Australian bitter recipe help
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RobWalker
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Yeah. Don't underestimate temp control, its really important to this style - and its pretty damn easy anyway.
I'd try it with cooper's 1kg box of brewing sugar. 80% dextrose,20% maltodextrin.
PT Ray
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Negative. Commercial Australian bitters use Pride of Ringwood hops for bittering only, domestic 2-row, around 30% CANE SUGAR and lager yeast.
I've seen some Australian breweries advertise Cluster but more times then not it's Pride of Ringwood. To lighten their beers they use cane sugar. They don't have corn or rice fields, they have sugar cane so that's what they use. I believe they were brewed with an ale yeast at one time but all current examples are true lagers.
Coopers Australian Bitter kit has only a bitter addition of Pride of Ringwood and made with Australian 2-row barley. Adding about 1.5 lbs of cane sugar is about 30% of your fermentables. The kit comes with a ale/lager yeast blend but to be true to the commercial examples you'll need to use a pure lager strain.
Not wrong at all,that's what cooper's typically recommends to the newb for the initial batch. Establish a baseline before going nuts. And I also remember passing on that little tidbit about being bittered only with Pride of ringwood hops myself. I got that from their head brew tech guy some time ago now on the cooper's forums,since I use their cans as a base so much. And I hadn't mention what they were bittered with either. And it's the Original Series (I usually refer to as OS) that are "bittered only" with POR. For some with a lot of malt profile,adding extra malt would def be overkill. They're low carbonation,malt forward brews to start with.
And many Aussie's use cane or table sugar,since it's cheaper & more readily available. Brown sugar is popular down under as well. Bitters in AU were originally shipped from England,including Burton Ale renamed "Australian Ale". Basically an English barleywine in the 19th century. Now down to a strong ale. The point being bitters are traditionally ales,not lagers. Just like doppelbocks & the like. There are still AU bitters that are yet brewed as ales,as they were to start with.
PT Ray
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You lost me Unionrdr. The OP ask about making a Victoria Bitter, XXXX Bitter and so forth. Current examples of Australian bitters can be summed up as highly carbonated adjunct lagers. I'm thinking you're getting them confused with English bitters which is a completely different animal.
PT Ray
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It just has bittering hops which is normally Pride of Ringwood. Good look finding any in the States. It is not malty due to the high percentage of cane sugar. Per guidelines for an Australian Bitter it can be fermented as an ale but all the current commercial versions are lagers. They used to be called Australian Bitter Ales before the change over and the term "ale" has now been dropped from the labels.
If you want to brew it as an ale here is the guideline: CUB ale
yeast or similar. Attenuative English or American strains most
suitable. Note: Whitelabs WLP009 Australian Ale yeast (Coopers
strain) is unsuitable.
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