Collaborations and milds

Just finished up the second of the 2 english brown ales I'd planned to brew this week.
The first was an dark mild brewed with Sean http://seanywonton.blogspot.com/. We brewed about 10 gallons on his system ( about as ghetto as mine, but in different ways.) It was fun to brew with someone new, as well as see how their process and practices differ from mine. I definitely picked up some new ideas ( star san in a small untensil box, fermometer taped to the mash tun during chilling/whirlpooling? genius!)



Anyways, the mild recipe was pretty BJCP classic for the style with brown malt being the only "out of the ordinary malt, actually I take that back, Sean's 7.5L marris otter was a new one for me too.
Brown malt is a higher kilned malt that to me has a biscuityness that falls somewhere between vienna malt and biscuit/victory malt, there are also some slight mild roasty notes in there that I find reminiscent to Jamil's beloved pale chocolate malt.
until Sean posts the official recipe, heres the rough base


Dark Mild

80% Marris Otter
8% Crystal 120
5% Brown Malt
7% Crystal 70



Came out around 1.038 SG. The hydrometer sample we tasted was bready and biscuity to me. I was surprised at how drinkable it was ( Malta Hatouy anyone?) prefermented worts always taste very hop resiny to me no matter the gravity), this was quite palatable and balanced though.
We are using a slug of yeast acquired from HUB http://hopworksbeer.com/ This strain is allegedly from the makers of Boddingtons Pub Ale ( very subtle brew, almost like a pilsner fermented with ale yeast {cream ale?}) anyways i have a soft spot for Boddingtons as it was one of the first beers I ever tried ( a pint of boddingtons and homo erectus at the horsebrass at 19 years of age for one's first beers? thanks Casey I feel privileged)
Anyways this is a new yeast for both of us and apparently we are both fermenting around 68 degrees.





So the second brew is a "double brown" recipe is from Fuller's circa 1962.
Ronald Pattinson http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/ has been anylizing brew logs from English breweries that date back to the late 1800's. One that caught my eye was the recipe for Fuller's double brown, a dark copper ale that is still brewed, but to a stronger gravity 6.5%



I chose the recipe for it's simplicity and it's higher gravity ( the much smaller milds cause problems with my sparging because the grain needed for 5 gallons is so small)
The recipe for this beer is very out of the ordinary and challenges much of what I thought I knew about brewing English beers. The recipe calls for mostly assorted English base malts and gets its color from assorted caramel syrups. I decided to use both belgian amber and dark syrups because it is what i had on hand and i don't quite have a solid grasp of how to reproduce the English brewing sugars accurately. The most important thing seems to be that its inverted and that the sugar contains a certain amount of unfermentables produced through maillard browning.


Fuller's 1962 Double Brown
6.25 gallons
1.054 OG
21 IBU
9 SRM
90 minute boil

1# Marris Otter #1
.44# Six Row
2.67# Gambrinous ESB malt
1.79# Golden Promise
2.6# Marris Otter #2
1.04# Flaked Corn
3.2 oz. Glucose
.68# Amber syrup
.29# Dark syrup

servomyces
whirlfloc

Yakima Goldings @ 5%AA
17.1 IBU @90 min.
3.6 IBU @ 30 min.

.25 oz. dry hop

Wyeast 1968 @ 68degrees