First Strong Bitter

[elfiru]

Hi everyone!! I am preparing a recipe for a batch of 25 liters for next weekend. This is my first time making a Strong Bitter so i'm not so sure about the recipe.

Ingredients

Malts
5kg Maris Otter (89.3%)
0.600 kg of Crystal Light (10.7%)

Hops
50 grams East Kent Golding in flower AA 6.8%
50 grs Northern Brewer in flower AA 4%

Yeast
1 Mangrove Jack's envelope - M36 - Liberty Bell Ale Yeast

Cooking

Simple mash at 67 C / 152.6 F for 90 minutes

Boiled for an hour
60 '-30grs of Northern Brewer
30 '- 20grs of Northern Brewer
15 '- 30 grs of East kent Golding
5'- 20 grs of East Kent Golding and Irish Moss

Fermentation and carbonation

- 15 days at 19 C/66.2 F
- 7 days at 5 C / 41 F
- Carbonation in bottle 15 days at 19 C /66.2 F

IG 1048- FG 1010 /33 IBU

What do you think of the recipe? There are to many hops or it's fine?

The other option I had thought of for a simpler hop addition was:

60 '- 45grs of Northern Brewer
15 '- 30 grams of East kent Golding

Which do you think is more appropriate? Or what other option do you find viable?

I'm from Uruguay so sorry is my english is not so good.

Thank you all!

 

[Ollie8000]

I'm far from an expert, but it looks good to me.

I'd be tempted to add something to make it a little darker. Either have some of the crystal be darker, which will add some heavier sweet flavours, or a few ounces of midnight wheat or chocolate malt or something.

I think either hop schedule would be fine. My more successful beers in a style like this have a simple 60min/15min additions, so that's the one I'd go for. You could save yourself a little bit of money and reduce the trub a little by using less of a hop with a higher AA value for the 60min addition. I've been using magnum successfully for this recently, and I haven't noticed a change in flavour from the previous ones that used EKG or Fuggle for bittering as well as flavouring.

I've never used that yeast, so I have no idea about that. When I mash at about that temperature with about that proportion of crystal malt I end up with slightly higher final gravity than the 1.010 you list, but maybe this yeast will get there?

Let us know how it goes!

 

[cyberbackpacker]

I say go with your recipe as is. You can always change it in future iterations.

That said there is no reason to ferment this for 22 days. This should be done (provided you pitch proper yeast and oxygenate well) in 4-5 days max. If the 7 days at 41 is to cold crash, then 48 hours will be plenty.

I typically cask condition these styles, and I am drinking from grain to glass in 14-17 days.

 

[elfiru]

Hello! Thank you both for your answers. Seeing that both seemed correct, I think I will give this recipe a try and after seeing the results I will modify it if necessary.
I'll consider the high AA hops for the 60 'addition. That would be only with low-scented hops like magnum or anyone with high AAs, for example Mosaic?
I'm going to try fermenting in 5 days and cold shock in 2. If I could be drinking it in 15-20 days it would be great!

When I have news I'll upload photos and comments to tell how it turned out.

 

[cyberbackpacker]

@elfiru Sounds like a solid plan. Just be sure to pitch plenty of healthy active yeast, and oxygenate well. I typically dose pure O2 from a cylinder at .25lpm for ~60 seconds for 3 gallon batches of ~1.055 wort.