Was wondering if you guys anf chicas :) could critique this British ordinary Bitter, especially the crystal amount… should I increase to 1lb or leave as is…? Ive never made this style but I had a Firestone DBA and it was good not awesome but I could drink it and others/ guest said they could drink it…
so I want to try my skillzz at it .
Mash at 153F for 60 Min Yeast: WLP002 vs 005
I added .75lb of flaked barley to give it a tad smoothness…
right now Im at 10% Total for Crystal
I was thinking of dropping .25lbs from the Base grain and addingit to the crystal Carastan so it would look like this .75lb carastan and .25 caraoma = 1lb of crystal
Method: All Grain Style: Ordinary Bitter Boil Time: 60 min Batch Size: 5.5 gallons (fermentor volume)
Boil Size: 7.34 gallons
Boil Gravity: 1.030 (recipe based estimate)
Efficiency: 80% (brew house)
Original Gravity: 1.040
Final Gravity: 1.011 ABV (standard): 3.72% IBU (tinseth): 32.77
SRM (morey): 8.57
Fermentables
Amount Fermentable PPG °L Bill % 4.5 lb United Kingdom - Golden Promise 37 3 60%
**1.5 lb **United Kingdom - Maris Otter Pale 38 3.75 20% 0.75 lb Flaked Barley 32 2.2 10% 0.5 lb United Kingdom - Carastan (30/37) 35 34 6.7% 0.25 lb German - CaraAroma 34 130 3.3% 7.5 lb Total
Hops
Amount Variety Type AA Use Time IBU 1 oz Fuggles Pellet 5 Boil 60 min 20.71 0.5 oz East Kent Goldings Pellet 5 Boil 20 min 6.27 1 oz Cascade Pellet 7 Boil 5 min 5.78
Hops Summary
Amount Variety Type AA 5 min: 1 oz Cascade Pellet 7 20 min: 0.5 oz East Kent Goldings Pellet 5 60 min: 1 oz Fuggles Pellet 5
Mash Guidelines
Amount Description Type Temp Time
2.91 gal Mash in Infusion 153 F 60 min
5.38 gal Mash out Sparge 170 F 15 min
Starting Mash Thickness: 1.55 qt/lb
Thanks for the input…
Great advice as always on here…
Out of curiosity and because I love to know why something “is”…why simplify to that degree…not that I’m questioning u…never made one so your def.better than me ::
I’m.just curious…
Oh and I’m on board with what your saying simplify is usually best, I learned taht here from you people!
I would think that in a recipe like a Bitter you would let the yeast give most of the character. Pick a good base malt like Maris Otter or GP and use maybe a mix of 75 and 150 Lovibond English crystal for color and some flavor.
I would think:
94% MO or GP
4% English Medium Crystal
2% English Dark Crystal
would be something I’d play with. The Fullers recipes are a nice place to start.
Yep, simplify and cut the crystal to around 5%. I would raise IBU to nearer 40. It’s safer to be overbittered than under as the beer will mellow with time, but an underbittered beer will never improve and will always taste bland.
You’ll get better character with an English yeast like US-04 or Windsor.
I think either WLP002 or WLP005 were the original yeast choices. I would strongly recommend WLP002 out of those two. I’ve heard that it’s possible to make good beer with Ringwood (WLP005), but I have yet to taste proof of that. WLP002 makes a great bitter.
You want the water to have some SO4. The yeast needs to give esters, I have been just pitching from the package, no starter, and just pump the wort into the fermenter, which gives it plenty of air (no pure O2). Ferment warmer too.
All of these things. An ordinary bitter recipe should be anything but complex. Another route to go would be to skip the crystal all together and go with 98-99% MO + 1-2% pale chocolate malt for a touch of color and complexity (maybe some torrified wheat for a bit of body, too). Yeast drives this style of beer so go with the advice above - underpitch, let it run warmer than you think it should and open ferment if you’re courageous.
Other brewers who do a ton more British ale brewing than I do have even said you could make a tasty bitter with a SMaSH of: MO + EKG. Just make sure to abuse that yeast a bit to get the character out of it.
I agree that so4, simple grainbill, warm-side fermentation, balanced british hop character, and yeast ester production are the keys to a good ordinary bitter. The only point I would like to mention is on ester production from yeast.
It’s widely accepted in homebrewing that underpitching is supposed to promote ester production. Contrary to this “common knowledge”, Neva Parker from White Labs has mentioned a few times over the years that ester production is actually enhanced with higher pitching rates because the yeast compound Acetyl CoA is directed towards ester formation, instead of yeast growth. After having played a few times with drastically low pitching rates in hopes of achieving significant ester formation in British beers, and failing to achieve my goal, I am under the impression that Neva may be correct (who’d a thunk it?). Couple an elevated pitching rate with low-end aeration (shaking only) and I think you have a recipe for reasonable ester formation.
As for recipes I’ve made, and been proud of:
85% MO
5% Wheat Malt
10% Invert #2
Fuggles @60 for 26ibu
Golding @15 for 7ibu
Golding @5 for 2 ibu
OG 1.047
IBU 35
Wyest 1187 (the scary old Ringwood )
A split batch would fun to compare the end results, and my expectations would be that they are barely (if at all) different from each other. However, I don’t think going “severely” in either direction is necessary; I suspect that a typical, low British ale pitch vs. a typical, norm-accepted IPA pitch would be sufficient coupled with non-excessive aeration (particularly in the case of an ordinary or special bitter). I’d still like to eek something more out of the 1768 strain I put through the ringer over the winter - if it has it to give - it hasn’t given it up yet
Mark has mentioned that one way to get some of those necessary english ale strain esters is to pitch warm (73F or so) and slowly let cool to ferment temps (68F or so). I am trying this on my next one.
Awe man its too late!!! I made my Wlp005 starter last night, before I read all the comments here regarding the yeast choice. :( Oh well next bitter Ill def use the 002 as everyone suggests!
I’m going to get the grains/ Grist this evening for the Bitter so ill take the suggestions and simplify as everyone has suggested. I was on fence anyways on the Flaked barley and also lower the Crystal amount
Ill raise the IBU’S a tad as suggested!
Everyone THANK YOU!
If all you great brewers put your knowledge together, man You’d have the worlds biggest & best Brewery ever! Ill be president/ CEO…LOL Ok we can negotiate the president part…
Sorry, missed that when I skim-read. Either would do the job. Yeast choice is very subjective. Either way I would ferment a touch on the warm side so it isn’t clean tasting.
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