The Quest for the Perfect Bitter

[Partial_Object]

I admire your patience Ankou! With a barrel do you put that down to having a larger amount of yeast in there?

I hadn't really clocked that one reason these old fashioned recipes needed to age for so long was because they were mostly up to 20% sugar.

 

[An Ankoù]

I admire your patience Ankou! With a barrel do you put that down to having a larger amount of yeast in there?

I hadn't really clocked that one reason these old fashioned recipes needed to age for so long was because they were mostly up to 20% sugar.

Ha, patience has nothing to do with it as I have around 20 beers bottled up so I've always got something to drink.
I think the PB method is closer to the cask bitter method in that the beer is drunk young and the gas from the last knockings of fermentation plus a minimum of priming sugar would be enough to bring the beer into condition.
The 20% added sugar you mention doesn't increase the conditioning time. When the malt is mashed, it also produces sugar so the added sugar is just to give the beer a bit more strength and make it drink thinner. Or to add a bit of flavour and colour if it's not fully refined sugar.
Yes, I do think it has a lot to do with the amount of yeast. When bottling, we want a minimum of yeast to avoid tipping it into the glass, but in the barrel, once the beer drops clear, the barrel doesn't get moved.

 

[Partial_Object]

Okay so it's nothing to do with the any funny flavours that fermenting simple sugars can throw out. Good to know. Still these historic pales seem to all be aged, even the ones with comparable abv to modern bitter.

 

[peebee]

Okay so it's nothing to do with the any funny flavours that fermenting simple sugars can throw out. Good to know. Still these historic pales seem to all be aged, even the ones with comparable abv to modern bitter.

Careful! That "Walker's" 1886 recipe is as low a gravity I could find as "historic" (Victorian), and stuffed with cranky historic barley. Yet still recommending about three weeks aging. Draught that is, over two months in bottles, and not bottled until gravity is below 1.010 which might take a while in secondary fermentation.

"Modern" bitters I brew can be ready within 10 days, much like the breweries. But that's draught too, not bottled, and cask-conditioned style (carbonation only 1.1-1.3 volumes) to boot.

 

[scomet]

Mornin all, English Bitter means a lot of things to lots of people; this is what it means to me and how, Enjoy…..
I read PeeBees’ brilliant thread on BI, I have a few comments to post when I get 5…

CHEERS….

 

[The Baron]

Well Chaps and Chapesses when somebody does find the perfect Bitter I will drink it out of the Holy Grail I have under my Bed

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Well Chaps and Chapesses when somebody does find the perfect Bitter I will drink it out of the Holy Grail I have under my Bed

That's plain potty

 

[scomet]

when somebody does find the perfect Bitter I will drink it out of the Holy Grail

Coming from Castleford I will be interested to hear what you think if you find time to brew it. I grew up just west of you on the road out of Huddersfield to New Hey, but still in the West Riding. I hope you like the beer.....

 

[Northern Brewer]

I brewed this bitter yesterday, however I found the 500g bag of Carapils on the side this morning - doh! Every brew I forget something, last brew it was the protofloc.

First time using a hop rocket, smells wonderful. I was aiming for 1.036 and still hit 1.039 without the Carapils, I guess this is improved efficiency due to the HERMS. I added the Perle to the hop rocket at the last minute. It was heading towards end of the best before date and was a half packet, even though I keep my hops in the freezer, I thought it would be good to get the full 100g in the hop rocket. The choice of bittering hops was also a bit random, based on what I had in the freezer that needed using. I forgot that I intended to use up my home grown hops from 2019, I think that will be in the next bitter.

The name came about as the previous brew was a premium bitter called Sheep Dip. So this weaker beer was going to be called Lambs Tail, then the wife, who wanted the weaker beer said why not call it Dag End (a dag is the crap covered bit of fleece around a sheep's bum) and that morphed into BrewDag :)

I shall let you know how it goes.

