brown ale a bit too sweet

[eungaibitter1]

Gday all. A couple months ago I experimented with extract brewing for the first time, a simple brown ale recipe I found in the old brewers guide "Home Brewed Beers and Stouts", by C.J.J Berry. After 8 weeks in the bottle the drop is quite good though just a little bit sweet. It took 35g of fuggles @ 45 and 15g of fuggles at 15. As I've said, it is pretty good but I would prefer it with a bit of bitterness. Should I boil the hops for longer next time, or is there an ideal bittering hop I could add that goes well in ales and/or with fuggle?

 

[Lecterfan]

Hey chief...your recipe should include an expected number of IBUs (bitterness) - either an overall total that you're aiming for or what the different additions should provide.

35gms of fuggles is a bit meaningless without knowing what AAU% (alpha acid units, gives an approximation of how much bitterness they'll provide)they are.

There are lots of good brewing spreadsheets out there, I strongly suggest having a browse around at them when you start moving into doing all of your own bittering.

If you were to do the identical recipe again with the same batch of hops etc then yes, you would need to boil the hops longer to extract more bitterness OR use more of it (always my preference when it's a lovely hop like fuggles).

There are lots of excellent hops that can be used for bittering that will go with fuggles. I personally love target, challenger, first gold, EKG when sticking with English hops.

Hope you enjoy the experimentation that all extract brewing permits, and don't be scared to get some grains into the mix! Cheers.


edit: a do to a don't

 

[eungaibitter1]

Thanks lecterfan. I wasn't too clear on any of it first go and the book I got the recipe out of first went to print in 1963, though mine is a 2006 new edition. Wasn't really aware of the percentages, just sort of added them in as the book suggested. I'll check out the spreadsheets for sure. Maybe the same recipe again with more hops. And thanks again for the recommended bittering hops which I will definitely trying at some point or other. Cheers.