Australia Pale Bitter

[alien13]

Hi,

My girlfriends dad has just recently gotten into brewing, and has a couple of kit brews under his belt. A LHBS has recently opened up here that supplies just about everything AG (which is really handy), and he is looking to do a BIAB AG brew sometime after Christmas which I said I would help out with.

When he was younger he used to drink Melbourne Bitter and Southwark Bitter, so he is looking for something along those lines. I told him that I will try to come up with a recipe that is similar to one of those that he can try out.

According to the AABC Style Guidelines, Melbourne Bitter falls under the Australian Bitter Ale style.
OG: 1038 - 1048
FG: 1005 - 1008
IBU: 25 - 35
ABV: 4.2 - 5.2

Using BeerSmith I have come up with the following recipe for an 11 liter batch (maybe bigger), trying to keep within the style:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Estimated OG: 1.040 SG
Estimated Color: 17.0 EBC
Estimated IBU: 25.8 IBUs

1.65 kg Pale Malt, Maris Otter (Thomas Fawcett) 86.8 %
0.25 kg Crystal Malt - 60L (Thomas Fawcett) 13.2 %
12.50 g Pride of Ringwood [9.00 %] - Boil 60.0m 25.8 IBUs
0.50 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins)
0.5 pkg Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Melbourne Bitter is said to have an IBU of 25, so I stuck to that area using a single PoR addition at 60mins. Should I add a later addition for flavour, or is the single addition enough? The style itself notes a bittering addition only, but I'm not sure how much, if any, flavour would seep through.

The recipe style calls for an Australian 2-row lager malt, but I wasn't sure what should be used for that (I'm going by the grain on beerbelly as that is basically the stock in the LHBS), so I threw in Marris Otter as a base for now.

The Crystal Malt brings up the colour, but if there are any other suggestions for this, please let me know. The style says it has a moderately fruity, with a light caramel malt flavour, so if there is something better suited (caramunich/malt, etc), feel free to chime in.

The style also notes:

Substantial proportion of cane sugar, typically around 30%, for light body and signature fermentation profile.

Would you recommend adding this? I've heard that this kind of thing is present in the commercial (megaswill) beers in Australia, but wasn't sure if it is worth adding.

Hopefully that is understandable enough for you guys,
Cheers

 

[manticle]

Joe white pilsner or trad ale for the base (or possibly powells - never used that myself). I think marris will be too present.

I'd add a small portion of cane sugar in the boil - maybe 10%.

Bittering addition etc looks fine. Brew it and see what needs tweaking next time.

To be authentic, you'll probably need to use a lager yeast though. USo5 will give you a relatively clean neutral yeast but it won't be MB. Again maybe brew it and tweak it next time. If you can, I'd use a neutral lager yeast, ferment around 15-17, lager for 3 days then serve ice cold.

 

[mje1980]

THe other week i tasted Ray mills version of an aussie bitter from days long gone. Twas bitter, and light bodied. Was a nice beer. From memory it was a touch of crystal, aussie pale malt, and 60 mins of POR fury.

 

[///]

I'd shave back the crystal - you would never see more than 2% crystal in those beer - add maybe 1/2 % balck or roast barley to pickup the colour

Mash high at 70 for additional dextrines and
Make sure u get some calcium in the water ...

 

[TidalPete]

Tend to agree with manticle re the base hops (or use Barrett Burston if you can't get them) & also agree the 30% max sugar addition is way too much. Do as he recommends.
With the hops I'd tend to add them at 20 minutes adding enough to reach your desired IBU. Big fan of Superpride myself but that's a decision for you to make. Nothing wrong with P of R at 20 in a broadbased Aussie Lager. No flavour or aroma addition needed.
Crystal --- Dark (220 EBC) at around 2.5% works for me.
Adding around 4% - 5% wheat won't do the beer any harm either.
Yeast --- No doubt about it --- 2042 Danish Lager fermented at 10 deg c for 10 days (or until FG drops below 1.020) then raising to 18 for 2 days before dropping to 0 deg c prior to adding Polyclar if you choose to.
Not sure if the above will give you the authenticity you want but hopefully will give you a pretty decent Aussie Lager your old man (probably younger than me at 99 years old) will appreciate..

TP

 

[alien13]

Before I go any further, just want to say thanks to everyone for their replies, and to post an updated recipe. I've also made the question in my post bold, to make it a little easier to find
Wish I could have gotten on here sooner, but the power was down from about 830 last night til about 630 this morning. There's definitely going to be some major tree clean up that needs to be done around here.

