Good English Best Bitter?

When I'm in England (my parents used to live there), I love to go to pubs and order "best bitter". I'd love to try and duplicate that - and I've found kits that have ordinary bitter, or ESB. I like the middle of the road, special/best/premium... So I was fiddling with Brewmasters Warehouse Brew Builder and came up with the following (I've only done extract so far, so I stuck purely with extract):

Munton's Amber DME: 5 Lbs
Challenger Hop Pellets (7.0% AA): 1 oz @ 60 min
Willamette Hop Pellets (4.2% AA): 1 oz @ 15 min
Wyeast Labs English Special Bitter - Private Collection

Min Max Mine Status
OG 1.040 1.048 1.045 OK
FG 1.008 1.012 1.011 OK
IBUs 25.0 40.0 30.2 OK
SRM 5.0 16.0 6.7 OK
ABV% 3.8 4.6 4.5 OK
Overall Brew Status OK

I know it's on the light side with SRM & IBUs, but that's the way I remember my favorite bitters in England.

If you can still get your hands on the private collection wyeast, it's awesome. I just used it on an ordinary bitter and am very pleased with the results. As for the recipe, personally, I prefer a bit more color and maltiness to my English ales. But that's why we homebrew, to make what we like! So if it looks good to you, do it.

phrogpilot, it is so seriously easy to steep grains, there is almost no excuse not to do it....there are plenty of grains that you can simply soak in 150-165 degree water for 30 minutes that will vastly enhance your flavor profile. you could add 1/2 lb of crystal 40L or 60L and that alone would go a long ways toward improving the malt profile without making a huge difference in color.....

I suggest you use Light DME and rely on some specialty malts to give color and additional flavor.

Were I you, I'd replace the Amber DME with Light, and add a half-pound of Simpsons Caramalt and quarter-pound of Simpsons Dark Crystal. Muntons extracts tend to ferment quite dry, and you'll need something to add some body as well as color; the malts specified will provide that.

I like your choice of bittering hops; Challenger are great in Bitter. I'm finding the Challenger listed on the website too low in AA% to provide the IBU you listed, however. I suggest you have a look at Brewer's Gold, which is another fine traditional bittering variety.

I'd opt to delete the 15-minute addition and instead load the flavor/aroma hops at flameout. Willamette is a decent choice, as it is a derivative of Fuggles. I suggest you opt for actual Fuggles or, better yet IMO, Kent Goldings. An ounce at flameout ought to suffice for a very nice flavor and aroma.

By this time, the VSS packages ought to be a bit long in the tooth, as old yeast is not your friend. If you do decide to go ahead with that yeast, be sure you make a starter before pitching. Even if the package was shipped direct to you from Wyeast tomorrow, it wouldn't have enough yeast to properly pitch that beer; combine that with the age of the package and you really need to make a starter to ensure success.

Cheers,

Bob

Thanks for the input. I should have clarified - I haven't done any all-grain, but I have done extract + specialty grains. I've only done 3 batches and they were all kits, so I wasn't sure what grains would be good. Here's the revised recipe (instead of substituting the Challenger, I upped the amount):

Munton's Light DME: 4 1/2 lbs
Simpson's Caramalt: 1/2 lb
Simpson's Dark Crystal: 1/4 lb
Challenger Pellets: 1.5 oz @ 60 min
Fuggles: 1 oz @ 5 min
Wyeast Labs English Special Bitter - Private Collection

OG: 1.044
FG: 1.011
IBUs: 38.3
SRM: 8.0
ABV %: 4.3

Oh, and I don't know that I understand what you mean by the "VSS packages are long in the tooth?"

I like your revisions. Well done!

By 'long in the tooth' I mean they're old. That yeast was in the last series of VSS, which makes them at least a couple of months old.* I like my yeast to be as fresh as it can possibly be, and I suggest you should, too.

For this beer, any English ale strain should be just fine. Personally, I prefer S-04 for dry and Wyeast 1098 and 1187 for liquid.

Cheers,

Bob

* Wyeast 1768 English Special Bitter was part of the October to December 2008 VSS.

Ahhh, got the long in the tooth comment. How would I know (since I'm ordering from a website) if the strain I'm getting is old or new? Or is it just a crapshoot? Also, what does VSS mean?

It's a crapshoot, unless you call the store and specifically tell them to root through their stock and put the freshest (most recent date) smack-pack in the box.

'VSS', if I understand correctly, stood for Very Special Strain. Now they call it 'Private Collection'. The current Private Collection is found here.