This first section is taken from the Brewing Network Can You Brew It episode from August 27, 2012. The guys interviewed Neil Spake of Wells and the pertinent stuff is below:
The bottled Export version is 5.5%ABV, where the domestic is somewhat lower, between 4.1-4.7% ABV, with the bottled version at the higher end at 4.7%, canned at 4.3% and the cask version on the lower end at 4.1%.
Details from CYBI show are for the Export version:
OG: 1.050-1.051, FG 1.011-1.012 Color EBC: ~50, Bitterness EBU: 30-32
Grain bill for 250 hectalitre batch
Pearl/Flagon 2.9tons (84% by weight of grain, 51.7% extract)
Crystal 130-140EBC 0.55 tons (16% by weight of grain, 9.27% extract)
Invert Sugar No. 5 0.72 tons (21.27% extract)
Corn Syrup 0.75 tons (17.81% extract)
The corn syrup is added to boost the ABV as needed for the different strengths.
Mash Profile:
Infuse at 52C for 40 minutes
Step to 74C with a rise of 1-2C/minute, hold 50-60 minutes at 74C until fully converted.
Sparge at 78C
Water treatment
Wells water comes from a private well drawing from the Oolite aquifer. The water is reported to be hard, subsequently softened by the brewery. They report adding 6-6.5kg of CaCl to each batch.
The water profile as used for Bombardier is reported as:
300ppm Calcium
300ppm Sulfate
20ppm Magnesium
Boiled for 60 minutes (approximately 8% evaporation)
Challenger added to approximately 29EBU at 60 minutes
Fuggles added at 5 minutes at 10-12kg per batch
Fermented with Wells house yeast strain. Started at 17C, allowed to free rise to 20C, cold crashed to -1C, pasteurized during packaging for bottles/cans.
My Proposed recipe:
I designed this to be closer to the domestic cask product, as thats what I developed my love for this beer on, and these days I prefer lower alcohol stuff so I can drink more of it. From the CYBI episode, it sounds like the extra ABV is coming from the corn syrup addition so Ive eliminated that.
The ratio of base malt to crystal malt is maintained to keep the color in the same ballpark, and the golden syrup is maintained to keep the fermentability in the same order.
The mash schedule used by Wells was duplicated by the CYBI folks, and whilst it looks eye-popping at first when you consider the whole recipe it makes more sense. They are doughing in at protein rest temperature for haze stability (probably less of a concern for us homebrewers) then stepping the mash up quickly through the beta-amylase range to the high end of the alpha amylase range. This alone will leave a beer with a fairly high FG and lots of body due to the limited beta-amylase activity, but the addition of simple fermentable sugars will drop the FG down with the production of alcohol. This way you end up with a beer with more body than you would get from a single infusion mash whilst keeping an easily fermented wort.
Grain bill
6lbs 2-row
1.25lb English Medium Crystal 55L
12oz Golden Syrup
Base malt would be Pearl to follow Wells to the letter, however I expect you could sub any variety of English malt and come out with a decent beer. Golden Promise, English Pale Malt, Maris Otter, whatever your LHBS has. Neither of mine carry Pearl so Im going to use Maris Otter as I usually keep a sack on hand. Id suggest finding something characterful though, as I suspect that American 2-row will be a little bland for this beer, or you could add a touch of Biscuit or Victory to compensate.
You can probably also sub out the Golden Syrup with a light brown sugar, but you can usually find Lyles golden syrup in the International section of supermarkets. I found 12oz jars in the baking section of a Harris Teeter. Sooner or later I'll do a split batch with something cheaper, but I'd like to follow the recipe as given for the first run as a baseline.
My water is very soft, with low hardness (33ppm as CaCO3) and low sulfate (30ppm) so I will add 1.8g of gypsum per gallon of water used to get the sulfate levels in line. If required I will acidify the mash using lactic acid.
I currently do not have a RIMS/HERMS system to do the step mash procedure as described in the CYBI podcast, so I am probably going to try a simple step procedure with no sparge. I plan to infuse at 1.0qts/lb targeting 148F for some beta-amylase activity for 10-15 minutes, then adding boiling water to the mash to increase the temperature to the 160+ range, where Ill let it rest for 30-40 minutes. Ill then add the last of the liquor and lauter into the kettle.
Ill add 1 oz Challenger at 60 minutes and 10g Fuggles at 5 minutes. No hot whirlpool for this one, once the five minutes is up Ill immediately start chilling and pump out into the carboy around 70F, depending on my hose water temperature.
I am waiting until White Labs releases WLP006 Bedford Ale Yeast for this, as I expect that one of the keys to success with this beer is using the Wells strain. Im sure it will be a fine beer with a different strain, but the CYBI guys reported that using the right strain really nailed the final beer.
I've typed this all up as some googling only found a few threads pointing to the CYBI episode, and it's much easier to read than to listen and take notes. This and St Austell's Tribute (see my recipe thread in the English Pale Ale section) are two of my favourite beers from back home, and I'm pretty happy with the Tribute so this is the next one to take on.