--------------------------------------------------
Estimated OG: 1.042 SG
Estimated Color: 18.4 EBC
Estimated IBU: 25.5 IBUs

1.65 kg Pilsner, Malt Craft Export (Joe White) 87.8 %
0.03 kg Black Malt (Thomas Fawcett) (1300.2 EBC) 1.6 %
0.20 kg Cane (Beet) Sugar (Boil) 10.6 %
12.50 g Pride of Ringwood [9.00 %] - Boil 60.0 m 25.5 IBUs

--------------------------------------------------

The base malt will be JW if available, with a pinch on Black Malt for colour and roughly 200g of cane sugar.

Joe white pilsner or trad ale for the base (or possibly powells - never used that myself). I think marris will be too present.

I'd add a small portion of cane sugar in the boil - maybe 10%.

Bittering addition etc looks fine. Brew it and see what needs tweaking next time.

To be authentic, you'll probably need to use a lager yeast though. USo5 will give you a relatively clean neutral yeast but it won't be MB. Again maybe brew it and tweak it next time. If you can, I'd use a neutral lager yeast, ferment around 15-17, lager for 3 days then serve ice cold.

Yeah, I wasn't too sure on the maris, it was more of a place holder until I got the substitute worked out.

If it's available, the Joe White Pilsner will be used, if not would you recommend Barrett Burston Pale (Pilsner) Malt or the Weyermann Pilsner instead? I've read that the Weyermann is different to the JW, so I guess that would be a matter of trying both and finding what he likes.

I really wish the LHBS had a website right about now. It would make this a lot easier. Even an in-store printout of the items they have.

Can the cane sugar can be added to the boil at any time, since its just a sugar?

THe other week i tasted Ray mills version of an aussie bitter from days long gone. Twas bitter, and light bodied. Was a nice beer. From memory it was a touch of crystal, aussie pale malt, and 60 mins of POR fury.

That sounds like something to aim for, and helps with backing up my POR addition as well! Definitely something to play around with.

I'd shave back the crystal - you would never see more than 2% crystal in those beer - add maybe 1/2 % balck or roast barley to pickup the colour

Mash high at 70 for additional dextrines and
Make sure u get some calcium in the water ...

I wasn't too sure what kind of limit they had on crystal, but it did say to use only a small amount I think. I've replaced the crystal with 30 grams of black malt which comes out to %1.6.

I'll have to make sure I remember to add that to the recipe as well (mash at 70).
How long do you recommend we mash for? 90mins?
How much calcium would we be adding here, and this would be before adding the grain?

Tend to agree with manticle re the base hops (or use Barrett Burston if you can't get them) & also agree the 30% max sugar addition is way too much. Do as he recommends.
With the hops I'd tend to add them at 20 minutes adding enough to reach your desired IBU. Big fan of Superpride myself but that's a decision for you to make. Nothing wrong with P of R at 20 in a broadbased Aussie Lager. No flavour or aroma addition needed.
Crystal --- Dark (220 EBC) at around 2.5% works for me.
Adding around 4% - 5% wheat won't do the beer any harm either.
Yeast --- No doubt about it --- 2042 Danish Lager fermented at 10 deg c for 10 days (or until FG drops below 1.020) then raising to 18 for 2 days before dropping to 0 deg c prior to adding Polyclar if you choose to.
Not sure if the above will give you the authenticity you want but hopefully will give you a pretty decent Aussie Lager your old man (probably younger than me at 99 years old) will appreciate..

TP

I'll keep that in mind regarding the hop additions. Depending on how this goes, I can easily see him wanting to do another batch after this one, so there will be plenty of opportunity to play around with the hops/grain/yeast etc.

Would you recommend the Dark Crystal over the Black Malt?

The yeasts will be something that will need to be decided on. I might stop in to the LHBS and see what they have on hand regarding the grain/yeast. It will make this a lot easier for me.

Not too sure how authentic he wants it, but if it is similar in taste (doesn't need to be 100%), it should be good enough to get him more interested in AG brews and help to expand on his tastes as well.

Thanks again for the help everyone, really appreciate it.

 

[Kieren]

OT, sorry. Where abouts is the new LHBS?

 

[alien13]

OT, sorry. Where abouts is the new LHBS?

