Had a good English Barley-wine called Owd Engwisch (or something like that) at
Three Floyds this past weekend. It was great getting back there to sip some fresh Floyds. It also got me thinking about an attempt I made at an
Old Ale that I brewed back in January 2009. It's holding up quite well, but I think it's a recipe that could use some tweaking. (It's an old ale so perhaps it just needs another couple years in the bottle - ha.)
It pours with plenty of carbonation and I'm left with about a quarter-inch of head, but no lace. The color is
amber to red and nose is very fruity with banana and maybe some peach. Not sure that these esters are completely appropriate for an English Old Ale. I no doubt fermented this too warm and maybe used not quite the right yeast. It has a very smooth mouthfeel though and tastes of toffee and a sort of toasted marshmallow flavor. There's an English hop character (spicy, earthy) towards the finish despite the fact I used Cascade and Willamette hops (I guess Willamette has some Fuggles character.) The finish is a bit bitter but coated in tawny caramel malt sweetness. Not bad for an English Old Ale although I think it would have really been better had I done a partial mash with a few pounds of some
Maris Otter and used some Kent Golding hops instead of Willamette and probably a different yeast than the Timothy Taylor (Wyeast 1469.) In fact, I'd like to try this again (with Maris Otter replacing some of the extract) with
Wyeast 9097 PC Old Ale. Here is the very simple 95 percent extract recipe:
Olde Grey Cat 2009
BJCP Style and Style Guidelines -
19-A Strong Ale, Old Ale
Min OG: 1.060 Max OG: 1.108
Min IBU: 30 Max IBU: 80
Min color: 10 Max color: 26 Color in SRM, Lovibond
Recipe Specifics -
Batch Size (Gal): 5.00 Wort Size (Gal): 3.00
Anticipated OG: 1.082 Plato: 19.86
Anticipated SRM: 13.5
Anticipated IBU: 40.6
Brewhouse Efficiency:50 %
Wort Boil Time: 60 Minutes
Pre-Boil Amounts -
Pre-Boil Wort Size: 3.53 gallons
Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.121
Grain/Extract/Sugar -
12.00 lbs. of Briess LME- Amber
0.50 lbs. of Briess Crystal 90L
Potential represented as SG per pound per gallon.
Hops -
2.00 oz. Cascade pellets@6.3% AA for 50 minutes
1.00 oz. Willamette Pellet@4.4% for five minutes
Yeast -
Wyeast 1469 West Yorkshire