Your favourite AK recipe?

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Its interesting to track the evolution of the AK from 1870 to the 1920, the 1930 and the 1933 version.
The 1870 recipe uses all pale malt, a gravity about 1.050 and just slightly less hops than IPA. The recipe says 12-18 lbs/quarter which translates to about 7oz to 12 oz of hops for a 5 gallon batch.
Around 1880 the taxation for beer changed, the war caused shortages, more taxes and price controls and drinkers preferences changed.
By the 20's and 30's the use of 6 row, corn and sugar was common, the OG was reduced to 1.040 or lower and the hops substantially reduced.
The commercial breweries still used the term AK, but it really was a totally different beer.
Someday I'm going to try to get some Chevalier malt and see what the 1870 version was like.
 
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Its interesting to track the evolution of the AK from 1870 to the 1920, the 1930 and the 1933 version.
The 1870 recipe uses all pale malt, a gravity about 1.050 and just slightly less hops than IPA. The recipe says 12-18 lbs/quarter which translates to about 7oz to 12 oz of hops for a 5 gallon batch.
Around 1880 the taxation for beer changed, the war caused shortages, more taxes and price controls and drinkers preferences changed.
By the 20's and 30's the use of 6 row, corn and sugar was common, the OG was reduced to 1.040 or lower and the hops substantially reduced.
The commercial breweries still used the term AK, but it really was a totally different beer.
Someday I'm going to try to get some Chevalier malt and see what the 1870 version was like.
I can highly recommend that. Chevallier really is something special. Best used on it's own first, to really see what it brings to the table. An AK would be a good starting point for this.
 
I was curious about Chevalier so I looked for how much it costs here. Dang, my local guy said he could order it but it's $100/sack. A place outside of Philadelphia (I'll be in that area in January) has it for $90. I don't know if I want to pay up that much.
 
I was curious about Chevalier so I looked for how much it costs here. Dang, my local guy said he could order it but it's $100/sack. A place outside of Philadelphia (I'll be in that area in January) has it for $90. I don't know if I want to pay up that much.
What to you pay for a similar amount of base malt?
 
I never bought MO from my local store - too expensive. Iirc, it was in the upper $80's. I get pilsner, 2_row, and pale ale from him.
 
I never bought MO from my local store - too expensive. Iirc, it was in the upper $80's. I get pilsner, 2_row, and pale ale from him.

All domestic? Yeah, you can't really compare non-craft US malt with European imports. Price- or flavo(u)r-wise.

If you're used to domestic malt, a bag of Chevallier would be an excellent gift to yourself.

ETA: via my LHBS, all Crisp...
Best Pale Ale $62
MO $66
Floor malted MO $68
Chevallier $80
 
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The pils isn't domestic - Avengard, I believe. And the pale ale is Swaen, iirc, it's from the Netherlands. The 2-row is domestic. Anyway, yes, I will probably treat myself at some point.
 
For some time now I have been brewing a best bitter according to @Northern_Brewer recommendation of 90% base malt and 10% some combination of crystal and/or sugar. Hopping pretty much follows most of the Wheeler recipes of a 60min bitter charge and a modest 10min charge. Would this qualify as a AK?

You have to remember that despite preceding bitter as a style, in modern terms AK can be regarded as a subset of bitter, and a really obscure one at that. Nobody in the UK has heard of AK apart from a handful of beer history geeks and the fraction of people in Hertfordshire who go to McMullen pubs and who think it's a brand name rather than a beer style (qv Fuller's ESB).

And given that in later years it merged into bitter, I would tend to define it from a 21st-century perspective in terms of the Victorian AK's - before crystal was really used in British beers and when Chevallier was the standard barley variety. So I'd say for it to be a "classic" AK you're looking at no crystal and Chevallier as the base malt - or at the very least one of the other heritage malts. I know that definition excludes some beers sold as AKs - but those later ones are effectively just bitters.
 
