WTF is an OLD ALE?? And How do you BREW ONE? 

This old ale Steve drank 1 He drank 1 and it was fun With a nick knack patty whack Give the man a beer… Well…it was worth a shot 😂😂

Im here by mistake and found this really amusing. I never thought I'd here an American talk with authority on English beer after travelling the US in the late 70s and 80s . The biggest beer dessert in the world. I thought the Norfolk beer dessert in England was big !Old Ales ? They died out during the 70s here . The ones I came across during that time at the local offey were normally bottled and varied enormously but generally low hop or none at all , high malts quite dry like a traditional ale . For cask conditioned old , Ridley in Essex produced a few barrels in the winter before Christmas . Many Publicans wouldn't keep it . The Prince of Wales at Mountnessing, kept it on the bar and wouldn't serve it until it sat for a couple of weeks . In May the same spot would be used for their Mild . Ridley Old was tasty and made good gravy for steak pies . If there's an Essex yeast , that will probably do the job . I started drinking decent beer when I was about 12 . I worked at a working men's club that had Shepherd Neame and Tolly Cobbold in cask and bottle and inherited the cellar boys job when my brother left when I was 14 . I tried brewing the stuff using White Shield yeast with some success in an odd size 6 1/2 oak cask made by a cooper in Cradley Heath Warwickshire but gave it up as the good stuff was free . I was one of the first 5000 to join Camra my local meeting house was the Mawney Arms in Romford near the Ind Coope brewery ( Romford Bitter and Burton Ale ), at the first Beer Festival in Covent Garden in 1975 having been a seasoned beer drinker not yet 17 years old . At the first GBBF later in 1977 and had travelled much of the country with mates to sup a pint at the nearest outlet to the brewery . As a student I used my earlier contacts to get barrels of beer and licences to run a bar at the college gigs we organised , and was instrumental in getting cask conditioned ales in the new Students Union building bar . Nottingham yeast ...amazing . I guess it's Hardy and Hansons as I think Home and Shipstones are gone . H&H is normally a guest beer at one of my locals . For an old I would try St Austells in Cornwall, they brewed a Mild that wasn't that mild at all , and HSD ( Hicks Special Draught or High Speed Diesel by locals ) a punchy dark bitter . The water is dead soft down there and the beer great . That region list a favourite brewer and beer Devenish Brewery " Dry Hop ". My wife's family worked at Tate & Lyle Thames Refinery near Plaistow ( pronounced Plar stow ) for generations , and I went to their closing down function after the sale to the US some years ago . The treacle was not a molasses . Molasses is very bitter and generally used for molasses water used in the casting sand of foundries in East London. More like a dark Golden Syrup , sweet but with more flavour , not tarry and bitter as it was used to make Treacle Tarts ( Treacle thickened with breadcrumbs or crushed cereal like cornflakes , a little mixed spice , lemon juice baked in a short crust paste ). One teaspoon of your Abram Lyle Treacle to 1 Tablespoon of Golden Syrup should be about right . Keep up the good work .

An 'Old Ale' is what I just received a silver for at the State Fair along with a gold for 'Eisbock'.

I agree that 'Old Ale' is not a drinking beer. I always tell those that drink my homebrew that there are drinking beers and competition beers.

I would LOVE it if you could do a video or two revisiting some of your beers that have aged for 6-12 months to see how the flavors change over time and comparing them to when they were still relatively young. That would be especially relevant to a beer like this, but it would be interesting to do the same thing with some beers that aren't usually aged. I'm fascinated by how time can change flavor in weird and unpredictable ways, sometimes producing magic (and sometimes...not). Maybe just start filling a few bottles each time you brew and stick them in the cellar? Then you can do a very low-effort video when you are crunched for time and need to get some content out by just pulling a few beers and tasting them. Anyway, just a thought. Love your channel and your content -- easily my favorite homebrew channel and you inspired me to try brewing for myself. Cheers!

The only Old Ale I am familiar with is Theakstons' Old Peculiar, which is only about 5.6% it is not very bitter, has a sherry note and does not really have a roasted taste. It's great on cask and is really unique. Might be more suited to your palate but it is perhaps an acquired taste.

We’ve got an beer Tooheys Old which is an old ale in Australia. Great easy drinking winter beer!

Looks great! I may have to try this one soon!

Thanks for this video!!! What a nice style to taste!!! Didn't brew that one yet but this is inviting for sure!

For a more authentic English flavor use Invert Sugar #3 instead of treacle or molasses...or any of the other sugars mentioned. Also when adding thick, syrupy sugars like this start by pulling some hot wort in a sauce pan and mix the syrup in that... then add it back to the BK.

Great vid! putting an old ale on my list

Good video yet again. Could you please touch on how you maintain things such as your ph tester? Maybe some of the other less common things that a lot of homebrew people use?

I really enjoyed the 4 ounces of Old Ale i've had in my lifetime. Ironically, it was just this past saturday. You really know how to time these videos!

I believe there are two subcategories within 'Old Ale'. One is a 'stock ale' that is lighter in color vs. a 'winter warmer' that is darker.

Great video, AB!

Nice video! Gonna have to try to brew one now myself!

I've made something not unlike an old ale that turned out great, but I used bocheted honey. It's nice, because you can control the amount of character that the honey will give during the bocheting process, without changing the amount of honey that you add.

It's not the first time you've encouraged me to brew and discover a new style of beer. Thanks, buddy!

