Homebrew Recipes

Unless otherwise stated,all homebrew recipes are for 5 gallons, with 12l in mash tun, mashed for 90 mins @66 degrees C with a 2 hr boil and pitched with Safale S-04 Yeast .

Simon's Stout Homebrew Recipe OG 1044 (makes 40 pints)

My first stout was Guiness from Brew Your Own Real Ale at Home (CAMRA Guides) which is an earlier edition of Brew Your Own British Real Ale (Camra) but over the years I've altered it until it bears virtually no relation to the original recipe, infact this doesn't taste like Guiness at all, instead it tastes like Guiness ought to with a rich nutty taste but still with that bitter white head.

In the Mash Tun: (all crushed grains)

  • 4kg Pale Malt (recommend Maris Otter)
  • 500g Flaked Barley
  • 250g Roasted Barley
  • 500g Amber Malt
  • 250g Chocolate Malt
  • 200g Black Malt

In the boiler (start): (use brupak hops)

  • 50g Challenger Hops
  • 40g Goldings

In the boiler (last 15mins)

  • 25g Goldings
  • teaspoon of irish moss

 

Simon's Brown Ale Homebrew Recipe OG 1048 (makes 40 pints)

14l of water in boiler, mash @66 degrees

In the Mash Tun: (all crushed grains)

  • 4kg Pale Malt (recommend Maris Otter)
  • 750g Amber Malt
  • 150g Chocolate Malt
  • 500g Flaked Barley

In the boiler (start): (use brupak hops)

  • 50g Challenger Hops
  • 40g Fuggles

In the boiler (last 15mins)

  • 30g Styrian Goldings
  • teaspoon of irish moss

 

Simon's Xmas Sozzle Homebrew Recipe OG 1110 (makes 20 pints)

18 litres of water in mash , mash @66 degrees/ boil down to 2 1/2 gallon in boiler

In the Mash Tun: (all crushed grains)

  • 7kg Pale Malt (recommend Maris Otter)
  • 500g Amber Malt
  • 20g Chocolate Malt
  • 20g Roasted Barley
  • 200g Flaked Barley
  • 500g Muscovado sugar

In the boiler (start): (use brupak hops)

  • 17g Challenger Hops
  • 25g Target
  • 40g Goldings
  • 1 mulled wine tea bag
  • 1 star anise

In the boiler (last 15mins)

  • 25g Styrian Goldings
  • teaspoon of irish moss

 

Simon's Single Malt Pale Ale Homebrew Recipe OG 1060 (makes 40 pints)

14l of water in boiler, mash @66 degrees. This brew is pale ale as it should be.

In the Mash Tun: (all crushed grains)

  • 5kg Pale Malt (recommend Maris Otter)
  • 500g Syrup
  • 500g Flaked Barley

In the boiler (start): (use brupak hops)

  • 37g Challenger Hops
  • 20g Fuggles

In the boiler (last 15mins)

  • 20g Goldings
  • teaspoon of irish moss

 

Homebrew Recipe Books

To learn more about brewing from grain and hops, click here. If you want to exactly copy a british beer from the pub, then I recommend getting:

If you'd like to start experimenting with your own recipes checkout:

Add your Homebrew Recipes

Only original recipes please, nothing copied from a book.

Stout recipe

I recentley brewed simon's stout recipe (guinness) last week at the allotment i tested it on some of the die hard guiness drinkers i know. The verdict was simon's stout is a brillant recipe. The finised product is far superior to the real thing, very silky smooth and a wonderfull nutty taste,exactley as Simon states. i will be trying some more this weekend. i think my quest for a decent stout is over. Jeff Sheard, Nottigham


Timothy Tyler Bitter

Timothy Tyler recipe A simple recipe with brilliant results Makes 5 gallons 4.5k marris otter malt 100g crystal malt 100g torrified wheat in the boiler (start) 42g styrian goldings hops 35g fuggles in the boiler (last 15 mins) 15g challenger 10g first gold finishing average abv around 4%


plastic or glass bottles ?

