October Beer

AUDIT ALE / OCTOBER ALE

This is a loose recreation of an English ale brewed since the 1300s, based on a compilation of many sources, but realistically probably closest to known versions made between the late 1800s and WWI. Liberties have been taken to work with modern ingredients, equipment, and techniques, but with an to more consistent results rather than improving on antiquity. Without the hops, this is the sort of beer that would be brewed and kept for a year or two, then served to tenants of the demesne at the time of collection of seasonal assize rents, fines, and fees, on quarterly feast days, court days, and fair days (which often overlapped fast days).

TARGET SPECS

In terms of the beer analysis, it will be what it is. Do not focus on hitting specs so much as managing the quantity of ingredients, keeping in mind medieval brewers did not have thermometers or saccharometers, much less malt certificates of analysis. We

Units: all units in American customary, unless otherwise specified
Volume: 8 gal
OG: You might get an OG of 1.125 to 1.135
FG: Wherever it stops, likely around 1.050-1.055 FG, but the beer may stall, and it may referment later regardless of whether it stalled
IBU: probably 80-100 if it were measured
ADF: 60% apparent degree of fermentation
Color/Clarity: in the dark golden to dark amber range. The beer should be brilliantly clear when served.

INGREDIENTS

* 40 lbs (18.2 kg) pale malt. Any floor-malted Maris Otter Pale Ale Malt is probably a close analogue, but for a fine substitute I think American 2-row pale malt or something like Great Western Northwestern Pale Ale, Rahr Pale Ale Malt, Briess Pale Ale Malt, Briess Ashburne Mild Malt or Briess Heritage Gold Malt would be a fine. The specifications of characteristic malt of the time is unknowable but I have already made some guesswork compensation for modern malt in the determining the weight of malt.
* 1 lb (454 g) whole cone EKG hops or 13 oz (369 g) EKG hop pellets - 60 min - the notional, calculated IBU will approach or exceed the threshold of solubility. It is acceptable to substitute another British hop varietal because he top, such as Target.
* Hop alternative: it's not clear what would have been used to flavor beer, if anything, prior to the introduction of hops in brewing to England. Possibly heather, because heather was recorded as being used by people in surrounding areas in the classical period. But also possibly yarrow/mugwort. Gruit, per se, was not a thing in England and so using a gruit mixture would likely be ahistorical. Some contemporary accounts suggest drinking common beer within a few days, so probably anything added did not have a strong preservative effect. It's possible no herbs were added. Or it could be something we totally don't expect, like coriander.
* Yeast: Whitbread "A" strain aka Whitbread sweet (e.g., Wyeast 1099 Whitbread Ale / White Labs WLP017 Whitbread II). Pitch a lot of yeast. This beer would have been pitched with the recently-harvested, active of another batch.

STEPS
0. Calculate mash water in advance, expecting to collect 4 gal of wort, twice. The first charge of mash water will be much larger than the second. For a data point, when we brewed it, we mashed in with 11-11.5 gal and then the second charge was 6 gal.
1. Mash all malt and hot water for 60 min at roughly 155°F. The mash will be thick, around 1.2-1.25 qt.lb, and it is crucial to take a long time to dough in and mix obsessively and thoroughly/perfectly	.
2. Meanwhile, heat another batch of strike water.
3. Run off 5 gal of wort
4. Two hour boil with the hops, aiming for 12% evaporation (hot)
5. Hops at 60 min
6. Meanwhile, recharge the mash tun with hot water and remash (mash the spent malt again with fresh mash water)
7. Run the boiled wort into an underback (a shallow open vessel - a full-size hotel pan is your best bet) while keeping the hops in the kettle and allow the wort to cool. It is important to keep all of the hop material and kettle trub because it contains a lot of precipitated alpha acids. The trub will be the second-use hops.
8. After an extended mash, run off another 5 gal of wort into the kettle already containing the second-use hops
9. Two hour boil with the second-use hops, aiming for 12% evaporation (hot)
10. Run the boiled wort into the underback (perhaps a separate full-size hotel pan), again leaving the hops behind
11. Pitch each of the wort(s) when cool. While not historically accurate, you may wish to aerate the wort at pitching, given the big investment in time (and ingredients).
12. Skim off the first rising of "dirty" barm (foam)
13. After 24 hours active fermentation ("a day and night"), rack the beer and barm into a cask, keg, or tank to complete fermentation. If you don't have a single tank that can hold the volume, be sure to blend the two beers evenly when racking. The end goal is to have the beer in a tank or pressurizable serving vessel.
14. Keep at least one year, and ideally two before serving. Don't be surprised if the beer starts refermenting in the first 3-6 months.
15. Carbonation: level unclear. Some cask-type level of natural carbonation, sufficient for a small head to arise, seems appropriate. This will likely require some discretion in periodically venting the keg or in the setting for a spunding valve.

Serving: The beer from the first tapping is traditionally filled into a giant chalice and passed around the hall. Guests would be served this beer alongside common beer. Manorial records showed that the ratios varied over time and based on specific financial circumstances, with a range between 2:1 and 1:3 strong ale:common ale. When times were good, the good stuff flowed.

Tasting: Brewed Summer 2016, tasted fall 2018. Our beer was dark amber, brilliantly clear, with just enough natural carbonation to raise a small head and be detectable on the tongue. The body was full, the taste balanced, malty, a touch vinous, with caramel/toffee notes. The ~ 100 IBU were not apparent and in harmony with the beer. The wort had been very bitter even at 1.135 OG, so I assume the bitterness both reduced over time and was counterbalanced by malt.

Special thanks to Terry Foster of Bru@Bar in New Haven on his excellent article on brewing Queens College Chancellor Ale and for taking my call with questions. The pizza and beer are world class. Thanks also go to Patrick Rue, Johnny Liebermann, Jeff Renner, Chip Walton/Donny Osborne/Michael Dawson and many others for their prior work on high gravity ales and keeping ales, which informed and inspired our beer.