Strong Bitter Captain Hooked on Bitters (Red Hook Clone & Award Winner)

I asked the above question in the beginners forum and was informed that the rest isn't necessary for a toasting as light as this, in case anyone else has this question.

I just mashed in on this one, followed the recipe pretty exactly. I am however going to split the batch between s04 and wlp005. I have never had a Redhook ESB but if its anything like any of the other bitters I have tried this should be really good.

hit all my numbers in the mash, left in primary x2 weeks, FG between 1.010 and 1.015, so right on the money! Pre-carb taste test is spectacular, can't wait to get this one in the keg tomorrow and carbonate this week!

I'm looking for a good ESB extract recipe and I'm thinking of trying this extract version (created by pmoe) of Biermuncher's all-grain 'Captain Hooked on Bitters' recipe:

pmoe said:

5 lbs pale LME

2.5 lbs toasted malt
1 lb crystal 60L
0.5 lbs carapils

.50 oz Williamette [5.50%] (60 min)
.50 oz Tettnang [6.50%] (30 min)
.50 oz Williamette [4.60%] (20 min)
.50 oz Tettnang [6.50%] (5 min)

Not sure how to go about steeping the specialty grains. Maybe 1.5 gallons for 30 mins @ 155?

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For those who tried this extract version, how did it turn out? I'm thinking of adding 6 pounds of LME instead of 5, but otherwise the recipe sounds good. Also, would victory work for the toasted malt?

Thanks in advance for your replies. :rockin:

If I made another extract version, I would follow that recipe, and use 6lbs Pale LME. I used a satchet of Nottingham instead of a liquid yeast.

I used Fuggles & Tett since I couldn't get Willamette at the time.

2.5lbs of Victory or Biscuit will work just fine. It turned out great, and I had a few BJCP judges say it was a good ESB.

Redcat, many thanks for your reply. I am really looking forward to trying this recipe out, and the Fuggle hops sound like a good substitution for the more traditional Williamette hops considering your beer earned a good review from a BJCP judge. Oh and I forgot to include in the above recipe snippet that Biermuncher recommended a 60 minute vs 30 minute soak for the grains (at least that's what I think he meant) which would effectively be a partial mash. Would you recommend this as well, or would you just do 30 mins at 160 instead of an hour?

I'm glad I found this recipe as for some reason I was having a hard time finding a tried and true extract ESB recipe.

I did 60 minutes at 160 like Biermuncher recommended. Since the specialty grains and Victory/Biscuit malt don't have much diastatic power you may not get much additional yield which is why I would go to 6lbs Pale LME.

Awesome, thanks for the info Redcat! I'll go ahead and do the 60 minute steep since you did it as well and seemed to have pretty good results (and yeah will definitely do 6 lbs lme (or maybe even 6.5). I'm brewing this on Thursday and I will let you know how it turns out!

Just sat down with a bottle of Red Hook ESB and decided I wanted to make it. This recipe looks great, I think I'll put it together right quick! Going to scale it down to 8 gallons and go as written in the OP. I could toast the 5# of 2-row or go with 1# of biscuit - any advice on this?

SilverZero said:

Just sat down with a bottle of Red Hook ESB and decided I wanted to make it. This recipe looks great, I think I'll put it together right quick! Going to scale it down to 8 gallons and go as written in the OP. I could toast the 5# of 2-row or go with 1# of biscuit - any advice on this?

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I considered doing the 5# toasted but got the 1lb biscuit. It was dead on - if I brew this again (WHEN i brew this again) I will continue to use biscuit malt. If you decide to go the other way, we should exchange

Subscribed

Brewing up a batch of this tonight...

I know i'm going to get reamed out for this, but i substituted the willamette for cascades..... it's all i had in stock! every other ingredient i had in stock and wanted to brew tonight..... hopefully it turns out ok... they're about the same % AA.. so IBUs should be about the same...

i'm thinking it should still be really good, just maybe not completely true to the style...

Just curious, what levels you are carbing this beer? I have put this recipe into beersmith and will be brewing this up this weekend. Beersmith is giving me a carb vol of (.8 - 1.3) in the English Pale Ale 6.6 category. Seems low to me.