What I like about your detail in the description and process is that, even though the style isn't really for you, I can tell that it is a style I will probably enjoy. I do believe I've had one, but it has been so long that I do not remember it at all. Anyway, gonna check out sources for treacle now.

I made the recipe from Brewing Classic Styles “Old Treacle Mine”. In a hurry, so made the Extract version. OG 1.095. FG 1.023 Nottingham, 3 packs. Fermented at 18° (64.4°F) Matured 4 weeks in oak, 23 litre cask previously used for Cabernet, Whiskey, Barley Wine. Only a small cask so lots of surface area. Bottle conditioned. Bottled 521 days ago. Would make again but probably as a 50% mash/extract, and without the oak

Awesome recipe ❤ 🍻

Duclaw used to make an old ale called Olde Flame, it was one of their best beers back in the day. I brewed a small test batch late last year and plan on brewing a full 5 gallon batch this late fall so it'll be ready to drink at Christmas. Excellent beer, the black treacle and some extra special malt really brought it together. Great video as always, keep it up!

I always used to get that apple thing with Nottingham till I pressure fermented it. Now clean as a bone. Also if you ever do try again, Simpson drc and a lot more late earthy hops help encourage a better product for me, also using amber/brown to dry works and avoids that chocolate confusion you had. One of my favourite styles, but definitely on an island amongst friends

The beauty of home brewing - experiments and the ability to brew (and drink) styles of beer not easily available. Not always up to our taste, but hey, this is what makes it interesting. Cheers and pls do a follow up in a few months. It would be interesting to see how it matures.

The best part of our challenge is trying a completely new to us styles of beer, albeit not styles we love but it expanded my horizons a bit at least.

Another thing black treacle is good for, well aside from amazing Jamaican ginger cakes, is in stouts, I've used it in stouts with chocolate and peanut butter and it always adds a very enjoyable extra layer of complexity to what are my usual lazy Christmas kit beers :D

I'm way out of touch with home brewing, it's been a long time, but my memory says that simple sugars - glucose, molasses, maple syrup - tend to ferment completely, adding a thin, alcohol component to the beer. Now, I understand it's more complex than that, but I still have a tendency to think of them as "thinning" the beer.

Thanks! CONTENT SPREE!!!!!!

I really enjoy your videos and how detailed you are with your process. One thing that I have never seen you do, though, is sparging after mashing. Is there a reason for this?

Keep making the good cerveza amigo 🍻👍

I see you wear a Sinn 104 st, I have the same watch😂 I brewe something not too different January this year: simpsons GP and Vienna as base (vienna as a mild malt sub) 15% invert 2 and a few % each of med crystal and amber malt. 1.080 and 70 IBU. But I secondaried mine on some boiled french oak cubes, a good sized dry hop and brett c, gonna bottle sometime early autumn.

Because it is molasses. Different language for similar product. Have you ever tasted compared them using in an identical brew only changing those products out?

Interesting you get the apple, I stopped using Notty years ago as I always got apple from it. An improvement? well I think black treacle would be quite a strong flavour in a beer so I'd swap that out, unfortunately brewers invert sugar is hard to obtain in the UK so I'd imagine that in the US it's impossible. An alternative is supposedly a blend of Lyles Golden Syrup and molasses, alternatively try whatever unrefined sugars are available to you.

A really interesting brew Steve. Definitely will be watching to hear how that ages. The bitterness should smooth out over time, and the caramels should start to show with age. (not sure you'll lose the apple tho 😀) I hope we get some feedback in the future. 🍺🍺

As usual a great video, my british nature is being hurt everytime I hear you say nottingham though lol. Anyway I do love a good old ale, which tbh does blend in with Barleywines in their history (to the point where their origin is the same Stale Ale style from the 18th century)

I have brewed several Old Ales and I went in a little bit of a different direction. I created the recipe to finish sweeter than yours and then the first version went into an oak barrel. That beer was fantastic, I have rebrewed it a couple of times since using oak spirals and those beers were good but not quite as good as the barrel. Great video as always 🍻

Another great video. Can you do a segment on Volumes of CO2? I'm not quite getting how you can add a specific amount of CO2? Is it a set pressure and then leave it? or perhaps a set pressure and then turn the gas off? I'm lost with this volumes thing. I only have ever just set a PSI and walked away.

Can you please explain your set up for adding oxygen to your conical? Like the set up in the Belgian triple. Thanks

I'd like to try this without the treacle, would probably be more favorable with white or brown sugar instead and maybe a flavoring hop..but maybe that takes it out of style. Btw, maybe i'm lacking focus today but the background music was a bit loud/distracting. See you on the next episode.

Never had one 🤷🏻‍♂️🤷🏻‍♂️ I’m curious now. 😎👍🏻👍🏻🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺

I think this calls for a little brett bottle conditioning magic

I think it would benefit froma lower carbonation.

looks like you brewed a British strong ale or hopped dubbel (cause British ales don't contains plain sugars as addition). try "Red X" Best malt next time (around 20-30%). it will gives distinctive "wine/cherry" notes into beer. also consider more 70-72c step. so you will not get 1.011 thin body(cause 1.015 is minimum)

that would be good served in a cask

Big fan of Zero Gravity’s Madonna and cone head

Your info above says 60 minute mash at 152; your video says 90 minutes. I'm guessing your print recipe has a misprint on mash time.

Old ales need age to develop, months into a year or two in my experience.

wee heavy aint british is it

Gallons?