Style Of The Week 9/8/06 - Bitter

[Stuster]

This week (in honour of the arrival in Queensland of some nice hops :lol: ) it's English bitter. The style guidelines split these into three categories, but personally I don't think they are really different styles though I'm open to persuasion. h34r: The BJCP guidelines are here.

This is a bit of a favourite of lots of people here judging by the number of great threads. Here are a few, post others you have learned from.
English Ordinary Bitter Design, British Bitter Theory, and the great How do you do your Bitter?

So what are your grains and hops of choice? The best kits? The best yeasts? Help us all improve our bitters?

 

[DrewCarey82]

Best Kit.

Believe it or not is Coopers Bitter, just the Original range.

Comes out looking like a dark ale, but one of the most refreshing beers your likely to try in kit form.

Do it with brew enhancer 2, to 20 litres and ferment @ 20 degrees.

Mmmmmmmmm yummy.

 

[T.D.]

I have been fully getting into this style recently. I plan to always have one of my kegs filled with some form of English Bitter - it is the ultimate sessional beer I reckon. Its one of the few styles where I almost consistently pick the beer as being around 0.5% stronger than it actually is.

Hopefully KoNG will post a reply, and maybe his best recipe, the famous #16!! He has recently made a few cracking bitters. One thing I have found with bitters is that Styrian Goldings are an awesome late hop to use. All future bitters of mine will have a healthy dose of Styrian in them.

The basic grain bill I have gravitated towards is:

94% Ale
5% Crystal
1% Chocolate malt

Water treatment is a must too (and not just a wanky gimmick as I once thought).

 

[bconnery]

Muntons Yorkshire Bitter is a great kit to use.

Hops? I always love the classic Fuggles/Goldings.

I've got a new ESB bottled recently that uses Challenger and Styrian Goldings and it tasted great when bottled so I have high hopes! Bit of Marris Otter, crystal and dark crystal. Similar colour to the Fullers ESB...

I made an ESB a while ago that was exceedingly simple, and recently was half a point of the pace at my homebrew club comp. It had aged for 18 months though so that helped...

3 kg liquid malt extract, 500g raw sugar, 50g fuggles hops, SAFALE S-04 Yeast. Hops where 35g @60 and 15 @5.

 

[warrenlw63]

As TD said. The Kong inspired water-treatment works well.

Here's a grainbill (bit kitchen sink) and yeast combo that seems to work really well too. I'll leave the hopping up to personal tastes.

Here's the full recipe. Recipe database lists colour as 15 EBC which contradicts ProMash's 24 EBC which seems more correct IMO.

95.2% Marris Otter
1.8% Baird's Crystal
1.2% Baird's Amber
1.2% Weyermann CaraAroma
0.6% Baird's Roast Barley

24 EBC 35 IBUs.
Yeast Wyeast 1187

Warren -

 

[Stuster]

I've used Styrian Goldings before and found them very nice. I've recently got some gypsum so next bitter I do I'll be using that. Baking soda as well? :unsure:

 

[peas_and_corn]

back when I did the extract thing I made a bitter that I loved (and got great reviews for as well.

ESB traditional bitter
500g crystal malt (steeped for about 10 mins)
50g Czech Saaz

I know the saaz sounds like the wrong hop to use, but it came out great! The taste of the saaz really went well.

 

[mje1980]

Bitter is my most brewed and fave beer. How does everyone get that toffee malt flavour that most english beers have?? ie tetleys. If i use to much crystal, it has a sharpish flavour. Im going to try pils malt ( its what i have at the moment ) with some wheat, and a touch of carafa in my next one i think, no crystal at all. Maybe a 2 hour boil also. And probably whitbread, or london ale, or essex, hahaha, i like my brit yeasts!!!

Cheers.

 

[RobW]

This is the most recent bitter I made (dubbed the Boot Polish Bitter - not because of the taste but because it's bittered with Nugget ). It's easy drinking with a quite distinctive flavour.


% Amount Name Origin Potential SRM
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
66.7 4.00 kg. JWM Ale Malt Australia 1.037 2
25.0 1.50 kg. JWM Munich Malt Australia 1.037 6
4.2 0.25 kg. Weyermann Carapils (Carafoam) Germany 1.037 2
4.2 0.25 kg. Weyermann Carared Germany 1.036 24


Hops

Amount Name Form Alpha IBU Boil Time
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
30.00 g. Nugget Whole 9.80 31.6 First WH
20.00 g. Nugget Whole 9.80 6.2 15 min.
20.00 g. Nugget Whole 9.80 4.7 10 min.
20.00 g. Nugget Whole 9.80 3.9 5 min.
10.00 g. Nugget Whole 9.80 0.0 0 min.


Yeast
-----

Wyeast 1968

 

[Adamt]

Whenever I think of the "Bitter" style, I automatically see a teardrop brown stubby with a green label on it .

Can anyone recommend a good commercial example I could get to better describe the tastes to me? I have a lot of trouble imagining taste descriptions and likewise, putting tastes into words.

I blame this on my father who tried to share that vile "brew" mentioned above with me as a child, consequently delaying my beer-drinking years and development of my young palate.

 

[Doogiechap]

Best Kit.

Believe it or not is Coopers Bitter, just the Original range.

Comes out looking like a dark ale, but one of the most refreshing beers your likely to try in kit form.

Do it with brew enhancer 2, to 20 litres and ferment @ 20 degrees.

Mmmmmmmmm yummy.

On sale at Cottesloe Woolies (WA) for $5.95 a can as a clearance item but not out of date

 

[warrenlw63]

This is the most recent bitter I made (dubbed the Boot Polish Bitter - not because of the taste but because it's bittered with Nugget ).

