Best Bitter Every Day Special Bitter

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The_Bishop

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 8, 2013
Messages
2,100
Reaction score
676
Recipe Type
All Grain
Yeast
Nottingham
Batch Size (Gallons)
5.5
Original Gravity
1.054
Final Gravity
1.012
Boiling Time (Minutes)
60
IBU
45
Color
12
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)
14 Days at 68 F
Additional Fermentation
Cold Crash and Gelatin Fine
Tasting Notes
Nice combo of crisp and caramel, with a balancing bitterness
This is the second rendition of this recipe, and one that I'm finally comfortable posting. Recipe is formulated around 70% efficiency, 5.5 gallons into fermenter.

Grain Bill:
10 lbs Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 1 87.0 %
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 2 8.7 %
4.0 oz Barley, Flaked (1.7 SRM) Grain 3 2.2 %
4.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM) Grain 4 2.2 %

Hop Schedule:
0.75 oz Magnum [12.40 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 5 33.0 IBUs
0.50 oz Fuggle [4.50 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 6 4.0 IBUs
0.50 oz Goldings, East Kent [7.20 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 7 6.3 IBUs
0.50 oz Fuggle [4.50 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 5.0 min Hop 9 0.8 IBUs
0.50 oz Goldings, East Kent [7.20 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 5.0 min Hop 10 1.3 IBUs

Kettle Fining:
1.00 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 5.0 mins) Fining

1.0 pkg Nottingham (Danstar #-) [23.66 ml] Yeast 11 -

1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Dry Hop 4.0 Days Hop 12 0.0 IBUs

Note: Water - Start with Reverse Osmosis.

Mash - 1.5 qts/pound. 14.38 quarts of water, add 2.3 grams of Gypsum, .2 grams of Canning salt, 1.1 grams of Calcium Chloride before mashing in.

Sparge - Approximately 5 gallons of water, add 3.3 grams of gypsum, .3 grams of Canning Salt, 1.5 grams of Calcium Chloride.

Cool to 68 degrees fahrenheit, oxygenate/aerate well, pitch 1 package of re-hydrated nottingham.

Ferment at 68 degrees for 14 days.

Cold crash 24 hours, gelatin fine, cold crash for additional 1-2 days.

Dry hop with 1 oz of EKG in keg or prior to bottling for four days.

Beer is clearer than the pic shows, glass kept fogging up on me. :)

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How much Carmel flavor came . Thru on this one? Curious with the Nottingham as I find it a pretty clean yeast. Bitters usually have some of those fruity esters. Looks like a good recipe. I really enjoy hops in the whirlpool.
 
The caramel flavor was present, but in balance. Nottingham is clean, but at 68 you get just a touch of esters. Made the same beer with s-04 prior to this batch, and just didn't like it as much. The 04 flocced out too fast and required a couple of swirl-ups to get it to clean up the diacetyl, and I wasn't crazy about the ester profile.

Next time I may use wlp-002, see if I like that more than s-04.
 
Yeah, 04 isn't my favorite for a bitter. I do better with it at 63-65 if I do use it. I was planning on making a bitter this weekend so gonna use carmel grain bill and Willamette and holdings.
 
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