Best Bitter feedback

[chthon]

I am busy designing a brew with a single mash and a double boil, effectively brewing two different beers from a single mash. Since this is for summer, these would be (relatively) low alcohol beers, one a saison and the other one I would like to derive from the wort would be a best bitter.

• I don't have pale ale malt, only light Maris Otter (3,5 EBC). Would it help for the bitter if I would add a bit of Munich or Aroma 50/Amber malt? Crystal malt of 20 EBC would be used for 10%.
• I have MJ M79/M36 Burton Union/Liberty Bell ale with an attenuation of about 78% (based upon previous brews using them), and M07/M42 British Ale/New World Strong Ale with an attenuation of about 85% (based upon previous brews using them). Which one would you recommend?
• I can use a combination of Challenger, Fuggles and Goldings hops. I would use Challenger for bittering, but how much other hops and at what times would you use them?
• And would you dry hop or use a hop tea afterwards? I ask because the hops I have currently lying around definitely introduce hop creep.

The saison doesn't matter that much, since it would be diluted from the main mash, and I know the MJ M27/M29 goes deep. I already did several brews with it.

 

[MyQul]

*Pale ale malt is fine to make bitter out of, I regularly just use Pale malt for bitter. When I looked into how to mimic MO without having to buy it so I could just use my sack of pale malt. The recommendation was to add some munich. I cant remember how much but iirc foxbat adds 10% to his very popular bitter (the recipe is somewhere in the completed recipes section).

*Liberty bell all day. I made a bitter with M36 and no late hopping at all and it was one of the best bitters I've made, absolutely perfect for my tastes. I've heard MJ M07/M42 may well just be notty.

* A bittering addition plus 10min is good and basic. I often do 10min plus whirlpool. My current beer in the FV (a blonde ale rather than a bitter as i've used Calicommon yeast instead of boir or LB like I might normally do on similar a grist/hopping schedule)is a bittering addition with addition Fuggles/EKG 20g(for 10L) each at 5 min. Out of the FV it tastes delicious

 

[cushyno]

Reading your ingredients, I too thought of Foxbat's fuggle duck recipe (that I must try someday soon).

Challenger for bittering, Fuggles at 10mins and Goldings for aroma?

 

[An Ankoù]

I am busy designing a brew with a single mash and a double boil, effectively brewing two different beers from a single mash. Since this is for summer, these would be (relatively) low alcohol beers, one a saison and the other one I would like to derive from the wort would be a best bitter.

• I don't have pale ale malt, only light Maris Otter (3,5 EBC). Would it help for the bitter if I would add a bit of Munich or Aroma 50/Amber malt? Crystal malt of 20 EBC would be used for 10%.
• I have MJ M79/M36 Burton Union/Liberty Bell ale with an attenuation of about 78% (based upon previous brews using them), and M07/M42 British Ale/New World Strong Ale with an attenuation of about 85% (based upon previous brews using them). Which one would you recommend?
• I can use a combination of Challenger, Fuggles and Goldings hops. I would use Challenger for bittering, but how much other hops and at what times would you use them?
• And would you dry hop or use a hop tea afterwards? I ask because the hops I have currently lying around definitely introduce hop creep.

The saison doesn't matter that much, since it would be diluted from the main mash, and I know the MJ M27/M29 goes deep. I already did several brews with it.

Light MO is just MO which has been kilned lighter to give a colour more like pilsner malt. Both of them are authentic pale ale malts. You might need to use a bit more of the pale MO , though. I'd stick a bit of caramalt in there to increase the body, which I think is much the same as the 20ebc crystal malt you mention above. I don't think I'd bother with the Munich or Amber, If you want to colour it, use a bit of dark crystal or just the merest touch of chocolate.

Challenger for bittering, Fuggles at 10mins and Goldings for aroma?

cushyno's spot on with the hops.

 

[chthon]

Light MO is just MO which has been kilned lighter to give a colour more like pilsner malt. Both of them are authentic pale ale malts. You might need to use a bit more of the pale MO , though. I'd stick a bit of caramalt in there to increase the body, which I think is much the same as the 20ebc crystal malt you mention above. I don't think I'd bother with the Munich or Amber, If you want to colour it, use a bit of dark crystal or just the merest touch of chocolate.

cushyno's spot on with the hops.

The Munich or Aroma was more for adjusting taste than colour.

 

[An Ankoù]

The Munich or Aroma was more for adjusting taste than colour.

Fair enough. Then it's a matter of taste. MO's already got quite a bit of flavour to it, more than Pilsner malt for example.

 

[chthon]

Bottled today. All of my beers smell nice, but this one smelled even better. Unfortunately I hadn't a bit of beer in surplus to taste, so that will be deferred to somewhere the end of next week.

I bottled for 1,5 volumes of CO2. Would this be OK? I actually had a starting gravity of 1.052, and a FG of 1.008, which brings my strength to 5,9%, not including priming.

 

[Zephyr259]

I often bottle my bitter to that level and it's fine, always a bit disconcerting when poured as it seems so flat and doesn't generate much head but it's nice to drink. I experimented with 1.75 vol this time and it's similar, maybe slightly better for me.

 

[chthon]

So, this turned out more like a mild it seems, not really hoppy. The smell at bottling time was terrific, but after carbonation and conditioning, the smell has disappeared. It is not a bad beer, and doesn't taste watery, but I had more hopes for it. A simple beer that is refreshing, but I have made better ones.

 

[cushyno]

I love a bit of feedback. Shame it didn't quite hit the nail on the head, but thanks for sharing.

 

[chthon]

However, it's official (because historic): I can call it an IPA

I suppose that mine tastes about the same.