I didn't have the full recipe for either beer as the information I have came from the Home Brewer's Recipe Database which doesn't include the time/size of additions or specifics like IBUs. I used a combination of what I did have, other historic recipes of the styles from the time period and BJCP style guidelines to come up with recipes that seemed fairly authentic but also appealing to my palate. The historic recipes I used as reference came mainly from Ron Pattinson's Shut Up About Barclay Perkins blog, including an Eldridge Pope XXXX from just a year later than the George's recipe. The BJCP style guidelines I used were English IPA for the Pale Ale and a combination of British Strong Ale, Old Ale, and English Barleywine for the Strong Ale.
One of the main changes I made from the last batch was changing the base malt from the floor-malted Maris Otter that seemed to cause issues in several beers I made (including a Belgian Dubbel and the aforementioned Stout) to using Simpson's Golden Promise, a malt that I haven't used very often but is generally highly regarded and fits the bill of a English Pale malt. The malt is extremely important in a beer this simple: one grain, one strain of yeast, one hop variety (plus a small dry-hop addition of EKG to the pale ale) and water, so each ingredient will have to shine through.
While I've done a number of parti-gyle batches in the past this will be one of the biggest batches I've ever made with both beers expected to weigh in over 1.060 (1.064 and 1.088) and I'm using 16 pounds of grain in what is planned to be just 6 gallons total of beer. I'm also planning to boil the Strong Ale for 2+ hours to get a little more caramelization, color, gravity, and bitterness.
The fuggles are quite old now (they were a year old when I bought them more than a year ago) but hopefully that just adds to the authentically historic qualities of the beer and doesn't hurt it too much. Using aged fuggles could even lead to beneficial and interesting fruity qualities according to Scott Janish's book.
6/10/18
Brewday: Unfortunately today turned out to be the hottest day in San Francisco since I moved here: over 95F outside and even hotter in my apartment before I started heating water; definitely was not the best day to schedule a multi-hour boil brew day.
The pale ale went off without a hitch and hit just under the expected gravity (1.064) at 1.062. This was partly due to collecting too much of the second runnings. An extra quarter gallon or so of leftover wort from this half was added to the strong ale. Cooled to about 75F (probably as good as I can do in this heat) and aerated then pitched with a 1L starter of West Yorkshire Ale yeast and moved to the chest freezer set to 65F.
The strong ale had a lot more issues, with the burner it was on cutting out for some reason and the batch refusing to boil off at the anticipated rate after getting it going again. Coupled with the addition of the extra wort from the Pale Ale it ended up being boiled for a little over 2.5 hours, and being on the burner for close to 4 hours total, adding about 2 hours to the brew day beyond the time needed for the pale ale and what I usually anticipate. Hopefully all of that extra time added some sweetness and complexity in addition to bumping up the gravity to 1.088 and seemingly adding some color. The wort received the remaining .25L of the West Yorkshire Ale yeast and a pack of dry English yeast and was also set in the 65F chest freezer.
6/17/18
The pale ale blew its bung and both beers overflowed into the chest freezer while I was away for the weekend. Both seem fine and are showing continued moderate signs of fermentation so I didn’t take a sample. I did add 1 oz of EKG hops to the Pale Ale, higher than the originally planned 1/2 oz but at an earlier point.
6/19/19
Pale ale down to 1.010, taste is subtle with some herbal, tea, and lemon rounding out moderate grainy maltiness. The strong ale is down to 1.025 (almost all the way to the predicted FG of 1.023). Taste is similar with more pronounced maltiness and a little more sweetness but not as sweet or malty as most modern Old Ales or Barleywines. Goal is to keg both beers early next week, though the strong ale might get some extended aging in the keg.
6/24/19
Kegged both halves and set in keezer at 35F and 12 PSI. Pale Ale is toastier/maltier than I would like and probably needed more hops for both flavor and bitterness but hoping some carbonation will cut through the malt some. The Strong Ale is a bit boozy and a little sweet but not unenjoyable, hopefully some cold aging will allow it to condition.
8/10/19
These beers have been on tap for a while and have been pretty enjoyable. They both were well received at the SFHG meeting I brought them to, especially the strong ale which people encouraged me to enter in a competition.
10/4/19
These both kicked a few weeks ago. I forgot to get a picture of the pale ale, it was just such an easy sessionable drinker that it kicked pretty quick. Pictures are all of the Strong Ale which lasted quite a bit longer due to me turning to it less and usually going with much smaller pours when I did have it. Both were pretty nice beers but I would increase the hops quite a bit if I did it again and would probably add some specialty malts (if not going for strict historic authenticity) to give more toast/biscuit notes and some caramel sweetness that both halves could have used to be more similar to modern English beers.