Also, after toasting the base malt are you letting the malt sit for a week or two in a paper bag? I have read that this can help to mellow the malt out a bit.

Thanks!

Looking to brew this beer next weekend. Don't have my AG equipment since damaged in a fire....

Anyone happy with their result brewing this extract + grains?
If so what did you use?
Thanks

Tarks said:

Just curious, what levels you are carbing this beer? I have put this recipe into beersmith and will be brewing this up this weekend. Beersmith is giving me a carb vol of (.8 - 1.3) in the English Pale Ale 6.6 category. Seems low to me.

Also, after toasting the base malt are you letting the malt sit for a week or two in a paper bag? I have read that this can help to mellow the malt out a bit.

Thanks!

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Not sure what is the recommended range, but from experience it is better to under-carb an ESB than over-carb. The carbonation tends to obscure the malty goodness. At the time I couldn't figure out why my final hydrometer sample tasted like a loaf of freshly baked bread but the final product had none of that. After several batches of preferring my hydrometer sample to the finished product it finally occurred to me to dial back the carbonation. Been a happier beer drinker ever since.

mdzitter said:

Hey All, I'm looking to use this recipe as my first foray into specialty grain steeping using pmoe's substitutions listed on page 3. Well, I brought in the list to my LHBS and the owner got wide eyed at the amount of toasted malt (2.5 lbs) for a 5 gal batch. I ended up going with the following modifications:

1) .5 lb each of toasted, carapils, and crystal 60
2) Burton Ale Yeast

Am I shooting myself in the foot with these simplifications?

Thanks!

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How did it turned out? I also find the amount of toasted grain on page 3 very high....

I've been subbed to this thread for awhile, waiting for the day to brew this one. Looks like I'm off to the LHBS to pick up the ingredients. I think I'll do a starter today and brew this tomorrow. Looks like a fantastic recipe and since I love Red Hook ESB, I can't wait to try this one.

Well, LHBS didn't have the recommended hops for this recipe. So according to the Brew365 hop substitution chart I went with Fuggles 4.2% AA for the Willamette, and Hallertau (German) 4.3% AA for the Tettnang. I've adjusted the IBU's up to 30.3 in Beersmith to bring the bitterness up to the minimum recommended IBU's for this style. That came to .75 oz for each hop addition. Grains look well crushed so I was happy with that. The yeast was dated 11/7/12 so it's viability was only 62.31% so I'll do a starter. Now I see why I order my stuff online most of the time. Any comments on the hops substitution? I'll be brewing this New Year's day. Thanks!

Brewed this one, smelled great, beautiful color. Will be bottling soon.

I brewed this one up 6 weeks ago and poured my 1st glass from the keg this afternoon. This beer is excellent and will be in my regular rotation. Thanks BierMuncher! So, I ended up carbing this up to 1.9 volumes. Perfect IMO. I have never had the Redhook ESB so I can't say anything regarding how close of a clone this is but it really doesn't matter. This beer is friggen good. Cheers!

I'm thinking of brewing up the extract version of this with a couple changes and hoping for some opinions.
6lbs pale LME
1lb toasted malt
1lb crystal 60L
1/2lb carapils

For the hops I was going to keep it the same but then I wondered about subbing Centennial for the Tettnang (with a slight reduction int quantity to keep the IBUs the same) to get a little more citrus (and I have an extra ounce laying around, I also have an ounce of willamette)?

Any thoughts?

Thanks

Edit: ordered online, I'm going to cut back the toasted malt to 1lb and keep the hops the same

So I thought I'd post the details of my attempt at Captain Hooked on Bitters along with my notes from brew day. I'm 13 days into fermentation and plan to leave it in primary for 21 days before bottling. I'm a little concerned about the recommended carb vol on the calculators I've used, so I've bumped it up to 2.0. That may change based on more research.



