Well, I've brewed this thing three different ways. I thought that I needed to increase the mash temperature because the beer was a little dry. Then I found out that my thermometer was -4 to -8 degrees off at mash temps for the first two variations (and who knows how long I've had this error... years???).
1st with 1469: Great stone fruit ester from yeast, very drinkable, might be the best beer I've brewed even though mash temps were 144 to 148.
2nd with 1968: Less fruit, but still a very drinkable beer. Nice malt backbone. Hops showed much more in this version (still with the low mash temps).
3rd with 1318 (and pushed gravity up to 1.045 into the special bitter category): Another great tasting beer. Nice malty sweetness, hey it's nice to have some long chained sugars around after fermentation!!! Really wished I'd have calibrated my thermometer correctly on the first two.
I learned a lot from these brews as I've never been to England or really had the opportunity to drink ordinary bitters. These types of beers are the ones that are missing when you go to the beer store.
Possibly the most important aspect of serving these beers is to keep the carbonation low. I had the gas hooked up too long on the 1968 and the beer turned sharp and lost the character when it was carbed like a normal american beer (this may have also been due to the meager malt backbone I had left in the beer after low mash temps).
The only question is what to do next with this!
Thanks again for the great recipe.
1st with 1469: Great stone fruit ester from yeast, very drinkable, might be the best beer I've brewed even though mash temps were 144 to 148.
2nd with 1968: Less fruit, but still a very drinkable beer. Nice malt backbone. Hops showed much more in this version (still with the low mash temps).
3rd with 1318 (and pushed gravity up to 1.045 into the special bitter category): Another great tasting beer. Nice malty sweetness, hey it's nice to have some long chained sugars around after fermentation!!! Really wished I'd have calibrated my thermometer correctly on the first two.
I learned a lot from these brews as I've never been to England or really had the opportunity to drink ordinary bitters. These types of beers are the ones that are missing when you go to the beer store.
Possibly the most important aspect of serving these beers is to keep the carbonation low. I had the gas hooked up too long on the 1968 and the beer turned sharp and lost the character when it was carbed like a normal american beer (this may have also been due to the meager malt backbone I had left in the beer after low mash temps).
The only question is what to do next with this!
Thanks again for the great recipe.