English Bitter Recipe Help!!

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JEMeeks

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Hey guys/gals,

So I have been brewing for a few years now, but haven't brewed in almost 2 years due to school, etc. And because I haven't been on homebrewtalk.com for a long while, I had to make a new account. Anyways, I have been drinking some great Bitter-style beer here in SF recently, and it inspired me to brew my own. I fooled around with some numbers and am looking to brew in the BJCP style 8b category. Any suggestion would be fantastic!

Bitter Ale - all-grain, 70% efficiency
Pale 2-row (English) - 8 lbs
Carastan Malt (English) - .75 lbs
Carapils - 0.25 lbs

Goldings (~4.75 AA) - 1 oz @ 60
Fuggle (~5 AA) - 1 oz @ 30

Yeast: maybe Safale-04, however am looking for a drier style beer (FG ~ 1.009)

Mash in @ 1 qt/lb single-infusion mash for 90 min to ~ 149 F, boil for 60 min.

I am looking for a bitter beer with no real discernible hop aroma, and quite dry. In proMash, this recipe gives a SG around 1.043 and IBUs ~ 32. Please let me know what you think, thanks!!

Jason
 
I use s-04 for my bitters - I am a fan (i've got an out of style one fermenting right now)
 
I'd mash in with 1.5 qt/lb if you have the room. For a long mash, it will keep the temperature more stable and the impact of enzyme dilution will be minor.
 
Sounds like a pretty good bitter to me.

I have been using WLP007 Dry English for quite a few of my beers recently, including a Brown Ale that went from 1.043 down to 1.010. Mash temp of 149* for 90 minutes. I have been seeing roughly 75% apparent attenuation with WLP009.
 
I'd mash in with 1.5 qt/lb if you have the room. For a long mash, it will keep the temperature more stable and the impact of enzyme dilution will be minor.

I have plenty of room, I just read in Designing Great Beers to use a 1 qt/lb ratio for bitters. I have always used 1.5 qts/lb before.
 
Sounds like a pretty good bitter to me.

I have been using WLP007 Dry English for quite a few of my beers recently, including a Brown Ale that went from 1.043 down to 1.010. Mash temp of 149* for 90 minutes. I have been seeing roughly 75% apparent attenuation with WLP009.

Thanks! I would definitely use a liquid yeast if I wasn't being lazy, but with my setup its just easier to use a dry yeast, rehydrate and pitch. I might actually go with Nottingham instead, as I know I can get it down that low with it.
 
What do you guys think of the color? Its a little on the lower SRM scale, I think around 6 or 7, and I was thinking af adding some Crystal 55, maybe .75 lbs, to up the SRM to around 10. What do you think?
 
I have plenty of room, I just read in Designing Great Beers to use a 1 qt/lb ratio for bitters. I have always used 1.5 qts/lb before.

It's supposed to help with the malt profile. English bitters aren't as bitter as most Americans think they should be (mostly due to the hop bombs this country loves so).
 
It's supposed to help with the malt profile. English bitters aren't as bitter as most Americans think they should be (mostly due to the hop bombs this country loves so).

Yeah I know, I'm kind of over-hopped at this point, that's why I've been drinking lots of Czech and German beers lately. But I had an amazing Bitters at a local brewpub, and that inspired me to get back into brewing (plus I have a little window of time!) I've had english pale ales before, and I brewed one with s-04 (i think) and left the FG up around 1.020 or something. Its really malty and biscuity, but I am looking for something a little different. I want a lower abv ale that is dry and has the nice bitterness but not the hop aroma of an American pale ale (or IPA or IIPA, for that matter).
 
Loving this thread... can't wait to make a good bitter... I love Fullers ESB, or Boddingtons. I just got some US-04 in the mail as well :)
 
while we are on hops - I (typically) use 2oz EKG (for 5 gallons) with an ounce at 60min, and the other once split evenly between 30 min and 1 min additions.
 
LOL, wow, we've just gotten to know each other...let's take it slow

So I am guessing you're over the over-use of hops, too?

Yep! I was never really into the hops. Bitter is all about balancing the malt, primarily. For me, it's more about a sweet/dry malt thingy. If the hops seem particularly discernible, then you are drinking an English IPA.......Which is pretty darned good too! :)
 
Flaked corn might help to dry out a bitter... not an uncommon adjunct in Britain

I use .5 lb in my Special Bitter & a lb in my ESB

YMMV

Hmm, very true. I'm trying to keep this a smaller beer, w/ abv 4% or less. I feel like if I mash low at 149F for 90 min to allow for full conversion, and then give it adequate time in the primary, if I can't achieve a FG ~1.001? I definitely did that with Nottingham when I made Ed Worts Haus Pale Ale, FG was 1.008.
 