Admit it Rob. You named it Boot Polish because of a previous experience you had in the Boy Scouts. :lol:

Warren -

 

[Stuster]

Can anyone recommend a good commercial example I could get to better describe the tastes to me? I have a lot of trouble imagining taste descriptions and likewise, putting tastes into words.

Not sure what you can get there, but these are available round here. Timothy Taylor Landlord, anything by Fullers, Ruddles County, even Boddingtons or Tetleys are passable. :lol:

 

[warrenlw63]

Can anyone recommend a good commercial example I could get to better describe the tastes to me? I have a lot of trouble imagining taste descriptions and likewise, putting tastes into words.

Unless you can get yourself over to the UK to taste the best stuff fresh on cask I'm afraid the bottled stuff will never tell the whole story.

Probably explains why it's so popular with hombrewers. It's an easy style to do well and probably do better than what you're willing to shell up to $10 a bottle on.

Warren -

 

[Sean]

Whenever I think of the "Bitter" style, I automatically see a teardrop brown stubby with a green label on it .

Can anyone recommend a good commercial example I could get to better describe the tastes to me? I have a lot of trouble imagining taste descriptions and likewise, putting tastes into words.

I blame this on my father who tried to share that vile "brew" mentioned above with me as a child, consequently delaying my beer-drinking years and development of my young palate.

What warren said. English Bitter is a cask beer style. Bottling never does justice to it.


Being English (and a long-term CAMRA activist), Bitter is my main beer style. For hops I lean towards Goldings, Styrians and Northdown. I prefer a nice fruity yeast - Coopers from a bottle of Sparkling Ale does very nicely. Personally I think the style guidelines are much too narrow.

Wyvern Bitter scored 2nd place at VicBrew last year:
1.039 OG
84% Powells Pale Ale Malt
10% Fawcetts Crystal Malt
6% Powells Wheat Malt

5g Magnesium Sulphate, 20g Gypsum in 50 L water

40 EBU from:
35g Pride of Ringwood 90mins
20g Goldings 15 mins
20g Goldings in hopback

Coopers Sparkling Ale yeast.

 

[KoNG]

I've used Styrian Goldings before and found them very nice. I've recently got some gypsum so next bitter I do I'll be using that. Baking soda as well? :unsure:

yep add some bicarb Stuster. (much to steve's dismay .. playing with the water can help)
i usually add roughly the following for 40 or so litres: 15-20g gypsum, 10g bicarb, 5g epsom, 1-2g salt.
(of course that's sydney water i add that to.. and then within sydney each catchment will be different.)

grist wise.. it always differs, even if i aim to repeat a brew, i end up changing something on the day.!

~90-95% ale malt of choice (MO favourite, but jwm has just produced a nice bitter too)
~5 - 10% Crystal of choice (i have been tending towards the 5% and increasing mash temp towards 70*C)
some choc for colour if you want, but i'm enjoying the lighter EBC's at the moment and often use carared as my crystal choice to help this. i normally bitter/hop to a ratio around 0.80 - 0.90 again depending on the amount of crystal or my mashing temp. main hops i go for are NB or target @ 60 then for late additions EKG and styrian are the main culprits! OG is usually mid 40's and i low to mid teens finish is always good.

thats it from me for now
out
KoNG

 

[Maxt]

I also like the Cooper's Bitter. I make it every third brew or so, and it's my quoffing beer (hence the lower alcohol content)

Cooper's Bitter can
White Labs English Ale (WLP002)
100gm CaraMunich
750g DME
Fuggle or Kent Golding hops

 

[mike_hillyer]

Can't go past Munton traditional bitter for this style in kit form. Haven't had much joy with the muntons yorkie bitter, may be my palate.

 

[bconnery]

Whenever I think of the "Bitter" style, I automatically see a teardrop brown stubby with a green label on it .

Can anyone recommend a good commercial example I could get to better describe the tastes to me? I have a lot of trouble imagining taste descriptions and likewise, putting tastes into words.

I blame this on my father who tried to share that vile "brew" mentioned above with me as a child, consequently delaying my beer-drinking years and development of my young palate.

While many conmmerical English bitters don't translate well to the bottle, or at least the journey here I think there are a few worth trying.

Fullers ESB is usually available here. Others not so widely but sometimes seen are London Pride, Ruddles County and more. If you have a decent enough beer store around just go down and have a look around, or talk to someone there. No doubt others will furnish you with more examples...

 

[neonmeate]

i usually make bitters as a potboiler beer with whatever's lying around - that's the beauty of it. about the weirdest one was when i did an ordinary bitter once with all german grains, lots of goldings, and WLP500. dryhopped with rosepetals. it was great!

my current bitter that i'm drinking is as follows:

Expected OG: 1.037 SG
Expected FG: 1.010 SG
Expected ABV: 3.7 %
Expected IBU: 33.2 Expected Color: 7.8 SRM
Mash Efficiency: 72.0 %
Fermentation Temperature: 17 degC

Fermentables
Ingredient Amount % When
UK Pale Ale Malt 3.00 kg 83.8 % In Mash/Steeped
German CaraRed 0.20 kg 5.6 % In Mash/Steeped
UK Amber Malt 0.10 kg 2.8 % In Mash/Steeped
German CaraAroma 0.08 kg 2.2 % In Mash/Steeped
Sugar - Jaggery 0.20 kg 5.6 % Start Of Boil


Hops
Variety Alpha Amount Form When
UK Golding 6.9 25 g Pelletized Hops All Of Boil
UK Golding 6.9 20 g Pelletized Hops 15 Min From End
UK Golding 6.9 20 g Pelletized Hops At turn off

Yeast
White Labs WLP023-Burton Ale

12g gypsum and 1/2tsp MgSO4 in water, + half a campden tablet to deal with the chloramines