My Bitter - Suggestions Please

[halvey]

This is the first recipe I've built from scratch. I did it in BeerAlchemy and it hits all the correct points for a 8B-English Pale Ale-Special/Best/Premium Bitter but the expect ABV @ 4.6. Let me know what you think-

Fermentables
US Caramel 60L Malt 1.00 lb In Mash/Steeped
UK Caramalt 0.50 lb In Mash/Steeped
Extract - Amber Liquid Malt Extract 2.50 lb Start Of Boil
Extract - Light Liquid Malt Extract 2.50 lb Start Of Boil

Hops

UK Fuggle 5.5 % 1.00 oz Loose Pellet Hops First Wort Hopped
UK Golding 0.5 % 0.50 oz Loose Pellet Hops First Wort Hopped
UK Golding 6.0 % 0.50 oz Bagged Pellet Hops 15 Min From End
UK Golding 6.0 % 0.50 oz Bagged Pellet Hops 5 Min From End
UK Golding 6.0 % 0.50 oz Bagged Pellet Hops At turn off

 

[goplayoutside]

First question: do you plan on mashing your grains or just steeping? Steeping is easier and you have plenty of sugar (actualy looks above style to me) from your extract. However Beersmith says you'll need to mash those grains to hit the min OG for style 8B.

Second suggestion: If you are going to use LME (which is fine as long as it's fresh), I find it difficult to measure it out. So try to use LME amounts that are the same as what you get from your homebrew place (i.e. a 3.3 lb can, for example) rather than counting on your ability to measure that syrupy mess. If you want to add a smaller amount, DME is easier to measure (remember the conversion from LME to DME though -- .75 lb LME = .6 lb DME). This is just a convenience thing for you.

Third Suggestion: Where are you getting 0.5% AA UK goldings? They sound old and not fresh, I'd use fresher ones (assuming this is not a typo). Using 6% AA golding beersmith tells me you are on style for bittering, so I'm guessing it's a typo.

Last, are you able to do a full boil? If not, I would consider adding half the extract (either the pale or the amber, doesn't matter) at the start of the boil and the other half 15 min before the end. This will give you the bitterness you want from your hops and keep your beer from beeing extra-dark and having un-desired residual sweetness.

If you can post the size of the LME containers you buy, weather or not you plan to mash, and how big your boil is, I can make some more specific recommendations.

What will be your yeast? I recommend S-04 or Nottingham for the style. Easy cheap dry yeasts. Nottingham will ferment a bit cleaner, S-04 is still pretty clean and flocculates out great. Another to consider is Coopers -- it's very cheap and I've had some good results with similar beers.

 

[halvey]

I was planning on steeping and then also doing my own ghetto mini-mash technique (steeping in seperate pan with a few quarts of water then rinsing the grains in a strainer over the wart with another gallon of water.

I already have the LME so I want to use that. I was going to weight out .7 out of the cans and then add the rest. I thought about adding all of both cans but that takes me out of the style I'm shooting for.

The hop thing was a typo- they're 6.0 and very fresh.

I'm going to be doing a full boil. I bought a WhiteLab Calif. Ale Yeast to use on this one.

Thanks!

BTW... is there a better way to utilize the hops- I have 2 oz of each fuggles and kent.

 

[Bob]

Okay, not to be overly picky, but riddle me this - if you're worried about style, why are you not worried about one of the most crucial ingredients for style? The yeast you choose will have a tremendous flavor impact - in your case, none, which is the problem. You want a fruity, tasty English ale yeast, not some super-clean, no-ester West Coast USA strain. Save the Cali yeast for an American ale of some sort; go out and get a packet of S-04, or two vials of WLP005, and pitch that.

You really should reduce the crystal/caramel malts. You've got too much crystal/caramel malt in there. It's going to take the beer into "cloying" range. Don't exceed 10-15% crystal/caramel malt in a Bitter, regardless of style. Right now you're at 23.1%. Cut the 60L by half. That'll bring the flavor back into line, as well as put your SRM from the upper edge to the middle.

I like your hops choices. I'm afraid you're outside the upper edge of the style parameters for Special/Best Bitter at 44+ IBU, but that's your poison; personally I prefer less-bitter Bitter. Were you intending to add lots and lots of hops flavor? That's one of the beauties of First Wort Hopping - it adds yards of hops flavor without <30 minute additions. I find FWH gives a superior hops flavor to late additions. In fact, I'd delete the 15 and 5 minute additions and just add all those Goldings at flameout for aroma.

