Fuggle Duck No.2
Way back in 2018 I brewed a beer that I called Fuggle Duck and despite saying that I really liked it, I never brewed it again. More recently I brewed Golden Progress and I really liked that too. The connection between those two beers is the First Gold hops and either Fuggle, or something like Fuggle (Progress). So I'm doing something similar again and calling it 'Fuggle Duck No.2'.
This time I'll be offsetting the crystal malt with Target as the bittering hop. This is more assertive than Magnum and should help to balance the crystal sweetness.
Starter
As is always the case I got my starter going on the Tuesday evening before Sunday's brewday. I won't be re-using the WLP002 yeast again because I've got a rather special yeast in the fridge for my next brew. All I'm saying right now is that's from a famous East Anglian brewery. That means that the starter was only one litre in size, and all of the yeast that it yields will be going into the brew on Sunday.
One of the big advantages of brewing with WLP002 is that you know for sure when it's done and wants to flocculate because it looks like Chinese egg drop soup.
Brew day
Here's the recipe that I decided on. There's one enforced change in there, that is I'm using Tesco Elmhurst water instead of my goto Ashbeck because my usual Tesco didn't have any Ashbeck and neither did the other one that I have within driving distance. In fact both of those stores look like they've been redesigned such that I may never see Ashbeck again in the multi-packs or the 5 litre bottles that I usually buy.
Ashbeck was a standout water because it has a low pH (6.2) which makes it good for making up Starsan. It has very low Bicarb and Ca level (25 and 10 ppm, respectively). This makes it a great 'base' water for building up to use in any style whatsoever.
Elmhurst, by contrast, is just another 'hard' bottled water. The bicarb is 140ppm and the Ca level is 36ppm so it's not terrible but it's nowhere near as good as Ashbeck and as a result my recipes are going to include higher levels of lactic acid in the mash than ever before so that my target mash pH of 5.3 is achieved.
Recipe Specifications
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Date: 2 November 2025
Batch Size (fermenter): 24.00 L
Estimated OG: 1.044 SG
Estimated Color: 17.1 EBC
Estimated IBU: 40.3 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 75.6 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes
Water profile: Ca:102 Mg:21 Na:6 SO4:74 Cl:107
Ingredients:
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Amt Name Type %/IBU
29.56 L Tesco Elmhurst Water -
4.10 ml Lactic Acid (Mash) Water Agent -
3.70 g Calcium Chloride (Mash) Water Agent -
2.40 g Epsom Salt (MgSO4) (Mash) Water Agent -
1.20 g Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash) Water Agent -
4.300 kg Crisp Clear Choice Extra Pale Malt (4.0 EBC) Grain 95.2 %
0.215 kg Crystal, Dark (Simpsons) (265.0 EBC) Grain 4.8 %
1.00 ml Lactic Acid (Sparge) Water Agent -
0.80 g Calcium Chloride (Sparge) Water Agent -
0.50 g Epsom Salt (MgSO4) (Sparge) Water Agent -
0.30 g Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Sparge) Water Agent -
20.00 g Target [11.30 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 25.8 IBUs
20.00 g First Gold [8.40 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 7.0 IBUs
1.00 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 7.0 mins) Fining -
20.00 g First Gold [8.40 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 3.8 IBUs
20.00 g Fuggle [5.60 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 2.6 IBUs
20.00 g Fuggle [5.60 %] - Boil 2.0 min Hop 1.1 IBUs
1.0 pkg English Ale (White Labs #WLP002) [35.49 ml] Yeast -
Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Full Body
Total Grain Weight: 4.515 kg
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Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
Mash In Add 24.56 L of water at 71.3 C 67.0 C 60 min
Sparge: Dunk sparge with 5.00 L water at 75.6 C
Brew day went off without any hitches and I was able to collect the usual 24 litres or so into the fermenter.
The OG was 1.044, exactly as specified by the recipe. I was keeping a close eye on the numbers here because I've started a new 25kg sack of malt.
I've used Crisp Clear Choice before and found it to be a good performer. Back then there was a choice of regular Clear Choice and Extra Pale. The regular malt has now gone and the only one available is Extra Pale. That's fine by me, an EBC of 4.0 is a good base for building ales of any colour.
I got the hot wort down to 22C with my immersion chiller, added the yeast starter and transferred it to the fermenter and it's now in the brew fridge where it will remain for the next two weeks while the yeast does the business.
Kegging day
After 2 weeks in the fermenter I decided to keg it. Gelatine finings were added to the corny and I filled it to the top, with the remaining 4 pints or so transferred to bottles.
The final gravity was 1.008, giving an ABV of 4.7%. I purged the head space in the keg with 5x15psi bursts and then set the keg to about 15psi and will now leave it to condition and carbonate for at least two weeks.