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Author Topic: Help! First bitter  (Read 2639 times)

Offline BrewBama

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Help! First bitter
« Reply #15 on: December 30, 2020, 07:06:29 am »

While it's true that such beers were created, and I know you mean well but talking about pre-WWI beers is not very helpful to someone looking to create what is now known as bitter

I find this quite amusing when in post # 7 there’s a link to Barklay Perkins which is the epitome of British historical brewing.

In the link posted in # 7 above, Ron says “There's only one objective criterion: what the brewer called it.”

I agree a Bitter can be brewed without any specialty malts. Great information provided ...thank you!

However, I also agree with Ron. The OP can call it anything he wants despite the authoritative objection from our local Brit.


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« Last Edit: December 30, 2020, 09:24:07 am by BrewBama »

Offline goose

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Re: Help! First bitter
« Reply #16 on: December 30, 2020, 08:35:52 am »
Going for something in the best bitter range. I realize the base malt is not right. Could I get away with it? I also have no idea on a hop schedule. Never brew English beers...

76% pils
18% Munich 6L
3% biscuit
3% crystal 75

18g magnum 45 min
28g ekg 15 min
28g ekg 5 min

S-04

1.044
35 ibu
6.3 srm

I brew on a tight budget and use pils malt for everything. I’m hoping the biscuit malt would help get me a bit closer.

Your bitter will come out fine!  If you want to experiment in the future, you might try WLP-002 in place of the S-04.  I use 002 in my ESB and like how the beer comes out.  Just a thought.

Also take copious notes on your brew and tasting notes so you can know what you might want to modify in the future to improve the beer.
« Last Edit: December 30, 2020, 08:38:12 am by goose »
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Offline Iliff Ave

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Re: Help! First bitter
« Reply #17 on: December 30, 2020, 08:58:10 am »
Well the consensus is as I would expect. Sounds like I could get reasonably close but changing the base malt will get me closer to the real thing. I guess that’s pretty obvious. I don’t brew that many beers to meet a specific style strictly so I’m not too worried about it. I got a lot more responses saying that it will work out fine than I was expecting. Thanks all!

I had some boddingtons pub ale last night and wish I could make something closer to that. Without nitro it’s probably not worth it...
« Last Edit: December 30, 2020, 09:36:36 am by Iliff Ave »
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Offline jeffy

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Re: Help! First bitter
« Reply #18 on: December 30, 2020, 12:07:55 pm »
I suspect that Hopback Summer Lightning may have pilsner malt as its base, from my memory of the color and flavor, but it has been several years since I've had it.
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Offline Saccharomyces

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Re: Help! First bitter
« Reply #19 on: December 31, 2020, 08:16:54 am »
Northern Brewer is absolutely correct about using black malt for color (I prefer to use pale chocolate).   Here is a recipe that I contributed to the Session Beer Recipe Bonanza on the Experimental Brewing website several years ago:

Anglo-American Bitter

For 5.5 gallons at 1.044OG, 1.011FG, 30.3 IBUs, 4.3% ABV, 0.69 BU:GU

Malt Bill (assumes an extraction rate of 30 points per pound per gallon):
7.5 lbs Thomas Fawcett Pearl
8.0 oz Briess Torrified Wheat
1.5 oz Thomas Fawcett Pale Chocolate

Mash Schedule
Single Infusion Mash at 154F

Hops
1.0 oz Whole Cone Cluster 7.3% AA (60 minute boil)
0.5 oz Whole Cone Cascade 5.6% AA (last 10 minutes of the boil)
1.5 oz Whole Cone Cascade 5.6% AA (20 minute hop stand at 160F)

Yeast

Whitbread “B” (a.k.a. Wyeast 1098, White Labs WLP007, or Fermentis S-04)

Notes
- An extraction rate of 30 points per pound per gallon translates to a brewhouse efficiency of approximately 83%

« Last Edit: December 31, 2020, 01:02:51 pm by Saccharomyces »

Offline santoch

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Re: Help! First bitter
« Reply #20 on: January 02, 2021, 10:34:07 pm »
Yeast, hops, and character malts (in your case, the crystal and amber malts) drive the flavor more in that beer than the base malt will.

As a Brit, I couldn't disagree more. I grew up in northern England with bitters that had little or no speciality malts, you can still make great bitter without them as long as your base malt is characterful enough.

More importantly, bitter is all about the balance between malt, hops, yeast, water and carbonation, and it's really easy to screw up that balance by overdoing the speciality malts.

Also pilsner tends to thin out beers, a traditional English malt gives you more body which you need for this kind of beer.


Any malt can be made to be thin if you mash lower.  There is nothing intrinsic to pilsener malt that makes it "thin out" a beer.
Also, use the wrong yeast, and you will end up totally off of target, regardless of malt composition.

I stand by my statement that in THIS BEER, his choice of English yeast and his choice of those specialty malts will play a bigger part in the final flavor than him subbing in pilsener and a bit of Light Munich.

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