Technically I think this beer is just as hard to brew as a lager. Maybe even more difficult if you are crazy enough, like myself, to make your own brewer’s invert sugar. More on this delicious adjunct in a second. A small malt bill of Maris Otter and flaked barley, a pretty hefty addition of invert sugar, and a healthy dose of East Kent Goldings leaves little margin for error. Like a blonde ale or a light lager, flaws will be easily detected in this beer. Your fermentation must be excellent to attain at least a 1.004 finishing gravity. Because of the small malt bill you must get this beer dry as a bone to achieve a target range of around 5% ABV. A good starter of Dry English Ale(WLP007) yeast and proper aeration will get you there.

Now the thing that makes this beer is the invert sugar. Some people don’t believe sugars impart flavor.  100% fermentable, all tastes the same, blah, blah. The best resource out there on how to make brewer’s invert, from Half a Cat, begs to differ:

HORSE SHIT. There just happens to be an entire industry and 100+ years of brewing history because it is a fancy way to get sugar into a beer? Again, HORSE. SHIT.

Pretty much sums it up. Look, white granulated “pure cane sugar” has been bleached of any flavor and impurity. Its flavorless. Sugar that is not fully refined still retains the cane plants essence, that “rumminess” that imparts complex flavors from rum to raisin. Taking an unrefined sugar and inverting it will further enhance these flavors and additionally caramelize the sugar adding more complexity. Add this to a beer and you get almost 100% efficiency with the flavor. Brilliant.

The recipe is incredibly simple but like anything that is hand crafted on a small scale you must pay due respect and watch your product like a hawk, so in short, it is a time consuming affair. I went for a mid-range SRM on my sugar and it was about 2 hours start to finish. Once the sugar comes to temp is when you must be very diligent on monitoring the temp. Too low and carmelization will not happen. Too high and you run the risk of burning. Recipe taken from Half a Cat,

Ingredients:

• Sugar in the Raw or other demerara cane sugar(I used turbinado – super cheap in bulk and already quite dark)
• 1 lb sugar to 1pt of h20
• 1 tsp (5ml) liquid Lactic Acid @ 88% per 2.5lbs of sugar.
• 1/2 cup (4 fl oz) light corn sugar per 2.5lbs. (helps prevent crystals)

Process:

• Heat h20 to boiling
• Heat off, slowly add sugar & dissolve – goes quicker than dumping and stirring
• Add Lactic
• Put on Medium-high heat, set candy thermometer alarm for 230F
  • reduce for your stove if you are heating more than 3F/minute
• Stir occasionally until simmering starts.
• Once @ 230F, set alarm for 240F, slowly reduce heat to keep temp stable
  • easiest is to slowly ramp temp up to 240F. There is so much thermal mass, that once you go over it is very tough to get the temp down.
• As alarm goes off @ 240F, reduce heat to keep 240F. It is ok to hit 245F, but keep under 250F.
  • low & slow will prevent any burning and associated flavors

When Am I Done?

• No1: 12-16 SRM, 25-35 EBC
  • minimum 20min @ 240F, but not much longer and don’t want color to darken much. Time is merely to let inversion complete.
• No2: 30-35 SRM, 60-70 EBC
  • total of 90-120 min @ 240F
• No3: 60-70 SRM, 120-140 EBC
  • total of 150-210 min @ 240F.

Times for No2/No3 are approximate!! – you want to take periodic color samples @ 10min intervals. Place samples on white porcelain, compare to EBC or SRM charts. Stop 2-3 SRM low, as it will darken a bit as it cools.

There you have it. If you are a good cook this no problem. Also, you have to have to have a thermometer, preferably a candy thermometer. You cannot do this without one. Don’t even attempt it.

OK so here’s the recipe courtesy of Let’s Brew Wednesday from Ron Pattinson’s website Shut up Barclay Perkins. Remember if you can’t find East Kent Goldings you can substitute Golding, Willamette, Fuggle, etc.

6 gallons

Estimated OG: 1.042
Estimated FG: 1.002
Estimated Color: 8.4 SRM
Estimated IBU: 31 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 65.00 %
ABV: 5.3%

Grain
6 lbs  Maris Otter (3.0 SRM)  66.7 %
1lb 12oz invert sugar (35 SRM) 19.4%
1lb 4oz Flaked Barley (1.7 SRM) 13.9%

Schedule
42.00 g  East Kent Goldings [5 %] – Boil 60.0 min  24.6 IBUs
14.00 g  East Kent Goldings [5 %] – Boil 20.0 min  6.2 IBUs
28.00 g  East Kent Goldings [5 %] – Dy Hop 7 days

Whirfloc or Irish Moss 20 min
1tsp yeast nutrient 15 min

Mash and Sparge
Half RO water
Half Ventura water(high bicarbonates and sulfates)
5.00 g Calcium Chloride added to mash water
Mash in 3 gallons 156.5F and let stabilize to 148F for 75 min
Mash out 168F 15 minutes
Batch Sparge 5.75 gallons 170F

Yeast
WLP 007 Dry English Ale – 2L starter

Notes: It’s very important to extract as much sugar out of your mash as possible because of such a light grain bill. Be diligent about keeping the mash temperature stable at 148 and then mash out to make sure everything is converted. The smaller the thermal mass the quicker the mash bed will cool so have your sparge water done early to heat it up the mash bed easily by small water additions. Go for a low carbonation level of 1.5 – 2.0.

Tasting: Make sure you pop one out of your fridge(if you bottle) and let it warm up a bit. This beer is meant to be served at “cellar temperature”(about 50F). Light biscuity malt form the Maris Otter. A bit of mouth-feel form the flaked barley. A hint of raisin from the invert sugar. Super dry and quaffable for a 5% beer. Be careful about getting the right carbonation and thoroughly mixing your bottling sugar. A coulple of my bottles got over carbonated and the resulting beer is a bit too spritzy/seltzer like. Overall an excellent beer.