New Take on Ordinary Bitter

I'm attempting to develop a house bitter in order to satisfy several criteria and I think it is going to be a bit of a new direction for me. I brew mainly British ales, and this will be no different, though I'll be treating it slightly different. When I look at the beers I have tapped, and those in the pipeline, I realize they are almost all pretty malty with some residual sweetness, and while I enjoy them, sometimes you just want something kind of dry to chug. I also realize it's going to start warming up soon, and these heavy, malty beers are going to become difficult to enjoy when I'm hot and sweaty. So here's what I'm thinking.

All my bitters are usually heavy on crystal malts and generous in chocolate/roasted malts too, giving them all a sweetness and dark color I really like. For this recipe though, I'm going to minimize the crystal malt, mash lower than normal, and aim for a lighter colored beer. Not wanting to sacrifice mouthfeel, however, I will be adding a little flaked barley, haze be damned.

Here's the recipe:

OG 1.037
IBU 20.8
SRM 8.1
ABV 3.6%

6 lbs maris otter
8 oz flaked barley
6 oz british caramalt (35L)
4 oz victory malt
1 oz british chocolate malt

1.13 oz willamette (4.6%AA) (60 min)
0.25 oz east kent goldings (5.4%AA) (5 min)

wyeast thames valley ale yeast

mash at 152 for 60 min.

Hopefully it will be a easy-drinking light, toasty ale with a bit of earthiness from the hops and yeast perfect for drinking with dinner, to wind down after getting home from work, or after mowing the grass.

What do you say?

Sounds like you've been brewing sweet browns An Ordinary Bitter should have a dry finish, so this will be close.

I don't know if you're shooting for commercially-brewed English examples of the style, but...

Keep in mind that most finish dry and crisp. Presumably this is due to the relatively high levels of sugar and/or adjuncts in the grist. Daniels has an excellent discourse on the subject in Designing Great Beers. I strongly suggest you take a look at that option!

I include a pretty hefty amount of sugar in my take on London Pride; 80% Maris Otter, 10% Medium Crystal, 10% Demerara sugar. Hopped with Challenger or Target to ~34 IBU, finished with a mix of Fuggles and Goldings.

Cheers,

Bob

NQ3X said:

I don't know if you're shooting for commercially-brewed English examples of the style, but...

Keep in mind that most finish dry and crisp. Presumably this is due to the relatively high levels of sugar and/or adjuncts in the grist. Daniels has an excellent discourse on the subject in Designing Great Beers. I strongly suggest you take a look at that option!

I include a pretty hefty amount of sugar in my take on London Pride; 80% Maris Otter, 10% Medium Crystal, 10% Demerara sugar. Hopped with Challenger or Target to ~34 IBU, finished with a mix of Fuggles and Goldings.

Cheers,

Bob

Click to expand...

I typically use 10-15% crystal and mash at 154. They ferment down to within style parameters, but retain a bit of sweetness. I'm usually making special and extra special bitters as well, which leads to a bit more maltiness.

Realize I meant this bitter would be new to me, not to the style. Although it will be a bit lighter than the typical bitter with a crystal malt presence on the low side of the style.

I've brewed Jamil's summer bitter recipe and was impressed. I'd do it again but have gotten into brewing lagers which I'm gearing up again for the upcoming warm weather.

Jamil's Summer Bitter

8# Maris Otter Pale Malt
0.5oz Amarillo (8.4% AA) @ 60min
0.5oz @ 20min
0.5oz @ 1min
0.5oz dry hop

Mash at 154
Wyeast 1098 British Ale

GT

KingBrianI said:

I typically use 10-15% crystal and mash at 154. They ferment down to within style parameters, but retain a bit of sweetness. I'm usually making special and extra special bitters as well, which leads to a bit more maltiness.

Realize I meant this bitter would be new to me, not to the style. Although it will be a bit lighter than the typical bitter with a crystal malt presence on the low side of the style.

Click to expand...

I did realize that. What I was trying to get across is that world-class, CAMRA Champion bitters are brewed to far less complex grists than yours, and none of them are all-malt. Most of them are base malt, a bit of crystal, and adjunct (sugar or maize).

What I think you want is something a bit lighter than the typical homebrew bitter, with a touch of crystal sweetness. My advice is to keep 5 pounds of the Maris Otter and all the Caramalt, toss in a pound of flaked maize to make it dry. If required, 6 oz of wheat malt will help with foam, but you should be able to enhance foam with your mashing schedule. Try a 122F rest for no more than 20 minutes, then whatever saccharification rest temperature you like best.

Cheers!

