Strong Bitter The Bitter Lawyer

I took two of my favorite beers, Fuller's London Pride and Fuller's ESB, as inspiration for this one, which is right on the cusp between a strong bitter and an ESB. It's malty with caramel and toffee notes, a hint of cocoa, and earthy in the finish due to the Challenger and EKG hop additions. Really, really tasty and one of my favorites so far. Hope you enjoy.

Grain Bill

9.50 lbs. Maris Otter
0.50 lbs. Crystal 40L
0.50 lbs. Crystal 60L
0.25 lbs. Pale Chocolate

Hops/Additions

0.75 oz. Target [11.0%] (60 min)
0.50 oz. Challenger [7.5%] (20 min)
1.00 Whirlfloc (15 min)
0.50 oz. East Kent Goldings [5.5%] (1 min)

Mash

Mash at 154F for 60 min. Sparge at 168F to desired preboil volume.

Fermentation

I try to get the wort down to 70F or so and ferment this one at 66F for the first few days. Wyeast 1968 is my preferred choice, but WLP002 is also a great option. Both are super-flocculent and give off a nice mixture of earthy and estery flavors.

Notes

If you don't have Target or Challenger available, EKG can do the work for bittering, flavor, and aroma. (Same goes for Challenger all the way through.) I like the specified combination in this recipe, but getting the same amount of IBUs with an all-EKG or all-Challenger hop schedule will also make a fine beer.

With respect to my choice of equal parts Crystal 40L and 60L, the idea is to give a complexity to the caramel flavors in the beer. You could do 1 lb. of either in a pinch, though, and have it come out great. (From what I've read, London Pride is pretty much just pale malt and Crystal 60L.) The Pale Chocolate is meant to provide a slight extra twist and also intensify the color just a tad.

Cheers!

I would try this with 1# of British Crystal (which has a range, usually 55-65L), I bet you'll be happy with the results. Interesting addition with the chocolate, I would think it would come out too dark and roasty with that much.

Gremlyn1 said:

I would try this with 1# of British Crystal (which has a range, usually 55-65L), I bet you'll be happy with the results.

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Interesting point, and one with which I completely agree. In fact, if the goal is to make it as authentically British as possible, I might even take it a step further and change the 40L and 60L ingredients to, respectively, British Crystal 37L and 55L. Both of those have a distinct flavor perfect for a strong bitter.

Gremlyn1 said:

Interesting addition with the chocolate, I would think it would come out too dark and roasty with that much.

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Nice catch, and one which I fixed above. It should be Pale Chocolate, not just straight Chocolate. Somewhere in the range of 200 SRM. I heard about Pale Chocolate on The Jamil Show and tried it out. It gives a nice mild coffee/chocolate flavor, but not overpowering. Also, at less than 3% of the grist, it's important (as you note) not to have too strong of a roast flavor.

Pale chocolate would, indeed, be much smoother. Let us know how it turns out

Oh, I know how it turns out. So do my friends, who recently raided my house for this beer and left me a nice pile of bottles to wash.

I meant if you implement the changes to the British Crystal. I assumed you had already brewed and liked the recipe since you put it in the database

Looks tasty!

Shouldn't that be "Bitter Solicitor"?

Gremlyn1 said:

I meant if you implement the changes to the British Crystal.

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Ah, I see. Yeah, I've been thinking about the 37/55 change all morning. (Salivating, really.) Will definitely let you know how it turns out. Might even require a recipe edit.

weirdboy said:

Shouldn't that be "Bitter Solicitor"?

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Well played, and probably right. Since I'm not licensed in the UK, I guess I'll have to stick with "Lawyer," but Bitter Solicitor rolls off the tongue much better.

So, I recently tried this recipe using the Caramalt (30-37L) and Simpson's Dark Crystal (50-60L), as discussed above. Also, just because it was out for a limited time, I used Wyeast 1469 instead of the 1968. Just pulled my first pint tonight and whoooooo boy, is that good!

I may have to try this cask conditioned!


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I may have to brew this simply because it was submitted by another attorney-brewer!

I brewed and kegged this one at the end of August and tapped it it a week ago. I was amazed at how good it was. I also got rave reviews from all of my friends who tasted it. I will post a picture of it next time I tap one off. I followed the original recipe since it was my first time trying it so I have a base line in the event I want to tweet it. After tasting it, I wouldn't change a thing other than bumping it up to a ten Gallon batch next time.

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1419821329.022351.jpg here it is as promised, nice smooth easy drink

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1421192744.924558.jpgopps, didn't realize I already posted a picture, but here is another one. I have a friend who keeps knocking my door down to get some more of this. Getting a grain bill ready, got to do this one again.

I was just looking over this recipe and realized I had doubled up the crystal and chocolate malt. It was still an amazing beer, and I'll keep it that way......

MollyHatchet said:

I was just looking over this recipe and realized I had doubled up the crystal and chocolate malt. It was still an amazing beer, and I'll keep it that way......

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That explains why it looks sooooo dark.

Looks like you got your own recipe now

Not sure how that happened, but it sure is tasty!!

I am thinking about trying to brew this up on sunday and have some questions. First is the malts : I was thinking about using Fawcett amber (35L) and fawcett crystal (46L). I also have domestic 60L, Fawcett Pale Crystal (23L) and fawcett dark crystal I (86L) available. Thoughts?

So my next question is the hops. I have EKGOLDING but no target or challenger. I do have Willamette and a ton of magnum that I can use for the 60 minute addition. Thoughts?

I use
1.75 EKG 60 min
0.50 northern Brewer 20 min
0.50 EKG 1 min
With great results.

Wanted to make this a while ago but for whatever reason haven't done it. When's into my lhbs not knowing what I was gonna make and the next thing u know I have 10 gallons of this in the mash tun as we speak/type. Going with all ekg cuz that's what he had. Going with 3oz for the bitter. I love fullers esb so here it goes. I also like London Pride so I'll be good I am sure.