While giving Chevallier another look I seen Crisp has another heritage malt called Hana. Seems to be a pilsner type malt but with the higher level of protein it might be a good sub for American 6row in AK recipes as the current American 6row I see seems to have a protein level more inline with American 2row.
Hana Malt | Crisp Heritage Malts | Norfolk Malted Barley For Pilsner Beers
 
While giving Chevallier another look I seen Crisp has another heritage malt called Hana. Seems to be a pilsner type malt

Not "a" pilsner malt but "the" pilsner malt, it's the Czech equivalent of Chevallier in that it was the main barley variety used for malting back in the day, so it would have been the variety used by the likes of Urquell etc.

It makes gorgeous lager, so if I had some I'm not sure I would be using it for anything other than lager.
 
Beer History Bloke has restarted his blog
Oh, finally!!
I've been a subscriber of his blog, brewed some nice vintage recipes from there, and was really upset when his blog suddenly stopped updating.
I even went to TheHomeBrewForum.co.uk to enquire what happened to the guy. They said he was busy with some new project and it was nice to know as I was starting to worry (lost too much familiar people to The Plague, so was assuming the worst).
Resubscribed to the new blog!
 
I've just brewed 2 AKs recently. I had been looking for some beers to brew with Imperial Pub, so I chose two Fullers AK recipes.

The first was inspired by the Fullers 1910 AK in The Home Brewer's Guide to Vintage Beer:

78% Maris Otter (Crisp)
6% Corn grits (cereal mash)
6% Pilsner malt (cereal mash)
11% #2.5 invert (homemade--somewhere between 2 and 3)
Fuggles at 90 & 60 minutes for 35 IBUs
Worcester Goldings at 10 minutes for 6 IBUs

Mashed in at 148F which a little lower than I should have since the cereal mash took longer and didn't raise the temp as much as I thought it would.

OG 1.039
FG 1.010 (74% attenuation)
BU:GU somewhere around 1 (using up older Fuggles, so who knows)

Pitched a big starter of Imperial Pub at 60F in my 63F cellar and let it free rise to 68 F. Looked like it was stalling out at 1.013 and the kräusen was falling and the temp was dropping so I roused it about 48 hours in. Pub is a FAST yeast. After a week I racked to a keg with priming sugar and dry hopped with one ounce of Worcester Goldings whole hops from Stocks Farm.

Friday I tried to brew a more accurate interpretation of the 1887 Fullers AK.

80% Chevallier (Crisp)
20% #2.5 invert
Fuggles at 90 & 60 minutes
Worcester Goldings at 30 minutes

This was my first time brewing with Chevallier, so I did a long step mash starting in the 140s working my way up through mash out at 168.

Pitched at 61F right onto the yeast cake from the previous batch. OG was 1.044 and has dropped to 1.012. I am am going to let this batch stay in primary for at least week more. I'll dry hop with a half ounce of whole hop Goldings.

Beers are pretty similar but I imagine will taste pretty different. Can't wait to see what the corn brings to the first one and what the Chevallier brings to the second one.
 
I've just brewed 2 AKs recently. I had been looking for some beers to brew with Imperial Pub, so I chose two Fullers AK recipes.

The first was inspired by the Fullers 1910 AK in The Home Brewer's Guide to Vintage Beer:

78% Maris Otter (Crisp)
6% Corn grits (cereal mash)
6% Pilsner malt (cereal mash)
11% #2.5 invert (homemade--somewhere between 2 and 3)
Fuggles at 90 & 60 minutes for 35 IBUs
Worcester Goldings at 10 minutes for 6 IBUs

Mashed in at 148F which a little lower than I should have since the cereal mash took longer and didn't raise the temp as much as I thought it would.

OG 1.039
FG 1.010 (74% attenuation)
BU:GU somewhere around 1 (using up older Fuggles, so who knows)

Pitched a big starter of Imperial Pub at 60F in my 63F cellar and let it free rise to 68 F. Looked like it was stalling out at 1.013 and the kräusen was falling and the temp was dropping so I roused it about 48 hours in. Pub is a FAST yeast. After a week I racked to a keg with priming sugar and dry hopped with one ounce of Worcester Goldings whole hops from Stocks Farm.

Friday I tried to brew a more accurate interpretation of the 1887 Fullers AK.

