English Bitter

[maxmcbain]

Hi guy's
I'm new to the world of brew and would like some help. I have a can of English Bitter and some light dry malt
would like help with what grains go well and how long to steep for
and what finishing hops would you use.
Unsure what type of beer I'm aiming for so any recipes would be great

Thanks

 

[manticle]

Presuming you want to stay in the ballpark of English bitter then Engligs hops like East Kent Goldings or fuggles might be the go. You could also try Styrian Goldings, a variant of fuggles. Really you could try anything. Read a descrition of different hop flavours and you'll get a better picture. English hops tend to be earthy or minty, a lot of american hops tend to be fruity, most noble hops tend towards spicy and floral.

What commercial beers do you like?

As for grains - it does depend a lot on what you want from the final brew. Steepable grains are crystal malts including anything with the prefix 'cara' and darker malts like chocolate and black. Depending on the amount these will alter colour and contribute to flavour in different ways. Generally the more roasted the malt the more roasty dryness and bitterness it will add. Many crystal malts will add a sweetness and can help with head retention and body. You could make a stout with this tin if you wanted to use a good whack of black and choc. You could also steep some roast barley for a coffee hit in it and add some lactose to sweeten it (sweet milk or cream stout) depending on preference.
Alternatively you could make a red ale with a touch of roast barley and some cara-red.

 

[maxmcbain]

I normally drink beers like Pils or Heineken but would like to try something new
I have just put a Pils kit down and that had Carapils and Caramalt I got the grain bag with the can from the guy at my brew shop
Red ale sounds alright would have a recipe for this

 

[manticle]

You seem to be interested in adding ingredients to your kit so I've made up a recipe for a red ale. However some of it may be confusing or too much for a new brewer. Feel free to ask for any clarification.

I'm basing this on Fatzgodzilla's better red than dead beer which I have brewed and is very nice.

My understanding is that the Bitter tin is actually already a lot more bitter than this recipe too.

Kilkenny is a well known example of an Irish red by the way.

1 x tin Coopers English Bitter
1.5 kg LDME
250g caramunich I
280g carared
230g crystal malt 140
120g roast barley
30g East Kent Goldings
Wyeast 1084

Method:

Bring 3-4 litres of water to about 70 degrees. Put cracked grain in the water, cover and insulate and leave for 30 - 60 minutes. Meanwhile bring another 6 litres of water to the boil in a pot that can hold at least ten litres. When the grain has steeped, strain the liquid into the pot with the boiling water and boil it for 15 minutes.
Add the dried malt extract, stir to dissolve then add the east kent goldings hops. Boil a further 15 minutes (lid off). Add tin, stir to dissolve and pour into fermenter. Top up with cold water and allow to reach a temperature under 25 (20 is good). Add yeast.

I've recommended the wyeast 1084 because the yeast is important to the beer. Normally I would recommend making a starter with a liquid. However if doing a boil and adding grains and hops etc is enough to worry about for now then you can just pour the pack in (as long as you by the activator pack). It's not high gravity beer (probably only around 4.5 %) so this should be fine. The yeast is expensive but it can be re-used. The difference it will make is significant. If you'rd prefer dried this time around try and use nottingham or Safale s-04 rather than the kit.

If you want it a bit stronger you could add some dextrose or brown sugar. Be aware this will thin the beer out a bit and make it drier. You could add more malt but that may make it too sweet or struggle to attenuate (ferment out properly). You could also add a bit more malt AND add some dex/sugar to try and keep the balance.

 

[pikerinoz]

I used some Williamette hops in my English Bitter and have been pleased with the aroma and taste. I chucked in a small amount of Nelson Sauvin too to fruity it up. Smelt too complex and wrong at bottling but is mellowing after 8 weeks in the bottle.

 

[maxmcbain]

Thanks Guy's

Have printed them out and will give it a ago in the next few weeks

 

[Eggs]

im interested to give something like this a try. im just in the reading and learning phase at the moment geting ready for AG but now think i might give some of these extract brews a go untill i have the cash and the time to start.

how much water do you add to the fermenter? do you just add as much as it takes to get the temperature down pitching temp? ive searched the
database for a recipe like this but couldnt find one suitable. i like the sound of this one.

cheers.

 

[RobboMC]

im interested to give something like this a try. im just in the reading and learning phase at the moment geting ready for AG but now think i might give some of these extract brews a go untill i have the cash and the time to start.

how much water do you add to the fermenter? do you just add as much as it takes to get the temperature down pitching temp? ive searched the
database for a recipe like this but couldnt find one suitable. i like the sound of this one.

cheers.

The amount of water you add to your fermenter controls the alcohol contect ( abv ) of the finished beer. So use the spreadsheet floating around on this site to see how much water to add. During summer when tap water temp is higher you probably need to pre-cool some clean water in the fridge to add to get the temp down low enough if you intend to do some hop boiling. I usually add a 2kg block of ice.
Make ice 2 days before make sure it's CLEAN. You can always trickle in some boiling water if temp goes too low, but this is usually not needed.

