Homebrew Sunday: KK #2

Back in March, I made my first attempt at recreating the Pretty Things November 15, 1901 ‘KK’. Stylistically, I’ve seen the KK called a Burton Ale, though I’m not sure how much that helps most folks. An easier description is strong, dark, and hoppy, but with little to none of the roast flavors usually associated with dark beers. The color comes primarily from invert sugar, which results in a beer that has some lovely caramel notes.

After two all-grain batches in a row, I went back to partial mash since the target gravity was 1.079, and I don’t have the equipment to either mash the necessary grain or collect enough wort to boil for 90 minutes. Here’s the list of fermentables:

• 4 pounds Maris Otter
• 1 pound brown malt
• 10 oz crystal 120
• 6 oz crystal 80
• 1 oz chocolate malt
• 4 pounds extra light DME
• 2 pounds invert no. 3 (made using Lyle’s Golden Syrup and blackstrap molasses)

I threw in the chocolate malt to add a little bit of color, but didn’t want to add too much and wind up with the roast flavors that don’t really belong. 2.5 pounds of the DME was added at flameout to keep the boil gravity down and increase hop utilization.

The hop load was fairly heavy, as I was going for 99 IBU using traditionally low alpha acid hops like East Kent Golding. It certainly helped that the whole leaf Goldings I have are 6.7% AA. I also threw in a small amount of 10.5% AA Centennials in the first bittering addition. The other featured hop of the beer is Bramling Cross, an English hop known for blackcurrant and lemon flavors. Martha and I found some pellets down in Pennsylvania at Keystone Homebrew, so they were included in the last two additions and will feature in the dry hop as well. The hop schedule:

• 1.5 oz East Kent Golding and 0.15 oz Centennial – 90 minutes
• 1.5 oz East Kent Golding and 0.5 oz Bramling Cross – 60 minutes
• 1.5 oz East Kent Golding and 1.5 oz Bramling Cross – 30 minutes

Pitched a slurry of Wyeast London III (1318). Original gravity turned out to be 1.070, 9 points below the target. Colorwise, this came out more of a milk chocolate brown, which is certainly lighter than intended, though I’ll be interested to see how this winds up after fermentation. The plan is to rack this in two weeks, then condition for another two weeks with an ounce each of East Kent Golding and Bramling Cross for dry-hopping.