80% Chevallier (Crisp)
20% #2.5 invert
Fuggles at 90 & 60 minutes
Worcester Goldings at 30 minutes

This was my first time brewing with Chevallier, so I did a long step mash starting in the 140s working my way up through mash out at 168.

Pitched at 61F right onto the yeast cake from the previous batch. OG was 1.044 and has dropped to 1.012. I am am going to let this batch stay in primary for at least week more. I'll dry hop with a half ounce of whole hop Goldings.

Beers are pretty similar but I imagine will taste pretty different. Can't wait to see what the corn brings to the first one and what the Chevallier brings to the second one.
I think you won't get much from the corn at 6%, I started tasting something which I really could point out at 25% of the grist, before that, it was too subtle. It could have easily been just my mind playing tricks because of expectations. Nonetheless, this will be a great beer! Way too much IBUs for my taste with that OG, but this is certainly highly subjective.

The second one will be grrrrreat! I love Chevallier and I love Pub, that is like the best combo ever. The 20% invert will bump the yeast character and the Chevallier will bring it's own complexity, man this will be good. Perfect beer to showcase yeast and malt.
 
I am finally getting around to this pack of A09 Pub! I have my starter going now and I plan to brew one of these 2 recipes this week. I adapted the Mild recipe from one Bramling Cross posted earlier in the thread and the Best Bitter recipe is another variation of one I've been constantly working on. Great stuff in this thread!

11-B Best Bitter

Size: 5.25 gal
Efficiency: 81.0%
Attenuation: 76.0%

Original Gravity: 1.046
Terminal Gravity: 1.011
Color: 13.69 SRM *
Alcohol: 4.54%
Bitterness: 32.6

Ingredients:
6 lb (75.1%) Maris Otter
.75 lb (9.4%) Crystal Malt 20°L
.25 lb (3.1%) Aromatic Malt (Amber 50)
.25 lb (3.1%) Cara-aroma®
1.75 oz (1.4%) Acidulated Malt **
10 oz (7.8%) Light Brown Sugar - boiled 20 m

.75 oz (33.3%) First Gold (9.2%) - 60 m
.25 oz (11.1%) Challenger (6.3%) - 50 m
1.25 oz (55.6%) East Kent Goldings (4.5%) - 10 m

1.0 ea Imperial Yeast A09 Pub

* I don't think this will be as dark as predicted. BeerTools scores Light Brown Sugar way too dark based on experience with previous recipes.

** I use Acid malt to adjust mash ph based on my water report.

--- OR ---

13-A Dark Mild

Size: 5.25 gal
Efficiency: 81.0%
Attenuation: 76.0%

Original Gravity: 1.040
Terminal Gravity: 1.010
Color: 16.36 SRM
Alcohol: 3.95%
Bitterness: 22.8

Ingredients:

5.5 lb (68.4%) Maris Otter
.75 lb (10.3%) Wheat Flaked
.75 lb (10.3%) Cara-aroma®
.25 lb (3.4%) Crystal Malt 120°L
1 oz (0.9%) Acidulated Malt *

.5 oz (28.6%) First Gold (9.2%) - 90 m
.5 oz (28.6%) East Kent Goldings (4.5%) - 15 m
.75 oz (42.9%) Fuggle (2.9%) - 5 m

Imperial Yeast A09 Pub

* I use the Acid malt to adjust mash ph based on my water report
 
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I am finally getting around to this pack of A09 Pub! I have my starter going now and I plan to brew one of these 2 recipes this week. I adapted the Mild recipe from one Bramling Cross posted earlier in the thread and the Best Bitter recipe is another variation of one I've been constantly working on. Great stuff in this thread!