Type: All Grain Date: 1/1/2013
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.25 gal Brewer: Pete
Boil Size: 6.76 gal
Boil Time: 75 min Equipment: Pete's Brewing Equipment-All Grain
End of Boil Volume 5.51 gal Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.96 %
Final Bottling Volume: 5.00 gal Est Mash Efficiency 76.7 %
Fermentation: Ale, Pete's Single Stage

Ingredients
9 lbs 8.0 oz Pale Malt, Maris Otter
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L
8.0 oz Cara-Pils/Dextrine
8.0 oz Victory Malt
0.75 oz Fuggles [4.20 %] - Boil 60.0 min
0.75 oz Hallertauer [4.30 %] - Boil 30.0 min
0.75 oz Fuggles [4.20 %] - Boil 20.0 min
0.75 oz Hallertauer [4.30 %] - Boil 5.0 min
1.0 pkg British Ale Yeast (Wyeast Labs #1098)(Starter made)

Est Original Gravity: 1.062 SG Measured Original Gravity: 1.062 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.019 SG Measured Final Gravity: 1.019 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.7 % Actual Alcohol by Vol: 1.2 %
Bitterness: 29.6 IBUs Calories: 62.9 kcal/12oz
Est Color: 11.3 SRM

Mash Name: Pete's All Grain Mash Single Infusion, Batch Sparge Total Grain Weight: 11 lbs 8.0 oz
Sparge Water: 4.55 gal Grain Temperature: 70.0 F
Sparge Temperature: 170.0 F
Mash In Add 18.38 qt of water at 168.0 F 158.0 F 60 min
Sparge Step: Batch sparge with 2 steps (Drain mash tun, , 4.55gal) of 170.0 F water

Carbonation Type: Bottle Volumes of CO2: 2.0
Pressure/Weight: 3.12 oz Carbonation Used: Bottle with 3.12 oz Corn Sugar
Keg/Bottling Temperature: 70.0 F Age for: 21.00 days

Notes

Original Recipe from BierMuncher on Home Brew Talk called for .5 oz Willamette hops and .5 oz of Tettnang hops. LHBS was out of both so I substituted Fuggles for Willamette and Hallertau (German) for Tettnang. I adjusted both to bring the IBU's to 30 which is the minimum for this style. Original recipe calls for 25.8 IBU's. LHBS was also out of Biscuit malt so he substituted Victory.

Brewing notes:
Had trouble hitting my mash temp. I forgot to move the grains from the basement the night before and they were 62F. Even though I pre-heated the MLT, I only hit 151F after dough-in. I added 1 gal of boiling water and got the temp up to 153F. at 30 mins added another gal of boiling water and finally hit mash temp of 158F. I mashed for 75 mins to make up for the low early temps. Sparging was 180F water and double sparged to bring my pre-boil volume to 6.75 gals.
Pre-Boil SG was 1.050
Boiled for 15 mins prior to adding hops to bring volume down and started my 60 boil at first hop addition. Added irish moss with 10 mins remaining. Pitched 18 hr old starter at 65F. It was a cold day so wort was about 61F by the time I moved it inside. I let it sit at room temp for a number of hrs before moving it to basement. Has been fermenting 13 days at 68F. Took a gravity reading today SG-1.019. My gravity readings are spot on with what Beersmith estimated.

I wish I my LHBS had all the recommended ingredients, but hey...I'm up for a little experimentation. I plan on cold crashing for 5 days after 3 weeks fermentation. Can't wait to try this one. Any ideas about carb volume? Calculators are showing me around 1.5. Seems a little low to me.

I'm starting to worry about this one. Brewed it up just after New Year's Day, but had trouble with the mash. I was doughing in when I realized my drain was open on the mash tun, and by the time I'd fixed it all and finally got the mash going it was about 10 degrees low. Took 30 mins to get some extra water heated to bring it up to temp. My numbers were all good from there, but I sampled it from the primary a few days ago and it tasted really thin and lifeless. I hope it comes around in the bottle. I've got 8 gallons of it!

Bottled and ready to condition for 3 weeks. Cold crashed this for 5 days at 38F before bottling.

SilverZero said:

I'm starting to worry about this one. Brewed it up just after New Year's Day, but had trouble with the mash. I was doughing in when I realized my drain was open on the mash tun, and by the time I'd fixed it all and finally got the mash going it was about 10 degrees low. Took 30 mins to get some extra water heated to bring it up to temp. My numbers were all good from there, but I sampled it from the primary a few days ago and it tasted really thin and lifeless. I hope it comes around in the bottle. I've got 8 gallons of it!

