Homebrew – English Bitter
With this recipe I was trying to emulate your typical English pub bitter. Amber in colour, quite bitter and caramel tasting but without any burnt notes. They always seem to have a wonderful fruity bouquet so dry hopping will be employed once again.
There are two new tricks I used with this one though. The first is that I’m using Gypsum (calcium sulfate) in an attempt to Burtonise the brewing water. I know it’s all very un-scientific but I’m hoping the addition at least helps bring out the flavours a little better than plain old Sydney water. The second trick I’m trying is late extract addition. Normally when you add most of your base malt through extract the DME or LME will get scorched and caramelise giving a nice but not always desirable smokey toffee flavour. In this recipe I added only half the LME to the boil and added the rest of the sugars at the end of the boil. It had the desired effect of lightening the beer, maybe too light as this wort was almost yellow.
Ingredients
- 1 1.5kg can pale malt (1/2 can in the boil)
- 1 pack 500 gram DME
- 200 grams raw sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons gypsum
- 100 grams light crystal malt
- 50 grams carapils
- Wyeast Thames valley yeast – 1275
Hops Schedule
- 30 grams cascade (8.7 AA) 60 mins
- 30 grams fuggles (5.6 AA) 40 mins
- 25 grams fuggles (5.6 AA) 20 mins (at this point a teaspoon of irish moss, gypsum and salt are added)
- 25 grams fuggles (5.6 AA) 0 mins
I may also dry hop with 20 grams of Fuggles in the secondary. Although given the low OG of 1042 it’s probably going to be extremely hoppy already.
Process
Grains were steeped at 70 degrees celsius for 30 minutes in a litre of water, then sparged with another litre. Half the LME was added to the boil and the hop schedule followed.
As the final hops were added the remaining LME, DME and sugar was added which brought down the temperature dramatically so the wort was re-heated until it just began to boil again. This may have affected the flavour of the end of boil aroma hops.
The wort was then added to the fermenter and filled to 21 degrees (target was 18) and the original gravity came to 1042. Slightly below the target of 1045 but very acceptable.
Fermentation
After four days in the primary the beer was tasted. The colour was a very pale yellow much like a little creatures bright ale, very hoppy but somehow lacking in malt. Kind of like a hoppy glass of water. Maturity should tell whether this will be a good beer or not. Gravity came out at 1008 which means at this point it’s just over 4.5% alcohol. A nice summer beer hopefully.
After tasting a couple of days later I decided this will not be a dry hopped beer. It is already intensely hoppy with a real citrus flavour. Almost like watered down sprite without the sweetness. Reminiscent of Corona but with flavour and less piss. I’m still hopeful that with age and chilling it turns out to be a highly drinkable summer beer.
Bottling
This one is going straight from the primary to the bottle via the bottling bucket and 100g of dextrose. I will let the beer settle in the bottling bucket for an hour or two to improve clarity. Unfortunately at this point I don’t think it’s going to be a worthy beer so I won’t waste time with a secondary. Final gravity is holding steady at 1008.
Some of the trub has been saved so the yeast can be reused in another higher gravity brew soon.
Tasting
After just three days in the bottle I found a well carbonated example (hint: squeeze the bottle) and partook of an early trial. My worst fears didn’t come true and in fact it was quite a nice drop. Very light, almost lager like with a pronounced hop flavour but not overpowering as I suspected it may end up. It definitely is lacking in malt and body though. A good summer beer it will be I’m sure.
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