11-B Best Bitter

Size: 5.25 gal
Efficiency: 81.0%
Attenuation: 76.0%

Original Gravity: 1.046
Terminal Gravity: 1.011
Color: 13.69 SRM *
Alcohol: 4.54%
Bitterness: 32.6

Ingredients:
6 lb (75.1%) Maris Otter
.75 lb (9.4%) Crystal Malt 20°L
.25 lb (3.1%) Aromatic Malt (Amber 50)
.25 lb (3.1%) Cara-aroma®
1.75 oz (1.4%) Acidulated Malt **
10 oz (7.8%) Light Brown Sugar - boiled 20 m

.75 oz (33.3%) First Gold (9.2%) - 60 m
.25 oz (11.1%) Challenger (6.3%) - 50 m
1.25 oz (55.6%) East Kent Goldings (4.5%) - 10 m

1.0 ea Imperial Yeast A09 Pub

* I don't think this will be as dark as predicted. BeerTools scores Light Brown Sugar way too dark based on experience with previous recipes.

** I use Acid malt to adjust mash ph based on my water report.

--- OR ---

13-A Dark Mild

Size: 5.25 gal
Efficiency: 81.0%
Attenuation: 76.0%

Original Gravity: 1.040
Terminal Gravity: 1.010
Color: 16.36 SRM
Alcohol: 3.95%
Bitterness: 22.8

Ingredients:

5.5 lb (68.4%) Maris Otter
.75 lb (10.3%) Wheat Flaked
.75 lb (10.3%) Cara-aroma®
.25 lb (3.4%) Crystal Malt 120°L
1 oz (0.9%) Acidulated Malt *

.5 oz (28.6%) First Gold (9.2%) - 90 m
.5 oz (28.6%) East Kent Goldings (4.5%) - 15 m
.75 oz (42.9%) Fuggle (2.9%) - 5 m

Imperial Yeast A09 Pub

* I use the Acid malt to adjust mash ph based on my water report

Both of those recipes look tops!
 
I am finally getting around to this pack of A09 Pub! I have my starter going now and I plan to brew one of these 2 recipes this week. I adapted the Mild recipe from one Bramling Cross posted earlier in the thread and the Best Bitter recipe is another variation of one I've been constantly working on. Great stuff in this thread!

11-B Best Bitter

Size: 5.25 gal
Efficiency: 81.0%
Attenuation: 76.0%

Original Gravity: 1.046
Terminal Gravity: 1.011
Color: 13.69 SRM *
Alcohol: 4.54%
Bitterness: 32.6

Ingredients:
6 lb (75.1%) Maris Otter
.75 lb (9.4%) Crystal Malt 20°L
.25 lb (3.1%) Aromatic Malt (Amber 50)
.25 lb (3.1%) Cara-aroma®
1.75 oz (1.4%) Acidulated Malt **
10 oz (7.8%) Light Brown Sugar - boiled 20 m

.75 oz (33.3%) First Gold (9.2%) - 60 m
.25 oz (11.1%) Challenger (6.3%) - 50 m
1.25 oz (55.6%) East Kent Goldings (4.5%) - 10 m

1.0 ea Imperial Yeast A09 Pub

* I don't think this will be as dark as predicted. BeerTools scores Light Brown Sugar way too dark based on experience with previous recipes.

** I use Acid malt to adjust mash ph based on my water report.

--- OR ---

13-A Dark Mild

Size: 5.25 gal
Efficiency: 81.0%
Attenuation: 76.0%

Original Gravity: 1.040
Terminal Gravity: 1.010
Color: 16.36 SRM
Alcohol: 3.95%
Bitterness: 22.8

Ingredients:

5.5 lb (68.4%) Maris Otter
.75 lb (10.3%) Wheat Flaked
.75 lb (10.3%) Cara-aroma®
.25 lb (3.4%) Crystal Malt 120°L
1 oz (0.9%) Acidulated Malt *

.5 oz (28.6%) First Gold (9.2%) - 90 m
.5 oz (28.6%) East Kent Goldings (4.5%) - 15 m
.75 oz (42.9%) Fuggle (2.9%) - 5 m

Imperial Yeast A09 Pub

* I use the Acid malt to adjust mash ph based on my water report

I prefer bitter to milds, but in this case, the bitter recipe looks too busy for me. How about narrowing it down to 3 ingredients? 5% crystal, 10% simple sugar, rest pale malt. If you want, add 5% to 10% wheat/flaked barley for head and remove the same amount from the pale malt.

