Dogbolter - Strong English Ale

It would have been sometime in the late 80s that Simon and I began to frequent the Fitchet and Firkin pub in Northampton, this was part of the brewpub chain created by David Bruce in the early 80s, although had probably been sold to Midsummer Leisure by the time we went there.

The appeal was the frankly bizarre beer, at least to my young taste buds, weened on Foster Lager, namely Dogbolter (6%) and Earthstopper (8%).

Clearly it's going to be a short session on either of those beers, but we pretty much avoided the Earthstopper and normally managed three pints or so of Dogbolter before wobbling out of there.

The legend is that Dogbolter was a diluted Earthstopper, when David was distracted by a phone call while sparging the resulting wort ended up 15 gravity points lower, rather than pour it away David brewed up a batch and the result was many a happy hangover.

It's been over 20 years since I've tasted the beer, apparently the West Berkshire Brewery has relaunched it with David's blessing, I've not tried it yet, but I did find a recipe in Charlie Papazian's book, Microbrewed Adventures and have now managed to brew it.

Recipe: 27 Dogbolter
Style: Extra Special/Strong Bitter (English Pale Ale)
TYPE: All Grain

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 21.00 L      
Boil Size: 25.40 L
Estimated OG: 1.063 SG
Estimated Color: 23.2 EBC
Estimated IBU: 40.7 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount        Item                                      Type         % or IBU      
5000.00 gm    Pale Malt, Maris Otter (5.9 EBC)          Grain        88.46 %       
630.00 gm     Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (78.8 EBC)     Grain        11.15 %       
22.00 gm      Black (Patent) Malt (985.0 EBC)           Grain        0.39 %        
85.00 gm      Goldings, East Kent [4.10 %]  (60 min)    Hops         37.3 IBU      
15.50 gm      Goldings, East Kent [4.10 %]  (15 min)    Hops         3.4 IBU       
1.11 tsp      Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 min)                Misc                       
6.00 gm       Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash 60.0 min)  Misc                       
1 Pkgs        Nottingham (Danstar #-)                   Yeast-Ale                  


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 5652.00 gm
----------------------------
Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge
Step Time     Name               Description                         Step Temp     
90 min        Mash In            Add 14.13 L of water at 76.0 C      68.0 C        


Notes:
------
Used tap water treated with 16ml of CRS, added 6gm of gypsum to the boil, 

GW water calc suggests adding nearly twice that but that's all I Had.
Hops are getting on a bit so have used the calculator on 

http://brewerslog.appspot.com/HopAlphaCalc, which means adding a who 100g 

to the brew to get anywhere near the suggested IBUs of 48.