Moving on from Kit Brewing.
In the mid 1970s when homebrewing was just starting to take off as a hobby, a Southampton based enthusiast named Dave Line produced what has become one of the definitive texts on brewing when he wrote "The Big Book of Brewing". Spurred on by the bland standardisation that was creeping into the commercial brewing industry and the frightening spread of "keg" beers and disappointed at the quality of many of the beer kits available at the time, Dave almost singlehandedly reintroduced the notion that private individuals could brew quality beer at home using (more or less) readily available ingredients and equipment.
He has probably taught more people how to mash* their grist and sparge their wort* than all the commercial brewers operating in the UK in the last 40 years, and his follow up book, "Brewing Beers Like Those You Buy" (1978) took the process further by providing recipes and brewing instructions to allow home brewers to replicate, as far as practically possible, the style and flavours of well known, commercially brewed beers. Dave sadly passed away in 1979 at the age of just 37, but his legacy lives on in his wonderful, and still accurate, books, which apart from improvements in equipment design and availability of ingredients, have needed little updating since first published.
With over 100 recipes covering all styles, a homebrewer can easily produce favourites such as:
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Adnams Southwold
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Carlsberg Special Brew
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Courage Directors
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Fullers London Pride
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Greene King Abbot Ale
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Marstons Pedigree
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Newcastle Brown Ale
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Ruddles County
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San Miguel
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Theakston Old Peculier
Whilst Dave's original recipes are still covered by copyright laws and so can't be published here, I have a copy of the book (2002 revision) that can be consulted in the shop if you wish to check on ingredients and brewing methods.
For those not wishing to brew from first principles, it is still possible to create "Clone Beers" using malt extract, hops and crushed grains, especially if you convert Dave's recipes using a brewing calculator such as the one provided by Peter Laycock (www.petespintpot.co.uk) which is available FREE in several spreadsheet formats from www.yobrew.co.uk
Using Pete's converter, and with kind permission from Stephen at Yobrew, please find below a few recipes for you to try for yourself.
Theakston Old Peculier
Ruddles County
If you have a particular beer that you would like to try and copy, let me know and I'll see if I have a recipe for it.
A more recent book on the subject, much updated to reflect both current beers and the improved techniques and equipment available to the homebrewer, is Graham Wheeler's superb "Brew Your Own British Real Ale". Apart from being very readable and easy to follow, it lists not only the ingredients for "All Grain" versions of the beers, but also, in many cases, the ingredients needed to brew these "Clone Beers" using malt extract. A full explanation of the technique of malt extract brewing is also provided.
If you wish to play about with the recipes, Graham's own website, www.practicalbrewing.co.uk has a free downloadable, stand alone "Beer Engine" brewing calculator.
*Mashing is the process of converting the complex sugars held in the porridge like mixture of malted grains and warm water (the grist) into ones that can be used in fermentation. Sparging is spraying this "porridge" with warm water to extract the sugars into a sweet liquid (the wort) that can be boiled with hops prior to being fermented with yeast.
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