English Best Bitter Recipe Development

Hi,

I'm from the south of England. We drink lots of ale here!
My goal is to try and create a very simple recipe, which will be a classic Best Bitter. This recipe has to make a very good, very drinkable Best Bitter which is exactly to style. It will then be used as the foundation for every beer I will make in 2011, so I have to get this one right.

I'd really like your input as to what makes a typical Best Bitter. We're not trying to be innovative, we're trying to create a definitive benchmark for what a best bitter should be.

Here's my starting point:


Batch size: 23l
Style: 8B. Special/Best/Premium Bitter (Best Bitter)
Type: All Grain
Estimated OG: 1.046
Estimated FG: 1.011
Estimated ABV: 4.59%
Estimated Efficiency: 75%
IBUs: 35.7

Grain:
4000g Maris Otter Pale Malt
450g Crystal 80l
50g Crystal 120l

Hops:
75g Fuggles 3.8%AA @ 60min
25g Fuggles 3.8%AA @ 15min
1 protofloc tablet @ 15min

Primary for 1 week
Bottle & Keg for 1 month


What do you reckon?
H

Looks standard enough to me, a bit of torrified/flaked wheat would be another classic addition (but not a necessary one). What sort of yeast are you going to use? I'd probably give it 10-14 days in primary just to be sure fermentation is complete, and I bet it will be ready to drink sooner than a month after packaging.

Good luck.

IMHO, your yeast selection will be your biggest driver in the flavor of your bitter. I am currently trying a different yeast everytime I make my bitter, and they all turn out different. I use Kent Goldings in addition to Fuggles. I also use pale as opposed to M.O. because I don't care for a ton of biscuit flavor.

Well, you picked a good time to brew a bitter. Two of Wyeast's 4th quarter special strains are 1469 West Yorkshire (Timothy Taylor) and 1026 British Cask. White Labs also has WLP037 Yorkshire Squares (Sam Smith) through the end of the year.

As far as grainbill, I really like Bob's 80/10/10 pale/crystal/adjuct rule. A little sugar, even at this low of an OG is pretty traditional and helps offset the generally lower attenuation of British yeasts.

Cheers!
Kevin

Special/Best bitter is one of my favorite styles and I brew it VERY often. Actually, I brew it about twice a month and have been doing so for a long time. For me the perfect special bitter has a deep, malty biscuit flavor with lots of complex stone fruit esters, a firm hop bitterness, and a mild floral hop aroma.

IMO, the two biggest factors for this beer style are yeast choice and the grist. My favored yeasts are wy1968, wy1469, and wy1187, with a ferment temp around 68F for two weeks minimum. As for grist, I like a MO base with about 6% crystal 40L and 3.5-4% extra dark crystal (120, or 160L) for an O.G around 1.045. If I want a more biscuit flavor, I will toast some base malt in the oven for around 6-8% of the grist. I like EKG hops, 0.70-80 BU:GU, with some hop flavor and aroma.

Here is my standard "session bitter." Good luck!

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f64/yeoman-special-bitter-192039/

Disclaimer: Fuller's Fanatic Speaking...

[Edit: Corrected, as per 14thstreet's guidance. Apologies for going off of memory on this.]

The Jamil Show ran a few podcasts that built upon an interview with John Keeling (Head Brewer at Fuller's). What was interesting is that they use a parti-gyle and keep the running separate - basically a high-gravity running and a low-gravity running. They then combine them to create all of their higher production run beers (things like Vintage Ale are a different beast, done as one-off batches).

What is interesting is their grain bill. All of their standard brews start off with a 95/5 of pale malt (were not specific, but Maris Otter would probably be a good bet) and 150 EBC Crystal - approximately 75L, such as Simpon's Dark. Not sure what the gravity of either of the runnings are, though.

Back to the point, though, is that this would be the same grain bill (the 95/5) that they use for Fuller's ESB, although the ratio of the running would need to be experimented with. The immediate upside to this could be the ease of making multiple beers off of the runnings. Throwing random numbers out there, but assume that ESB. is something like a 3:2 ratio of first runnings to second runnings. You could then take what is left to do a 2:3 ration to come up with something like a London Pride.