I'll update this as I brew it, any feedback from anyone else would be received with interest
The bottled Export version is 5.5%ABV, where the domestic is somewhat lower, between 4.1-4.7% ABV, with the bottled version at the higher end at 4.7%, canned at 4.3% and the cask version on the lower end at 4.1%.
Details from CYBI show are for the Export version:
OG: 1.050-1.051, FG 1.011-1.012 Color EBC: ~50, Bitterness EBU: 30-32
Grain bill for 250 hectalitre batch
Pearl/Flagon 2.9tons (84% by weight of grain, 51.7% extract)
Crystal 130-140EBC 0.55 tons (16% by weight of grain, 9.27% extract)
Invert Sugar No. 5 0.72 tons (21.27% extract)
Corn Syrup 0.75 tons (17.81% extract)
The corn syrup is added to boost the ABV as needed for the different strengths.
Mash Profile:
Infuse at 52C for 40 minutes
Step to 74C with a rise of 1-2C/minute, hold 50-60 minutes at 74C until fully converted.
Sparge at 78C
Water treatment
Wells water comes from a private well drawing from the Oolite aquifer. The water is reported to be hard, subsequently softened by the brewery. They report adding 6-6.5kg of CaCl to each batch.
The water profile as used for Bombardier is reported as:
300ppm Calcium
300ppm Sulfate
20ppm Magnesium
Boiled for 60 minutes (approximately 8% evaporation)
Challenger added to approximately 29EBU at 60 minutes
Fuggles added at 5 minutes at 10-12kg per batch
Fermented with Wells house yeast strain. Started at 17C, allowed to free rise to 20C, cold crashed to -1C, pasteurized during packaging for bottles/cans.
My Proposed recipe:
I designed this to be closer to the domestic cask product, as thats what I developed my love for this beer on, and these days I prefer lower alcohol stuff so I can drink more of it. From the CYBI episode, it sounds like the extra ABV is coming from the corn syrup addition so Ive eliminated that.
The ratio of base malt to crystal malt is maintained to keep the color in the same ballpark, and the golden syrup is maintained to keep the fermentability in the same order.
The mash schedule used by Wells was duplicated by the CYBI folks, and whilst it looks eye-popping at first when you consider the whole recipe it makes more sense. They are doughing in at protein rest temperature for haze stability (probably less of a concern for us homebrewers) then stepping the mash up quickly through the beta-amylase range to the high end of the alpha amylase range. This alone will leave a beer with a fairly high FG and lots of body due to the limited beta-amylase activity, but the addition of simple fermentable sugars will drop the FG down with the production of alcohol. This way you end up with a beer with more body than you would get from a single infusion mash whilst keeping an easily fermented wort.
Grain bill
6lbs 2-row
1.25lb English Medium Crystal 55L
12oz Golden Syrup
Base malt would be Pearl to follow Wells to the letter, however I expect you could sub any variety of English malt and come out with a decent beer. Golden Promise, English Pale Malt, Maris Otter, whatever your LHBS has. Neither of mine carry Pearl so Im going to use Maris Otter as I usually keep a sack on hand. Id suggest finding something characterful though, as I suspect that American 2-row will be a little bland for this beer, or you could add a touch of Biscuit or Victory to compensate.
You can probably also sub out the Golden Syrup with a light brown sugar, but you can usually find Lyles golden syrup in the International section of supermarkets. I found 12oz jars in the baking section of a Harris Teeter. Sooner or later I'll do a split batch with something cheaper, but I'd like to follow the recipe as given for the first run as a baseline.
My water is very soft, with low hardness (33ppm as CaCO3) and low sulfate (30ppm) so I will add 1.8g of gypsum per gallon of water used to get the sulfate levels in line. If required I will acidify the mash using lactic acid.
I currently do not have a RIMS/HERMS system to do the step mash procedure as described in the CYBI podcast, so I am probably going to try a simple step procedure with no sparge. I plan to infuse at 1.0qts/lb targeting 148F for some beta-amylase activity for 10-15 minutes, then adding boiling water to the mash to increase the temperature to the 160+ range, where Ill let it rest for 30-40 minutes. Ill then add the last of the liquor and lauter into the kettle.
Ill add 1 oz Challenger at 60 minutes and 10g Fuggles at 5 minutes. No hot whirlpool for this one, once the five minutes is up Ill immediately start chilling and pump out into the carboy around 70F, depending on my hose water temperature.
I am waiting until White Labs releases WLP006 Bedford Ale Yeast for this, as I expect that one of the keys to success with this beer is using the Wells strain. Im sure it will be a fine beer with a different strain, but the CYBI guys reported that using the right strain really nailed the final beer.
I've typed this all up as some googling only found a few threads pointing to the CYBI episode, and it's much easier to read than to listen and take notes. This and St Austell's Tribute (see my recipe thread in the English Pale Ale section) are two of my favourite beers from back home, and I'm pretty happy with the Tribute so this is the next one to take on.
I'll update this as I brew it, any feedback from anyone else would be received with interest