Hey all;
A couple of years ago I tried to do a replica of this from what little I could find online and in my older uncles’ memories.
The effort was not good.
HELP!?
Thanks - Steven
I tried doing some research but didn’t find anything of value to you sorry. One of the problems I came across is the multitude of homebrewers who have called their beers “Hampton (fill the blank) ale/brew”. Who originally brewed this?
The Hampden Ale to which I refer was brewed by the Willamansett Brewery in western Massachusetts, which reopened in 1933. They were taken over by Piels in 1962 before going out of business in 1975. It’s a brew my dad grew up on, and since he passed last year, I wanted to brew a good version in his memory.
From what I can tell, Hampden Ale was a brown mild brewed with rice and sugar as adjuncts.
My first try:
Sugars: 6# M&F Light DME, 1/2# each 60L Crystal and Victory malt, 1/2# each Rice syrup solids and Brown sugar
Hops (1 oz each): 60 min Northern Brewer (8.5% alpha), 30 min Kent Golding (6.6%), 15 min KG (6.6%) and Finish KG (6.6%)
I’ve mostly been brewing meads and making wine the past several years, so my malt brewing skills are a bit rusty insofar as recipe formulation is concerned.
Grateful for any advice.
Thanks!
I’m all about a good challenge, and especially since this is a tribute beer I’d love to try and help! Without going too much into detail…although that may be where we’re headed, let’s try some of the bigger questions first.
What was “wrong” with the first batch? It just didn’t hit your target flavor or was there something actually wrong?
What yeast did you use, what temp was it fermented at, and did you take measurements?
Cheers!
Casey
I looked at my notes again; jumped the gun a bit on my OP, used liquid extract instead of the dried (the above recipe is a later stab at it, which has not been brewed yet).
The original recipe was 3# each Munton’s Amber and Dark LME plus 1# each dark brown sugar and rice syrup. I used 2 oz of whole leaf Fuggles for the 60 min boil. Yeast used was a sachet of Edme’s, which was just sprinkled atop the wort in the fermenter. Temperatures were right around 65F.
Initial gravity was 1.049, finished out at 1.011.
If I recall correctly, I had bought the cans of LME from a LHBS hereabouts that went out of business at least 8 years ago. The cans were in perfect condition, been stored in a cool, dry basement, so I thought, “what the hey?”
From the comments I jotted from what folks said at brew club, woody was the main flavor profile, which I understand is an oxidation problem. The foaming was moderate as was carbonation (I bottle, used corn sugar for priming).
Aside from that, the off-flavor I got was kind of a green-grass taste, like chewing a stem of hay.
I got a copy of David Sutula’s “Mild Ale” earlier this afternoon.
Not having ever tried brewing a mild before (I like stout my wife prefers English IPA), some advice on what to look for.
Thank you for the input thus far.