The interview, and some good speculation/breakdown of John's interview is found split between three separate podcasts (ordered from oldest to newest - i.e. recommended listening order):

• Can You Brew It: Fullers ESB
• Can You Brew It: Fullers London Pride
• Can You Brew It: Fullers 1845

As to your current recipe, I like the ratio. I would definitely look towards something like that to build off of. Might consider Target for some of the bittering, too.

Do you plan on Burtonizing?

bierhaus15 said:

IMO, the two biggest factors for this beer style are yeast choice and the grist. My favored yeasts are wy1968, wy1469, and wy1187, with a ferment temp around 68F for two weeks minimum. As for grist, I like a MO base with about 6% crystal 40L and 3.5-4% extra dark crystal (120, or 160L) for an O.G around 1.045. If I want a more biscuit flavor, I will toast some base malt in the oven for around 6-8% of the grist. I like EKG hops, 0.70-80 BU:GU, with some hop flavor and aroma.

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+1 to this. This is exactly how I think of bitters, and the cited yeasts are definitely the best options, IMO. (WLP002 and WLP007 are also great choices.)

Subscribed! I'm very interested in following this project.

On this side of the pond, I find many people who brew excellent bitters don't serve them properly. They are usually over carbonated and served too cold. IMHO, the whole idea is to have a session beer with layers of subtle character and serving a fizzy cold beer tends to hide many of the subtleties of this style.

caskconditioned said:

They are usually over carbonated and served too cold. IMHO, the whole idea is to have a session beer with layers of subtle character and serving a fizzy cold beer tends to hide many of the subtleties of this style.

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Could not agree more. Recently found an "English Pub" that has some great names on tap. Unfortunately, everything is served at the same temperature, probably close to 33 degrees or so. I aim for 50-55 degrees for most of the ones I imbibe at home, even if that means cellaring most of my stock.

Best Bitter is my favorite.
Your recipe looks good, but I would make two changes.
I'd change the 450g of Crystal 80L to 250g of Crystal 55L. That's not to say you are wrong, just that I don't like more than 6 - 7% crystal.
I'd also replace the Fuggles with EKG at about 5% AA, using about 50g for 60 min, and 25g at 15 and 0 min.
One other thing that makes a tremendous difference is the mash thickness and temperature. I mash for 90 minutes at 1 US qt per lb grain at a temperature of 150F. The thick mash (recommended for English Ales by both Noonan and Daniels) makes a very big difference to the character of the beer, and the relatively low mash temperature results in a very drinkable beer, as opposed to something that is cloyingly sweet.

-a.

Wow that's a huge amount of information to take in at once! I'm going to be brewing on Sunday weather permitting, so I'll have a look at yeast choices and adjusting my grain bill, and get back to you guys.

jmferris said:

Disclaimer: Fuller's Fanatic Speaking...

What is interesting is their grain bill. All of their standard brews start off with a 75/25 of pale malt (were not specific, but Maris Otter would probably be a good bet) and 150L Crystal.

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Perhaps some correction: I've understood the ratio to be 95% to 5% pale to crystal, with the crystal being 150 EBC, which is roughly 75L, or a "dark" crystal (Simpson brand). Extra Dark (Simpson's again) is 130-160ish L.
Keeling also noted that depending on the batch, some chocolate is also thrown in for color adjustment but that is quite optional as it won't have much/any impact on flavor (less than 1%). Even so, I'd be tempted to use the extra dark crystal in a bitter.

14thstreet said:

Perhaps some correction: I've understood the ratio to be 95% to 5% pale to crystal, with the crystal being 150 EBC, which is roughly 75L, or a "dark" crystal (Simpson brand). Extra Dark (Simpson's again) is 130-160ish L.
Keeling also noted that depending on the batch, some chocolate is also thrown in for color adjustment but that is quite optional as it won't have much/any impact on flavor (less than 1%). Even so, I'd be tempted to use the extra dark crystal in a bitter.

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Thank you. That is my own fault for going from memory. I've been meaning to go back and listen to the interview again and take proper notes. I'll correct the original posting and provide proper credit for the corrections.

Cheers!

