The Baby Bitter

[inhousebrew]

Nothing fancy here but I couldn't help but want to toss in something to differentiate it from what is a really simple category.

Floor-malted Maris Otter: 83%
C-40: 3.8%
Special B: 3.8%
Chocolate Malt: 2%

Progress and Goldings hops at 60 and 10 to 31IBUs (.80 Bitterness ratio).
1/2lb dextrose near the end of the boil

British Ale II Wyeast


Thoughts, questions, comments??? I was thinking of adding some oats, either flaked or naked, for some more silky smoothness.

 

[kingwood-kid]

In a beer this small (1.039ish if I'm correct), I'd leave out the dextrose, which in fairness is what I say about pretty much every recipe that includes sugar. I think the oats would be at cross-purposes with the dextrose, so of course I'm in favor of using them. I think a sub-1.040 beer probably would be helped by the body that oats would provide, and would be detrimentally thinned out by a simple sugar addition. 1335 will help with the body, but it is pretty flavor-neutral as far as British yeasts go. You can make a perfectly acceptable bitter with it, but I prefer something more estery. What quantity of late hops are you planning on using?

 

[inhousebrew]

The more that I think about it the more you seem right about the dextrose. Daniel's book recommended it for bitters but maybe it's not necessary for a bitter this small.

As far as the 1335 Wyeast goes I keep it around because while I don't know that it's super great for any one beer I've made it with acceptable results for a number of styles.

Right now I have an ounce each of Progress and EKG so I was thinking of blending the two at 60 for a total of one ounce and about 22 IBUs and then adding an half ounce of each at ten minutes, or maybe a half ounce of one at 15 and one at five. Either way, somewhere around 30 IBUs. Not completely sure yet.