Best Bitter Special Bitter (1st place HBT Comp)

I was going to brew this using the exact recipe but I am very interested in being a parti-gyle brewer. I did not have the correct hops on hand but I did have 2oz. of EKG and Cascade. I thought why not experiment so I made recipe on hopville to create 8 gallons with a OG of 1.057, SRM of 8 using a larger amount of Marris Otter and Caramel 40L.

I split this into two beers, I was shooting for an ESB and and APA. If anyone has knowledge of parti-gyle a 1/3 and 2/3 batch would throw my one third way high with OG and SRM and the 2/3 does not fit the APA bill. I ended up boiling one 3 gal batch and one 5 gal batch but I ended up swapping wort between the two to try and raise the OG and SRM in the 5 gal a bit. I also planned to add boiled water to the 3gal (my reasoning is I only have two pots and my original extract pot is only 4 gal.) I ended up hopping each with one hope all the way thru. I have been doing this for a little while so I know enough to be crazy but not full of knowledge or experience. I ended up boiling the 3 gal with 1.4oz hop 60, .4 hop 30 and .2 hop 1min using all EKG and the 5 gal was the same schedule of Cascade. I am in the primary with each and ended up with close to 4 gal of each. The EKG used Safale 04 and the Cacade used the 05.

I am not sure of the actual gravity but feel I am fairly close and read up on how to recalc FG to see if I was correct with my OG. It was my 1st time using my new refractometer and had no distilled water to calibrate and halfway though noticed it was sitting at .005OG while clean? In any case I think I hit 1.053 ESB and 1.043 APA (maybe I will consider this just a pale ale since it is a low OG.)

Sorry this is winded but I thought I would put this all out there since I don't see many posts on Parti-Gyle and with that said, I read up as much as I could and thought I would just go ahead and start off with trial and error. I will try to post back to say how things turned out but I am sure I put enough information on here to have more experienced people pick me apart or question me. The only thing I am still unsure of on this forum is how to actually post items for all to see?

bOTTLIUNG THIS WEEKEND, USED wYEAST 1028. DOWN TO 1.011.. I HIT 1.048, BUT USED A LITTLE EXTRA GRAIN, AND HAD TOO MUCH WATER/SPARGE. THANKS FOR THE RECIPE.

would something like Nottingham yeast work well with this?

Ok... Just read all the replies. What did the original poster use for yeast... Or did I miss it.

I used Safale 04 in my batch, turned out nice with a bit of residual sweetness. I might try it again with Nottingham and see what it's like, since it attenuates a bit better. It might be nice a tad drier - though I did use 3lbs of LME which may not ferment out as well.

I was really happy with beer overall, easy drinking no problem having 2-3 in a night.

bink00 said:

Ok... Just read all the replies. What did the original poster use for yeast... Or did I miss it.

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I would think wlp002 or Wyeast 1968 ESB would do great, though I have no idea what the OP uses.

Would it be possible to do this as an extract brew? I was thinking of doing the following for a 5 gallon batch:

Fermentables:
6lbs Marris Otter LME
1lb Extra Light DME

Steeping Grains:
0.5lbs Crystal 20L

Hops:
2.00oz East Kent Goldings (60min)
0.5oz East Kent Goldings (30min)
0.5oz East Kent Goldings (1min)

Any feedback is appreciated.

Just ordered my ingredients and l I've been growing some Adnams yeast from a mini cask of Broadside so I'm looking forward to seeing what that'll spit out!

Soilworker said:

Would it be possible to do this as an extract brew? I was thinking of doing the following for a 5 gallon batch:

Fermentables:
6lbs Marris Otter LME
1lb Extra Light DME

Steeping Grains:
0.5lbs Crystal 20L

Hops:
2.00oz East Kent Goldings (60min)
0.5oz East Kent Goldings (30min)
0.5oz East Kent Goldings (1min)

Any feedback is appreciated.

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Looks good to me

I know it's old but chose this one for my first AG. Been reading for a year first post. My LHBS only had 2 oz EKG so went with First Gold late editions OG was 1.048. Also went with 04 been a hour already have movement in air lock. Tasted sample be hard to wait for this one.

goodyx7 said:

I know it's old but chose this one for my first AG. Been reading for a year first post. My LHBS only had 2 oz EKG so went with First Gold late editions OG was 1.048. Also went with 04 been a hour already have movement in air lock. Tasted sample be hard to wait for this one.

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Welcome to the world of home brewing. just sit tight and let the yeast do their job

This is a great beer to start with good luck brewing

Thanks easier said than done. Been extract brewing for about a year now finaly making the jump to grain. Made a bitter last spring was OK. So in a few weeks we'll see about this one. Sample tasted better already.

You can make a great bitter with NBs Maris otter syrup. Depending on time I will either do it all grain or go with this extract.

Had to jump in and say I've been interested in this style of beer for some time now, but never tried making one. I made an extract kit that was close to this and really liked the result.

This will be my next batch. I'm sure your technical merit exceeds mine, so the recipe will have to overcome my ineptitude.

I'm brewing the original posted recipe as the first run with my Braumeister 20L. (The machine makes AG so easy!) BS2 says that OG, Bitterness, and ABV is spot on for an Extra Special Bitter or Strong Bitter. It's not right for a Special. I also noticed the color with the 20L is not dark enough for the standard on BS2. I see 60L or 80L Crystal would bump it up.