It's probably worth noting that here in the south of England fullers are not entirely respected. Partly this is due to their beer being mass produced and pretty dire (London pride is crap compared to a pint of good locally brewed ale). The other reason is they along with others like Greene king bought up hundreds of pubs and in the lease say that only their beer can be bought there. This not only destroyed thousands of local breweries across the uk but it now means that every second pub you go in will only sell fullers ales.

What I'm trying to create is less of a London Pride, and more of a Harveys Sussex Best, Ballards Best, Hepworth, langhams etc.

I see now that yeast choice is a big deal, I might invest in a couple of different yeasts and brew the same recipe with each yeast.

I'll work out a new recipe and post it tomorrow.

I'm late in arriving to this discussion, but I thought I'd chip in just to say that I've been trying to make a highly drinkable best bitter for the last few months, and that I think I'm getting closer. FWIW, here's the recipe I used most recently:

8 lbs. pale ale malt (Canada Malting. I usually use Gambrinus ESB)
8 oz. crystal 60L
4 oz. crystal 120L
2 oz. biscuit
2 oz. Goldings (5%, 60 min.)
1 oz. Goldings (5%, 15 min.)
1 oz. Goldings (5%, 2 min.)
.5 oz. Goldings pellets (secondary)
Wyeast #1187 (Ringwood)
OG: 1.040 FG: 1.010

I'm almost perfectly happy with it - the grist and hopping, anyhow, are exactly what I'm going for. But I'm not sure about the yeast. Ringwood seems to be a very full-bodied, rich yeast, which is fine for some styles. But in this brew I find it a bit heavy. And though it's fruity, and I want a fruity yeast, it isn't the right kind of fruit - I want to smell blackberries and peaches and really nice high notes. But Ringwood seems to produce big, heavy low notes. Next time I might try 1968, or maybe even one of the high attenuators for a drier beer - perhaps London Ale (don't know the number)?

Best of luck with your beer!

Ok Thanks everyone for your input! I've made some changes to the recipe but will be staying with fuggles for the first batch. The first 2 batches will be trying out 2 different yeasts to see which is best, then I can work on hops for the next couple of batches, and once I thi k I've got the hops right I'll start adjusting the grain bill.

Here's the new recipe:

Grain:
4000g Maris Otter Pale Malt
400g Crystal 80l
200g Crystal 120l

Hops:
50g Fuggles 4.3%AA @ 60min
50g Fuggles 4.3%AA @ 15min
1 protofloc tablet @ 15min

Yeast: 1st batch will be wyeast 1968 London ESB (fullers ironically!)
Second batch will be 1275 Thames valley (brakspear)

Primary for 10 days (or until fermentation is finished)
Bottle & Keg for 1 month

Looks like a great starting point.
I like the 1968 and the 1275.
When I lived in England, my two favorite beers were both HSB's (Harvey's special Bitter - my local brewery - and Gales Horndean Special Bitter, now taken over by Fullers).
I went back to England last month for a week, and stayed in Woodbridge (Suffolk). The only beers I could get there were from Adnams or Greene King. It was very depressing as none of their beers came close to what I can brew at home.

-a.

ajf said:

Best Bitter is my favorite.
Your recipe looks good, but I would make two changes.
I'd change the 450g of Crystal 80L to 250g of Crystal 55L. That's not to say you are wrong, just that I don't like more than 6 - 7% crystal.
I'd also replace the Fuggles with EKG at about 5% AA, using about 50g for 60 min, and 25g at 15 and 0 min.
One other thing that makes a tremendous difference is the mash thickness and temperature. I mash for 90 minutes at 1 US qt per lb grain at a temperature of 150F. The thick mash (recommended for English Ales by both Noonan and Daniels) makes a very big difference to the character of the beer, and the relatively low mash temperature results in a very drinkable beer, as opposed to something that is cloyingly sweet.

-a.

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How does the mash thickness affect the beer - this is something I've never understood.

I'm also looking forward to reading about this. I've just started getting into the english ales - starting with a mild.

onelegout said:

Ok Thanks everyone for your input! I've made some changes to the recipe but will be staying with fuggles for the first batch. The first 2 batches will be trying out 2 different yeasts to see which is best, then I can work on hops for the next couple of batches, and once I thi k I've got the hops right I'll start adjusting the grain bill.

