This beer from Lees is a good example. At over 7% ABV, it’s strong by pretty much anyone’s standards. So strong, that it almost certainly was exclusively a bottled. Though they did later produce Moonraker, a beer of a similar strength, on draught. So perhaps they did the same with this.
There’s nothing too exciting or odd in the grist, which is all pale malt except for a tiny dash of crystal and enzymic malt. Plus flaked maize, of course. And a whole host of different types of sugar: 1 cwt Invert, 3 cwt Nut Brown, 1 cwt HX, 1 cwt Solprima and 20 lbs C.D.M. I’ve interpreted that as a mix of No. 2 and No. 3 invert.
The hops were mostly English from the 1961 crop, though there was also a small amount of 1961 Styrians. If you want to go for full accuracy, you could drop the 90-minute Fuggles addition to 0.75 oz and add 0.25 oz of Styrian Goldings.
| 1963 Lees Strong Ale | ||
| pale malt | 10.75 lb | 71.29% |
| crystal malt 80 L | 0.33 lb | 2.19% |
| enzymic malt | 0.25 lb | 1.66% |
| flaked maize | 1.00 lb | 6.63% |
| No. 2 invert sugar | 1.00 lb | 6.63% |
| No. 3 invert sugar | 1.75 lb | 11.60% |
| Fuggles 90 mins | 1.00 oz | |
| Fuggles 60 mins | 1.00 oz | |
| Goldings 30 mins | 1.00 oz | |
| OG | 1076 | |
| FG | 1021 | |
| ABV | 7.28 | |
| Apparent attenuation | 72.37% | |
| IBU | 31 | |
| SRM | 16 | |
| Mash at | 147º F | |
| Sparge at | 170º F | |
| Boil time | 90 minutes | |
| pitching temp | 58º F | |
| Yeast | Wyeast 1318 London ale III (Boddingtons) | |
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5 comments:
Is enzymic malt a high-diastatic power malt like distillers malt to aid in conversion? Or an acid malt to reduce pH?
Mmm, draught Moonraker. I've seen it once, in a big & recently-opened Lees house; I had a half & looked forward to repeating the experience on a fairly regular basis. Of course, the next time I went in it had gone, never to come on again - I guess shifting it on cask must be a problem.
Mike Hoover,
I think it's malt with a high diastatic power.
I would like some clarification on what enzymatic malt is. Can anyone give examples that homebrewers could find?
Interesting that strong ales are a historical thing in Manchester. It gives context for what I always thought was a bit of an oddity, Dunham Massey Gold (and Dam Strong from its sister brewery Lymm, Lymm Dam is a local hydrological feature). They only brew it 1-2 times a year and you only see it occasionally at festivals, but as a 7.2% ale that probably has a similar recipe to this without quite so much dark sugar, it makes sense as the inheritor of that tradition. I some ways it's closer to a tripel with English yeast than a trad British beer.
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