Hep me w/ my first Bitter

Here's the recipe I've designed:

Malt
6 lbs. Maris Otter (77%)
.75 lbs Flaked Maize (10%)
.5 lbs Baird's Carastan (6%)
.5 lbs Crisp Amber Malt (6%)

Hops
2 oz. East Kent Goldings (4.75% AA) 60 mins.
1 oz. Fuggles (4%) 10 mins.
1 oz. Fuggles (4%) 5 mins.

Yeast
Wyeast 1318 London Ale II

Mash at 150, I average 85% efficiency so, OG = 1.045, FG = 1.011, ABV = 4.5%, SRM = 7, IBU = 40, BU/GU = .9

What do you guys think? I've never done a bitter and I'm really not too familiar with commercial examples except for Redhook's ESB but I'm looking for a nice session beer that can go from grain to bottle in 2 weeks so I think a bitter makes sense. All feedback/criticism/compliments/whatever is welcome.

Nobody, huh? Not even a "looks good to me" ??

To start with, you are currently in the Best Bitter range based on your OG and IBUs. There's nothing wrong with that, as long as it is what you are after.

Other than that, the recipe looks fine. Make sure to post the results.

I would also highly recommend checking out Ray Daniels "Designing Great Beers".

I would omit the flaked maize from the grainbill. maybe substitute with a little simple sugar (much smaller amnt). I could very well be wrong but i don't think traditional bitter has corn as part of the malt bill. That's not to say you cant include it or that the beer will not come out awesome just my .02

HollisBrewCo said:

I would omit the flaked maize from the grainbill. maybe substitute with a little simple sugar (much smaller amnt). I could very well be wrong but i don't think traditional bitter has corn as part of the malt bill. That's not to say you cant include it or that the beer will not come out awesome just my .02

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Best Bitter was exactly what I was going for and I designed the recipe using the guidelines (more or less) from Ray Daniels' book (it's the Bible in my house).


As far as the flaked maize goes, Daniels says that sugar (maltose) is quite common in bitters as well as flaked maize so I decided to go with the flaked maize because Northern Brewer doesn't sell maltose on their site.

Thanks for the feedback guys. I'll probably be brewing this one 3 weeks from now so I'll post an update to let you know how it turns out.

mthelm85 said:

As far as the flaked maize goes, Daniels says that sugar (maltose) is quite common in bitters as well as flaked maize so I decided to go with the flaked maize because Northern Brewer doesn't sell maltose on their site.

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Regular table sugar is sucrose. Corn sugar is dextrose. Maltose is malt sugar, like the stuff that you extract from the grains.

.9 IBU/SG is a bit above what I like in a bitter and I would use Fuggles for the bittering and EKG for the late additions, but that's just me. Flaked maize can certainly be used and has been used for decades to make bitters. I prefer sugar though: it's simpler and dries the beer out.

jfr1111 said:

.9 IBU/SG is a bit above what I like in a bitter and I would use Fuggles for the bittering and EKG for the late additions, but that's just me. Flaked maize can certainly be used and has been used for decades to make bitters. I prefer sugar though: it's simpler and dries the beer out.

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You know that's really the only reservation I have about the recipe as it is right now. I've thought about eliminating that last 5 min. aroma addition all together and then reducing the bittering hops from 2 oz. to 1.75 oz which should give me 35 IBU's and a BU/GU of .77. What do you think?

As far as using the EKG for the late additions, Fuggles are by far my favorite English hops so I'm going to stick with them for my late addition. As you said, it's personal preference. I just finished an English IPA and I dry hopped it with whole EKG's and now I'm wishing I would have used Fuggles!

mthelm85 said:

You know that's really the only reservation I have about the recipe as it is right now. I've thought about eliminating that last 5 min. aroma addition all together and then reducing the bittering hops from 2 oz. to 1.75 oz which should give me 35 IBU's and a BU/GU of .77. What do you think?

As far as using the EKG for the late additions, Fuggles are by far my favorite English hops so I'm going to stick with them for my late addition. As you said, it's personal preference. I just finished an English IPA and I dry hopped it with whole EKG's and now I'm wishing I would have used Fuggles!

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You can try the beer as is and make changes afterward. .77-.80 is what I usually shoot for in a Best Bitter (I'll shoot for higher in an ordinary bitter), but it really depends on the specific recipe, the bittering formula you use, your setup and the individual's taste. Since I use a good portion of sugar in all my grists and try to keep the crystal malts down, too much bittering and the beer feels thin in the mouth. What I'm saying is that the numbers don't mean much, but you have to know how 35 or 40 IBUs feel with your system.

I don't like "proper" (ie. enamel stripping bitter) IPA's for example, but I brewed a special bitter with around .66 BU/GU ratio using the Rager formula and it was a tad too mild.

I like Fuggles too as a finishing hop (and its distant cousin Willamette), but I'm more of a Goldings man

Well the other twist here is that I plan to adjust my water profile for the first time as well. I have a report from my water company so I'm going to "Burtonize" my water which is supposed to increase the perception of bitterness. I think I'll make the above changes and if it's not bitter enough I'll change it next time. Either way, I'll update the post to let you know how it turns out. Thanks for the feedback.

That seems like a lot of IBUs for a bitter, how about 1 oz of EKG at 60 and 1 oz of fuggles at 15?

badmajon said:

That seems like a lot of IBUs for a bitter, how about 1 oz of EKG at 60 and 1 oz of fuggles at 15?

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BJCP guidelines for a Special/Best/Premium Bitter are 25 - 40 IBU's.