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Recipe: Fuller’s Hock
Fuller’s Brewery in west London no longer brews this dark mild—and hasn't done so regularly since the 1990s—but brewing manager Guy Stewart shares this recipe for a revived, all-malt version that briefly reappeared in 2010.
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London’s Griffin Brewery in Chiswick was producing an old-fashioned type of ale called “hock” even before 1845, when the company changed names to Fuller, Smith & Turner. For much of the late 20th century, Fuller’s Hock was the name of its session-strength dark mild. The brewery stopped producing it regularly in the 1990s, though it made a brief reappearance in 2010. From Fuller’s brewing manager Guy Stewart, this recipe reflects that most recent batch. While Fuller’s milds from the 20th century included invert sugar for color and flavor, this was an all-malt version that got a color boost from a potent dab of roast malt extract.
ALL-GRAIN
Batch size: 5 gallons (19 liters)
Brewhouse efficiency: 72%
OG: 1.035
FG: 1.008
IBUs: 20
ABV: 3.5%
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London’s Griffin Brewery in Chiswick was producing an old-fashioned type of ale called “hock” even before 1845, when the company changed names to Fuller, Smith & Turner. For much of the late 20th century, Fuller’s Hock was the name of its session-strength dark mild. The brewery stopped producing it regularly in the 1990s, though it made a brief reappearance in 2010. From Fuller’s brewing manager Guy Stewart, this recipe reflects that most recent batch. While Fuller’s milds from the 20th century included invert sugar for color and flavor, this was an all-malt version that got a color boost from a potent dab of roast malt extract.
ALL-GRAIN
Batch size: 5 gallons (19 liters)
Brewhouse efficiency: 72%
OG: 1.035
FG: 1.008
IBUs: 20
ABV: 3.5%
[PAYWALL]
MALT/GRAIN BILL
3 lb (1.4 kg) pale ale malt
1.5 lb (680 g) brown malt
1.5 lb (680 g) Simpsons Crystal Light
1 lb (454 g) chocolate malt
HOPS & ADDITIONS SCHEDULE
1.2 oz (34 g) Fuggles at 60 minutes [20 IBUs]
5 oz (142 g) Muntons Clarimalt XD5 roast malt extract at 10 minutes
1 tsp (5 ml) Irish moss or 1 tablet Whirlfloc at 10 minutes
YEAST
Lallemand LalBrew London, Omega OYL-016 British Ale VIII, White Labs WLP002 English Ale, Wyeast 1968 London ESB, or similar
DIRECTIONS
Mill the grains and mash at 151°F (66°C) for 50 minutes. Recirculate until the runnings are clear, then run off into the kettle. Sparge and top up as needed to get about 6 gallons (23 liters), depending on your evaporation rate. Boil for 60 minutes, adding hops, extract, and finings according to the schedule. Chill to about 63°F (17°C), aerate the wort, and pitch the yeast. Ferment at 65–68°F (18–20°C) until complete and gravity has stabilized. Crash, package, and carbonate to about 1.8–2 volumes of CO2—or, prime and rack to casks for conditioning. (See “Brewing & Conditioning Cask Ale at Home, Simplified,” beerandbrewing.com.)
BREWER’S NOTES
Roast malt extract: Sometimes used by commercial breweries for coloring purposes, this is potent stuff not typically available to homebrewers. If you can’t source it, you could instead add a bit of debittered black malt to the grist, targeting 50 SRM (100 EBC) for the final beer.