Why two crystal malts in the dark mild? In my experience, there is no benefit from that, one darker one is plenty. If this does not give you the flavour you want, better choose another crystal, instead of adding other crystal malts. But that's just me. I honestly forgot my crystal completely in my last dark mild (damn you drinking homebrew while brewing homebrew rule!!!), I can honestly say, that was not enough crystal at the end :D
 
I don't mind blending two crystal malts, but then one light - one darker... I'm not sure about cara-aroma but looking it up it seems more or less like crystal 120 so I agree with @Miraculix.
 
Okay now after reading this I'm going to have to pick up some Chevallier. Also got to brew an AK. I love Ron's blog. This thread has been such a great read.
That is the best malt ever. At least for English beers. Something really simple would be best. OG 1.042. Only Chevallier plus 5-10% medium invert (could be left out). Goldings or Saaz or Mittelfrüh for every addition. 30 Ibus, 3/4 of the ibus early addition, 1/4 of the Ibus as a 10 Minute late addition. Small or no dry hop. I prefer no dry hop for this type of beer. The malt shall have all the space! Pub or the English yeast of your choice (not verdant, too fruity for this) and that will be good!
 
I humbly suggest trying this Machine House Mild: Machine House Mild Clong | Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

I think the Baird's specialty grains really make this one. I did about 20 tries before my experience, talking with the brewer and having his recipe finally dialed this one in. If you ever visit Seattle, Machine House Brewery is just a few miles from Seatac Airport, and well worth the pilgrimage. They serve using beer engines and proper cellar temperatures.
 
That is the best malt ever. At least for English beers. Something really simple would be best. OG 1.042. Only Chevallier plus 5-10% medium invert (could be left out). Goldings or Saaz or Mittelfrüh for every addition. 30 Ibus, 3/4 of the ibus early addition, 1/4 of the Ibus as a 10 Minute late addition. Small or no dry hop. I prefer no dry hop for this type of beer. The malt shall have all the space! Pub or the English yeast of your choice (not verdant, too fruity for this) and that will be good!
Just finished off my first 5 gallons of my Yorkshire bitter which I did with Chevalier. I have two observations. First, I would add more hops than I would use with a more modern malt like MO or GP. Brewfather Tinseth IBU was about 35 and I felt the hop character was muted. Second, the beer seemed to get better with some age on it. Got some lovely marmelade notes even though I fermented with 1469. Going to be doing a second batch in the next few days.
 
Just finished off my first 5 gallons of my Yorkshire bitter which I did with Chevalier. I have two observations. First, I would add more hops than I would use with a more modern malt like MO or GP. Brewfather Tinseth IBU was about 35 and I felt the hop character was muted. Second, the beer seemed to get better with some age on it. Got some lovely marmelade notes even though I fermented with 1469. Going to be doing a second batch in the next few days.
Yes, I can confirm your observations, I experienced the same. The problem with the the Ibu Calculations is, that they are based on OG which is mainly based on sugars in solution. But the limiting factor in wort for the alpha isomerisation is not the sugar itself, but the proteins that are also going into solution. Usually, the protein amounts per gravitypoint are fairly equal in our grists, unles we use big amounts of adjuncts or "special" grains like chevallier. Chevallier contains higher amounts of amino acids, meaning that a 1.04 OG wort made with maris otter or similar modern barley variety, will allow for more alpha isomerization than the same OG wort made with chevallier. So the calculators are overestimating ibu isomerization in Chevallier wort und underestimating it in worts with a lot of corn or simple sugars in it.

Regarding aging, I also found that the beer was best after two or three months. My Chevallier barleywine from last year is still getting better, it is now about 9 months old, but has 11% abv or more.
 
Yes, I can confirm your observations, I experienced the same. The problem wit the the Ibu Calculations is, that they are based on OG which is mainly based on sugars in solution. But the limiting factor in wort for the alpha isomerisation is not the sugar itself, but the proteins that are also going into solution. Usually, the protein amounts per gravitypoint are fairly equal in our grists, unles we use big amounts of adjuncts or "special" grains like chevallier. Chevallier contains higher amounts of amino acids, meaning that a 1.04 OG wort made with maris otter or similar modern barley variety, will allow for mor alpha isomerization than the same OG wort made with chevallier. So the calculators are overestimating ibu isomerization in Chevallier wort und underestimating it in worts with a lot of corn or simple sugars in it.