Here's the new recipe:

Grain:
4000g Maris Otter Pale Malt
400g Crystal 80l
200g Crystal 120l

Hops:
50g Fuggles 4.3%AA @ 60min
50g Fuggles 4.3%AA @ 15min
1 protofloc tablet @ 15min

Yeast: 1st batch will be wyeast 1968 London ESB (fullers ironically!)
Second batch will be 1275 Thames valley (brakspear)

Primary for 10 days (or until fermentation is finished)
Bottle & Keg for 1 month

Click to expand...

Another latecomer here, I'm going to agree with much of ajf's earlier comments. You are at 13% crystal malt, that's too much for me in this style especially with the 120L addition. My preference would be to cut it back to the 5-6% range and either eliminate or significantly reduce the % of 120L crystal. IMO it's a bit aggressive in this style with a lingering burned sugar background flavor that takes quite a while to mellow. Another way to go if you want to stay with all that crystal would be to use a portion of a highly fermentable adjunct, perhaps flaked maize or plain sugar, to compensate for the potentially cloying nature of the unfermentables in the crystal malt. If you are aiming for a darker color from the 120L a tiny addition of chocolate or similar highly roasted malt can suffice without any flavor intrusion, as 14thstreet had suggested. One other thing would be to consider a 90 minute boil. It seems like a minor issue but I've tried bitters with standard 60 minute boils and with 90 minutes of kettle time and while I can't quite put my finger on why the longer boil versions just seem to be better.

mjohnson said:

How does the mash thickness affect the beer - this is something I've never understood.

I'm also looking forward to reading about this. I've just started getting into the english ales - starting with a mild.

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I wish I knew the answer to this, but I don't.
In How to Brew, Palmer states that a thick mash results in a less fermentable wort.
In New Brewing Lager Beers, Noonan states "A thick mash (less than three-tenths of a gallon pre pound of malt) induces the greatest overall extraction. A much thinner mash increases the proportion of maltose, and thus wort attenuation."
In Designing Great Beers, Daniels states that a mash thickness of 1 qt per lb is traditional for English beers.
What I can say, is that if I mash at 1 qt per lb, I get a beer with lots of "mouth feel" which would imply a wort with lots of dextrins, hence less fermentable, or lower attenuation. If I mash at 1.25 qt per lb or greater, then I lose the "mouth feel", implying fewer dextrins and greater attenuation.
The problem is that I can detect no difference in attenuation between a mash at 1 qt / lb and a mash at 1.25 qt/lb but there is a vast difference in the character of the beers produced with these different mash thicknesses.
I would recommend trying a couple of brews, one with a thick mash, and one with a thinner mash, and see if you can detect the difference.
If you can detect the difference (which I think you will), then you should decide which one you like best.

-a.

Ok so I might cut back the amount of crystal and use a touch of chocolate malt to give colour. I'll mash at 1qt/lb for these and see what it's like - I usually mash at 1.25qt/lb. My only worry is that the thicker mash might cause problems with my herms system..... but there's only one way to find out!

ajf said:

I wish I knew the answer to this, but I don't.
In How to Brew, Palmer states that a thick mash results in a less fermentable wort.
In New Brewing Lager Beers, Noonan states "A thick mash (less than three-tenths of a gallon pre pound of malt) induces the greatest overall extraction. A much thinner mash increases the proportion of maltose, and thus wort attenuation."
In Designing Great Beers, Daniels states that a mash thickness of 1 qt per lb is traditional for English beers.
What I can say, is that if I mash at 1 qt per lb, I get a beer with lots of "mouth feel" which would imply a wort with lots of dextrins, hence less fermentable, or lower attenuation. If I mash at 1.25 qt per lb or greater, then I lose the "mouth feel", implying fewer dextrins and greater attenuation.
The problem is that I can detect no difference in attenuation between a mash at 1 qt / lb and a mash at 1.25 qt/lb but there is a vast difference in the character of the beers produced with these different mash thicknesses.
I would recommend trying a couple of brews, one with a thick mash, and one with a thinner mash, and see if you can detect the difference.
If you can detect the difference (which I think you will), then you should decide which one you like best.

-a.

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Great info. Thanks for the response! Lately I've been having trouble hitting mash temps even with using the various temp calculations and have been adding water to bring the temps up (resulting in thinner mashes). Its interesting that the attenuation isn't different.

