english bitter ish

[nobbyhigo]

looking to do a english bitter

marris otter 3.5 kg
crystal malt 400g
chocolate malt 40g

east kent 30g start of boil
first gold 20g 10mins
first gold 12g 0mins

peco biab 23 litres

any advice or coments apreciated brewing tomorrow

 

[Kyle_T]

Less Crystal malt, more aroma hops.

 

[clibit]

Do you know how strong and how bitter it will be?

 

[Spapro]

looking to do a english bitter

marris otter 3.5 kg
crystal malt 400g
chocolate malt 40g

east kent 30g start of boil
first gold 20g 10mins
first gold 12g 0mins

peco biab 23 litres

any advice or coments apreciated brewing tomorrow

Obviously don't know the AlphaAcid for your East Kent Goldings, but popping that little lot into Brewmate gives an ABV of 3.7% and a bitterness IBU of 24.

Assumes an AA for the Goldings of 4.7, not sure how close this is to your goldings hops ?

For me a bitterness IBU of 30-32 would be better but maybe you are looking for 24 ?

Increasing the Goldings at 60 minutes to 42grams increases the IBU to 31.5

 

[nobbyhigo]

just having a go with beersmith
right it says bitterness .625ibu/sg
origional gravity 1.046
final gravity 1.009
efficiency 85%
think i got it all in right

 

[nobbyhigo]

east kent are 5.8

 

[Spapro]

Brewmate gives a starting gravity of 1.038, based on a 60 minute mash and 70% efficiency.

Have you got either Greg Hughes or Graham Wheelers books to hand to check - for just under 4kg of grain what SG can you expect ?

 

[Spapro]

east kent are 5.8

Ok, so based on that AA sticking with 30grams gives an bitterness IBU of 28.5 with Brewmate which sounds ok.

35grams at 60 minutes would give you 32 IBU's

Personal Taste

 

[nobbyhigo]

cheers guys got headache now will up the east kent a little and give it a bash

 

[Spapro]

First Gold is a lovely hop, good choice for the aroma hop, good luck with it Nobby, sure it will be great !

 

[nobbyhigo]

cheers didnt want the abv too high fancy it as a gulper not a sipper lol
trying out the beer engines at the minute some are a bit envolved

 

[peebee]

cheers didnt want the abv too high fancy it as a gulper not a sipper lol
trying out the beer engines at the minute some are a bit envolved

Good luck! Guessing you are brewing it today?

You've stated an efficiency of 85%. Don't be too disappointed if you don't hit it. Such high extraction is usually reserved for conventional brewers who fly sparge. Like me! And I restrict myself to 80% (mash efficiency).

Hop quantity is very much a personal thing, but for a standard English "pub" bitter staying under 30IBU is about right. But you are using Beersmith? Gives you a tool for "aging" hops. I find this a bit over-enthusiastic for the defaults (e.g. 35% loss of AA in 6 months for EKG) so if you are playing with it you'll be hitting over 30IBU without knowing it!

And maturing... Bitter is served young in pubs so we are well used to the fine hop flavour of young beer. So you can drink it after 3-5 days in the cask but keep the pressure low (3-4PSI) or it kills it. After 2-3 weeks the "young" flavour is gone and you can get away with 7-8PSI or perhaps higher (most regulators are pretty unhappy below 10PSI). I mention this because you mentioned "beer engines" which I assume to mean "hand pumps".

On which note... I've got 65L of bitter to cask downstairs; better get on with it!