Bitter Recipe

[dlowe1992]

Well I've got about a third of a packet of CML Midland yeast left from the weekend's brew, so thought I'd do a small batch bitter. First for me as I've yet to brew one. I've not made a Bitter recipe before, everything I've done has been more hop forward, so any feedback on attached recipe would be welcomed. Mainly concerned whether I've over-done the hops? Would the hopstand be better as a late boil addition? Don't want to over-do it and lose the malt character...

https://share.brewfather.app/fTXddFdjPGwyST
Edit - any advice on water profile also welcomed. Have used the water calculator on here and banged the results in Brewfather. Resultant water profile on the recipe..

Ta,
Dan

 

[Sadfield]

Looks great. The water profile will work well. A little heavy on crystal for my taste, but I wouldn't change it based on that.

 

[Nicks90]

That looks proper nice. Although personally I would probably reduce / remove the hopstand and instead add hops at flame out for the same IBU
Might be a bit hop forward otherwise

 

[jof]

Yep, for me, traditional bitter is hops at 60 for bittering, 30 for flavour & 0 (flameout) for flavour.
There are a range of traditional british hops you can use, but NONE of those citrus ones.

 

[dlowe1992]

Magic, thanks all. That’s the hopstand brought back to a late boil addition, might split between 15 and 0 minutes and slightly shorter brew day to boot.

I have a small amount of fuggles and BX good to go in the freezer so a natural choice

 

[RoomWithABrew]

Well I've got about a third of a packet of CML Midland yeast left from the weekend's brew, so thought I'd do a small batch bitter. First for me as I've yet to brew one. I've not made a Bitter recipe before, everything I've done has been more hop forward, so any feedback on attached recipe would be welcomed. Mainly concerned whether I've over-done the hops? Would the hopstand be better as a late boil addition? Don't want to over-do it and lose the malt character...

https://share.brewfather.app/fTXddFdjPGwyST
Edit - any advice on water profile also welcomed. Have used the water calculator on here and banged the results in Brewfather. Resultant water profile on the recipe..

Ta,
Dan

You could harvest some of your weekends active ferment and use that with the remaining yeast so you have a very active pitch ( or a bigger batch).

Unless of course the weekends brew was a pastry stout with all kinds of weird additions!

 

[Northern_Brewer]

A hopback - ie whirlpooling/hopstand - is a part of many trad UK brewery, we're not making lager. You lose a lot of flavour compounds at >100C versus 70-80C, I would keep it, maybe just move a pinch of hops to flameout.

My personal taste would be for a bit less crystal - Fuller's use 7.2% light to give you some calibration, northern brewers often use 3-4% or less.

If it's your first one and you have some base malt (doesn't really matter what) to spare, I would bump up the gravity a bit to best strength, say 4.2% - just getting over 4% makes a big difference to mouthfeel etc.

 

[dlowe1992]

If it's your first one and you have some base malt (doesn't really matter what) to spare, I would bump up the gravity a bit to best strength, say 4.2% - just getting over 4% makes a big difference to mouthfeel etc

Cheers @Northern_Brewer, another 150g MO gets me to 4.1% and the crystal to just over 7%
Split between flame out and hop-stand sounds a plan.

You could harvest some of your weekends active ferment and use that with the remaining yeast so you have a very active pitch ( or a bigger batch).

Unless of course the weekends brew was a pastry stout with all kinds of weird additions!

Certainly nothing weird, my take on a Tribute style brew. It's got a decent krausen sitting on it as we speak.
I've not attempted to harvest any yeast yet. It's crossed my mind more than once, along with harvesting yeast from commercial bottle conditioned stuff. Think I have the vague idea of cropping it off or harvesting the yeast cake when transferring at the end of ferm, plenty of vids on YT etc. The thing that puts me off mostly is how do you figure out how much of the stuff to chuck in your next batch?

 

[An Ankoù]

This came out decades ago (80s or 90s). I don't know how accurate it is, but I've always used it and it seems to work for me.

 

[jof]

This came out decades ago (80s or 90s). I don't know how accurate it is, but I've always used it and it seems to work for me.
View attachment 95047

I think for the aroma addition (that I do at flameout), it's more of a case of working out how long to leave it before removing the hops.
So looking at that chart, adding aroma hops at flameout, you should be removing them after 5-10 minutes.
I guess if you did an 80' hop stand instead of flameout, you would leave them in for significantly longer. This may be why some people prefer hopstand, as they can then just walk away until it's cool enough to transfer, rather than removing bagged/hop spider.

 

[dlowe1992]

That's interesting, thanks @An Ankoù. Also reinforces the idea that maybe a flavour and aroma addition are necessary (flavour addition thus missing in my recipe!)

As you say @jof, I like a hopstand as I know a 20-30 minute hopstand then quickly cooling gives me the flavour I want without unwanted IBU additions. I (rightly or wrongly) feel I'll get more out of a longer stand at a lower temp than a shorter stand at a higher temp. Depends on the style as well I guess. But as I say, most of my brews to date have been on the hoppier end of the spectrum.

 

[RoomWithABrew]

Cheers @Northern_Brewer, another 150g MO gets me to 4.1% and the crystal to just over 7%
Split between flame out and hop-stand sounds a plan.



Certainly nothing weird, my take on a Tribute style brew. It's got a decent krausen sitting on it as we speak.
I've not attempted to harvest any yeast yet. It's crossed my mind more than once, along with harvesting yeast from commercial bottle conditioned stuff. Think I have the vague idea of cropping it off or harvesting the yeast cake when transferring at the end of ferm, plenty of vids on YT etc. The thing that puts me off mostly is how do you figure out how much of the stuff to chuck in your next batch?

I think just a sterilised metal ladle or spoon scoop some krausen off the top and put it in your fermenter, pitch your wort and remaining dry yeast onto it, or do it after you've put the wort in. Easy to under pitch a yeast, harder to overpitch. I think @Northern_Brewer hinting at a little less crystal than 7%.

 

[dlowe1992]

I brewed this recipe a couple of weeks back, amended slightly in line with advice above. Bottled this evening and the sample tastes great, so thanks for the advice all