To stay on topic -
On a Brew Strong episode, I heard them talking about grinding up small amounts of chocolate malt very fine and sprinkling it into the mash at the end to give color without flavor.

mj, that would work too, though I have not tried it yet myself.

About the thick mash, if my memory serves me, I've had more trouble maintaining mash temperature with a thick mash (1qt/lb) than a thinner one (1.5 and greater/lb). If my 154F mash drops to 148F, I could be creating a more fermentable wort. Unfortunately, the last bitter I made I mashed at 150F at 1qt/lb for 45 minutes but added nearly 15% sugars in the boil. So much for seeing if ajf is on the money!

I lived in Woodbridge for 2 years, what a great place. What's the name of the pub with the good food, the Horse and Groom?

onelegout said:

Ok so I might cut back the amount of crystal and use a touch of chocolate malt to give colour. I'll mash at 1qt/lb for these and see what it's like - I usually mash at 1.25qt/lb. My only worry is that the thicker mash might cause problems with my herms system..... but there's only one way to find out!

Click to expand...

I realize all systems are different but on my HERMS it has been tough with a 1qt/lb ratio. Because of a couple stuck mashes, I now brew more in the range of 1.3/lb. Having said that, I have had some success by starting with a very low flow rate and after about 15 min of recir increasing the flow (when using less water). But I usually don't have the patience to sit there and babysit the recirc so mashing-in w/ more water has become my standard.

One of my next upgrades will include a grant between my MT and pump. The use of a grant will help me regulate the out-flow from the MT and hopefully reduce stuck mashes plus allow me to experiment with lower hot liquor to grain ratios.

Ok revised recipe -
4kg MO
300g crystal 80l
50g crystal 120l
50g chocolate malt
150g sugar

That brings us down to 4.3%abv but that's fine looking any better?

14thstreet said:

mj, that would work too, though I have not tried it yet myself.

About the thick mash, if my memory serves me, I've had more trouble maintaining mash temperature with a thick mash (1qt/lb) than a thinner one (1.5 and greater/lb). If my 154F mash drops to 148F, I could be creating a more fermentable wort. Unfortunately, the last bitter I made I mashed at 150F at 1qt/lb for 45 minutes but added nearly 15% sugars in the boil. So much for seeing if ajf is on the money!

Click to expand...

I mash at 150F for 90 minutes, followed by a mash out for 15 minutes and a fly sparge.
Without the mash out, I lose about 10% efficiency, and mashing for a shorter time at 150F may not allow for complete conversion.

-a.

I'm thinking of using the Thames valley malt for the first brew as it's yeast's 1st recommendation for best bitter. I'll then use the ESB in the second batch.
Just to be safe I'm going to mash at 1.25qt/lb because I don't want to risk a stuck mash on this bre

Thames Valley is good. It's one I've used several times. The other yeast I've used for bitters is 1098 (British). For bottles Pale Ales, I love the 1028 (London)
If you're starting a type of brew you have never done before, I'd agree that your usual mash thickness is the best place to start, especially if a different thickness could cause problems. The fewer deviations from your normal practice there are, the easier you will find it to see what effect you changes have made to the beer.

Good luck,

-a.

Cool - One thing that really lets my brewing down is that I have no way to control fermentation temperature. With these liquid yeast is temperature control more important?

I'm considering changing the hops to EKGs, and doing fuggles on the next batch... My last 2 beers have been EKG beers though... I'm not sure which would be better for a Best Bitter. Any advice?

Advice? I say get the notion of using Fuggles out of your mind, for now, and for your next batch get some temperature control! For under $10 you can improve your beer and in some cases quite dramatically. Temperature control is not important only for liquid yeast but for all yeast.

I've been fermenting on the cool side (64F) for most of my english ales because I've had issues with those that I had no fermentation control, i.e., they probably fermented warmer than 70F. I've found that controling temperature and temperature shifts within the first 72 hours or so of fermentation is necessary and although it may be more work, you owe yourself better beer!

ajf said:

The thick mash (recommended for English Ales by both Noonan and Daniels) makes a very big difference to the character of the beer, and the relatively low mash temperature results in a very drinkable beer, as opposed to something that is cloyingly sweet.

