The Quest for the Perfect Bitter

[The Baron]

I have found the same AA, bitter is very hard to make as I would like it. Don't get me wrong I have made some very nice bitters but they never seem to be as I really want them maybe its my memory that the beers were better when I was younger or is it just wishful thinking and clouds of things were always better when I was younger.
I have now started using Vienna in my bitters to get that malty backbone which is obviously way out of mix but it does seem to help on the malty ones but to get a outright bitter is like the holy grail

 

[An Ankoù]

I sometimes think it is a "tribal memory" Baron, and yet I have a very clear idea of what it is I want to taste. It may be that my sense of taste has changed over the millennia or maybe I need to recondition my palate with a fortnight of smoking 20 Players No 6 every day. But seriously, I remember having a conversation with somebody from Wadworths at a beer festival who was trying to convince me that a sweeter and less hoppy beer was more marketable than otherwise. I think things have gone that way and many of our beers have lost their "crispness".
I wouldn't have any qualms at all about using Crisp's so called Vienna. It's mild malt! English spring barley kilned off at a bit higher temperature than their pale. Not a lot of brewers seem to be attracted to "mild" these days so I can see why they've called it "Vienna". And it's a cracking malt, as is their (so called) Munich, but if I want Vienna or Munich for a Continental beer, I reach for Bestmalz.

 

[Oneflewover]

Missing from @trueblue list, is water. Too bland, devoid of minerals, water is the downfall of many a brew.

Things that should be cask beers served from bottle, I prefer to carb on the low side so that I can pour them vigorously into a pint pot. So it is pretty much glugging out of the bottle as I pour. I think picking up oxygen at dispense makes a difference, a bit like wine/tea tasters swirling and then sucking air in as they taste.

I reckon water chemistry must be a significant factor in getting that crispness @An Ankoù refers to. Also what yeast are you using (sorry if I missed this)?

 

[Oneflewover]

@Dads_Ale made the best home-brewed bitters I've had. I got 2 from him in the Christmas swap, and they were better than anything I've brewed.

 

[obscure]

I find bitter surprisingly difficult to get right, and on the few occasions when I have had one go just right it has I suspect being luck more than anything else. I do find they tend to be better when kegged rather than bottled, but even my best efforts at bitter I don’t think have ever being on par with a decent pint of cask ale in a pub, so will be following this thread with interest.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

I’ve embedded my Best Bitter recipe below if it’s of any interest. It did well in one of the competitions and received a good review from @strange-steve. Still no guarantee it’s what you’re looking for I’m afraid!

I said I would post my competition scores with recipes and then forgot to post the last two months

So here is August - English Bitters & Pale Ales. I entered my “Best” bitter, it was placed 2nd, and the scores are shown below. There are two lots of scores because there were two judges...

Aroma: 8/12 and 6/12
Appearance: 3/3 and 3/3
Flavour: 16/20 and 15/20
Mouthfeel: 4/5 and 4/5
Overall impression 8/10

The recipe was originally posted in this thread (#209) and is reproduced here...

Hazelwood Best
2.5Kg Maris Otter
2Kg Pilsner malt
200g Flaked barley
150g Crystal 225
100g Torrified wheat
30g Roasted barley
75 min mash at 150F
18g Magnum leaf AA=15.3% for 60 mins
1/2 Protofloc tablet at 15 mins
30g Fuggle leaf AA=4.5% at 15 mins
24 litres in FV, OG=1042
1 pack S-04

 

[An Ankoù]

@Dads_Ale made the best home-brewed bitters I've had. I got 2 from him in the Christmas swap, and they were better than anything I've brewed.

I wonder if @Dads_Ale has published his recipe anywhere on the forum.
I bet he uses Pop's malt from Crafty Maltsters.

 

[The Baron]

I sometimes think it is a "tribal memory" Baron, and yet I have a very clear idea of what it is I want to taste. It may be that my sense of taste has changed over the millennia or maybe I need to recondition my palate with a fortnight on 20 Players No 6 every day. But seriously, I remember having a conversation with somebody from Wadworths at a beer festival who was trying to convince me that a sweeter and less hoppy beer was more marketable than otherwise. I think things have gone that way and many of our beers have lost their "crispness".
I wouldn't have any qualms at all about using Crisp's so called Vienna. It's mild malt! English spring barley kilned off at a bit higher temperature than their pale. Not a lot of brewers seem to be attracted to "mild" these days so I can see why they've called it "Vienna". And it's a cracking malt, as is their (so called) Munich, but if I want Vienna or Munich for a Continental beer, I reach for Bestmalz.

