Ordinary bitter

[Robotcrab]

Hi,
Got a few bits lying about and thought if throw a quick ale together, what do you all think? 20 liters

1.25kg LDME
250g DDME
1kg dextrose
500g honey
40g EKG 30 minutes
10g fuggles 5 minutes

US-05 (only yeast I have on hand)

Pretty basic I know but just want a standard bitter like you'd get on pump in the uk.

Any suggestions?



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[m00ps]

Whoa, that's 50% simple sugars by weight! I'm not sure you could call that a beer...

I think even if you took out the 1kg dextrose, you would still have a very thin and watery beer just from the 500g honey. Do you have any more extract to use?

 

[Robotcrab]

Yeahs that's not a problem, what do you think? Cut the dextrose in half and add another 500g LDME? Te honey is just an experiment, got it cheap and thought I'd see what it does?

Thanks


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[schokie]

I don't think the simple sugars will make it thin and watery, but they will make it dry. If I were you I'd cut out the dextrose and honey completely and use about 2-2.5 kg of extract. That should give you about 1.036-040 OG, which is right about what you'd want for a bitter. It doesn't matter much if you use dry or liquid. But use a bit more if you go the liquid route since it only has about 80% the fermentables of dry.

If you use the honey and sugar, it'll still make beer. It might even be a great beer. It just won't be a bitter. You need to use more malt extract to get that nice malt complexity that's characteristic of the style. You could also use some speciality grains like Crystal/Caramel 60 or even C120 to darken it up a but and add even more malt character. Maybe 40-80g of victory or biscuit malt if you can get your hands on some.

US-05 is going to have trouble creating those fruity esters that a bitter needs. It's usually a very clean strain. I'd ferment on the warmer end of the range to try and coax some out. Maybe 20-21C.

 

[RM-MN]

I think you need to brew two beers or maybe even 3. Make one beer that has only extract. See how it tastes. Without changing anything else in your process, substitute the honey for some of the extract and see how you like it. If you still like that batch, then make the third with honey and dextrose. I'm betting you won't brew the third batch.

 

[Robotcrab]

Well I was stuck for time and could only get to the super market and they were out of dme (no LHBS in town) so all I could get was a coopers draught can, so I thought stuff it was cheap, I end up adding 250g dark dry, 750g light dry an 500 dextrose to it, 45 minutes 40g Goldings and 10 minutes 10g fuggles. Will experiment with the honey next time with something else, thanks for the tips, have recently switched to extract from AG due to moving back to Australia and all kit still in south Africa, plus a new job an very little time on my hand. At the moment, but enjoying the extract is quick and easy will start to play with steeping next round. Thanks again


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[Robotcrab]

Thinking about it I might do that RM-MN, will do two 5 liter test batches side by side, just too compare, extract so quick and simple (and cheap!) won't hurt to give it a go. Do you guys do whole batch boils or late edition extract and top up with cold? What's the pros and cons?


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[schokie]

Both. The ideal way is to do a full volume boil, but only use a little of the extract at the beginning. Add the rest as a late addition.

The advantage of the late addition is a lighter beer as you can prevent some of the malt caramelization during the boil. The only reason to boil part of the volume and top up afterwards is if your brew kettle isn't large enough.

 

[Robotcrab]

Two very basic beers , 5l boil aiming for 4.5l wort one with 500g LDME the other substituting 100g for honey, both with 10g goldings an will get some nottingham. Put it into brewers friend calculator and will take me to just under 4% with 26ish IBUs, will see what happens, as I said very very basic beers, But beers.


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[Robotcrab]

An update, It spent 14 days in primary and had had five in a bottle now, couldn't help myself so I chilled and cracked one, holy-be-jeepers it's looking like a fair Toss of the coin! Lighter colour than I expected, but full of fruit and nicely bittered, wouldn't call it an ordinary bitter, more of an amber ale, but nicely suprised, a lot of Aussie guys use Coopers draught as a base, and u can see why, have brewed it straight up and is on the other side of crap, but a bit of pimping and it's extraordinary, now I know it's going to work will let it sit for a few more weeks and get another pimped out draught can on the go, bloody cheap way to do it too...


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