BrewDag Bitter
Standard/Ordinary Bitter

3.9% / 9.8 °P
All Grain

78% efficiency

Batch Volume: 80 L
Boil Time: 60 min

Vitals
Original Gravity: 1.039

IBU (Tinseth): 38

Colour: 14.8 EBC

Malts (12.5 kg)
11.5 kg (92%) — Simpsons Pale Ale Finest Maris Otter — Grain — 5 EBC
500 g (4%) — Weyermann Carapils/Carafoam — Grain — 3.9 EBC
250 g (2%) — Warminster Brown Malt — Grain — 105 EBC
250 g (2%) — Warminster Crystal 400 — Grain — 450 EBC

Hops
50 g (24 IBU) — Galena (Whole) 14.1% — Boil — 60 min
21 g (7 IBU) — Magnum (Whole) 9.3% — Boil — 60 min

50 g — Galena (Whole) 14.1% Hop Rocket infusion
50 g - Perle (whole) 8% Hop Rocket infusion

Miscs
1 g — Calcium Chloride (CaCl2) — Mash
2 g — Epsom Salt (MgSO4) — Mash
15 g — Gypsum (CaSO4) — Mash
2 g — Calcium Chloride (CaCl2) — Sparge
1.5 g — Epsom Salt (MgSO4) — Sparge
12 g — Gypsum (CaSO4) — Sparge
2 items — Protafloc — Boil — 15 min

Yeast
Lallemand (LalBrew) Nottingham Yeast 75%

 

[Sandimas]

I'm just drinking Cameron's Best Bitter from the Wheeler book and I have to say this is one of the best bitters I've made for a long time. Only made it 'cos I had some Target to use up and some home-grown Styrians, it's been bottled about 2 months and has really come good. I always skipped by it in the book previously as it looked a bit boring but this one has surprised me.

 

[An Ankoù]

Mornin all, English Bitter means a lot of things to lots of people; this is what it means to me and how, Enjoy…..
I read PeeBees’ brilliant thread on BI, I have a few comments to post when I get 5…

CHEERS….

Some interesting ingredients there, will have to give the recipe a good looking at.

Well Chaps and Chapesses when somebody does find the perfect Bitter I will drink it out of the Holy Grail I have under my Bed

That's your chamber pot my lad. The Holy Grail rests on a shelf in my garage next to a pickle jar with a bit of cotton wool at the bottom in which nestles the Higg's Boson.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Some interesting ingredients there, will have to give the recipe a good looking at.

That's your chamber pot my lad. The Holy Grail rests on a shelf in my garage next to a pickle jar with a bit of cotton wool at the bottom in which nestles the Higg's Boson.

To get the perfect bitter answer me questions three:
1. How is unfermented beer pronounced.
2. Who won the 1956 Eurovision Song Contest
3. What is the speed of the Swift.

 

[Rodcx500z]

I believe swifts can fly at 69 mph horizontally the other 2 i have no idea

 

[An Ankoù]

To get the perfect bitter answer me questions three:
1. How is unfermented beer pronounced.
2. Who won the 1956 Eurovision Song Contest
3. What is the speed of the Swift.

Very random questions, I deem. Well, wort rhymes with word, the inaugural Eurovision Contest winning song was Refrain, but what is the Swift? I should say 210 kph as you've put a capital letter.

 

[The Baron]

is that the Suzuki Swift ?

 

[emerson909]

I have reached Homebrew bitter nirvana thanks to the @peebee treatise. Steps to enlightenment;

90% Maris Otter
10% wheat
35 ibu of whatever

served on hand pull with sparkler

 

[Scrattajack]

737.7 mph if it's the Supermarine Swift...

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Drinking my latest bitter, modified to bring the IBU down from 40 to 24, OG was 1043, FG was 1010, ABV is 4.3%, BU:GU = 0.56.

I am missing the bitterness a little bit this might be because I’m focused on IBU. On the other hand, what was already very drinkable seems to be going down more quickly!

 

[An Ankoù]

I've got two recipes bottled up and nearly ready, one from the other forum based on Tolkein's Toothsome Ale (don't ask) and the other is Galena's recipe, which I bottled up yesterday. I must say it tasted pretty good.

 

[Galena]

I've got two recipes bottled up and nearly ready, one from the other forum based on Tolkein's Toothsome Ale (don't ask) and the other is Galena's recipe, which I bottled up yesterday. I must say it tasted pretty good.

I thought you might be interested in this short video just out today with 5 points Brewery talking about their Best Bitter on which my recipe was based.