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Once fully bottle conditioned, the added carbonation should lend a fullness to the beer that was lacking in the primary. My primary samples always taste "thinner" than the finished product.

does the toasted 2 row need to sit a while to mellow out like all the toasting malt threads suggest? or can it be done on the same day as brewing/day before? was planning on brewing this 2 days from now but could always push it back a week if need be. looks like a great recipe, cant wait to brew!

EDIT: actually found the answer for this recipe in a different thread https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/toasting-2-row-pale-questions-66810/

brewbeerry said:

does the toasted 2 row need to sit a while to mellow out like all the toasting malt threads suggest? or can it be done on the same day as brewing/day before? was planning on brewing this 2 days from now but could always push it back a week if need be. looks like a great recipe, cant wait to brew!

EDIT: actually found the answer for this recipe in a different thread https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/toasting-2-row-pale-questions-66810/

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I toast the night before I crush. Results have been......satisfactory.

I put one in the fridge last night and tired it tonight at 2 weeks bottle conditioning. It was really fantastic! Another week and this will be perfect. I was afraid that since my LHBS was out of some of original recipe ingredients that I'd be disappointed in the results. The wife tried it to and loved it. Cheers and thanks BierMuncher for an awesome recipe.

Man, I love this stuff. Every time I drink another, it gets better than the one before. This one's not gonna last. Very well balanced, really nice hop taste throughout the entire taste with a nice burst at the end, but definitely not over-done. I'm not a hop-head and this is just perfect.

for a 5.5gallon All Grain version do I just halve everything? cheers

As far as I understand, if you are doing full boil AG batch the recipe should scale pretty much linearly. So yeah, cut everything in half.

forgot to say thanks for that. Also, can you toast the grains after they have been milled? I don't have a mill but I can get the LHBS to separate them into a different bag from the bulk and I'll toast them the night before.

I brewed this with 4 weeks in the primary and 1 week cold crashed and it is absolutely delicious. I think the bitter is low and would love to have some advice on that. I have never dry hopped, maybe I need to understand how to do that.

My question is, I don't have 5 weeks this time. I reread the original recipe and it has a 10 additional days at fermentation temp(67F). Is that after the cold crash? I never racked to secondary and was a very clear beer.

then that is:
1 week primary, 2 weeks cold crash, 1.5 weeks secondary -> 4.5 weeks
how different would this be:
1 week primary, 1 week cold crash, 1.5 weeks secondary?

BM- do you have a 5-5.5 ga version of this? My math is awful so I fear I'll botch the conversion. Also, I'm fairly new so hesitant to toast grain- what is the proper sub?

Thanks much

SH

I brewed this recipe again today. My 4th batch this year! This time around I used Maris Otter instead of domestic 2 row. It will be interesting to taste the difference.

I just poured my 1st pint and it is not good.

I absolutely love this recipe with North American pale malt but with Maris Otter it is over the top bready/malty for my liking. I really didn't think it was going to make that much of a difference but it did. I wonder if toasting Maris Otter had anything to do with it as I've never toasted it before. Thoughts?

I brewed this and opened my first bottle this past weekend - it's without a doubt the best beer I've ever brewed - been brewing for about 6 years (but admittedly only really frequently this year).

I'm actually really upset that I only brewed 11 litres because I'm pretty sure it'll all be gone after this weekend.

Highly recommend brewing this.

Edit: for some reason I didn't read the post immediately before mine. For what it's worth I used Maris Otter in my brew of this beer.

rchrdpdl -

Did you follow the recipe on the first page? If not, will you share your modifications?

I guess I'm most interested in what you used for your base malt - Maris Otter, 2-row, other?

mijesor said:

rchrdpdl -

Did you follow the recipe on the first page? If not, will you share your modifications?

I guess I'm most interested in what you used for your base malt - Maris Otter, 2-row, other?

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I followed the recipe except I scaled it down to 11 litres. The only change was Maris Otter for the base.