New Take on Ordinary Bitter - Page 2

KingBrianI · 02-25-2009, 07:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Laughing_Gnome_Invisible

Haha!! I just pulled up the recipe and realised that it's NOTHING like yours! I had forgotten that I dicked around with it at the last moment. The main change was that I had some 1 year old Mount Hood lying around, and threw that in at the end. So I moved the EKG to 30 mins.

I think that what is making the difference for my tastes is the Mount Hood. That is out of the bitter style, I know. The reason I had them was that for my first ever extract brew I was at an LHBS that knew just about as much as me at that time. I ended up buying a mish mash of all sorts that looked like they might make a bitter.The Mt Hood was one of those eronious substitutions. That first extract turned out to be my best. I loved it!!

Anyways, I saw them lying around and decided to put them in this beer also. It has a slightly spicy bite. Better suited to a winter beer, but it is very subtle. I'm gonna order some more Mount Hood for my next order. I definitely need to play around with it some more. Like I said. It's not in style, but it worksfor me

Batch Size: 10.00 gal
Boil Size: 12.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.043 SG
Estimated Color: 13.3 SRM
Estimated IBU: 27.9 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
15.00 lb Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 90.91 %
1.00 lb Biscuit Malt (23.0 SRM) Grain 6.06 %
0.50 lb Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 3.03 %
1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (60 min) Hops 9.6 IBU
1.00 oz Fuggles [4.50 %] (60 min) Hops 8.6 IBU
1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (30 min) Hops 7.4 IBU
1.00 oz Mt. Hood [6.00 %] (5 min) Hops 2.3 IBU
0.55 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 min) Misc
22.00 gm Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash 60.0 min) Misc

Do you find that the biscuit malt, at 1 lb in 10 gallons, is overpowering? The one time I used that much (0.5 lbs in 5.5 gal) I found it tended to overwhelm the other flavors when the beer was young. As it aged though, the biscuit malt character seemed to really blend with the other flavors very nicely. You might want to save a couple of those bottles for a while to see how it develops.

**Laughing_Gnome_Invisible** · 02-25-2009, 07:44 PM

I like biscuit, what can I say! LOL. But yeah, this is not too standard as a bitter goes. It is to my taste however.

I like low gravity session beers. The biscuit, IMO makes the beer feel a little bigger somehow without getting Sh!tfaced. There is still plenty of base malt flavour I think.

Save some for aging, yeah, I always TRY to do that.

However, bitter is designed for a quick turnover, and I'm all for trying to make a beer that will do that for me. I'm very low on patience as you may have gathered.

What I am working towards is a guest beer that I had in a pub years ago. Now, this is a terrible description, but although it was a standard bitter, it was like drinking a Sunday roast beef dinner. It will be a hard target to hit for a session beer, but I thing the Mt Hood is getting me there. In style or out of style is not important to me.

KingBrianI · 02-25-2009, 07:46 PM

Haha, I'm the same way. I've been able to get around the problem by brewing faster than I can drink. That way the beer can get some age on it before it's gone!

**Laughing_Gnome_Invisible** · 02-25-2009, 07:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KingBrianI

Haha, I'm the same way. I've been able to get around the problem by brewing faster than I can drink. That way the beer can get some age on it before it's gone!

That's the problem with bitter....It's just so damn drinkworthy!!!

KingBrianI · 09-27-2009, 07:01 PM

This one finally made it's way into rotation in the kegerator a month or two ago. I've had several today (and don't feel a thing, I love that!) and it's drinking really well. It never did clear up, as expected, even with over a month of cold conditioning. It finished nice and dry with a suprising amount of hop flavor for the small amount of late hops added. It could use a bit more caramel flavors, as is, it's a bit uninteresting. The victory malt comes through, but only just, that's a malt I find is very susceptible to aging out of a beer. I can't really tell if the flaked barley did anything for the beer, I'd probably leave it out next time and have a beer that clears completely. I'd call the color a deep gold and it pours with a nice head, but it dissipates quickly into a thin ring around the edge. Lacing is low-moderate. Overall, it's an ok beer that's easy drinking and can be drunk in quantity with no danger of getting drunk. But, with a little more caramel, perhaps a bit less dryness, and a bit more body, it could be much better. Anyway, it's entered into the HBT BJCP contest for ordinary bitter so we'll see how it does.

commonlaw · 09-28-2009, 06:38 AM

Great thread. I'm planning to brew a bitter (best bitter I think) for my first all grain in a long time.

Here's what I'm thinking so far for a 5 gallon batch to keg (or hopefully cask condition)--let me know what you think. I may replace the biscuit with Victory, not sure how much difference that will make. Also not sure if I should add half a pound of demera sugar (if my lhbs has it) and take out some of the crystal. I'm not sure how much caramel flavor the crystal will add--I don't really want that, but want the bit of body the crystal can give. What if I replaced the ratio of crystal and biscuit? I'm looking to make a light colored, lowish alcohol, bready-malty flavor beer with some nice hop flavor.

6 lbs 8.0 oz Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 83.23 %
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 12.80 %
5.0 oz Biscuit Malt (23.0 SRM) Grain 3.97 %
1.00 oz Challenger [7.50 %] (60 min) Hops 29.3 IBU
0.50 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (15 min) Hops 4.9 IBU
0.50 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (5 min) Hops 1.9 IBU

KingBrianI · 09-28-2009, 03:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by commonlaw

Great thread. I'm planning to brew a bitter (best bitter I think) for my first all grain in a long time.

Here's what I'm thinking so far for a 5 gallon batch to keg (or hopefully cask condition)--let me know what you think. I may replace the biscuit with Victory, not sure how much difference that will make. Also not sure if I should add half a pound of demera sugar (if my lhbs has it) and take out some of the crystal. I'm not sure how much caramel flavor the crystal will add--I don't really want that, but want the bit of body the crystal can give. What if I replaced the ratio of crystal and biscuit? I'm looking to make a light colored, lowish alcohol, bready-malty flavor beer with some nice hop flavor.

6 lbs 8.0 oz Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 83.23 %
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 12.80 %
5.0 oz Biscuit Malt (23.0 SRM) Grain 3.97 %
1.00 oz Challenger [7.50 %] (60 min) Hops 29.3 IBU
0.50 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (15 min) Hops 4.9 IBU
0.50 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (5 min) Hops 1.9 IBU

Biscuit and Victory malt are just two names for the same thing, so there won't be a difference there. As far as substituting in some demerara sugar, I've found it doesn't really add mcuh if any detectable flavor to the beer and will actually thin the mouthfeel. The 10L crystal you specified should add body without adding too much caramel flavor like darker crystals would. Looks like a great recipe!

KingBrianI · 10-11-2009, 02:25 PM

Wow, this beer won 3rd place in the Bitters category in the 2009 HBT BJCP competition! Here is the official recipe http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f64/extraordinary-bitter-141047/