Canadian IPA - Britannia Mine Mill #1

I chaperoned my daughter’s 5th grade field trip to the Britannia Mine museum recently. The entire time I couldn’t help but wonder what all these guys drank after a shift or on weekends. What types of beer did they have access to? What types of beer were even popular at the time? Unfortunately beer drinking didn’t feature prominently in the exhibits, so I’m left to making broad assumptions based on research. According to a Beer Advocate article, at the turn of the 20th century IPA accounted for 74 percent of the beer being produced in Canada. Digging deep into the characteristics of these beers would be fun but time consuming and I’ll save for a later date. For the time being I feel like brewing something relatively to style, that I want to drink, and that captures the feeling of cracking open 3 or 4 much needed IPAs after finishing a long-ass day in a mine.

In my head, I had something like Scholor from Shotover Brewing Company in Oxford England. This and Prospect (from the same brewery) were my go-to beers at the pub. And while I understand both the people and atmosphere in 1904 Oxford and Britannia Beach mining camp couldn’t be more different from each other, I don’t reckon the tastes in beer were all that different. Over the centuries beer has always been an equalizer, a simple staple for all men regardless of class and this is what I would have drank had I been in either situation. I have no idea what the recipe for Scholar was 15 years ago, or the recipe for an average English IPA a hundred and 20 years ago. What I do know however, is that I like clean and bready copper color ales with a nice hop aroma and creamy finish. I also know that many famous English breweries use Willamette as a dry hop. So in this recipe I try to hit those points. The hops here are a bit over the top but I am American and the Beer Advocate article suggests that heavier hop loads and higher ABVs wouldn’t be out of place in an early 1900s IPA in Canada. I also don’t have a beer engine, so the body is going to be missing that special something only cask conditioned ales served through a hand pump can provide. Regardless this beer represents Mill #1, which was abandoned in 1919 when mill #2 proved to be far more efficient and profitable. Lets just hope it doesn’t take me 14 years to iterate on this recipe.

Notes

1. Foggy London yeast is indeed foggy. I hate it for this style and it is muting the color to this weird beige.
2. Yeast is providing nice fruit and citrus notes on top of the pine and earthy qualities from the hops.
3. Bitterness is too high and mouthfeel is too slick. Hop load needs to come down.
4. Malt characteristics are masked by hops. It also finished too low. Ideally it would finish around that 1.014 mark.

Recipe

Mash at 65C for 60 minutes. Mash out at 75C for 10 minutes. 60 minute boil. Ferment at 68F for 2 weeks.

Changes

1. Remove the 10 minute addition and make the 60 minute addition a 30 minute addition.
2. Add a couple of ounces of dark malt to increase color.
3. Increase mash temperature to 67C to round out body.
4. Use an English strain that drops bright when one comes available from the homebrew shop.
5. Add some munich to increase body, color, and abv.
6. Consider using Cascade in the whirlpool.