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Tooheys Old


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I am not really a dark beer drinker or lover of stout but I did try a Tooheys old at a pub up in Hill End NSW and really liked it.  When in Rome do what the Romans do,  try local beers.  I have not tried this beer since my pop shouted me one many years ago in Newcastle and I hated it way back then.  

So now I am going to sway over to the darker side and see if I can brew a similar tasting / looking beer and be interested if anyone has done something similar and how did it go / turn out?

Any suggestions re a recipe AG or otherwise would be appreciated as I would like to have one of these on tap just for something a bit different.

Cheers - AL

Tooheys Old at Hill End - resized.jpg

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This is the 1975 recipe for "Tooheys Old".   As this is a commercial recipe they took short cuts to save costs.  I would suggest cutting back on the golden syrup as it give lots of syrup flavour.  maybe use 500g. As you can see the bulk of the colour comes from the Parisian essence which I have found difficult to get as small bottles are no longer manufactured.   Maybe try some black malt and a bit of a chocolate malts to get to the 50 EBC colour as the 20g of roasted malt will not get you there.   Or if you can get it a dark candied sugar will do it.   Anyway that is the recipe for an authentic 1975 Tooheys old. Or Black as we called it at the time.   Probably best to do recipe as is first and then tweek to your flavour later on. Maybe just scale it to a 10 litre batch.  

 

Recipe is from "Bronzed Brews" by Peter Symons. It is a great resource for old Aussie recipes and available print on demand on LuLu.   I have 2 of his books. I also have "6 O'clock Brews".  

Tooheys_Old_1975.jpg

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11 hours ago, iBooz2 said:

I am not really a dark beer drinker or lover of stout but I did try a Tooheys old at a pub up in Hill End NSW and really liked it.  When in Rome do what the Romans do,  try local beers.  I have not tried this beer since my pop shouted me one many years ago in Newcastle and I hated it way back then.  

So now I am going to sway over to the darker side and see if I can brew a similar tasting / looking beer and be interested if anyone has done something similar and how did it go / turn out?

Any suggestions re a recipe AG or otherwise would be appreciated as I would like to have one of these on tap just for something a bit different.

Cheers - AL

Hi AL,

I only do Extract ATM but have started partials & I love hops & now a strict user of LME, Wheat Extract etc although I haven't made that exact recipe I have made a lot of Dark Beers including Coopers Dark Ale, Mr Beer Diablo IPA, Long Play IPA, Stouts, Toucan Stouts etc but I have always loved darker styles as much as the normal beer styles.

Looks like you are under control with the Toohey's Old so good luck.

Cheers

Phil

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15 hours ago, jamiek86 said:

I'm fairly sure despite name it's actually a dark lager not ale been meaning to try this myself

Not from all my research over the past few weeks its definitely and ale.  Fermented with a dry ale yeast and I was going to throw a reclaimed batch of Nottingham at this attempt but I think after being away for nearly three months my stashes of reclaimed yeast/s may have to be tipped and I will have to start over.  Got a few fresh packs of Nottingham on hand so no big deal there.

Once I can get some Simpsons dark malt and a bag of Maris Otter I reckon a test batch of this brew will be getting close to going into the FV.

Cheers - AL

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6 hours ago, MartyG1525230263 said:

is from "Bronzed Brews" by Peter Symons. It is a great resource for old Aussie recipes and available print on demand on LuLu.   I have 2 of his books. I also have "6 O'clock Brews".  

Thanks Marty,  I should have disclosed that I already have his books, due to your recommendations a year or so back and could have saved you the work but many thanks for your input anyway.

Interesting to note is the recipe I have in my version (second edition 2020) of bronzed brews has a different list of ingredients.  I was going to post a pic of the page the other day but thought I better not step on Peter Symons toes re copyright etc. so did not.  Not that he would probably mind if we are plugging his books for him.

My book shows EBC = 51 (with caramel) commercial version EBC = 62.   IBU = 14 commercial version =13.  ABV = 4.6 % commercial version = 4.4%

My book for 22 L batch shows:

2.01 kg of Voyager Pale Schooner, 670 g No. 1 invert sugar, 640 g Raw Barley, 220g Castle Wheat, 10 g Bairds roasted barley, 0.77 g/L caramel colour.

10 g POR 70", White labs WPL007 Dry English Ale Yeast

When I looked back at some old family photos with my pop sipping his fav Tooheys Old and from my memory from the time I tried a schooner it was not black back then (circa 1973) but a dark brown.  This is what probably put me off it, the look.

Am starting to source the bits I need and punch the data into BeerSmith to see what I can come up with.  IBU and EBC are the easy part, its the flavor profile that gets hard to match sometimes.  So long as I can get a good session-able dark beer on tap for a bit of a novelty I will be a happy camper.

