Brewing a Great Beer

Worthington White Shield

When I was in England a few years back I visited the Bass Museum in Burton-on-Trent. While there I had, what I recall, was one of the best ales in my life. The museum brewed the Museum White Shield ale based on the old recipe developed by Worthington in the 19th century. The ale is a traditional India Pale Ale and became a major export for Worthington well into the 20th century. I had what would turn out to be one of the last pints to come out of the museum brewery.

A description of the beer follows:

White Shield (5.6%) is brewed from pale malt with a touch of crystal for colour and flavour. Its colour rating is 26, making it quiet dark for the style. The hops are Challenger, Fuggles and Northdown, which create 40 units of bitterness. Challenger and Fuggles are copper hops used for bitterness, with Northdown are added at the end of the boil for aroma. - taken from Beer Pages.com

I adapted my recipe from Graham Wheeler and Roger Protz book "Brew Your Own British Real Ale", CAMRA/Storey Books, 1998. The recipe I used is reproduced here.

Grains
8 lbs 11.6 oz						Pale Malt (2 Row) UK
1 lbs 4.7 oz						Caramel/Crystal Malt
Hops
20.00 g						Challenger [7.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min
15.00 g						Northdown [8.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min
10.00 g						Northdown [8.50 %] - Boil 15.0 min
Yeast
1.0 pkg						London Ale III (Wyeast Labs #1318)

The resulting profile matches closely that described above, with bitterness at 42 IBU, colour at 11.6 SRM and alcohol by volume at 5.3%, (assuming 80% mash efficiency). (Estimates based on Beersmith brewing software.)

Grinding the Grain

Propagating the Yeast