Click to expand...

Mash temperature affects the amount of dextrins in the wort, which don't really add much at all in the way of sweetness. Mash temperature will affect body more than anything else. I have found this to be true. That said, it does seem that the English like to mash on the lower side for their bitters and mash thick, like you said.

On another note, I also agree about replacing the Fuggles with EKG. I think fuggles are better for the darker beers and EKG give a much nicer aroma/flavor in bitters.

NCBeernut said:

Mash temperature affects the amount of dextrins in the wort, which don't really add much at all in the way of sweetness. Mash temperature will affect body more than anything else. I have found this to be true. That said, it does seem that the English like to mash on the lower side for their bitters and mash thick, like you said.

On another note, I also agree about replacing the Fuggles with EKG. I think fuggles are better for the darker beers and EKG give a much nicer aroma/flavor in bitters.

Click to expand...

Not saying that you're wrong at all, but could you provide sources to back up your claim of temperature not affecting sweetness? I've always read that mash temp determines how much fermentable and non fermentable sugar is extracted from the malt.

jmferris said:

The Jamil Show ran a few podcasts that built upon an interview with John Keeling (Head Brewer at Fuller's). What was interesting is that they use a parti-gyle and keep the running separate - basically a high-gravity running and a low-gravity running. They then combine them to create all of their higher production run beers (things like Vintage Ale are a different beast, done as one-off batches).

Click to expand...

You can see an example from 1968 of how Fuller's parti-gyle herer:

http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2010/05/fullers-party-gyle-from-1968.html

Four different beers - Golden Pride, Export London Pride, London Pride and PA - were brewed from a single mash.

onelegout said:

Not saying that you're wrong at all, but could you provide sources to back up your claim of temperature not affecting sweetness? I've always read that mash temp determines how much fermentable and non fermentable sugar is extracted from the malt.

Click to expand...

I agree with NCBeernut completely, and I should have thought a bit more before posting my previous post.
For a reasonable explanation see http://www.howtobrew.com/section3/chapter14-5.html
There is a difference in sweetness between a wort mashed at high temperature and one mashed at a lower temperature, but it is not a big difference. There is a much bigger difference in the mouth feel, caused by the increased number of dextrins which are non fermentable, but not particularly sweet.
When I started trying to formulate the ultimate bitter recipe, I mashed at a much higher temperature than I now use, and used about 20% crystal. That combination was cloyingly sweet. Since then, I have reduced both the mash temperature and the amount of crystal, resulting in a brew that is much less sweet, yet has a great mouth feel. I am firmly convinced that the reduction in sweetness is caused primarily by the reduction in the amount of crystal, rather than the reduction in mash temperature.
I still have not achieved the ultimate recipe, but I have got to the point where I much prefer my brews to any of the brews commercially available in Woodbridge.

-a.

mjohnson said:

How does the mash thickness affect the beer - this is something I've never understood.

I'm also looking forward to reading about this. I've just started getting into the english ales - starting with a mild.

Click to expand...

First things first. A thicker mash helps keep the mash pH nice and low. There is less water (with it's higher pH) diluting the low pH grains.

ajf said:

I am firmly convinced that the reduction in sweetness is caused primarily by the reduction in the amount of crystal, rather than the reduction in mash temperature.

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+1 on keeping the percentage of crystal low. (~7%)


Crystal when it is malted is malted in the husk to be dextrinous. If my memory serves me, I think it is made at over 160F.

ok cool - my crystal is around 7% of the grist I think.

Urgent question - what temp should I mash at?

nevermind decided to go for 149f or there abouts (55c). disasterous mash in - the pump jammed and for some reason 1.25l/kg was FAR too thick - it was like dough! Something's not right....

onelegout said:

nevermind decided to go for 149f or there abouts (55c). disasterous mash in - the pump jammed and for some reason 1.25l/kg was FAR too thick - it was like dough! Something's not right....

Click to expand...

Interesting. I have seen the 1.25:1 ratio mentioned before, but usually in U.S. measurements. A rough conversion of qts/lb to l/kg would be something like 1.2L/.45kg. I know you want the mash thicker than that, so maybe try to split the difference?