Yep! I was never really into the hops. Bitter is all about balancing the malt, primarily. For me, it's more about a sweet/dry malt thingy. If the hops seem particularly discernible, then you are drinking an English IPA.......Which is pretty darned good too! :)

Yeah I definitely agree. I was really into IIPA and IIIPA and whatever else there was, and then they just started getting too "thick" for my taste, and if they are dry then the hops are too over-whelming. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Pliny the Elder (which is a benefit of living in SF that there are multiple places it is on tap for $4/pint!), but I am looking for something different now.
 
Looks like a good recipe and you'll get what you want in terms of aroma and dryness. If you want a bit more color, don't be afraid to increase your boil to 90 minutes and/or add an ounce or two of black malt (chocolate, black, or I even used a dark crystal like Special B).

As far as the mash ratio of 1 qt/lb, I recently tried that for a couple of english porters. Granted, not the same style as a bitter, but I can't say I noticed anything out of the ordinary in flavor, mouthfeel, etc. However, these were smaller batch sizes and I lost a good amount of temperature (target 152-154 ended up at 140-something at the end).
 
So I am going to get ingredients for this in like 1.5 hours, so here's what I got:

English Pale 2-row - 8 lbs
Carastan - .75 lbs
Crystal 55 - .75 lbs
Carapils - 0.25 lbs
+/- flaked corn - 0.5 lbs

EKG 1 oz @ 60
Fuggle 1 oz @ 30

Yeast: probably safale 04 (maybe Nottingham)

Mash at 1.25 qt/lb for ~148-150F x 90 minutes
 
I've been putting quick oats in my bitter for a while now. Just about .5lb in 10 gal.

It gives a little smoothness in the mouthfeel.
 
I have been considering oats in one of my future bitters... quick oats is a novel idea.
 
Hey guys, so I haven't brewed in almost 2 years, and I just realized that I may have forgotten a few key steps. I'm not sure if any of you have the time, but if so will you look at this quick summary and just assure me I'm on the right track (It's like riding a bike, right?!)

This is how I did it:
-Get mash water to right temp according to some program I have on stove, put into 10 gallon Igloo mash tun, ensure temp is correct, dough in grains, stir and take temp -- hopefully around 149F
-Mash for 90 minutes, while warming up sparging water on stove to around 180 F. After 90 minutes, begin vorlaufing until wort is clear. Then my method is to place a piece of triple folded foil with like 50 holes poked into it on top of the grain bed. I add ladles full of 180F water as the water level gets to around 2" above grain bed, very gently. Kind of mix between single multiple sparges (i think its called on the fly sparging, or something)
- Once I collect my 7.5 gallons or so of wort, bring outside and place on burner. Bring to boil, add 60 minute hops. At 30 minutes, add 30 minute hops and 1 tab whirlfloc, at 15 minutes add copper cool down thingy (name is evading me right now) to sanitize, cut heat at after 60 minutes and immediately begin colling down.
- Cool as much as possible, i seem to remember getting it down to 70s, and then transfer to fermenter. In the meantime, rehydrate yeast per package instructions.
- Make sure that while all this is goin on, all other needed materials that should be sterilized, ie CO2 valve thing, etc, are being sterilized in no rinse stuff.
- Once cool enough, pitch yeast, secure lid and bubbler, and place in cool dark place, and wait for magic to happen.
- After approx 1 week, check gravity, and if done fermenting, clean and sanitize 5 gallon carboy and siphon into carboy. Let sit for approx 2 weeks.
- After it clears up after about 2 weeks, clean and sanitize bottles, boil corn sugar in water and allow to cool, add to bucket, re-siphon beer on top, stir to inocrporate, and carefully and sanitarily attempt to fill 50 something bottles, and top with caps.

Whoo, sound ok? It started coming back to me as I wrote, thanks!

Jason
 
So the brew day went well, except I had a nice boil over right after the first hop addition where I think I lost 1/4 oz of EKG! So I decided to put the Fuggles 1 oz in at 40 instead of 30 for the extra IBUs. I hope it turns out well! The only sad thing, and I can't believe I am complaining about this, but my SG was 1.051 (I was shooting for 1.045ish w/ 70% efficiency) - so almost 77% efficiency! I guess I can't complain about more alcohol, except it pushed this beer more into the 8c category of ESB instead of Best Bitter, ph well! It's not going into a homebrewing competition anyways. Thanks for the advice guys, oh yeah the final recipe was:

8 lbs Marris Otter
0.75 lbs Carastan (basically Crystal 37)
0.75 lbs Crystal 50-60
0.25 lbs Cara-pils
1 oz EKG @ 60 - ended up being more like 0.75 oz after boilover
1 0z Fuggles @ 40
Rehydrated safale-04

Mashed at 150 for 90 minutes, 60 minute boil. Now happily bubbling away.
I'll let you know how it turns out!

Jason
 
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