What would you call this?

I brewed some beer last night, but I have no idea what to call it.

Here's what I did:

Style: Bock
Type: Extract w/grain Size: 6.0 gallons
Color: 22 HCU (~12 SRM)
Bitterness: 21 IBU
OG: 1.061 FG: 1.018
Alcohol: 5.6% v/v (4.4% w/w)

Grain: 1 lb. American Munich
.5 lb. American crystal 10L
1 lb. American crystal 20L
.25 lb. Belgian Special B

Boil: minutes SG 1.049 7.5 gallons
6 lb. Light dry malt extract
1 lb. Honey

Hops: 1 oz. Fuggles (4.75% AA, 60 min.)
1 oz. Kent Goldings (5% AA, 15 min.)

More or less those were just a bunch of ingredients I had laying around that sounded good.

The volume came out higher than I expected. I started with a little too much water, plus not as much boiled off as I planned. So this brought down my OG and color a little bit. I pitched an active starter of WL013 London Ale yeast, and it started to show a little pressure in the airlock just hours later. This morning it's bubbling away happily.

I was gonna call it a Bock, but the OG came out low due to it being a little watered down.

So....what style of beer would you call this? I might just say Honey Brown?

That's an ESB, no question.

http://www.bjcp.org/styles04/Category8.html#style8C

I most whole-heartedly disagree.

If you used a Bock (Lager) yeast, then it is not an ESB.

Toot said:

I most whole-heartedly disagree.

If you used a Bock (Lager) yeast, then it is not an ESB.

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Disagree all you want. Read the post.

brehm21 said:

I pitched an active starter of WL013 London Ale yeast, and it started to show a little pressure in the airlock just hours later. This morning it's bubbling away happily.

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I stand corrected then. I guess I just misunderstood why he was calling it a Bock in the first place.


Anyway, the IBU's are uncharacteristically low for a Special or Extra Special Bitter. They'd be on target for an ordinary bitter, but the OG is too high for that. It's closer, in style, to a mild... except, again, for the higher OG. So I would call it a Brown Ale.

Chairman Cheyco said:

That's an ESB, no question.

http://www.bjcp.org/styles04/Category8.html#style8C

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Bitterness is a little low for an ESB, isn't it? I just made my first ESB receipe yesterday, and I thought it needed at least 30 IBUs. The rest of the recipe looks very ESB-ish, just a little light in that regard, unless I'm insane.

Yeah, you guys are probably right about the IBUs. I didn't run the bitterness numbers, I just saw all those english hops and the OG and thought ESB. What does that come out to anyway?

21 IBUs, as per the OP.

What WAS the OG? If it was down around 1048, you might get away with calling it a Special Bitter (not an ESB), although the hops are still a *little* light. It's definately in that ballpark, but you may have just missed the category guidelines by a bit.

You know what you should call it?

Beer.

Hopefully, DAMN GOOD BEER.

Chairman Cheyco said:

Yeah, you guys are probably right about the IBUs. I didn't run the bitterness numbers, I just saw all those english hops and the OG and thought ESB. What does that come out to anyway?

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Read the post. It says 21 IBU's.

The two crystal malts are perhaps a little light for a brown ale, but I'm not familiar with Belgian Special B.

I'm still going with an English Brown, until someone convinces me otherwise.

Toot said:

Read the post. It says 21 IBU's.

The two crystal malts are perhaps a little light for a brown ale, but I'm not familiar with Belgian Special B.

I'm still going with an English Brown, until someone convinces me otherwise.

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Northern English can have a little bit of hop aroma, so if that's an apt description, it could fit in there. Bitterness is about right, color is probably around right (we don't know how diluted). OG is still a question, think Northern English tend to max out in the low 1050s.

Toot said:

Read the post. It says 21 IBU's.

The two crystal malts are perhaps a little light for a brown ale, but I'm not familiar with Belgian Special B.

I'm still going with an English Brown, until someone convinces me otherwise.

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D'OH! :cross:

Looks like english brown it is - by the numbers. The next, more difficult stage of classification is the flavor profile... To be discussed at a later date, once Toot, the_bird, and I receive samples!

Samples may or may not be available in coming months!

I had never thought to consider it as a bitter due to the 21 IBUs. I slapped it with a bock because originally the OG was supposed to be around 1.067, and the color and IBUs...... even though I never planned on lagering this one due to the yeast.

The recipe I posted is where it landed after coming away diluted. The color looks exactly like a Werther's caramel candy right now. The yeast is going nuts, though, so it better clear after fermenting, and that may lighten it up a little bit. Special B, I believe, is supposed to taste kind of toasty, and it's fairly dark. So I didn't use much of it. Hopefully this comes out tasting sort of toasty, caramely, honey goodness!

I'm excited to try it no matter what we call it.....it smelled really tasty while brewing.

Thanks for all the input folks!

I'm off to dig up a stout to pitch on the yeast cake when this one's done!

brehm21 said:

I had never thought to consider it as a bitter due to the 21 IBUs.

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Interesting historical sidenote. Bitters aren't necessarily very bitter. Although they are in the same family of beers as IPA's and Pale Ales (which are both known for their hoppiness), the term "Bitter" was originally a relative term applied to the stronger more bitter beer which was served in a pub and the comparison was being made to a Mild, which generally had an Original Gravity somewhere in the 1.03x range. Remember, this was a time when even children drank beer because it was better than the water! So the "bitter" was the stronger, more full-flavored adult beer, but it wasn't some super strong notable concoction- it was just what was being brewed in the pub that week/month.

Then along came IPA's which were Bitters. The style "IPA" came about much like the popularization of Coca-Cola here in America. When the English colonized India, they shipped their beer with extra hops to survive the long voyage, blah blah blah (we all know this part of the story, right?)

So anyway, IPAs were derived from Bitters, but bitter was just the term for a beer that was more of a drinker's beer and less of a session ale that you might feed to your young thirsty child.

My how times change..... :cross:

Nowadays, especially, Bitters are FAR from the most bitter of beers. What characterizes a bitter nowadays is a good balance of maltiness and bitterness. Comparing a bitter to a pale ale, the bitter has more emphasis on hops flavor, while the Pale Ale emphasizes the aroma. Dry hopping, my uneducated opinion tells me, is for Pale Ales and shouldn't generally be done with Bitters. The aroma on a bitter should be mild. There should be a well-balanced sweetness/maltiness. Remember, this was the BMC of the day! And it should otherwise be a fairly light ale with a hint of an orange hue. It's just a nice all around brew.

Wasn't there some type of "medicine" from back in the day (a Wednesday, as we all know) that was referred to a Bittters?

Angostura bitters

I like to drink OJ and sprite and bitters when I feel like a mocktail.

EOSB

Extra Ordinary Special Bitters

I've decided - it's a Special Ordinary Bitter (SOB).