AG#5 just another bitter

[Nicks90]

Decided to take the day off today as I just couldn't be bothered...so put on ag number 5
Yet another standard session bitter for the stockpile.

3kg Irish malt
100gm crystal 110
100gm crystal 240
100gm caramalt

20l mash at 65c for an hour and my usual dunk sparge in 2l water and a good bag squeeze
Leaving 18l wort for a 60 minutes boil

Hops
20gm challenger at 60min
30gm fuggles at 15min
20gm EKG at 0mins

15l in to the fv with an og of 1.049 adjusted for temperature.
Yeast, I'm using about a pint of the trub from ag#4 that's sf04 ale yeast.
Never reused yeast before, so let's see what happens.

 

[Nicks90]

Well that went off quickly!!!

Massive Krause and smells mega.

 

[matt76]

Sounds good - best of luck with it. I made a bitter recently for my AG#4, mashed at 70degC to keep it sessionable.

It tastes good and I'm pleased with it, but i feel I've just not quite nailed it - having said that, i couldn't say for sure what it is I'm looking for! I've got a feeling that because it's quite a simple style is maybe hard to get just right aunsure....

Keep us posted

 

[Nicks90]

I know, my first ag was a go at a session bitter and by more luck than judgement it was absolutely bang on perfect. Maybe a little "sweet" with such a large crystal bill, hence paring it back for the last one and this one, with just a bit more hop.
Once I have it mailed (never happen) I'll just keep brewing it very other AG.
You can't beat a good black sheep type bitter

 

[foxbat]

Looks like a solid recipe to me. 10% crystal is on the high side of average but with an OG of 1.049 you'll have the ABV to back it up and second gen yeast should attenuate well in my experience.

 

[Nicks90]

thanks foxbat, appreciate the feedback.
i was going to do away with the caramalt, but my personal taste for a bitter is something can eat with a knife and fork so i wanted the caramalt for extra body. If this one (or ag4) works well, that will get banked as my 'go to' AG for every other brew and then i can concentrate on a rigwelter or theaky XB type clone.

 

[Nicks90]

And it's bottled.
Lovely colour and smells good, and for uncarbd beer it tastes pretty good too!

 

[Sandimas]

That sounds right up my street as I love my English bitters. I regularly use 10% crystal and have pushed it to 18%, seems OK to me.

 

[Nicks90]

Had my first snifter of this now the pet bottles have hardened.
It's not as carbed as I hoped, but certainly makes a head if you do the little injection trick with a spare syringe I got with an ink cartridge refilling kit.
Very much like a traditional hand pull semi flat bitter, good colour and a really nice creamy mouth feel. Slight hint of nuttiness at the end and fairly well balanced hop profile.
Still not quite there with it yet.might need about another 20 attempts before I'm truly happy :-)
See how this one ages over the next month, but it's early days on my AG journey

 

[Nicks90]

Obligatory piccie

 

[cushyno]

That looks a decent beer and cleared well.

I realise everyone seems to have their own preference for head retention but I've experimented with torrified wheat, wheat malt and oats. I get great results with recipies high in wheat malt (like a weisbeer at 50%), not so much success with small quantities of torrified wheat (5%), but plain old rolled oats (5%) have been the biggest surprise, a nice fluffy creamy head.

 

[Portreath]

Yes, that looks like a quality pint there. Bitters and Milds are my go to beers., love em.

 

[Nicks90]

Hi cushyno,
Rolled oats - as in cheapy standard no frills porridge oats?

Might give that a go, but I am anticipating the head to get firmer over time, it's only been 2 weeks since bottling and I always find the foam improves as the bubbles get smaller after a month.

 

[Clint]

That look great! I have a Fox Bat bitter clone bubbling....

 

[matt76]

Great job! What were the vital statistics in the end @Nicks90 ? I guess this must have ended up around 4.5%? aunsure....

I'm starting to think bitter is one of those things that's hard to really nail by virtue of its simplicity - not to mention the fact that taste is subjective!

 

[cushyno]

Hi cushyno,
Rolled oats - as in cheapy standard no frills porridge oats?

Might give that a go, but I am anticipating the head to get firmer over time, it's only been 2 weeks since bottling and I always find the foam improves as the bubbles get smaller after a month.

Yes, these little fellas (other brands are available)

 

[Nicks90]

Great job! What were the vital statistics in the end @Nicks90 ? I guess this must have ended up around 4.5%? aunsure....

I'm starting to think bitter is one of those things that's hard to really nail by virtue of its simplicity - not to mention the fact that taste is subjective!

Once it had cooled to 20C, i rechecked the OG and it was actually 1.047. Finished up at 1.012 giving me a healthy 4.5%

and yes bitter is extremely difficult if you read the posts on here. i am a complete novice with only 7 AGs down, but the problem i face is i like a few different styles of bitter. You cant beat a really good traditional 'middle of the road' bitter to quaff, but i also love things like Rigwelter and theakstons XB. But i also like a really fresh pale...... makes choosing what to brew difficult as i keep wanting to try a bit of everything, however i am trying to predominantly stick to one style for now so its all fresh in my memory and get a good house style nailed that i can repeat. i can then move on to something else.
Next steps are to try marris otter instead of minch hook malt on this and AG6 to see if that makes any difference. if it doesnt, then i will have a play with some alternative yeasts.
going to also try adding some oats to the mix instead of the caramalt to see how that changes the profile.

all bloody good fun this experimentation!