I’d got it all worked out. We were supposed to be making Mow Cop Stout today. We’d designed the recipe, bought the ingredients, chosen the name and I’d even thought of a witty title for my next blog post (“We’re stout, and we’re proud!”)
Then Andy turned up brandishing a 1989 copy of Roger Protz’s Beer Almanac and waving the Owd Rodger page at me. We’ve been looking for a recipe for Marston’s Owd Rodger on the Internet for a while and had surprisingly little success. I don’t know why – there seem to be recipes for many many other well known beers out there. But not this one. And then Andy found the loosest suggestion of a recipe on Protz’s book: 73% pale ale malt, 10% crystal malt, 17% glucose; fuggles, goldings and “worcester” goldings hops.
So we quickly expanded that into a recipe we were happy with and luckily we had all the necessary ingredients. We got brewing.
For those that don’t know, Owd Rodger is a shockingly strong “old ale”. The original gravity is 1.080, which makes it about 7.6% ABV. Not to be taken lightly. In the old days we used to refer to it as the four horsemen of the apocalypse (because the fourth pint was death).
Anyway, today’s brew day went well, and we even came up with a suitably “dangerous” sounding name: Axe Edge. (And it’s even a Cheshire Peak too!)
Hello Bill, nice to see someone else taking a crack at a beer from my distant past!
ReplyDeleteI used to drink Owd Roger as a student in Bath in the 1980s (when I could find/afford it)! Now I'm an ex-pat homebrewer living in the U.S., so if I want those classic British ales I have to make them myself. It just so happens I'm bottling my first attempt at Owd Roger today! I read somewhere that the original recipe was "500 years old", so it would have to precede crystal malt. I went with 85% Maris Otter and 15% of the same malt - but home roasted in my oven. Home made brown malt! Anyway, if you're curious, I will let you know how it turned out!
(Nice pic of the hills of Cheshire, by the way. I'm from Gloucestershire originally.)
Hi Marc,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments - very pleased to hear that you found it interesting.
We were very happy with how the Axe Edge came out, and it did taste surprisingly close to Owd Roger.
I imagine this is a very old recipe (although 500 years sounds a bit extreme). But having said that, recipes evolve over time and what you were drinking in Bath won’t have been anything like what they made hundreds of years ago.
I didn't note in this article that the crystal was "dark crystal malt" - I have it recorded as 90 lovibond. I think this created the necessary sweet rich caramelly flavours. I hope you managed to create those with home roasted malt. I’m guessing you used a high mash temperature to give you plenty of residual sugars. I’d love to hear how it turns out. Please post back and let me know!
Best wishes, Bill.
Haha the years go by, and just yesterday I tried the recipe again, this time with about 15% Crisp brown malt! That 2013 effort was good, but not exactly as I remembered it in the 1980s. Despite my higher mash temperature, it still attenuated more than I hoped. I probably need to make it more often than once every 4 years, if I want to nail it down!
ReplyDeleteHow the years go by indeed! I’ve listened to a lot of brewing podcasts since you last commented. Glad to hear that you are still brewing.
DeleteYou have inspired me to make this recipe again – we haven’t brewed it since this original batch. I’m running low on high gravity bottled beers, so I think this could be just the one to stock up the cellar.
By the way, if you are interested in vintage beer recipes, have you seen The Home Brewers Guide to Vintage Beer? https://www.amazon.co.uk/Home-Brewers-Guide-Vintage-Beer/dp/1592538827/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1493147093&sr=8-1&keywords=home+brewers+guide+to+vintage+beer
There are a lot of old recipes in there – some back to 1840. Many, no doubt, impossible to brew these days with modern malt. But it’s fun to try.
i have a bottle of owd rodger from 1986 unopened, so want to open it but... i can't. just had a bottle from b+m a discount store in uk bloody lovely, on a par with old tom.. need to find a recipe x
ReplyDeleteYes, I understand your predicament! There's a recipe for Old Tom in Graham Wheeler's book, if that's what you mean.
ReplyDeleteIt's me again, and I'm about to try again! (3rd time's a charm?) I'm thinking this time I will blend Brown and Crystal malt for the balance of the grain bill. It's going onto a cake from a 6X clone, so the flavour profile should be similar.
ReplyDeleteBrown malt is a bit different! I'd only expect that to be used in a porter. But hey, it's got to be worth a try! Should make it a little less sweet with less crystal.
DeleteLet me know how it goes.