Wednesday 29 January 2020

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1966 Drybrough MBA Brown Ale

I’ve only just twigged what this beer is. I can be so dumb sometimes. The big clue is that Drybrough was taken over by Watney Mann in 1965. MBA obviously stands for Mann’s Brown Ale.

Which explains why the recipe is so radically different from all their others. I say all their others. They only had the one recipe, from which they brewed Pale Ales of varying degrees of wateriness.

It must have been weird for Drybrough’s brewers to suddenly have all these exotic ingredients: crystal malt, No. 3 invert and torrefied barley. The ingredients are so different from the ones they normally used that I can only assume that it’s very similar to the London-brewed version.

With Brown Ale hugely popular at the time, Drybrough must have already had one in their portfolio. Which they doubtless constructed from 60/- plus priming sugars. With Mann’s being a renowned national brand, I’m sure Drybrough’s own Brown Ale was quickly dropped after the takeover.


1966 Drybrough MBA Brown Ale
pale malt 4.25 lb 57.90%
black malt 0.09 lb 1.23%
crystal malt 60 L 1.75 lb 23.84%
torrefied barley 0.50 lb 6.81%
No. 3 invert sugar 0.50 lb 6.81%
caramel 500 SRM 0.25 lb 3.41%
Fuggles 90 min 0.50 oz
Goldings 30 min 0.50 oz
OG 1034
FG 1012
ABV 2.91
Apparent attenuation 64.71%
IBU 13
SRM 21
Mash at 145 / 158º F
Sparge at 165º F
Boil time 90 minutes
pitching temp 62º F
Yeast WLP028 Edinburgh Ale

The recipe is from from my overly detailed look at post-war UK brewing, Austerity!

http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/austerity/23181344




Which is now also available in Kindle format.

2 comments:

Chris Pickles said...

Do you have a recipe for Drybrough's Keg Heavy? And if so how close is it to their earlier pale ale recipes?

Ron Pattinson said...

Chris,

of course I do:

http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2018/08/lets-brew-wednesday-1965-drybrough-keg.html