Cheers - AL

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5 hours ago, CLASSIC said:

I only do Extract ATM but have started partials & I love hops & now a strict user of LME, Wheat Extract etc although I haven't made that exact recipe I have made a lot of Dark Beers including Coopers Dark Ale, Mr Beer Diablo IPA, Long Play IPA, Stouts, Toucan Stouts etc but I have always loved darker styles as much as the normal beer styles.

Yep Phil, the Coopers Dark Ale looks to be the closest but a bit high on the IBU and alcohol otherwise a good place to start with a K&K version.  Just did not want to buy more tins as I have a whole stash here mainly 86 day pils that will/may not get used up quick enough unless I do some big partials myself.  Who knows its getting back into lager brewing season so all these may come to good use.

The LME is a step in the right direction and further to that a cold steep of some carapils/carafoam is another leap up the quality beer ladder when doing K&K.  If you are doing partial mashes then I recommend also adding some wheat to the mash (if not using wheat LME) as it improves the K&K yet again.

Cheers - AL

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1 minute ago, iBooz2 said:

Yep Phil, the Coopers Dark Ale looks to be the closest but a bit high on the IBU and alcohol otherwise a good place to start with a K&K version.  Just did not want to buy more tins as I have a whole stash here mainly 86 day pils that will/may not get used up quick enough unless I do some big partials myself.  Who knows its getting back into lager brewing season so all these may come to good use.

The LME is a step in the right direction and further to that a cold steep of some carapils/carafoam is another leap up the quality beer ladder when doing K&K.  If you are doing partial mashes then I recommend also adding some wheat to the mash (if not using wheat LME) as it improves the K&K yet again.

Cheers - AL

Cheers AL, I agree, the Graubster & a few others have pretty much convinced me that is the way to go, I have some grain & all of the equipment needed to add it, so it is going to happen, Thank you for your input. I am pretty much restricted to K&K ATM apart from additions but leaning towards a crack at BIAB just to bump things up.

Cheers

Phil

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5 hours ago, Norris! said:

I found some old recipes doing a Google search, around 2005 and 08 and an extract version on coopers site for an extract version.

Thanks heaps Norris,  I was not quite ready for a good look around just yet, other batches in the queue so hence not too much googling!  Thought; that by starting the tread, it would be like throwing out some cotton line with a bit of raw lamb on it to see if there any yabbies about.  Ya just never know.

But my friend you have inspired me to not only look for the odd yabbie but to dream of a big Murray Cod.  So thanks to your post I spent most of this afternoon cruising around various Internet - beer forums etc. and got a fair idea where my recipe needs to be.  In fact I do not need much more inventory than I already have so a win - win.   Now got what I need on order so it will be good to go next week. Cheers for that - AL

 

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Ok, this will be my first steps down that seemingly shadowy, seedy muggers lane way to home brewing a dark beer for myself.  I tremble at the thought of stuffing my journey up and most likely coming out with two dark eyes, missing teeth and much poorer for the experience   Maybe some of you that have "been here done that" could cast your eyes over my concoction and I would be interested in your views of my half hatched recipe.  For example, did I get the balance of Crystal Dark Malt to Chocolate Malt right or is it the wrong way around.  Ideally looking to replicate the low bitterness easy drinking of the Tooheys Old beer that I sampled at the Hill End Pub.

Hell, who knows I might even be brewing stouts for next years winter sipping soon.

TIA - AL

Tooheys Old Clone ver 1.PNG

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7 hours ago, iBooz2 said:

For example, did I get the balance of Crystal Dark Malt to Chocolate Malt right or is it the wrong way around. 

I'd say that looks very good.

I brewed one a few years ago..

Quote


Recipe: old
Brewer: Grumpy
Style: English Porter

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------

Batch Size (fermenter): 23.00 L   
Estimated OG: 1.046 SG
Estimated Color: 44.7 EBC
Estimated IBU: 19.8 IBUs


Ingredients:
------------
Amt              Name                                             Type          #          %/IBU         Volume        
4.00 kg          Pale Malt, Ale (Barrett Burston) (5.9 EBC)       Grain         1          87.9 %        2.61 L        
0.30 kg          Caraaroma (Weyermann) (350.7 EBC)                Grain         2          6.6 %         0.20 L        
0.20 kg          Chocolate Malt (689.5 EBC)                       Grain         3          4.4 %         0.13 L        
0.05 kg          Roasted Malt (Joe White) (1199.7 EBC)            Grain         4          1.1 %         0.03 L        
37.00 g          East Kent Goldings (EKG) [4.60 %] - First Wort 6 Hop           5          19.8 IBUs     -             


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

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On 6/21/2021 at 5:34 AM, Green Blob said:

I'd say that looks very good.

I brewed one a few years ago..

 

Thanks GB, will mash this experiment up and cube it later this week.  Just waiting on a FV fridge to become available for this.  Will just use a Coopers FV so I can see what is going on and learn.

Hopefully it will turn out drinkable.  Thanks again.

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