reply: either, I use glass flip tops if I bottle but mostly I keg, it's less work. Only thing with plastic bottles, you ideally want the brown ones to protect the beer from the sun unless you keep it somewhere dark, then it doeas matter obviously.


reply

Thanks for that, i am just going to buy a True home brew kit add the water thinking of putting a brew pack in to aviod using succrose (white sugar) one that is specific for dark mild / mackisons. My ambition is to perfect a copy of the Owd roger, got a few bottles from my offilicence and at 7.6% (£1.69) quite wicked and sweet which i like these days

Andy


Hops

Where is the best place to quality hops? I have not brewed since late eighties and the late Great Dave Line ws the man. I recall is coments about homebrew shops getting the sweepings off the floor and you shoud sort out your hops prior to bung it in the mash. I did this, i found a multitude of none hop items; matchsticks, fag ends and stuff that i did not want to guess at! So has things changed now?

Andy

---------------------------------------------------

Reply: Hi Andy, the most important thing is to buy vacuum packed hops and use them fresh. If you break the seal and use half and then use the other half six months later, they will have lost some of that aromatic hoppy goodness :).

Personally, I like http://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/ . This chap buys stuff in bulk and then vacuum packs it himself, the hops are superior in my opinion and crucially, fresh. In addition he carries more commercial hops, some of the names may be unfamiliar to us, but well worth experimenting. I'm currently drinking my recipe boddingtons using his hops and the result is marvelous.

Boddingtons (8 gallons): pale malt 6.5kg, black malt 32g, syrup 500g. Mash @ 65 degrees for 90 minutes, 2hrs boil, hops start of boil: fuggles 50g, golding 33g, Bramling Cross 21g. Hops final minutes of boil: Brewers Gold 15g, Bramling Cross 25g, East Kent Golding 40g (after the minute has passed, turn off the boiler, remove the hop bag with a glove and then give it a good squeeze to get all the flavour out, now cool asap ideally with a cooling coil to prevent loss the oils). Using safale s-04 yeast, and then kegged into two 4 gallon cornelius kegs and pressurised with co2/n2 cylinder for the creamy boddingtons style head. Now drink, repeatedly


cornelius keg

Change of subject abit. The cornelius kits i saw when i was in oz looked very good if not a little small at 18 litres. What's the deal with them in the uk? how much, where does u buy them ,cost effective , gas bottle problems, or

Is it better to adapt an old keg that fell off the back of a wagon.

Andy


cornelius keg reply:

Cornelius Kegs are great in my opinion. They hold their pressure and can be pressurised to greater pressure so you can carbonate it if desired. Also they feed from the bottom of the keg so once clear you can move the keg around. They are only really available to us as pubs are moving away from them and so you can get them second hand. Much higher quality than those awful plastic kegs, built to last and spares not a problem. You are best buying them from ebay, here is one on at the moment that includes the gas disconnects: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/CORNELIUS-STAINLESS-STEEL-19-LITRE-KEG-/220703897533?pt=Home_Brew&hash=item3362fa37bd#ht_1256wt_1139 to complete the set up, you would need:


thanks

It will take me a while to trawl through this lsit

Cheers Andy


kingkeg

hello,

  i noticed that a negative comment was made about the plastic kegs? I own 2 off these from my early brew days. Looking back through my notes i was never convinced about them myself, problem being massive airgap. This i think is ok if you are going to down your 40 pints in one session. But alsa i am only a mere 20 pints a night man, then a need a couple of days to recover. No seriously i always struggled to keep it gassed and most results where lacking. I have been advise to go back to bottles (recommend a bottler?). This is why when i get back into the brewing properly i will want a cornelius but i need to learn more about using with nitrogen and where to get it first, plus get some money..

What do others think about these kegs and do you suffer similiar woes?

