best bitter #1
One of the styles I brew the most. This was only my second time brewing on my new electric rims system so I wanted to do something basic and easy. I wanted this to be a good starting place off of which to build future bitters. This was the first time I've used golden promise, I usually use marris otter for all my english beers. I chose the dry english ale yeast (wlp007) because I've used it before and liked it, it floccs well, can be clean at lower temps (I like to repitch and a versatile yeast is best suited for that). The last best bitter I made was all ekg, so for this I went with half ekg and half fuggles.
2 things went wrong with this beer. I overshot my mash temp and I undershot my final volume/overshot my gravity. The offset for my pid was not dialed in yet and caused my mash temp to be too high. It was around 160 when I was shooting for 154. As a result my fg was higher than intended at 1.016 instead of 1.012.
I got my volumes wrong and ended up with 6.5 gallons Pre-boil instead of 7.5. I decided not to top up and just go with a slightly higher OG of 1.046 instead of the intended 1.042 and adjust the hops accordingly. Given the higher mash temp, I figured it would finish higher (and it did) so I still ended up with a 4% beer which is what I wanted. Neither issue is terminal and that's why I brewed a straight forward bitter.
ca 62 ppm | mg 7 ppm | na 15 ppm | s04 113 ppm | cl 47 ppm
Brew Day 3/26/17
- mashed at 160f for 60 min
- boiled for 60 min
- chilled to 64f and pitched the yeast
- let free rise to 66f over the next 24 hrs then increased the temp to 69f. primary for 2 weeks at 69f then kegged and carbonated
Tasting Notes 4/29/17
- appearance: orange/copper with an off-white 1/4 finger head that sticks around, little bit of lacing
- aroma: malty, bread crust, very slight hop earthiness, woody esters
- taste: sweet malt with a toasty character, slight fruitiness from the yeast, moderate bitterness, very slight hop earthiness, just enough to balance the slightly sweet finish. It doesn't taste as sweet as I thought it would given the high og which is good. The roastiness of the crystal 120 helps balance the sweetness
- overall: very drinkable and on the cleaner side for an english ale, needs more hops :)
Next Time
More hop aroma and flavor, less carastan (5% instead of 8%) and no crystal 120. The darker crystal contributed too much of a toasty almost roasty character for me. I like bitters which tend to the malty/bready side.
2 things went wrong with this beer. I overshot my mash temp and I undershot my final volume/overshot my gravity. The offset for my pid was not dialed in yet and caused my mash temp to be too high. It was around 160 when I was shooting for 154. As a result my fg was higher than intended at 1.016 instead of 1.012.
I got my volumes wrong and ended up with 6.5 gallons Pre-boil instead of 7.5. I decided not to top up and just go with a slightly higher OG of 1.046 instead of the intended 1.042 and adjust the hops accordingly. Given the higher mash temp, I figured it would finish higher (and it did) so I still ended up with a 4% beer which is what I wanted. Neither issue is terminal and that's why I brewed a straight forward bitter.
- og - 1.046
- fg - 1.016
- 3.9% abv
- 28 ibu
- 7.7 srm
- 88.9% golden promise
- 8.3% carastan
- 2.8% crystal 120
- wlp007 1 liter starter decanted
- fwh - .25 oz magnum - 12.5 ibu
- 10m - .5 oz ekg 10 - 3.2 ibu
- 10m - .5 oz fuggles - 3.0 ibu
- whirlpool for 10m at 180f - 1.5 oz ekg - 4.9 ibu
- whirlpool for 10m at 180f - 1.5 oz fuggles - 4.9 ibu
ca 62 ppm | mg 7 ppm | na 15 ppm | s04 113 ppm | cl 47 ppm
Brew Day 3/26/17
- mashed at 160f for 60 min
- boiled for 60 min
- chilled to 64f and pitched the yeast
- let free rise to 66f over the next 24 hrs then increased the temp to 69f. primary for 2 weeks at 69f then kegged and carbonated
Tasting Notes 4/29/17
- appearance: orange/copper with an off-white 1/4 finger head that sticks around, little bit of lacing
- aroma: malty, bread crust, very slight hop earthiness, woody esters
- taste: sweet malt with a toasty character, slight fruitiness from the yeast, moderate bitterness, very slight hop earthiness, just enough to balance the slightly sweet finish. It doesn't taste as sweet as I thought it would given the high og which is good. The roastiness of the crystal 120 helps balance the sweetness
- overall: very drinkable and on the cleaner side for an english ale, needs more hops :)
Next Time
More hop aroma and flavor, less carastan (5% instead of 8%) and no crystal 120. The darker crystal contributed too much of a toasty almost roasty character for me. I like bitters which tend to the malty/bready side.
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