I reckon you were brought up like me on Handpump bitters and unless you put it through a beer engine maybe that is a large part of it but yes beer always tasted nicer in a smoky taproom.
Ps I only use Bestmalz Munich and Vienna and it makes cracking Oktober fest beers especially the darker ones which are not a million miles away from a malty English bitter

 

[Clint]

I'm on #4 of my Tribute clone...it's Maris otter and a bit of Munich,water treatment as advised by St Austell brewery and I've added flame out hops,yeast at the moment is Notty as it's consistent. I think #3 was nearly there I'm bottling #4 this week.....but is it a bitter? It's branded a pale ale. I think of a bitter as darker and mostly of "Yorkshire" type...but that to me seems to mostly be driven by yeast as I think there's a distinctive flavour. A recipe I've done a couple/3 times is Hazelwood Brewery bitter which is a favourite and I agree, definitely better out the pb.

 

[An Ankoù]

Hmm. I think I'm going to have to press a couple of my old Boots PBs back into service as PBs instead of secondary fermenters. I need to have a good think about whether there should be any top pressure at all or just a blanket of CO2 and whether I can neck down 40 pints in a week.

Yes, of course I can. Get a grip lad.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

This is it, just poured from one of my King Kegs. Talking about it made me want one.

 

[Oneflewover]

I wonder if @Dads_Ale has published his recipe anywhere on the forum.
I bet he uses Pop's malt from Crafty Maltsters.

He sent the recipes with the beers. Just had a look in my brew journal, where they should be, and couldn't find them . I don't think they were anything 'special', but often it's the details - the 'right' water composition, choice of malt, spot on carbonation for example - that I think set apart a really good bitter.

 

[Sadfield]

@An Ankoù Thinking about "a pervading bitterness" has me wondering about IBU calculations and hop utilization, whether the beers aren't as bitter as they would be brewed on commercial kit for the same predicted IBUs.

 

[moto748]

Interesting the comments about Wadworth's 6X. I lived in Wiltshire for many years until a few years ago, the Wadworths brewery was jut down the road, and locals were quite keen and protective of 'their' local brew. But I was never wild about it, because (like most English draught beer IMO) it wasn't hoppy enough!

 

[moto748]

Many "authentic" brewer's recipes included some sugar. But if you want to go all malt, just replace the weight of sugar with the same weight of pale malt plus 20%. Expect your beer to be a little more full bodied. If you replace it with Munich or caramalt then you'd be changing the recipe quite radically. Munich might be a nice change, but 500 g more of caramalt might make your beer unrecognisable.

Perhaps not the Caramalt, then; maybe replacing the 500 g of sugar with 500 g of pale and 200 g or so of Munich is a more sensible route.

I'm sure the experience won't be wasted!

 

[Clint]

This is it, just poured from one of my King Kegs. Talking about it made me want one.

View attachment 42902

I want one now...but I've got three more days to do so tea it is!

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

I want one now...but I've got three more days to do so tea it is!

Your 6 days off went far too quickly!

 

[Clint]

Indeed! And they weren't on the whole very good...youngest son had dental surgery.. he's on the mend now!
Upset me a bit...

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Indeed! And they weren't on the whole very good...youngest son had dental surgery.. he's on the mend now!
Upset me a bit...

We had a bad experience with our grand-daughter at the dentist recently. I think Covid and the lockdown is draining the humanity from people. I hope it’s temporary. Anyway, good to hear he’s on the mend at least.

 

[NormanHurst]

I'm on #4 of my Tribute clone...it's Maris otter and a bit of Munich,water treatment as advised by St Austell brewery and I've added flame out hops,yeast at the moment is Notty as it's consistent. I think #3 was nearly there I'm bottling #4 this week.....but is it a bitter? It's branded a pale ale. I think of a bitter as darker and mostly of "Yorkshire" type...but that to me seems to mostly be driven by yeast as I think there's a distinctive flavour. A recipe I've done a couple/3 times is Hazelwood Brewery bitter which is a favourite and I agree, definitely better out the pb.

Tribute is an interesting one. I always thought of it, perhaps lazily, as a bitter but it isnt branded as one and when it was originally brewed in the late 90s as a special beer for the Solar Eclipse it was an, exciting modern pale ale using new fangled American hops. Fast forward 20 odd years and it is definitely looks like a traditional ale compared to most craft brews.