RM Bitter

[Randy]

A quick beer that I hope to be able to get into bottles before I head out for vacation.

Ordinary Bitter based on some research I did of Jeffrey Hudson Bitter, but not really a clone with the Crystal in there. Full details in the PDF (non-hop additions in the PDF are in tsp not oz)

10 Gallons

12 lbs Fawcett Maris Otter
1 lbs British Crystal 50L
1 lbs Corn Sugar

1.5 oz Challenger 60 min
.5 oz Challenger 15 min
1 oz Mt Hood 4 min
1 oz Mt Hood 0 min

2 tsp Yeast Nutrient
2 tsp Irish Moss
1.5 tsp Burton Water Salt

WLP 013 London Ale Yeast (from 1/2 Gal starter)

The biggest problem other than the inclement weather, was loosing my screen in the mash tub, I had to compensate by running it through a nylon grain bag (good thing I batch sparge).

[Randy]

Forgot to mention that my friend James and I split this batch. He is fermenting his with WLP 002 English Ale Yeast.

[Randy]

FG 1.006 after almost exactly 1 week (to the hour).

In bottles with 3 oz of Corn Sugar.

Sooner or later it would be nice to hit one of the numbers in the brew software (FG, OG, Est Alc%).

[mpilchuk]

I hear you on that.

I've been doing fairly good at hitting my OG by using a refractometer. I would really like to hit my Sacco rest temp by using the quantity and temp of the water from the software as well. Don't trust it the software (or it's probably my settings in the software).

[Randy]

I may have to bring this one into a meeting. Other than the slight astringency that I know how to get rid of (namely don't let your filter ring fall off in the cooler) this beer is pretty good. It just feels to be missing something.

I will have to bring it to a meeting to get some feedback.

[JMUBrew]

I hear invert sugar adds a perfect finish to bitters...

[Randy]

Yep that would be more traditional, I think most groceries will stock a variety of british golden syrup, which is an invert sugar syrup.

I didn't know that when I was on my Bitter brewing kick.

[Randy]

And from the Invert Syrup entry at Wikipedia

"Partially inverted sugar syrup can be home-made without the use of enzymes. When making a simple sugar syrup, add about one gram of organic acid, such as citric acid or ascorbic acid, per kilogram of sugar. Cream of tartar or fresh lemon juice can also be used instead. Boiling time needs to be extended to about 20 minutes. This preparation will hydrolyse enough of the sucrose to effectively prevent crystallization, without giving a noticeably sour taste. A way to make an invert sugar syrup without the use of acids or enzymes is to bring a mixture of two parts granulated sucrose and one part water to a boil and then reduce the heat to a low simmer for five to seven minutes until the solution becomes clear."

[JMUBrew]

Huh, neat! Ih ave citric acid at home!

[G_Reichow]

made this yesterday with a really tight grain crush. Ended up sticking sparge but picked up 8% efficiency gain!

what alpha acids did you use in this brew randy? I ended up using beersmiths defaults and then adjusting my quantities to match.

-G

[Randy]

I can look it up when I get home. I think the Challenger was 7.7%

[G_Reichow]

yeah, my challenger was like 5%! glad I made the adjustment

-G

[Randy]

FWIW there is 1/2 lbs of challenger at the shop. Or there was when I left it there at the last meeting.