Style Of The Week 9/8/06 - Bitter

[buttersd70]

For a knockout combination try a basic bitterer like Target or Challenger, not more than 20g, then Northdown for flavour and some more bitterness, and a late addition of Styrian Goldings. My Mild that picked up first at the BABBs was 15g Northdown and 10g Styrians but my latest SuperLandlord is Challenger/Northdown/Styrians and is complex to the nth degree, IMHO.

How'd you get on with the tasting Butters / Muckey ? :icon_cheers: :icon_cheers:

will pm you shortly

 

[np1962]

Good to see AABC guidelines now refer to 'ordinary' bitter as English Bitter. :icon_cheers:

Nige

 

[drsmurto]

Hey smurto. I've got a Bramling Bitter on tap. Do you find you have a love/hate with the hop? One week I enjoy it's difference only to find I'm smelling something that a tomcat has pissed in and added some Ribena by about the 3rd pint. :unsure:

I reckon if I use this hop again I shall blend it with something more traditional. Reminds me a bit of Progress though not as bad.

Warren -

Kegged my bramling cross bitter last night. A bit bigger than i had planned, ended up OG 1.049, FG 1.012. 34 IBU

I did hold back on the late hopping this time so the aroma is dominated by the esters for the yeast (west yorky).

Delish! :chug:

I had to have a few pints just to make sure it was ok :lol:

The bramling cross isnt too overpowering. From memory it was 0.75g/L at 20 mins and 0.5g/L at 0. Its been conditioning for a good few weeks now. Not getting ribena and definitely no cat piss, just a blackberry sort of flavour with the malt dominating and a healthy whack of yeast derived stone-fruit esters.

 

[mje1980]

Rainy, windy and cold, and the yard is slush, so im brewing another bitter. Love the fact that the style is so broad

83.2% Trad ale
4.8% Caramunich 3
6.4% Caramunich 2
1.6% Pale choc
4.0% Sugaz

Galena @ 60 mins
Willamette @ 20,10,1

Thames valley 2

1.035
26 IBU

3.4%

 

[manticle]

Ressurection.

Been loving highly bittered UK style beers recently. Have a young's special london ale clone that's seen a few brews as well as a recent IPA. Both have a decent level of malt, alc and bitterness with distinct late hopping.

Today I thought I'd try something brown and bitter. Most browns I read about are low bittered and malty sweet but I'm fairly certain this can't be the whole story. Basically made a single bittered ESB style brown which I've called ESBB (extra special brown bitter) using brewlabs Yorkshire I yeast.

Not used this yeast before so we'll see how it goes.

Recipe:

ESBB (English Strong Brown Bitter)

Type: All grain
Size: 20 liters
Color: 31 HCU (~16 SRM)
Bitterness: 40 IBU
OG: 1.062
FG: 1.012
Alcohol: 6.4% v/v (5.0% w/w)
Grain: 5kg JW ale
250g Belgian biscuit
500g British crystal 95-115L
75g British chocolate
Mash: 70% efficiency
Boil: 75minutes, SG 1.038 32 liters
Hops: 75g Fuggles (3.8% AA, 60 min.)

2g each CaCl2
CaS04 mash and boil
Whirlfloc

Brewlab Yorkshire 1

Original recipe was meant to be 300g dark crystal but I only had about 20 g left and realised the high IBU could do with some sweety balancing type thing.

 

[mje1980]

I've been brewing bitters since i started AG ( 04 ), and since then, they've been 80% of what i brew. This latest is absolutely my fave so far.

78.1% TF MO
4.7% Simpsons heritage xtal
1.6% Spec B
15.6 % Weyermann Abbey malt

Equal amounts cal chl and gyps

Galena 60 min

Willamette 1 min

1.036
28 IBU

WY 1318 London ale 3.

The colour is Old speckled hen like, it has a nice malt flavour and complexity, and the late Willamette rounds it out nicely.

The best thing about drinking this style for me is the change the beer goes through. I love to drink it ASAP, and enjoy the fresh flavours, but i also love how it smooths out, to a cracking ale, and just when i think " Oh wow this is pretty f.ucken good", it blows dry on the next pint hehehe.

 

[Bribie G]

Willamette is wasted on the Yanks

 

[RdeVjun]

Willamette is wasted on the Yanks

Hear hear! Reckon it made no small difference late in a certain English IPA recently. :icon_cheers:

 

[RobB]

I've been brewing bitters since i started AG ( 04 ), and since then, they've been 80% of what i brew. This latest is absolutely my fave so far.

