Tavern Ale, Version A
This is a remembered recipe, not a recovered one. The original formula was never preserved — the historical record says so plainly. What's below is Craig's recollection, specific where he's sure and flagged where he isn't. Version A exists so there's something real to brew and argue with. Brew it, improve it, and tell us what you found — version B should come from someone else's kettle.
The story
It came out of frustration. Every batch Craig brewed during that stretch went to production testing, which meant he never got to drink any of it. So one day, mid-research, he slammed together a beer for himself. It turned out to be the best thing he ever brewed — good enough that it went to the beer company, and good enough that Bard's first investor wrote a check after tasting it.
Nobody planned it. That's most of why the formula was never properly written down.
What it was supposed to taste like
A light IPA carrying honey and a slight toasty, nutty aroma and flavor. Amber. High drinkability. The thing that made it work was the interaction: the toast, the honey, and the hops balanced each other — bitterness just under a light IPA, deliberately not enough to bury the honey.
Version A — the recipe
Scaled for 5 gallons. Grain percentages and hop, yeast, and process choices are Craig's memory. The honey is the guess — see below.
| Component | Version A | Confidence |
|---|---|---|
| Sorghum malt | 9 lb — Vienna-roasted, the house standard roast (90% of grist) | Remembered |
| Roasted buckwheat groats | 1 lb — medium-to-dark roast (10% of grist) | Remembered |
| Honey | ~2 lb (about 2½–3 cups), at flameout | Estimated — see the honey problem |
| Hops | Hallertau Hersbrucker, to ~28–30 IBU, bittering plus a late charge for aroma | Variety remembered; schedule reconstructed |
| Yeast | Wyeast British Ale, pitched and held at the bottom of its range (a couple of degrees cooler than standard) | Remembered |
| Water | Standard normalization for the local (Kansas City) supply, built for the yeast; gluten-free yeast nutrient added | Remembered |
| Mash | Mash Protocol 1 | Remembered |
| Color | Amber | Remembered |
The honey problem
This is the one Craig didn't pay attention to at the time: enough honey went in to leave a slight residual sweetness, and the amount was never recorded. Somewhere between 1 and 4 cups.
Here's the reasoning behind the 2 lb (≈2½–3 cups) estimate, so you can argue with it: honey ferments nearly dry, so it does not leave sweetness by sitting in the beer — perceived sweetness comes mostly from aroma, which survives only if the honey goes in late. At 2 lb in five gallons, honey is roughly 15–18% of the fermentables: enough to read clearly in the nose and finish, not enough to thin the body or push the gravity into a different beer. Added at flameout (or in the whirlpool, cooled below ~180°F), the aroma survives; boiled hard, it doesn't.
This is the single best thing to test. Brew it at 1 lb, 2 lb, and 3 lb and tell us where the balance lands — that's a real experiment with a real answer, and it settles version B.
Sourcing the buckwheat
Roasted buckwheat groats are usually sold under a different name: kasha. Search for "kasha" or "roasted buckwheat groats" and pick a medium-to-dark roast — the darker end is what carries the nutty, toasty depth this beer runs on. Plain (unroasted) groats will not give you the same beer. More on how the grain behaves: Buckwheat.
Why German hops
Craig's field experience, stated as such: German hop varieties worked well with sorghum malt, and some others didn't — Saaz in particular clashed. That's an observation from commercial brewing, not a tested finding, and it's exactly the kind of thing a few homebrewers could settle in a season. If you test hop varieties against sorghum malt, we want the results.
What to change, and what to report
Four things worth varying, in order of how much they'd teach us:
- Honey load and timing — 1 vs 2 vs 3 lb, flameout vs whirlpool vs fermenter.
- Buckwheat percentage and roast depth — 10% is the memory; darker or lighter changes the whole balance.
- Bitterness level — "just under a light IPA" is a feel, not a number; find where the honey starts to disappear.
- Yeast temperature — the cool end of British Ale was deliberate; test whether it matters.
Report gravity, fermentation behavior, and above all what it tastes like. A version that beats this one gets published as version B with your name on it.
Related
- Tavern Ale — the historical record and what it will not claim
- MP1 at Homebrew Scale — the mash this uses
- Buckwheat
- Homebrew: The Research Bench
Source and Validation Notes
Version A is Craig Belser's recollection of a beer brewed once, without a preserved formula, and published as a starting point rather than a record. Grain percentages, hop variety, yeast, water treatment, and mash are remembered; the honey quantity and all hop timings are reconstructed, and the reasoning behind each reconstruction is stated above so it can be checked. Nothing here has been re-brewed or verified since. The hop-variety observation (German varieties suited sorghum malt; Saaz clashed) is commercial field experience, not a controlled result.