I have a smack pack of WYEAST9097 Old Ale Blend and LOTS of sacks of Maris Otter laying around that I need to use. Never brewed an old ale before. I have a lot of crystal in the recipe because of the Brett strain in the yeast blend. Also bumped up the hops quite a bit, maybe too much? Take a look see and see what ya’ll think.
Ol’ Crusty
Old Ale
6 gallons
OG 1.080
IBU ~90
15 lbs Maris Otter (Thomas Faucett)
2lbs Crystal 80L
2 oz Challenger (8aa) @ 60
2 oz EKG (5.5 aa) @ 30 min
2 oz EKG *5.5 aa) @ 5 min
Your recipe looks good to me. Perhaps too bitter, but I assume it is going to sit for quite awhile so the bitterness will drop with time.
I used the Wyeast Old Ale blend about the middle of June in my first Old Ale batch. As of now the beer is very funky. It has lots of cherry pie aroma as well as layers of musty aromas that I expect from Brett. The Brett character really came through more than I expected and quicker too. I pitched too warm (75 F) and I suspect that might have something to do with it. It’s a good rich beer, just really funky.
Here’s what I brewed:
11 lb Marris Otter
12 oz Crystal 80
4 oz Black Patent
3 lb Muntons Extra Light DME
12 oz Black Treacle
Looks great. I like the relative simplicity of it (the better beers I’ve tasted proved to have very simple grainbills). Your hop rate seems a bit high though probably only for my tastes (for this type of beer) …although as previously pointed out some of the bitterness will smooth out with the aging time that this beer will definitely want.
I’ll be doing another batch of my own Old Ale next week (I make it 2 or 3 times a year, each batch designed for a full year of aging).
Yeah, I wasn’t sure about the IBUs being that high and I don’t generally care for EKG in excess but I thought it would age significantly in a couple years which was my goal. It is quite possible I will tone it down before I actually brew it. Thanks for all the feedback!
I used homebrew58’s recipe from youtube but added some malted rye for color and to dry it out a tad. Came out good but next time I’ll use more malt to boost my O.G. and not use DME.
Maybe Ron, but I have a BW that’s a year and a half old that’s still quite bitter and it was only 70 IBUs and the Brett may thin the old ale out over time. The only way to find out is do it! ;D
I agree and when I brew English Ales I usually aim for balance. But I am going to brew it as is, I believe. I intentionally went with higher IBUs. Might chicken out at boil time though.
I have some that blend still sitting around and am thinking about re-doing my Old Ale with it.
Here is my recipe I brew on June 14th 2008. ts is based off of the BCS recipe,and recently it has done well in some competitions. The Burton yeast was the primary one used to ferment the beer. After a year or so I was going to bottle it,so I pitched the US-05 and S-23 since I was going to re-yeast with one of them,and was a safety measure to make sure I didn’t get bottle bombs.
Elijah Wallace Old Ale
5.25 gallons
1 lbs Black Treacle [Boil for 15 min] Extract 4.44 %
20 lbs 8.0 oz Maris Otter (Thomas Fawcett) (2.1 SRM) Grain 91.11 %
12.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain 3.33 %
4.0 oz Black Malt (TF) (458.0 SRM) Grain 1.11 %
1.50 oz Nugget [11.60 %] (60 min) Hops 65.3 IBU
0 Pkgs Burton Ale (White Labs #WLP023) [Cultured] Yeast-Ale
1 Pkgs US-05 (Saf-ale #US-05) Yeast-Ale
1 Pkgs SafLager West European Lager (DCL Yeast #S-23) [Add to Secondary] Yeast-Lager
This beer turned out awesome. It was damn near undrinkable a year ago. Got the courage to try it again tonight and - whoa!!! One of the best Old Ales I ever tasted. The brett in the WY strain is perfectly balanced. Really nice cherry pie tartness coming through. I brewed a side batch with all US-05, and while it is pretty good it does not compare to the complexity of the WY strain. Gonna have to brew this one again - maybe barrel age it!
Glad you reported back on his one, and I’m glad to hear it turned out so well.
I just love these big beers once they have matured. It’s certainly worth the wait, and for me, definitely worth brewing a couple times a year so I always have some aged stock on hand.
A glass of good ‘keeping’ beer, a cheese plate, and a wedge or two of crusty bread is (to me) as good as a a fancy meal in a 5 star restaurant.
Maybe even better.
Heck yeah, this was my first Old Ale (that I have brewed) and I like it much better than Barley Wine. Have several of those going back over the years but I just really have to be in the mood. Gonna brew this one up again ASAP and will try to keep from pulling the taps too hard until the other one is at least 6 months old.
have to say, the brett balance on this beeer was spot on perfect - don’t think I could have done it better with my own blend. If anyone is interested in this style I’d highly recommend the seasonal WY strain.