Cheers Andy


beer cooler vs freezer convertion

Just wondering if anybody has any comments about the cornelius beer cooler because they seem very affordable at approx 120 quid when you compare it to converting a freezer to a kegerator for the cornelius kegs. The cooler has what seems to be higher run cost based on current rating, though i don't know how they work so it could just be used as an instantaneous cooler? So what is the recommended way for those in the know?


Re: beer cooler vs freezer convertion

there are lots of beer coolers about due to pubs closing. No need at this time of year of course but in the summer it's invaluable. Obviously you could just put the keg in a fridge but if you want several kegs on you'd need a huge fridge, these coolers can be bought most commonly in 1, 2, or 4 channel. The cooler works by feeding a series of pipes through a cooled chamber, so beer comes on warm goes out cold. It's much smaller than a fridge, doesn't need to be on all the time and due to the size is cheaper to run anyway. So is it necessary? in summer yes even for bitter, in winter only if you make lager / cider. Also to consider if you go for the fridge option is where is it going to live, most modern fridges won't work in a porch or garage, they rely on the room its in being 12 degrees or more, below this they break, so check the rating before you buy. The only downside with a cooler is if it goes wrong, you'll have trouble getting it fixed, a brand new cooler is at least £500


cornelius keg problem

Just racked off my wort into my corny keg. Connected the CO2. Then set pressure to 40 psi. Next rolled the keg for 2 minutes (not sure y cos i saw someone else do it). Placed the keg and CO2 bottle upright and secured.

Problem: losing pressure approx 5 psi per half hour (note did turn off co2 gas).

What i have tried to resolve problem; submerged corny keg in water and watched for air bubbles, i did same with co2 bottle including all gauges with co2 bottle open. I got no leaks.

So all i can conclude is the co2 is being absorbed into wort???

What can you good peoples suggest?

All the best for the new year Cheers


re keg problem

the beer will absorb co2 for about 48hrs then it should stabilise. Rolling the keg increases the take up of the gas. After 48hrs, make the pressure about 20psi for beer delivery, you may need to top up the gas a couple of times as you drink the beer.

Note, if you're using straight co2 you will end up force carbonating your beer and it will be fizzy like pop, this is what you want for lager but for bitter and stout, you need to use a carbon dioxide / nitrogen mixed cylinder for best results with them (http://www.colchesterhomebrew.co.uk/colchesterhomebrewshop/prod_667589-Widget-World-N2CO2-gas-cylinders-refill.html), the nitrogen doesn't stay in the beer and so you get a creamy beer rather than a fizzy beer.

Final point, highly unlikely your keg will leak, what can happen is that if you leave the gas inlet connected to the bottle, you can get leaks between the gas bottle and keg. I only connect mine to charge.


froth

i have sorted y the keg pressure was dropping, i did not bleed the air out after filling with the brew.

i sampled the other day after 4 weeks in the corny keg at a pressure of approx 12psi (Co2).

Result , all froth, store temp is in unheated garage approx 2 oC. So i must of over carbonated it some how (note this is a dark mild brew), dont really see what i did wrong? i did not use any priming sugars just co2. maybe next time i should just store it after bleeding the air out at 6psi. Any advice.


First time with grain.

Hi there Simon.

Have been looking for a nice receipe to start me off on grain, and chanced upon your stout one... I quite like a good stout.

Can you just confirm I have this right.

To make less (say 10 pints) I just cut the amounts back to 1/4 of the amounts?

Do I add sugar at teh fermentation stage?  If so how much?  Do you recommend bottles or pressure barrel?  and do you need to add sugar at the bottling point?

Cheers


reply:

reply: yes the recipe is for 40 pints so you could quarter it to make 10 pints, stout is best served from a cornelius keg under co2/nitrogen mix but if you are only making 10 pints, you will be best bottling it. Re sugar, no this recipe has no sugar in it and you will ruin it by adding a load, all the sugar comes from the grain and it's quite strong enough without adding extra sugar. Re bottling, you can add a small amount  of sugar when you bottle though I prefer not to and to just wait longer after bottling so the head comes from ferment of the remaining sugars also this reduces the sediment in the bottle.


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