ReplyDelete80/- was brewed right through WW II, albeit in small quantities. My next book will have recipes of it for every year from 1939 to 1946.
brewed as recipe but had to use 17g of hallertau instead of goldings as id run out of goldings.good old fashioned affair reminded me of heaverlee belgium lager.will brew again.
ReplyDeleteThe brewing regime changed at Drybroughs after 1968 because they installed a state of the art German brewhouse by Steinecker.
ReplyDelete