That's alright, it's in Port Pirie. Opened up in August, so wasn't around in time for my first AG, but I can't complain now, it's so much better being able to go to a shop in person and have a chat with the owner!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Pirie-Brewin...4768766?sk=wall

 

[///]

Can the cane sugar can be added to the boil at any time, since its just a sugar?

Add it in at whirlpool, no need to be there early.


I'll have to make sure I remember to add that to the recipe as well (mash at 70).
How long do you recommend we mash for? 90mins?

60 mins ok, the local malt converts quicker than a pack of Mormons on a Sunday.

How much calcium would we be adding here, and this would be before adding the grain?

About 4-5gms per 20l will see you do well.

Hope I did not confuse with the crystal/roast malt. I use 0.2% to lift one of our beers up 1.5 odd EBC to take the beer from straw to a light gold. 18 EBC will be quite dark, a red ale I do is 21 EBC ...

 

[alien13]

Thanks again.

Okay, so Cane Sugar at whirlpool and a 60 minute mash (laughed at the Mormons joke ), with 4-5gms calcium per 20l.

The style calls for 15.8 - 27.6 EBC. I was thinking that it would be a bit on the darker side at 18, but the style called for it so I just sort of ran with it, not to mention, the new beersmith makes the colours seem fairly light. If I use only 20grams of black malt it drops to ~15 EBC, and with 10grams it drops to 10 EBC. Without any black malt, and just the base it sits at 4.3 EBC.

In beersmith, 10 looks to be fairly light, but a few pics I've seen (not sure if they are accurate) would suggest a golden colour at 10 EBC.

Right now, I'm more towards a 10 EBC over the 18, so I've changed that to 10gm of Black Malt which is 0.5%. Do you think it could go lower?

Everytime I come back to add a reply, I expect to make it more of a final post until the brew, but somehow I end up with more questions.
Cheers,

 

[///]

Thanks again.

Okay, so Cane Sugar at whirlpool and a 60 minute mash (laughed at the Mormons joke ), with 4-5gms calcium per 20l.

The style calls for 15.8 - 27.6 EBC. I was thinking that it would be a bit on the darker side at 18, but the style called for it so I just sort of ran with it, not to mention, the new beersmith makes the colours seem fairly light. If I use only 20grams of black malt it drops to ~15 EBC, and with 10grams it drops to 10 EBC. Without any black malt, and just the base it sits at 4.3 EBC.

In beersmith, 10 looks to be fairly light, but a few pics I've seen (not sure if they are accurate) would suggest a golden colour at 10 EBC.

Right now, I'm more towards a 10 EBC over the 18, so I've changed that to 10gm of Black Malt which is 0.5%. Do you think it could go lower?

Everytime I come back to add a reply, I expect to make it more of a final post until the brew, but somehow I end up with more questions.
Cheers,

I would not worry too much on colour, see how it tastes and away you go!

Scotty

 

[alien13]

I would not worry too much on colour, see how it tastes and away you go!

Scotty

Alright, thanks.

I reckon I'll go with the second version I posted with the 10grams of Black Malt if its available, if not, I'll just use the base malt and forget about the color.

If all goes to plan, I'll be back to post how it went!

Thanks for all the replies!

 

[Kieren]

That's alright, it's in Port Pirie. Opened up in August, so wasn't around in time for my first AG, but I can't complain now, it's so much better being able to go to a shop in person and have a chat with the owner!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Pirie-Brewin...4768766?sk=wall

Interesting. I used to live in whyalla and had to order everything in. Went to the brew store/gun store/bicycle store in pt augusta once, didn't bother going back.

All good advice here.

If you aren't set up for lager ferments or can't be ass'd then a good neutral ale strain around 16-17the deg C will do the trick. It is an aussie bitter ALE after all (historically - going by the style guidelines).

 

[alien13]

Interesting. I used to live in whyalla and had to order everything in. Went to the brew store/gun store/bicycle store in pt augusta once, didn't bother going back.

All good advice here.

If you aren't set up for lager ferments or can't be ass'd then a good neutral ale strain around 16-17the deg C will do the trick. It is an aussie bitter ALE after all (historically - going by the style guidelines).

Yeah, I had to order my stuff online when I did my first BIAB because the other LHBS here was really only basic gear/cans/essences, so that was out of the question. Really glad someone here finally opened up a place that specializes in AG, saves money on the postage I would normally have to pay when ordering online.

I think with a some frozen bottles and a towel/sleeping bag, it will be easy to keep it around 16 deg. But like others have said, it will be a bit of an experiment to find what he likes best.

Cheers,