 

[Pennywise]

If your doing Manticle's recipe I'd guess around 28 litres into the fermenter to get an OG of around 1045. You could cut back on the LDME if you need to make a smaller batch, I reckon you'd have trouble containing that much in a 30L fermenter.

 

[manticle]

From memory I think I based that on a standard 23 Litre brew (came out at about 4.4% with an FG of 1015) in beer recipator.

I did enter the coopers as LME as there was no menu for kits, only extracts so that may make some difference. However a kit and kilo of white sugar will give approx 1040 at 23 litres so a kit and a kilo and a half of DME shouldn't do much more. Those spec grains won't up the gravity much.

 

[Eggs]

great, thanks. i might give it a go this weekend.

 

[Eggs]

Gday Guys,
I made manticles recipe above as my first ever brew a month or so ago. batch was 23 literes as suggested. I used a tin of LME instead of the dry.
Whitelabs WLP005 yeast. It came out quite well and I was pleased with the results. A nice dark red colour pleasant malty flavour.

So first off a thanks to the forum as a whole for the info ive been gathering so far.

Im getting to the end of this brew now and am going to make another batch but would like to modify it slightly.
1. It had a strong smokey or toasty bitterness at the end, just as you swallow it. It was nice but Id like to tone this down a little.
2. Id like to up the body of the beer a bit
3. Id like to make it just a little sweeter

Does anyone have any thoughts? Looking at grain properties on the craftbrewer site ive thought of these:
1. Decrease the roast barley
2. Add some carapils?
3. Add come rye caramel?

If I do chage these grains how do i judge quantities without being over the top?

Cheers.

 

[benno1973]

1. The toasty bitterness is likely from the roast barley, and to a lesser extent the crystal 140. As you're wanting to increase the sweetness, maybe leave the crystal alone and drop the roast barley. There's not much there to begin with, so I wouldn't drop it much below, say, 70-80g as this would be only lightly discernable in a beer (other than darkening the colour). Keep in mind that dropping the roast barley will make the malty sweetness from the crystal stand out a little more.

2. If you were mashing, I'd suggest mashing at higher temps to achieve what you were after. However, seeing as you're doing extract, adding carapils would help. Also try a different brand of extract, as no two brands are the same. I can't help you with which to choose, but I'd assume an English brand of extract (if you have access to it) would have more body. Otherwise, yes, try CaraPils.

3. Maybe bump the CaraMunich I up a little for sweetness. But remember that all these things tie together. Firstly decreasing the roast barley will increase the impression of sweetness. Secondly, increasing the CaraMunich will increase the body of the beer, meaning you may not need to add as much CaraPils as you'd think. It's all a bit of a juggling act and some guesswork needs to be employed. Perhaps up the CaraMunich to 300g for a touch more sweetness and body.

As far as judging quantities without being over the top, there's no real way to do it except by brewing lots. Firstly, this allows you to tweak your recipe to the point where you're happy with it. Secondly it gives you some experience with the different ingredients, and gives you a knowledge of what they contribute to the beer. Brew it 3 times, upping the CaraRed, CaraMunich and Crystal 140 respectively and then compare the results.

 

[manticle]

Gday Guys,
I made manticles recipe above as my first ever brew a month or so ago. batch was 23 literes as suggested. I used a tin of LME instead of the dry.
Whitelabs WLP005 yeast. It came out quite well and I was pleased with the results. A nice dark red colour pleasant malty flavour.

So first off a thanks to the forum as a whole for the info ive been gathering so far.

Im getting to the end of this brew now and am going to make another batch but would like to modify it slightly.
1. It had a strong smokey or toasty bitterness at the end, just as you swallow it. It was nice but Id like to tone this down a little.
2. Id like to up the body of the beer a bit
3. Id like to make it just a little sweeter

Does anyone have any thoughts? Looking at grain properties on the craftbrewer site ive thought of these:
1. Decrease the roast barley
2. Add some carapils?
3. Add come rye caramel?

If I do chage these grains how do i judge quantities without being over the top?

Cheers.

Kaiser Soze has pretty much covered it. I'd suggest cutting the RB back to 100g and using a lighter crystal if you're not too attached to the colour. Up the crystal amount a bit and you should get sweeter, maltier and thicker. I've not used carapils but it sounds like it will probably help with body if everyone else's reports are anything to go by.

You could also look at dropping out the hop additions or using a different, lower bittered tin or even a non-hopped extract. While English Bitter is not an AIPA it should have a discernible bitterness. Play around with hopping schedules (and drink commercial examples) to find what you like.

Glad it went well though.

By the way - hop bitterness settles down with time and roasty/grain qualities integrate with age so make sure you set a few bottles aside to try in a couple of months or more.

 

[Eggs]

thanks for the input guys.

I'll up the caramunich to 300 and drop the barley to 100 and see what i get. Ill keep the tinkering with the crystal and the caraPILS for the next brew.

Manticle:
Its not the bitterness that i dislike, i found the toasted/ smokeyness just a little too strong. I like the hops. i was actually going to add extra at the end of the boil for more flavor/ aroma.

Yep, i have 2 bottles left for the cellar. one giant grolshe swingtop ( 1 liter?) and a 500ml brittish import bottle.

Cheers for the recipe! :beer: