English Best Bitter - What y'all think?

[Goetinger]

Hello all!

Spent a whole morning scouring my "Designing Great Beers" book, and building this recipe piece by piece. What do you think?

01-04-2014 English Special Bitter

A ProMash Brewing Session Report
--------------------------------

Brewing Date: Saturday January 04, 2014
Head Brewer: Aydin Manouchehri
Asst Brewer:
Recipe: English Special Bitter

BJCP Style and Style Guidelines
-------------------------------

08-B English Pale Ale, Special/Best/Premium Bitter

Min OG: 1.040 Max OG: 1.048
Min IBU: 25 Max IBU: 40
Min Clr: 5 Max Clr: 16 Color in SRM, Lovibond

Recipe Specifics
----------------

Batch Size (Gal): 5.00 Wort Size (Gal): 5.00
Total Grain (Lbs): 7.63
Anticipated OG: 1.044 Plato: 10.90
Anticipated SRM: 7.2
Anticipated IBU: 29.8
Brewhouse Efficiency: 78 %
Wort Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Actual OG: 1.042 Plato: 10.48
Actual FG: 1.012 Plato: 3.07

Alc by Weight: 3.08 by Volume: 3.94 From Measured Gravities.
ADF: 70.7 RDF 58.8 Apparent & Real Degree of Fermentation.

Actual Mash System Efficiency: 82 %
Anticipated Points From Mash: 43.80
Actual Points From Mash: 46.20


Pre-Boil Amounts
----------------

Evaporation Rate: 15.00 Percent Per Hour

Raw Pre-Boil Amounts - only targeted volume/gravity and evaporation
rate taken into account:

Pre-Boil Wort Size: 5.88 Gal
Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.037 SG 9.32 Plato

With sparge water, mash water, additional infusions, vessel losses, top-up
water and evaporation rate recorded in the Water Needed Calculator:

Water Needed Pre-Boil Wort Size: 8.34 Gal
Water Needed Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.026 SG 6.64 Plato


Formulas Used
-------------

Brewhouse Efficiency and Predicted Gravity based on Method #1, Potential Used.
Final Gravity Calculation Based on Points.
Hard Value of Sucrose applied. Value for recipe: 46.2100 ppppg
% Yield Type used in Gravity Prediction: Fine Grind Dry Basis.

Color Formula Used: Morey
Hop IBU Formula Used: Rager

Additional Utilization Used For Plug Hops: 2 %
Additional Utilization Used For Pellet Hops: 10 %


Grain/Extract/Sugar

% Amount Name Origin Potential SRM
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.9 0.38 lbs. Crystal 40L America 1.034 40
91.8 7.00 lbs. Maris Otter Great Britain 1.037 4
3.3 0.25 lbs. Aromatic Malt Belgium 1.036 25

Potential represented as SG per pound per gallon.


Hops

Amount Name Form Alpha IBU Boil Time
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
0.25 oz. Goldings - E.K. Pellet 7.20 1.5 5 min.
0.25 oz. Goldings - E.K. Pellet 7.20 1.8 10 min.
0.25 oz. Goldings - E.K. Pellet 7.20 2.4 15 min.
0.25 oz. Goldings - E.K. Pellet 7.20 3.0 20 min.
0.50 oz. Fuggle Pellet 5.70 7.2 30 min.
0.50 oz. Fuggle Pellet 5.70 14.0 60 min.


Yeast
-----

White Labs WLP028 Edinburgh Ale

Water Profile
-------------

Profile: Burton On Trent
Profile known for: Strong Pale Ales

Calcium(Ca): 268.0 ppm
Magnesium(Mg): 62.0 ppm
Sodium(Na): 30.0 ppm
Sulfate(SO4): 638.0 ppm
Chloride(Cl): 36.0 ppm
biCarbonate(HCO3): 141.0 ppm

pH: 8.33



Mash Schedule
-------------

Mash Type: Single Step
Heat Type: Infusion

Grain Lbs: 7.63
Water Qts: 12.00 - Before Additional Infusions
Water Gal: 3.00 - Before Additional Infusions

Qts Water Per Lbs Grain: 1.57

Tun Thermal Mass: 0.00
Grain Temp: 70 F

Dough In Temp: 164 Time: 90
Saccharification Rest Temp: 0 Time: 0
Mash-out Rest Temp: 0 Time: 0
Sparge Temp: 0 Time: 0

Runnings Stopped At: 1.010 SG 2.56 Plato


Total Mash Volume Gal: 3.61 - After Additional Infusions

 

[Goetinger]

PS: I ended up with 5.5 gallons in the fermenter @ 1.042. The Wort smelled great! Going to leave in primary for about 3 weeks, then bottle condition for another 3 weeks.

Pitched about two cups of slurry from a scottish I just racked. Got krausen within 4 hours.

 

[bierhaus15]

Recipe looks fine although your water profile is well above what would be considered good brewing practice. Burtonizing your water to levels that high rarely makes good beer and especially in bitters of such low O.G. Next time, forget about trying to follow the "Historical Water Profiles," especially since they are mostly useless BS, and focus on more important things like achieving proper mash PH and fermentation.

Not saying the beer wont be good, just beware of what you read about historical water profiles.

 

[Braufessor]

Yeah - +1 in regard to your water.

600ppm of Sulfate is staggeringly high IMO. I usually go around 175 or so on my bitters and have been thinking about even cutting that back a bit.

I would be very curious though how it comes out for you. Post back and let us know your thoughts in a few weeks.

Another great yeast for british bitters is 1469..... I use it all the time in mine. I base mine off of "The Innkeeper" from Northern Brewer with a few tweaks to it.

 

[Goetinger]

Thanks for the feedback! I used distilled water and Burton salt. My salt additions are about 2/3rds of what is shown above, as I finished the salt packet before I could attain the dosage.

So is the traditional Burton water just too darn hard? Historical or not, I still want to make good beer. What character do you think it will impart?

 

[Braufessor]

If I had to guess - my guess would be minerally, dry, chalky kind of perception.

Most of those historical profiles have been shown to be possibly inaccurate. And, even with the aspects that are accurate - that does not mean they actually brewed with that water untreated.

In a bitter, you do want sulfate to help accenuate the hops. However, it is likely you could get all you need by using 150-250ppm depending on your preference.

Bicarbonate is a bit high as well, as is the Mg...... not sure what that level of Mg will do.

Like I said, see what you get. keep good notes. REbrew it in the future and use a much lower mineral profile and contrast them. By far the best way to learn is to brew something repeatedly changing certain aspects.

Do you use B'run Water or some other water software for tracking mineral additions, etc.?

 

[Goetinger]

I use pro-mash. The spec's on the back of the Burton salt called for 2 tablespoons per gallon to hit the historical concentrations. I only had enough for 1.25 per gallon.

looking forward to how it tastes. I tried the water before the mash, and it was definitely minerally, but still very drinkable. The wort tasted fine. Sweeter than I have ever had a 1.040 taste... not sure if that is the Maris Otter and carmel malts, or if the water influenced that.