Best - or even just good - bitter

[Brew Dad]

Hi all,

Just got my yeast starter going for a brew day tomorrow, and thought I would seek the wisdom of folks on the forum.

My previous attempts at a bitter have been underwhelming. Not awful, but certainly never "moreish". So any advice would be appreciated.

For grain bill, am thinking (for 19 litres):

3.5 kg Maris Otter
170g Victory
115g Crystal 20
115g Double Roasted Crystal

(I can go higher on the Victory or Crystal, but 3.5 kg is all I have on hand for MO)

Hops available:
Pilgrim
Admiral
EKG
Bobek
Aurora
(plus a lot of new world hops, but am aiming for a traditional bitter)

Yeast is Wyeast 1275 - only English yeast I have at the moment.

Thanks!

 

[strange-steve]

Do you have any Munich malt? Munich makes everything better.

 

[Brew Dad]

Do you have any Munich malt? Munich makes everything better.

No, but will add it to my notes for future brews. Don't know that I have ever used it, TBH. What % of the bill do you aim for with Munich?

 

[strange-steve]

If you're using it just to increase malt complexity then you don't need a lot, about 500g or so in a 20L batch is a good starting point

 

[foxbat]

No, but will add it to my notes for future brews. Don't know that I have ever used it, TBH. What % of the bill do you aim for with Munich?

10-20% of light munich is what I go for in a bitter. It really raises the maltiness in a good way.

 

[Brew Dad]

Good tips, thanks! Any thoughts on hops? Was thinking Pilgrim for bittering, EKG mid boil, and Bobek late/flameout. Around 35 IBUs total. And given the grains on hand, any pointers on the recipe above? More or less crystal, for instance?

 

[Zephyr259]

Here's a link to my bitter recipe, based on Greg Hughes' Yorkshire Bitter. I also did a 23L batch a few posts further down and swapped out some base malt for 20% Weyerman Munich II. Both good, the second batch was certainly maltier and had a bit more body which were my aims for using the munich, although the second batch took an extra month to reach it's peak. The non-munich version was slightly crisper and more thirst quenching in the heatwave we had last year.

Your recipe looks good, 6% crystal is close to my 7% and 4% victory will be nice, I like flaked barley too and I use quite a lot at 9% but you'll be good without it if you don't have any.

I'd go for Admiral for bittering (as I always do) then EKG for late additions but then I have no experience with any of the others you've listed.

Do you treat your water?

 

[Brew Dad]

That recipe looks great @Zephyr259. If I can track down some First Gold (pretty tough to find in these parts) I'll give it a go.

And yes, I do treat my water. Campden tablet, and some style appropriate brewing salts. For a bitter I usually aim for a 1:1 Chloride to Sulfate ratio, and about 100 ppm Calcium. Tap water here is pretty good quality, just a touch soft.

 

[Brew Dad]

I think I'm going to have to order a copy of the Greg Hughes book, seems the unanimous favourite with the members here.

 

[Zephyr259]

That recipe looks great @Zephyr259. If I can track down some First Gold (pretty tough to find in these parts) I'll give it a go.

And yes, I do treat my water. Campden tablet, and some style appropriate brewing salts. For a bitter I usually aim for a 1:1 Chloride to Sulfate ratio, and about 100 ppm Calcium. Tap water here is pretty good quality, just a touch soft.

Glad you like the look of it, I used the same basic grist for a pale ale recently, dropped the chocolate and changed the crystal to CaraHell (substitute for caramalt), it also got a lot of Styrian Goldings and it's just about to be bottled.

My water profile for this beer is 100 Ca, 40 sodium, 175 sulphate, 100 chloride.

It's a great book, doesn't seem to be a bad recipe in the book, but I think there's a new edition later this year.