78.1% TF MO
4.7% Simpsons heritage xtal
1.6% Spec B
15.6 % Weyermann Abbey malt

I haven't used the Abbey Malt yet. What would you say it brings to this style?

 

[mje1980]

Abbey is a great sub for biscuit, toasty yumminess and a nice malt flavour. I've used it at40% in a brown ale. Yummo.

Im a big fan of willamette also. I find it needs time to settle in but it is worth it!!!

 

[felten]

On the subject of Willamette, but not on anything else, there's a neat blog here that explains it's backstory. Looks like annheuser busch was good for something after all. He also explains about a few other hops, interesting if you're into that kind of stuff. :icon_offtopic:

 

[goomboogo]

mje1980, how many grams/litre of Willamette did you use for the 1 minute addition?

 

[mje1980]

30g in a double' batch, around 35 litres ( 2 cubes ). So pretty much 1g per litre. Not a massive amount but it adds some hop flavour without taking away from the yummy malt flavours.

 

[mje1980]

I've been brewing bitters since i started AG ( 04 ), and since then, they've been 80% of what i brew. This latest is absolutely my fave so far.

78.1% TF MO
4.7% Simpsons heritage xtal
1.6% Spec B
15.6 % Weyermann Abbey malt

Equal amounts cal chl and gyps

Galena 60 min

Willamette 1 min

1.036
28 IBU

WY 1318 London ale 3.

The colour is Old speckled hen like, it has a nice malt flavour and complexity, and the late Willamette rounds it out nicely.

The best thing about drinking this style for me is the change the beer goes through. I love to drink it ASAP, and enjoy the fresh flavours, but i also love how it smooths out, to a cracking ale, and just when i think " Oh wow this is pretty f.ucken good", it blows dry on the next pint hehehe.

Im onto my 3rd batch of this same bitter. I did change to EKG at 30 and 5 min for this one im currently drinking. Only just tapped the keg, but it im very happy with it. I also used 1968 for this one. Second cube cranking along now!

 

[Eggs]

Hopefully off to brew my first bitter this weekend. Any comments on this? extracted what i can from these threads in a short time and have used whats available at my LHBS at short notice. any thoughts welcome. Cheers.

23lt batch, BIAB.

4.3kg maris otter
600g med crystal
250g aromatic malt

25g fuggles @ 60min
25g EKG @ 30 min
25g EKG @ 15 min
25g EKG @ 0 min

Mash @68 deg for 60 min.
yeast will be whatever English they have in stock. Either S-04 or whitelabs WLP002 or WLP005

 

[black_labb]

Unless you have really low efficiency you're going to be getting a high OG for a bitter, and mashing at 68 will make it fairly dextrinous. You also have alot of crystal in there. Bitters are a very varied style of beer and can be pretty malty and sweet or quite thin and dry. This one would definately be on the malty/sweet side. The malt base looks more like an ESB base to me, which may be what you are after but a bitter is a fair bit lighter on in terms of alcohol. If you were going for an esb I'd up the bitterness to support the malt bill.

If you were going for a best bitter I'd drop about a kg of base malt and halve the crystal, but that's just me. it's a pretty broad style

 

[Eggs]

Hi black_labb.
Im aiming for something fairly malty and sweet, and with some decent body to it. but I also dont want it too sickly or too high in alcohol. may be ive copied the quantities down wrong! Ill have a bit more of a tinker in brew mate when i get home. Thanks for the input.

 

[black_labb]

In brewmate with 23L @75% efficiency you have an og of 1053. with a fg of 1015 (72% aa) you would have a 5% beer if kegging (add 0.2-0.3 for lowish carb levels if bottled). The IBU is 28 assuming the fuggles and EKG are both 4.5% AA, which could be right. The fuggles I have in my fridge is sitting at 3.8%AA so it's quite possible that the bitterness is lower.

as you have it you are on the higher edge of sweetness for the style and on the lower end for bitterness. It will be a nice beer that is sitting maybe closer to an amber ale in style, which is not a problem at all. If that's what you are going for go for it.

 

[Eggs]

cheers balck_lab. I put the quantities in brewmate last night, then wrote it out on a pad. I definitely didnt have an OG of 1053. I must have it copied incorrectly, which makes posting it here a bit pointless! Ive ordered the grain anyway so maybe i will pick up some extra hops if need be and turn it into a ESB or amber, or ill just hold some grain back. ill have a play with brewmate tonight.

 

[Hadrian]

Can someone critique this please?

87% TFFM Marris Otter
4% Biscuit
3% Light Crystal
3% Medium Crystal
3% Dark Crystal

27 EBC

WY1318
1.046 to 1.009

Fuggles and Bramling Cross to ~36IBU