Bob

That is very similar to what I'll be brewing on Thursday, although lighter on Victory and Chocolate malts.(As you said you were intending)

It's also closish to what I bottled yesterday with biscuit malt instead of Victory......I'm loving it. I just KNOW it will never reach full carbonation. It tastes too good to wait for.

Laughing_Gnome_Invisible said:

That is very similar to what I'll be brewing on Thursday, although lighter on Victory and Chocolate malts.(As you said you were intending)

It's also closish to what I bottled yesterday with biscuit malt instead of Victory......I'm loving it. I just KNOW it will never reach full carbonation. It tastes too good to wait for.

Click to expand...

Can you post the recipe for the one you just bottled? If it's too good to wait for I'd like to hear more about it.

Yup, I tend to like bitters a little light in body and color similar to a Boddington's. Don't get me wrong, most of my ESB's are dark red but the light summer bitter is one of my all time favorites.


For 10 gallons

14.0 lb Maris Otter
.5 lb Victory® Malt
.5 lb Caramel Malt 40L
mashed at 154F

2.0 oz Fuggle (4.8%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min
3.0 oz Fuggle (4.8%) - added during boil, boiled 10.0 min
2.0 oz East Kent Goldings (5.5%) - added during boil, boiled 10.0 min

2.0 ea Fermentis S-04 Safale S-04

KingBrianI said:

Can you post the recipe for the one you just bottled? If it's too good to wait for I'd like to hear more about it.

Click to expand...

Haha!! I just pulled up the recipe and realised that it's NOTHING like yours! I had forgotten that I dicked around with it at the last moment. The main change was that I had some 1 year old Mount Hood lying around, and threw that in at the end. So I moved the EKG to 30 mins.

I think that what is making the difference for my tastes is the Mount Hood. That is out of the bitter style, I know. The reason I had them was that for my first ever extract brew I was at an LHBS that knew just about as much as me at that time. I ended up buying a mish mash of all sorts that looked like they might make a bitter.The Mt Hood was one of those eronious substitutions. That first extract turned out to be my best. I loved it!!

Anyways, I saw them lying around and decided to put them in this beer also. It has a slightly spicy bite. Better suited to a winter beer, but it is very subtle. I'm gonna order some more Mount Hood for my next order. I definitely need to play around with it some more. Like I said. It's not in style, but it worksfor me

Batch Size: 10.00 gal
Boil Size: 12.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.043 SG
Estimated Color: 13.3 SRM
Estimated IBU: 27.9 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
15.00 lb Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 90.91 %
1.00 lb Biscuit Malt (23.0 SRM) Grain 6.06 %
0.50 lb Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 3.03 %
1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (60 min) Hops 9.6 IBU
1.00 oz Fuggles [4.50 %] (60 min) Hops 8.6 IBU
1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (30 min) Hops 7.4 IBU
1.00 oz Mt. Hood [6.00 %] (5 min) Hops 2.3 IBU
0.55 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 min) Misc
22.00 gm Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash 60.0 min) Misc

Laughing_Gnome_Invisible said:

Haha!! I just pulled up the recipe and realised that it's NOTHING like yours! I had forgotten that I dicked around with it at the last moment. The main change was that I had some 1 year old Mount Hood lying around, and threw that in at the end. So I moved the EKG to 30 mins.

I think that what is making the difference for my tastes is the Mount Hood. That is out of the bitter style, I know. The reason I had them was that for my first ever extract brew I was at an LHBS that knew just about as much as me at that time. I ended up buying a mish mash of all sorts that looked like they might make a bitter.The Mt Hood was one of those eronious substitutions. That first extract turned out to be my best. I loved it!!

Anyways, I saw them lying around and decided to put them in this beer also. It has a slightly spicy bite. Better suited to a winter beer, but it is very subtle. I'm gonna order some more Mount Hood for my next order. I definitely need to play around with it some more. Like I said. It's not in style, but it worksfor me

Batch Size: 10.00 gal
Boil Size: 12.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.043 SG
Estimated Color: 13.3 SRM
Estimated IBU: 27.9 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
15.00 lb Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 90.91 %
1.00 lb Biscuit Malt (23.0 SRM) Grain 6.06 %
0.50 lb Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 3.03 %
1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (60 min) Hops 9.6 IBU
1.00 oz Fuggles [4.50 %] (60 min) Hops 8.6 IBU
1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (30 min) Hops 7.4 IBU
1.00 oz Mt. Hood [6.00 %] (5 min) Hops 2.3 IBU
0.55 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 min) Misc
22.00 gm Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash 60.0 min) Misc

Click to expand...

Do you find that the biscuit malt, at 1 lb in 10 gallons, is overpowering? The one time I used that much (0.5 lbs in 5.5 gal) I found it tended to overwhelm the other flavors when the beer was young. As it aged though, the biscuit malt character seemed to really blend with the other flavors very nicely. You might want to save a couple of those bottles for a while to see how it develops.

