I’m going to brew a bitter/esb tomorrow and can’t decide what to do . . .
I only have 10.75 lbs of maris otter. It’s a bit much for a 5 gallon batch of ESB, and a bit shorter than I’d like for a 10 gallon batch of ordinary bitter. I have a bunch of other grains I can supplement with if need be, but I am trying to keep it simple to let the flavor and aroma of the hops (Sonnet Goldings) come through. I could just make an ESB with less of the MO, but I don’t want to.
Any suggestions? On hand I have:
brown
munich
vienna
crystal 40
carared
carapils
special b
aromatic
chocolate
pale chocolate
chocolate wheat
carafa special
black barley
pils
;D It’s a good answer, just not what I’m going for.
Also a good answer, and not what I’m going for. ;) I think I want something that will ferment and be ready to serve quickly, probably less than 5.5% or 5% ABV.
Tom - use the MO and the Vienna. Not much else in my book, but a touch of crystal, or a smidge of special B. A little carapils for body?
Some guy named Gordon use a lot of MO and Vienna together for his beers. So he says.
You might be surprised how light a lot of the summer ales are in England these days. Was there last week, and need to do a quick write up on the beers we had.
I guess I should have read these ideas before mashing in. Too late. ;D
I went with 10.75 lbs MO, 1.5 lbs of vienna, and .5 lbs C40.
I’m going to use US-05 in one carboy and S-04 in the other. I’m pretty sure I’ll like the S-04 better, but I want to try the US-05 in this style. Plus I wanted to brew without going to the store for anything and I have both of those on hand.
It essentially is a mild in gravity like euge said, but every time I serve a pale mild to people they freak out because “milds are dark”. So when I make a pale mild I just call it a bitter. Plus I wanted to emphasize the hops.