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Showing posts from March, 2018

Scottish 80 Shilling Revisited (v2.0)

Last year, I brewed my first Scottish 80 Shilling Ale, right before competition time. I thought it was a decent beer, though by far not the best I'd ever had, but it did poorly in competition. This year, I am hoping to redeem myself with a new recipe.  I'm looking to hit all the BJCP flavor and aroma notes.  It should be a malt-forward beer with minimal esters. Hops should be present enough to balance the malt.  The malt itself can be rich, toasty, and caramelly.  Aroma should have low to medium maltiness, low to medium caramel, and some butterscotch is allowed. The best examples have a light fruitiness. They may have a low hop aroma, with English-style earthy, floral, citrus, and spice to it.  It should be clear, with a low to moderate creamy off-white head. The color should be pale copper to medium dark brown. Ingredients 5 pounds Maris Otter Malt 2 ounces English Crystal Malt (60-75L) 2 ounces Roasted Barley 2 ounces Avangard Caramel Light Malt (8L) 2 ounces M

Cloning Georgetown Manny's Pale Ale - Part 2

My first attempt to clone this beer was a dismal failure.  For this version, I decided to dig through the clone recipes I could find online. As with many clone recipes you encounter, most of them contained no images of the finished beer, no indication of whether the beer had ever been brewed, and no reviews indicating how it compared to the original. I finally settled on a recipe on one of the home brew forums which did actually have tasting notes under it, from someone who had reportedly done a side-by-side test against the real beer.  I had all the ingredients on hand and put them to work last night. Ingredients 4 pounds 2-row Pale Malt (75% of the grist) 12 ounces of Crystal 40L Malt (14% of the grist) 2 ounces of Crystal 60L Malt (2%, because I had some lying around to use up) 7 ounces Cara-pils/Dextrine Malt (8% of the grist) 0.3 ounces of Summit hops @ 16.7% AA (60 min.) 0.25 ounces of Cascade hops @ 6.9% AA (15 min.) 0.45 ounces of Cascade hops @ 6.9% AA (5 min

Kentucky Common 1.0 (Bluegrass State of Mind)

My first Kentucky Common Ale I read about the Kentucky Common ale style, and saw a presentation from the American Homebrewing Association about it online.  This is a pre-Prohibition era beer predominantly made in the Louisville, Kentucky, area.  It featured a significant amount of corn in the grist, along with six-row pale malt, and just enough specialty malts to darken to an amber or brown color. It used a mix of American and European hops, and a clean fermenting yeast.  Traditionally, it was served fresh and not stored long enough for refrigeration to be an issue. I crafted my own recipe for it based on the guidelines referenced by the Beer Judge Certification Program and the American Homebrewing Association and brewed it today. Ingredients 4 pounds six-row Pale Malt 2.5 pounds Flaked Corn 1 ounce Black Prinz malt 2 ounces Caramel/Crystal 80L malt 0.30 ounces Horizon hops @ 8.2% AA (60 min.) 0.50 ounces Cluster hops @ 7.2% AA (15 min.) 0.50 ounces Czech Saaz hops @ 3

Cloning Coniston's Old Man Ale v1.0

Much darker than the real beer, below While out to dinner at a local tavern, I had the opportunity to try Coniston's Old Man Ale.  I found it to be an enjoyable and slightly tart brown ale. Looking online, I couldn't find a clone recipe, so I decided to see if I could create my own. The brewery's web site gives the following clues: Malt:   Roasted Barley, Crystal, and Pale Ale Malts Hops: Challenger and Mount Hood ABV: 4.2% Description:   "A radically different beer... it has roast barley added to the pale and crystal malts. It has a deep burnished copper color, a rich port wine aroma, a big chocolate and creamy malt palate and a dry, grainy, roasty finish balanced by hop bitterness and tart fruit. It is a remarkably complex beer that deepens and changes as you sup it." The Beer of the Month Club says that you should drink it at 58F or you miss a lot of the nuance.  They describe it as "extremely toasty, crackery, with fruity notes favoring