Blog Tracker
24-09-2014, 09:10
Visit the Boak and Bailey's Beer Blog site (http://boakandbailey.com/2014/09/brewing-red-barrel-watneys-keg/)
Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog - Writing about beer and pubs since 2007 (http://boakandbailey.com)
For*our first attempt to extract a home brewing recipe from the Kegronomicon (http://boakandbailey.com/2014/09/kegronomicon/) we’ve gone for the original Red Barrel, Watney’s Keg (RBWK) as it was in around 1966.There’s a huge amount of technical information in the documents that won’t be of much practical use to home brewers, and which we barely understand, so we’ve concentrated on the key parameters which should enable you to get vaguely close if you plug them into your own brewing software and/or process.
In general, though, the emphasis throughout is on absolute cleanliness: contact with oxygen should be minimised at every stage; and everything should be kept completely, obsessively sterile.
http://boakandbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/sterility_watneys_474.jpg
And if you happen to have a bloody big industrial filtering and pasteurising facility, use it — that’s probably the biggest influence on how this beer would have tasted at the time.
Our primary source for vital statistics was a*memo*dated 26 August 1966, from*F.W. Dickens of the Red Barrel & Draught Beer Department, Mortlake, providing a single handy summary of revised targets for colour, OG, IBU and*carbonation.
We also cross-referenced with OG/ABV data from Whitbread’s analysts via Ron Pattinson (http://barclayperkins.blogspot.co.uk/2007/09/watney-draught-beers-1939-1968.html).
Red Barrel, Watney’s Keg, c.1966OG 1038 | FG 1009*| c.3.8% ABV | 30-32 IBU (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_measurement#Bitterness) | 27*EBC (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_measurement#Colour)
Pale malt
89%
Enzymatic (acid) malt
1%
Crystal malt (variable, for colour)
4.5%
Malt extract (in mash)
3%
Invert 3 (http://www.unholymess.com/blog/beer-brewing-info/making-brewers-invert) (sugar, in boil)
2.5%
Hops —*Fuggles (70%) Goldings (30%) to achieve 30-32 IBU. (Manual prescribes a blend of different growths to help maintain a consistent palate across batches.)
Water (all water used in the process) –*40 grains per gallon sulphates; 35 grains per gallon chlorides.
MASH*at 158F (70c) for 1.5hrs;*1st sparge*175F (79.5c);*2nd sparge*160F (71c).
BOIL*for 1h45m, with Invert 3 sugar,*Irish Moss*(1lb per 100 barrels – so, a teaspoon…) and Fuggles at 1h45m; Goldings at 15m.
Pitch yeast*at 60F (15.5c) — Mortlake 114, or a blend of 114 and 118, in case you happen to have any handy;*alternatively, a fairly neutral English ale yeast is probably best.
During fermentation, keep temperature below 69F (20.5c).
Warm condition for 8-12 days with dry hops (Goldings) at rate of 1oz per barrel (0.8g per gallon, we think); or use hop extract*to achieve the equivalent. Add caramel at this stage if colour is off.
Prime with ‘liquid candy’ (sugar syrup?) to achieve 1.45 vols CO2 in final container.
Educated suggestions for which commercially available yeast strain might best approximate Watney’s would be very welcome.
And if there’s anything above that just looks completely barmy — numbers that don’t add up &c. — let us know and we’ll double check the source material.
Brewing Red Barrel, Watney’s Keg (http://boakandbailey.com/2014/09/brewing-red-barrel-watneys-keg/)
More... (http://boakandbailey.com/2014/09/brewing-red-barrel-watneys-keg/)
Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog - Writing about beer and pubs since 2007 (http://boakandbailey.com)
For*our first attempt to extract a home brewing recipe from the Kegronomicon (http://boakandbailey.com/2014/09/kegronomicon/) we’ve gone for the original Red Barrel, Watney’s Keg (RBWK) as it was in around 1966.There’s a huge amount of technical information in the documents that won’t be of much practical use to home brewers, and which we barely understand, so we’ve concentrated on the key parameters which should enable you to get vaguely close if you plug them into your own brewing software and/or process.
In general, though, the emphasis throughout is on absolute cleanliness: contact with oxygen should be minimised at every stage; and everything should be kept completely, obsessively sterile.
http://boakandbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/sterility_watneys_474.jpg
And if you happen to have a bloody big industrial filtering and pasteurising facility, use it — that’s probably the biggest influence on how this beer would have tasted at the time.
Our primary source for vital statistics was a*memo*dated 26 August 1966, from*F.W. Dickens of the Red Barrel & Draught Beer Department, Mortlake, providing a single handy summary of revised targets for colour, OG, IBU and*carbonation.
We also cross-referenced with OG/ABV data from Whitbread’s analysts via Ron Pattinson (http://barclayperkins.blogspot.co.uk/2007/09/watney-draught-beers-1939-1968.html).
Red Barrel, Watney’s Keg, c.1966OG 1038 | FG 1009*| c.3.8% ABV | 30-32 IBU (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_measurement#Bitterness) | 27*EBC (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_measurement#Colour)
Pale malt
89%
Enzymatic (acid) malt
1%
Crystal malt (variable, for colour)
4.5%
Malt extract (in mash)
3%
Invert 3 (http://www.unholymess.com/blog/beer-brewing-info/making-brewers-invert) (sugar, in boil)
2.5%
Hops —*Fuggles (70%) Goldings (30%) to achieve 30-32 IBU. (Manual prescribes a blend of different growths to help maintain a consistent palate across batches.)
Water (all water used in the process) –*40 grains per gallon sulphates; 35 grains per gallon chlorides.
MASH*at 158F (70c) for 1.5hrs;*1st sparge*175F (79.5c);*2nd sparge*160F (71c).
BOIL*for 1h45m, with Invert 3 sugar,*Irish Moss*(1lb per 100 barrels – so, a teaspoon…) and Fuggles at 1h45m; Goldings at 15m.
Pitch yeast*at 60F (15.5c) — Mortlake 114, or a blend of 114 and 118, in case you happen to have any handy;*alternatively, a fairly neutral English ale yeast is probably best.
During fermentation, keep temperature below 69F (20.5c).
Warm condition for 8-12 days with dry hops (Goldings) at rate of 1oz per barrel (0.8g per gallon, we think); or use hop extract*to achieve the equivalent. Add caramel at this stage if colour is off.
Prime with ‘liquid candy’ (sugar syrup?) to achieve 1.45 vols CO2 in final container.
Educated suggestions for which commercially available yeast strain might best approximate Watney’s would be very welcome.
And if there’s anything above that just looks completely barmy — numbers that don’t add up &c. — let us know and we’ll double check the source material.
Brewing Red Barrel, Watney’s Keg (http://boakandbailey.com/2014/09/brewing-red-barrel-watneys-keg/)
More... (http://boakandbailey.com/2014/09/brewing-red-barrel-watneys-keg/)