Description

As part of our Seasonal Brewing videos on YouTube we brewed two Christmas style beers in May to then allow them to have the time required to mature in good time for the festive period. Brewing according to season can mean a couple of things, either brewing a beer because its the best weather to aid in fermentation or that certain styles of beer actually need time to mature to be at their best for drinking at certain times of the year.

As his choice of beer Rakey chose to do a clone of Fullers Vintage Ale. A warming rich barley wine that uses the finest UK malts and hops. This is a big brew and one that you need to ensure you are up for the challenge and your kit can handle it, along with this that you also have the patience to give the beer the time to age before drinking it.

Having done some online searching there was very little information about the recipe that Fullers use for this seasonal beer that they release. So he reached out to a friend in the industry who he knew had worked at Fullers, he was not only lucky enough to find out that they had actually brewed the 2021 Vintage but they were more than happy to talk through the recipe and process used that year.
So using this information was able to craft together a malt bill that matched and work on his own hop combination to put together this recipe using some of his favourite UK hops.

Be sure to read all of the method and steps to understand the volume of the brew and check out the video on YouTube to understand the use of Brew Enhancer in place of invert sugar, and don’t forget to add your choice of yeast.

 

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Ingredients Included

Simpsons Malt – Premium English Caramalt
Simpsons Malt – DRC (Double Roast Crystal)
Simpsons Malt – Best Pale Ale Malt

Total Grain Bill 7130g

Harlequin T90 Pellets (30 grams)
UK Cascade T90 Pellets  (30 grams)
UK Chinook T90 Pellets  (30 grams)
Endeavour T90 Pellets (35 grams)
Target T90 Pellets (25 grams)
Mangrove Jacks Beer Enhancer 1 (1 pack)

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Method

Beer Style (main): British Ales
Beer Style (sub): British-Style Barley Wine Ale
Batch Size: 23
Original Gravity: 1.090
Final Gravity: 1.020
ABV %: 8.5
IBU: 45
Mash efficiency: 80
Brewing equipment: Brewed using a G40 – check out the video on YouTube

THE MASH
Temperature °C (Step 1): 65
Length (mins) (Step 1): 90
Temperature °C (Step 2): 75
Length (mins) (Step 2): 15

Mash notes: This is a big grain bill a liquor volume, adjust according to your system.
After sparging and removing the grain basket decant some of the hot wort into a jug and then add the Brew Enhancer (invert sugar)

THE BOIL
Boil time (mins): 90

Hop / kettle additions and timing:

25g Target @ 60 mins – aiming for 20IBU
35g Endeavour @ 60 mins – aiming for 20IBU

Whirlpool / hop stand:

30g UK Chinook for 20 minutes

Yeast: NOT INCLUDED – We have chosen to let you choose your preferred yeast and if you are doing a starter or buying the correct amount – London Ale III is what we used in our brew
Fermentation temperature/steps: Pitched at 17c allowed to free rise to 20c – ferment until finished

Secondary additions:

Declaration Hop Addition – this is done as the wort is added to the fermenter and the yeast
15g Harlequin
15g UK Cascade

End of Fermentation Dry Hop
15g Harlequin
15g UK Cascade

Comments:

Be sure to read all of the method and steps to understand the volume of the brew and check out the video on YouTube to understand the use of Brew Enhancer in place of invert sugar.

We have chosen to create this recipe kit without any yeast included. This is so you can choose your preferred yeast or producer and decide if you wish to buy multiple packs or grow a starter. So please ensure you add yeast to your order and the correct amount required for such a high gravity beer. When we used it we went with a London III variant to retain some residual sweetness to the finished beer but there are a wide selection of yeasts that you could choose to use with this recipe kit.

If you wished to make this recipe even more your own or change it from year to year then we would suggest changing the whirlpool and dry hop selection.