Now, I don't know how you arrived at your ABV calculation. When I do the math, it comes out to 4% ABV, 3.25% ABW. A half-pound of Crystal won't account for that. Hm.

Anyway, talk me through your thought processes when you formulated the recipe!

Cheers,

Bob

 

[halvey]

Anyway, talk me through your thought processes when you formulated the recipe!

Well I pretty much looked at a bunch of different bitter recipes here on HBT and then started punching in ingredients to Beer Alchemy. I initially wanted to make a Firestone DBA clone. That's where I got the idea to use the Cali yeast. My whole thought process was that I wanted to get a base to make a 'user friendly' house ale that everyone can enjoy- not like the IPA's and Belgians that I want to brew but arent necisarily apealing to everyone.

So I guess I'm not going so much to the exact English style but my own western version of a bitter.

My problem with reducing the crystal is that I had it and the caramalt milled into the same bag. Should I Just use a lb of what's in that bag?

Thanks for the input.

Oh... and I also got some oak chips to add to the primary to give it a little oak flavor.

 

[goplayoutside]

Well I have never heard of oak-aged bitter, although I suppose a cask bitter might have a hint of oak to it.

As for the question of how much crystal -- I make a Pale ale that has .6lb of 40L crystal in 3 [edit, orginally mistakenly posted 5] gallons. It's good.

And if you're doing a full boil, and don't mind measuring out your LME, seems to me like you are rocking and rolling. Have fun.

Oh and in the future you can use US-05 dry yeast anyplace While Labs California Ale is called for. It's the same strain, it costs half as much, and you can buck everyone's good advice and skip the rehydration -- just open the packet and sprinkle it on your wort, it will work. I adore dry yeast and only use liquid for specialty things like hefeweizens etc.

 

[Bob]

Thanks for the insights!

I really do think you should reduce the Crystal malts amount, even though they're in the same bag. Next time you buy for this recipe - since it's going to be a house beer - you'll be ahead of the game.

Don't get me wrong - Cali Ale is a great yeast. I used to use Cal V in a brewpub for everything but Belgian styles (Cal V is a bit fruitier than Cali Ale, depending on ferment temperature). I just got confused when you were concerned about style when it came to gravity but not to yeast.

I'd omit the oak for now. Get the recipe dialed in to where you think it can't be tweaked to the better any more; that's the point to see if oaking it makes a difference.

Do you still intend to use flavor hops additions as well as FWH? I advise against it. You'll have an excessively bitter hops bomb if you do. If that's what you want for a house ale, well, by all means. But if I'm reading you correctly, you appear to be looking for a fairly neutrally-flavored house ale with an emphasis on the hops. Delete the flavor additions, rely on your FWH to actually work as intended, and add a significant aroma addition. That'll give you lots of smooth hops flavor and aroma, without taking the beer too far out of balance.

You dig?

Bob

 

[halvey]

I dig! Thanks guys! I brewed this last night and took some of your advice by reducing the grains by a half lb and using a half oz of each the kent and fuggles at FWH. And then .5 kent @ 15, .5 fuggles @5, and .5 kent @ flameout. It tasted and smelled great but my ******* forgot to get a hydrometer reading. It might be a little hoppier than I was shooting for but oh well.... there is always the next batch.

 

[goplayoutside]

It might be a little hoppier than I was shooting for but oh well.... there is always the next batch.

WHAT!?

Your beer is gonna be good. The sweetness and hop flavor will not be blended yet if you have not let it ferment and condition.

Important rule of homebrewing: No passing judgement on a batch until a month or two after you've given up on it!

As for the next batch, I am trying to get on to an alternating system, brewing my house ale more or less every other batch and making incrimental improvements each time, so I have a chance to test out the previous one and see how my changes played out. I think continuing to work on one recipe making only small changes is one of the best ways to learn about brewing. In between the house ale batches, I brew other things...

 

[halvey]

WHAT!?
Important rule of homebrewing: No passing judgement on a batch until a month or two after you've given up on it!

Got it... i'll update you all as to how it turns out.

 

[mmb]

Well I have never heard of oak-aged bitter, although I suppose a cask bitter might have a hint of oak to it.

Casks now adays are made out of stainless steel and even in the days of yore the breweries lined the barrels with brewers pitch to keep the beer from coming in contact with the oak.

Add oak if you like it, but it isn't to style.

 

[944play]

I initially wanted to make a Firestone DBA clone. That's where I got the idea to use the Cali yeast.

Pretty sure Brynildson uses an English yeast.