Just cracked my first bomber great beer. Thanks for the recipe.

I made a 5 gallon version of this and ended up with an OG of 1.048. Not terrible for only 9 pounds of grain, IMO. It'll be a 5% max and I'm comfortable with that.

It was a brutal day for brewing (never got above freezing), but I survived, even though I had to thaw out my garden hose to use my immersion chiller.

I'm considering kegging this, since I just blew my keg the night before brew day. I'm pretty excited. This is the one "tame" brew in the midst of a bunch of IPAs I'm making to get me out of porter/stout winter.

Just bottled tonight. The sample tasted great! I'm really really excited about this beer.

FG of 1.016, which I'm happy with. I generally like it a little lower but AFAIK this yeast does that.

Only question is that I generally add (and this case was no different) dry yeast to the bottling bucket. This time I used Cooper's. Since I ended a few points higher on the FG, am I risking bottle bombs with the Cooper's consuming the few points that the WLP002 left?

Thanks.

Why are you adding yeast to the bottling bucket? You have plenty of good yeast in your brew already.

I've had issues in the past with bottles not conditioning because all the yeast settled out in secondary. So now I protect against that by adding yeast to the bottling vessel.

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I suspect that your conditioning problems were not related to yeast falling out in your secondary.

For your next batch why not bottle several bottles before adding the extra yeast and run your own test. I think you will be pleased with the results.

I'll try that. What you say could be true, and I could continue on this tangent, but I feel my original question is left unanswered.

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""This time I used Cooper's. Since I ended a few points
higher on the FG, am I risking bottle bombs with the
Cooper's consuming the few points that the WLP002 left?""

You should not end up with bottle bombs because of the Cooper's

Being higher on your final gravity is not a problem and could be a result of many things.
If your batch was not done fermenting and you bottle it then you will get bottle bombs. If you use the normal Home Brewing system (1,2,3 One week in primary, Two weeks in secondary, Three weeks bottle condition) you should be fine.

Thanks, I never heard that 1,2,3 thing before. I do 2 in primary, 2 in secondary, then however long it takes to condition. I can generally drink the first bottle after a week.

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What your are doing is fine. You should not end up with any bottle bombs.
I am sure your beer has stopped fermenting long before you bottle but you have plenty of good live yeast to eat your conditioning sugar.

Good luck and enjoy your brew

Thanks, I will, and thanks for the recipe!

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Here is my effort after two weeks in the bottle. I haven't found a commercial example of the style yet but it seems pretty spot-on from the description I have read. I plan on entering it in a competition in May.

looks great
good luck in the competition
and enjoy

Here is my beer (on the right) compared to a Fuller's London Pride (on the left). Mine came out a bit lighter and a little less bitter, but it tastes delicious. My carbonation was on the low side, but not out of style for a special bitter.

Still waiting for the score sheets from the competition.

looks good

Ok, so I made this and it's a few days out from bottling.
This is my first bitter and I'm wondering....are they kind of lack-luster before carbing?
Bitterness is good but it's thin and not overly impressive. Color is amazing and clear though.

I should mention though that I made a 3gal batch and it was 5.25 Marris Otter and .30 20L.
OG was supposed to be 1.045 and I missed that(probably over sparged since I wound up with 3.5 gal) and got 1.036.
Not a big deal, the yeast fermented down to 1.006 so I'm just a bit shy of 4%(should have been 4.45%).
This was also my first attempt at AG.

I'm sure it'll be fine once in the bottle, I'm just curious as to what I should be seeing/tasting at this point from the samples.

Medic218 said:

Ok, so I made this and it's a few days out from bottling.
This is my first bitter and I'm wondering....are they kind of lack-luster before carbing?
Bitterness is good but it's thin and not overly impressive. Color is amazing and clear though.

I should mention though that I made a 3gal batch and it was 5.25 Marris Otter and .30 20L.
OG was supposed to be 1.045 and I missed that(probably over sparged since I wound up with 3.5 gal) and got 1.036.
Not a big deal, the yeast fermented down to 1.006 so I'm just a bit shy of 4%(should have been 4.45%).
This was also my first attempt at AG.

I'm sure it'll be fine once in the bottle, I'm just curious as to what I should be seeing/tasting at this point from the samples.

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Its thin for two reasons, the lower OG, and the Lower FG. Should still be good though.

Cracked my first bottle tonight after about a week in the bottle.
Extremely watery. I definitely over-sparged, dang it.
Thicker mash and a more calculated sparge would have made this a better beer.
I can see that it has great potential, as long as you don't screw it up.

I have plans to brew this exact recipe (scaled to 3 Gal) this week with S-04 or Wyeast ESB.

I'll make an additional 3 Gal recipe based of this. Probably add some additional complexity to the malt bill and maybe throw in some Fuggles.

I'll let everyone know how it goes - thanks for the recipe!

5 year old bottle
This is an interesting UP date on the Original Beer. Last week we found a bottle of this beer in our root cellar. It was a 22 oz bottle and after cooling it down I gave it a try.
We split the bottle 5 ways and everyone agreed it was excellent.
Good carbonation, nice head and a nice flavor. I can’t relay give you a fair comparison to what was sent to the contest as it was over 5 years ago. But a very nice beer.