Regarding aging, I also found that the beer was best after two or three months. My Chevallier barleywine from last year is still getting better, it is now about 9 months old now, but has 11% abv or more.
Thanks for that information. Going to make some adjustment to the hop quantities and looking forward to this next batch.
 
My most recent AK with Maris Otter, corn grits and invert sugar fermented with Imperial Pub. Drinks like a session English IPA. Great hop flavor from a 1 ounce dry hop of whole hop Goldings added at racking.

A7A14F21-32DC-477A-AC0B-4FC7DC9B3D07.jpeg


Sadly the second batch I brewed with Chevallier got infected.
 

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My most recent AK with Maris Otter, corn grits and invert sugar fermented with Imperial Pub. Drinks like a session English IPA. Great hop flavor from a 1 ounce dry hop of whole hop Goldings added at racking.

View attachment 764512

Sadly the second batch I brewed with Chevallier got infected.
Nice Beer! After 15+ years of brewing without an infection, I recently had 3! 3! I did ad deep clean on my fermenters with starsan, iodophor, and finally bleach. I did a batch last week and it went fine. Hopefully, those dirty critters are gone.
 
Nice Beer! After 15+ years of brewing without an infection, I recently had 3! 3! I did ad deep clean on my fermenters with starsan, iodophor, and finally bleach. I did a batch last week and it went fine. Hopefully, those dirty critters are gone.
On that second batch I did two things I never do—I racked the chilled wort directly onto the yeast cake from the previous batch. And I got that yeast from a friend in my homebrew club who brews a lot of sour beer. Fortunately I was using my Anvil stainless bucket to ferment in so it is easy to clean and completely disassemble.
 
On that second batch I did two things I never do—I racked the chilled wort directly onto the yeast cake from the previous batch. And I got that yeast from a friend in my homebrew club who brews a lot of sour beer. Fortunately I was using my Anvil stainless bucket to ferment in so it is easy to clean and completely disassemble.
That is a pitty because the Chevallier one would have been marvelous for sure.
 
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Oh, finally!!
I've been a subscriber of his blog, brewed some nice vintage recipes from there, and was really upset when his blog suddenly stopped updating.
I even went to TheHomeBrewForum.co.uk to enquire what happened to the guy. They said he was busy with some new project and it was nice to know as I was starting to worry (lost too much familiar people to The Plague, so was assuming the worst).
Resubscribed to the new blog!
Thanks Protos ,
I`ve been beavering away at the first book ; of which I`ve just completed the first draft ;
Cheers
Edd
 
Just as a headsup for those who can get to Seattle towards the end of this month, Foggy Noggin in Bothell have Ron Pattinson for a tasting of AKs, followed a week later by John Keeling with a tasting of Fuller's core beers against the Foggy equivalents.

https://us18.campaign-archive.com/?u=272b636bd3b53a447213ef6b5&id=9f213cea56http://foggynogginbrewing.blogspot.com/2022/06/fullers-brewery-vs-foggy-noggin-brewing.htmlhttp://www.foggynogginbrewing.com/[/USER]
I may be forced to attend John Keeling's Fuller's session. Ronnie I think I will join the Machine House Brewing Mild session instead of Foggy Bottom
 
Reviving an old thread, I've read through it and also read Ron's AK and have a sort of late 1800's/early 1900's inspired recipe.

For a ~21L post boil 85%eff batch

Chevalier as base
7% flaked maize
15% Invert 2

Mash 60c/15min 69c/90min

90min boil
EKG 45g 60min
EKG 30g 30min
EKG 20g dry hop when fermentation slows down and I close the fermenting bucket
OG 1.045
Est FG 1.011-1.009
Abv 4.5-4.7%
IBU in Beersmith calculated to 50, likely closer to 45 actual IBU so about 1:1 bu:gu ratio.
 
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