I like biscuit, what can I say! LOL. But yeah, this is not too standard as a bitter goes. It is to my taste however.

I like low gravity session beers. The biscuit, IMO makes the beer feel a little bigger somehow without getting Sh!tfaced. There is still plenty of base malt flavour I think.

Save some for aging, yeah, I always TRY to do that. However, bitter is designed for a quick turnover, and I'm all for trying to make a beer that will do that for me. I'm very low on patience as you may have gathered.

What I am working towards is a guest beer that I had in a pub years ago. Now, this is a terrible description, but although it was a standard bitter, it was like drinking a Sunday roast beef dinner. It will be a hard target to hit for a session beer, but I thing the Mt Hood is getting me there. In style or out of style is not important to me.

Haha, I'm the same way. I've been able to get around the problem by brewing faster than I can drink. That way the beer can get some age on it before it's gone!

KingBrianI said:

Haha, I'm the same way. I've been able to get around the problem by brewing faster than I can drink. That way the beer can get some age on it before it's gone!

Click to expand...

That's the problem with bitter....It's just so damn drinkworthy!!!

This one finally made it's way into rotation in the kegerator a month or two ago. I've had several today (and don't feel a thing, I love that!) and it's drinking really well. It never did clear up, as expected, even with over a month of cold conditioning. It finished nice and dry with a suprising amount of hop flavor for the small amount of late hops added. It could use a bit more caramel flavors, as is, it's a bit uninteresting. The victory malt comes through, but only just, that's a malt I find is very susceptible to aging out of a beer. I can't really tell if the flaked barley did anything for the beer, I'd probably leave it out next time and have a beer that clears completely. I'd call the color a deep gold and it pours with a nice head, but it dissipates quickly into a thin ring around the edge. Lacing is low-moderate. Overall, it's an ok beer that's easy drinking and can be drunk in quantity with no danger of getting drunk. But, with a little more caramel, perhaps a bit less dryness, and a bit more body, it could be much better. Anyway, it's entered into the HBT BJCP contest for ordinary bitter so we'll see how it does.

Great thread. I'm planning to brew a bitter (best bitter I think) for my first all grain in a long time.

Here's what I'm thinking so far for a 5 gallon batch to keg (or hopefully cask condition)--let me know what you think. I may replace the biscuit with Victory, not sure how much difference that will make. Also not sure if I should add half a pound of demera sugar (if my lhbs has it) and take out some of the crystal. I'm not sure how much caramel flavor the crystal will add--I don't really want that, but want the bit of body the crystal can give. What if I replaced the ratio of crystal and biscuit? I'm looking to make a light colored, lowish alcohol, bready-malty flavor beer with some nice hop flavor.

6 lbs 8.0 oz Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 83.23 %
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 12.80 %
5.0 oz Biscuit Malt (23.0 SRM) Grain 3.97 %
1.00 oz Challenger [7.50 %] (60 min) Hops 29.3 IBU
0.50 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (15 min) Hops 4.9 IBU
0.50 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (5 min) Hops 1.9 IBU

commonlaw said:

Great thread. I'm planning to brew a bitter (best bitter I think) for my first all grain in a long time.

Here's what I'm thinking so far for a 5 gallon batch to keg (or hopefully cask condition)--let me know what you think. I may replace the biscuit with Victory, not sure how much difference that will make. Also not sure if I should add half a pound of demera sugar (if my lhbs has it) and take out some of the crystal. I'm not sure how much caramel flavor the crystal will add--I don't really want that, but want the bit of body the crystal can give. What if I replaced the ratio of crystal and biscuit? I'm looking to make a light colored, lowish alcohol, bready-malty flavor beer with some nice hop flavor.

6 lbs 8.0 oz Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 83.23 %
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 12.80 %
5.0 oz Biscuit Malt (23.0 SRM) Grain 3.97 %
1.00 oz Challenger [7.50 %] (60 min) Hops 29.3 IBU
0.50 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (15 min) Hops 4.9 IBU
0.50 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (5 min) Hops 1.9 IBU

Click to expand...

Biscuit and Victory malt are just two names for the same thing, so there won't be a difference there. As far as substituting in some demerara sugar, I've found it doesn't really add mcuh if any detectable flavor to the beer and will actually thin the mouthfeel. The 10L crystal you specified should add body without adding too much caramel flavor like darker crystals would. Looks like a great recipe!

Wow, this beer won 3rd place in the Bitters category in the 2009 HBT BJCP competition! Here is the official recipe https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f64/extraordinary-bitter-141047/