Best Bitter Special Bitter (1st place HBT Comp)

[Boar Beer]

I suspect that your conditioning problems were not related to yeast falling out in your secondary.

For your next batch why not bottle several bottles before adding the extra yeast and run your own test. I think you will be pleased with the results.

 

[belgariontheking]

I'll try that. What you say could be true, and I could continue on this tangent, but I feel my original question is left unanswered.

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[Boar Beer]

""This time I used Cooper's. Since I ended a few points
higher on the FG, am I risking bottle bombs with the
Cooper's consuming the few points that the WLP002 left?""

You should not end up with bottle bombs because of the Cooper's

Being higher on your final gravity is not a problem and could be a result of many things.
If your batch was not done fermenting and you bottle it then you will get bottle bombs. If you use the normal Home Brewing system (1,2,3 One week in primary, Two weeks in secondary, Three weeks bottle condition) you should be fine.

 

[belgariontheking]

Thanks, I never heard that 1,2,3 thing before. I do 2 in primary, 2 in secondary, then however long it takes to condition. I can generally drink the first bottle after a week.

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[Boar Beer]

What your are doing is fine. You should not end up with any bottle bombs.
I am sure your beer has stopped fermenting long before you bottle but you have plenty of good live yeast to eat your conditioning sugar.

Good luck and enjoy your brew

 

[belgariontheking]

Thanks, I will, and thanks for the recipe!

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[Squad1Guy]

Here is my effort after two weeks in the bottle. I haven't found a commercial example of the style yet but it seems pretty spot-on from the description I have read. I plan on entering it in a competition in May.

 

[Boar Beer]

looks great
good luck in the competition
and enjoy

 

[Squad1Guy]

Here is my beer (on the right) compared to a Fuller's London Pride (on the left). Mine came out a bit lighter and a little less bitter, but it tastes delicious. My carbonation was on the low side, but not out of style for a special bitter.

Still waiting for the score sheets from the competition.

 

[Boar Beer]

looks good

 

[Medic218]

Ok, so I made this and it's a few days out from bottling.
This is my first bitter and I'm wondering....are they kind of lack-luster before carbing?
Bitterness is good but it's thin and not overly impressive. Color is amazing and clear though.

I should mention though that I made a 3gal batch and it was 5.25 Marris Otter and .30 20L.
OG was supposed to be 1.045 and I missed that(probably over sparged since I wound up with 3.5 gal) and got 1.036.
Not a big deal, the yeast fermented down to 1.006 so I'm just a bit shy of 4%(should have been 4.45%).
This was also my first attempt at AG.

I'm sure it'll be fine once in the bottle, I'm just curious as to what I should be seeing/tasting at this point from the samples.

 

[crusader1612]

Ok, so I made this and it's a few days out from bottling.
This is my first bitter and I'm wondering....are they kind of lack-luster before carbing?
Bitterness is good but it's thin and not overly impressive. Color is amazing and clear though.

I should mention though that I made a 3gal batch and it was 5.25 Marris Otter and .30 20L.
OG was supposed to be 1.045 and I missed that(probably over sparged since I wound up with 3.5 gal) and got 1.036.
Not a big deal, the yeast fermented down to 1.006 so I'm just a bit shy of 4%(should have been 4.45%).
This was also my first attempt at AG.

I'm sure it'll be fine once in the bottle, I'm just curious as to what I should be seeing/tasting at this point from the samples.

Its thin for two reasons, the lower OG, and the Lower FG. Should still be good though.

 

[Medic218]

Cracked my first bottle tonight after about a week in the bottle.
Extremely watery. I definitely over-sparged, dang it.
Thicker mash and a more calculated sparge would have made this a better beer.
I can see that it has great potential, as long as you don't screw it up.

 

[ds0oc1]

I have plans to brew this exact recipe (scaled to 3 Gal) this week with S-04 or Wyeast ESB.

I'll make an additional 3 Gal recipe based of this. Probably add some additional complexity to the malt bill and maybe throw in some Fuggles.

I'll let everyone know how it goes - thanks for the recipe!

 

[Boar Beer]

5 year old bottle
This is an interesting UP date on the Original Beer. Last week we found a bottle of this beer in our root cellar. It was a 22 oz bottle and after cooling it down I gave it a try.
We split the bottle 5 ways and everyone agreed it was excellent.
Good carbonation, nice head and a nice flavor. I can’t relay give you a fair comparison to what was sent to the contest as it was over 5 years ago. But a very nice beer.