Innkeeper, a Timothy Taylor Landlord clone

[ruidosobruce]

To begin with, let me say that if you are not interested in making a session ale, no need to read this post. A session ale, as served in English pubs, is a relatively low-alcohol beer intended to see you through the evening. Meaning you can have a few pints and still get on the tube (mind the gap).

As research, my grown son and I went to London last year to visit pubs and drink real ale. We managed to visit 26 pubs in a week. We also liked the pub grub.

I have been brewing off and on since 1970, mostly without any great success. Lately I have been interested in brewing session ales like the English bitters we had in London. So, I decided to try the Innkeeper kit from Northern Brewer. It is a Timothy Taylor Landlord clone.

My latest batch of Innkeeper is the best beer I have ever made. It a classic English bitter; it could be served in any London pub. But it didn't start out that way. I have made eight batches of Innkeeper.

The first four did not turn out well because I made some yeast mistakes (Don't mail-order liquid yeast in the summer, and don't try to make Innkeeper with dry yeast)

But the fifth batch of Innkeeper was a very good bitter. I made it with WY-1469 West Yorkshire yeast. I shared a liter with my son who thought it was perfect.

So, my conclusion is that it is well worth working on a style until you get it right. Batch eight of Innkeeper is now in the fermenter.

[Banjo-guy]

Sounds like a great "research trip" that you took. 26 pubs! That's one way to really know a style.

[Kerblam]

I definitely agree that repeating a recipe with small variations is the best way to hone in on a perfect brew! My problem is my attention span and patience are both too short and I like way too many styles of beer so I brew some of everything. On a good note my shotgun approach does yield some winners from time to time

[Brewbirds]

Hey guys great to see you both on.

Diversity is good, we do case sized batches in LBKs so we always have different things in the pipeline but I like that the OP stuck to his guns until he got the results he wanted on a style that he liked alot.

We redo batches often after taking tasting notes and deciding on some changes that might improve a recipe we designed. I consider those types "house ales" because they were good enough to tweak and repeat.