Critique first recipe - English Bitter

[SilvaRizla]

Hey everyone,

I'm just about ready to make the transition from coopers cans to extract/partial mash (long time coming I know) and I could use some help if you don't mind. What I'm hoping for is a moderatley bitter english bitter, slightly sweet and slightly fruity with a good malty body and a nice thick creamy head.

This is what I've got:

3kg of pale LME (about 11EBC, similar to Muntons)
200g Crystal-60
150g Crystal-120
100g Flaked Wheat
28g black malt
100g dextrose

40g challenger at 60 mins
14g EK Goldings at 20 mins
7g EK Goldings at flame out

Done with good ol' S-04 and a whirlfloc tablet for clarity

Does that look ok?

I'll be perfectly honest, with never using real hops before I've no idea what goldings taste like, and what the last 2 hop additions will do to the flavour. Its it reasonable to keep them in? I wanted a sort of freshness or zestiness if you know what I mean.

Thanks folks

 

[SilvaRizla]

Nobody?

 

[ong]

If you're aiming for an ESB/strong bitter, that should be about the right strength. I get about 1.055 OG, if you're doing a 5 gallon batch. At 46 IBU, it's going to be fairly bitter (but also fairly strong, so a reasonable balance).

I might leave out the wheat... I'm not really sure what it's doing there (adding body?), and it won't do so well as a steeping grain. Same with the dextrose -- it's lightening the body, I guess. Maybe lose them both, since they tend to cancel each other out. Just keeps the recipe a bit simpler and lowers your gravity a bit.

If you want a hop aroma and flavor, I'd think about shifting more of the hops to later in the boil. You'd get the same overall bitterness reducing the 60 minute addition by 10g and increasing the 20 minute by 20g, and that will give you more hops flavor. You could increase the flameout addition, too, since it shouldn't affect your bitterness much one way or the other.

Or, you know, just leave the hops the way you have them -- I think the recipe as you have it will have more malt aroma and flavor than hops. It depends what you want!

BTW, I generally get a kind of floral, lemony flavor from EKG (not a big citrus hit, just kind of a nice bright flavor).

 

[sfgoat]

Personally I would make the grain adjustments that ong mentioned and challenger feels a little off but I guess thats just because Ive never used it. In mine I like to do about 30g of Fuggles at 60, 30 grams of EKG at 45 and about 15g of ekg and 15g of fuggle combined at 15.

 

[Qhrumphf]

I use the Challenger/EKG hop combination fairly regularly and quite enjoy it. My house ESB uses both. Now, I can't convert the metric amounts of the top of my head and I'm too lazy to plug into software, but I like where you're going. Looks like the black malt is just a color adjustment? Wouldn't hurt keeping it but I'd probably lose it myself. But I tend to be sensitive to the slight roast characters, and I don't like em in Bitters. If it were an Irish or Scottish ale, or a Mild or Brown, that'd be a different story. I'd probably make up the color difference with the crystal malts, or just leave it a little paler.

If you like a drier, lighter Bitter, keep the dextrose and lose the wheat. If you like em fuller (I do), then lose the dextrose and keep the wheat. Or lose them both. In either case up the extract to match, or keep the gravity lower and maybe adjust down the bitterness. But I'd agree that keeping them both isn't useful. Other than that, I like it.

 

[SilvaRizla]

Thanks everyone, I've chucked the wheat and dextrose, like you said ong better to keep it simple. I've also shifted some of the hops around, gone with 30g boil and 20g @ 20. A floral/lemony sounds in the right ball park for what I'm after. I wanted a freshness of sorts to cut through the malt sweetness. I think that'll work but I've no idea

I had the wheat because I wanted a decent head but I suppose I'll be alright with the % of crystal in there.

What software are you using ong?

 

[SilvaRizla]

I've just realised the massive difference between working in imperial and US measurements. US measurements make the beer look a great deal better

 

[ong]

Thanks everyone, I've chucked the wheat and dextrose, like you said ong better to keep it simple. I've also shifted some of the hops around, gone with 30g boil and 20g @ 20. A floral/lemony sounds in the right ball park for what I'm after. I wanted a freshness of sorts to cut through the malt sweetness. I think that'll work but I've no idea

I had the wheat because I wanted a decent head but I suppose I'll be alright with the % of crystal in there.

What software are you using ong?

Just good old Beersmith. Works like a champ.

 

[MindenMan]

I personally do not like EK Golding hops. After a couple of weeks in the bottle, I get a strong (to me anyway) metallic taste I can't get past to drink it. I make ESB's and I really like Fuggle and US Golding in my pale Bitters as well as my Amber ESB's. At 1224 (am) I am enjoying an Amber ESB that everyone that has tried one, has asked for another. Is it contest worthy?, maybe not, but I don't home brew to impress a Judge somewhere.
I like what I drink, and drink what I like, thereby meaning I brew for me personally whatever I feel like that week. Don't get me wrong, SWMBO has a lot of pull around my house, so her requests are taken literally. I recently made an Irish Red my wife doesn't care for, but she loves my Taddy Porter, my Amber ESB, my American Stout, basically, she loves the lion's share of what I brew. My wife really loves hoppy beers, IPA's, IIPA's, Black IPA's, you get the idea... I brewed once for her an Alaska Black IPA clone that she just loved, I will revisit soon. The cost of big hoppy beers are just killer, but I will try to reproduce the next BIPA just exactly like the first one. If I get another great BIPA, I will move from 2.5 gallons to a 5 gallon batch. Five gallon batches of CDA, BIPA, whatever you want to call it, if done well are pricey. Not to mention, they need to be consumed young or the "brightness" of the the dry hopping just fades away.

EDIT: It was very late when I wrote this, I went off topic again, I apologize.