Recipe Questions

Wavesport · Oct 29, 2011

Hi ya'll

First post, was wondering if someone would tell me what they think of one of my recipes. It is for a British Bitter/ESB, and I just wanted some feedback. Mostly been brewing from kits, but I have recently branched out into the realm of the unknown. It has been ok, but the beers are not quite as good as I would like.

Here is the recipe:

British Extra Special Bitter
Calculated OG 1.0527
Actual OG
TG
ABV
IBU
SRM
Size 5 Gallons

Malts:

Dry Lbs % Total
Light 6 71.6

Special Oz % Total
Biscuit 10 7.5
Cara 8 Malt 12 9
Muntons 16 11.9

Total 8lbs 6oz

Hops:
Hop Oz. Time
Challenger 3 60
Progress 1 5
East Kent Golding 2 Dry Hops

Additives:
Whirlflock Tablet

Process: Bring one gallon of water to 160°F, add grain. Allow to mash for 30 minutes in prewarmed oven to maintain avg temp around 155. After 30 min, pour through strainer into boil kettle (appx. 2.5G capacity). Sparge grains with 150°F water to fill boil pot. Bring to a boil, remove from heat, mix in DME. Return to heat, bring back to full boil, add Challenger at 60 min, whirlflock at 15 min, and Progress at 5 min. Remove from boil. Cool to 90°F, pour into primary, pitch yeast, and add water to bring volume to 5 gallons.

Primary: 48 hours, plastic
Secondary: Glass 1-2 weeks; add dry hops (East Kent Golding) to secondary.
Bottle conditioned: 2-3 weeks

I am going for a partial mash with the grain, but relying mostly on DME as my sugar source. Also, held off calculating the IBU till I had the hops in hand and could use the actual alpha values, but I am aiming for somewhere from the upper 40s to lower 50s. Also, not sure which yeast would be best, was just going to use a British Ale yeast.

Anyway, let me know.

peace and love
sam

Pappers_ · Oct 30, 2011

Sam, I think that looks good. Some thoughts:

I'm not sure I'm reading your ingredient list right, but you are adding some kind of Carapils? Instead, for a bitter or an ESB, I would add some caramel malt. There will be some already in your extract, but adding a 1/2 lb of Caramel 20 and leaving out the Carapils might be an idea

3 oz of hops for the sixty minute addition is going to be a lot and when you calculate the bitterness, I think its going to be pretty high. Also, just having 60 min and 5 min additions means you might not get the hop flavors you might like in this style. Maybe lower the 60 minute addition and add 20 and 10 minute additions?

If you can lower your temperature closer to fermentation temps (mid 60s), that would be better than 90

48 hours is probably too short for your primary. Leave it in primary until active ferementation is complete (probably one to two weeks) before racking to secondary and dryhopping

Up to 14 days is a long time to dry hop, in my experience. I usually like the results of a 5 -7 day dry hop period

For yeast, you might consider two dry English varieties: Fermentis' Safale US-04 and Danstar's Windsor.

Good luck!

PT Ray · Oct 30, 2011

This is what I have for the recipe. I don't know what the Muntons or Cara is, please clarify.

6 lbs Light DME
10 oz Biscuit
8 oz Cara (something)
16 oz Muntons (something)

3 oz Challenger 60 min
1 oz Progress 5 min
2 oz East Kent Golding Dry

Wavesport · Oct 30, 2011

Hi

Muntons is a British Two-Row Pale Malt and Cara is a Carapils malt, but think I will change that for a Crystal 20 or 30 (might want it a little darker)

Like the idea of dropping the amount of Challenger (2OZ instead of 3 and a 50 minute boil) and the 20/10 minute additions, probably going to do Progress at 20 and 5 and EKG at 10, just to see what happens.

Thanks for the tip on dry hopping, speaking of which, I have a Rye IPA that is dry hopping for about a week, was going to leave it longer, think I should bottle?

Thanks!

peace and love
sam