own recipe

dps51 · Mar 19, 2017

hi all
I would like to make my own bitter recipe.
but don't know where to start.
how do I know what grain to use,also what hops and when to add them and how long to do a boil for. I know there's brewers friends and the like but not sure if they would help much
any help would be great
I like a good hop smell and taste to a bitter

BarnBrian · Mar 19, 2017

You can't go wrong with Maris Otter, East Kent Golding hops, Fuggles.
Keep it simple and then work on improvements from there.

Brian

chuffer · Mar 19, 2017

Books are a good place to start. Greg Hughes home brew beer, graham wheelers British beer (or something) and how to brew by john palmer all go through the process and also have example recipes that you can tweak, the latter is free online. To build my own or a tweaked recipe ive been using wheelers brew engine which has been fine but now use brewgr as it is a bit more up yo date with hop varieties etc, both are free online

LarryF · Mar 19, 2017

If you look through the recipes on here or in the books listed you can put your own recipe together and then put that into any of the free beer engine software online and tweak your recipe on there. It's fascinating how different combinations of hop and grains affect alcohol content, flavour, bitterness and hop flavour and my favourite is when the beer engines generate the colour your beer will be. There's hours of fun there....I really must get out more, does anyone know if Argos are still doing "a life" on special offer.

MrRook · Mar 19, 2017

BarnBrian said:
You can't go wrong with Maris Otter, East Kent Golding hops, Fuggles.
Keep it simple and then work on improvements from there.

Brian

Add 5-10% crystal 40 for a touch of color and you'll have a right good pour.

Slid · Mar 19, 2017

dps51 said:
hi all
I would like to make my own bitter recipe.
but don't know where to start.
how do I know what grain to use,also what hops and when to add them and how long to do a boil for. I know there's brewers friends and the like but not sure if they would help much
any help would be great
I like a good hop smell and taste to a bitter

Most English bitter recipes are not hoppy in the contemporary sense. Almost all the hops were added for bittering, which does not sound like what you are after.

You might want to start somewhere like this?

http://www.worcesterhopshop.co.uk/product_info.php?cPath=4&products_id=245

Just a guess.

Dutto · Mar 19, 2017

I'm definitely one of the KISS brigade when it comes to brewing (i.e. Keep It Simple Stupid).

By the end of the year I hope to have done at least ten SMASH (Single Malt and Single Hop) brews using 5kg of Maris Otter with a variety of hops.

The plan is that the MO will always be milled at the same setting, mashed, sparged, boiled and hopped under the same conditions with only the hops themselves changing.

By using this method I hope to live long enough to discover my "perfect pint". :whistle:

dps51 · Mar 20, 2017

many thanks for all your help guys

MyQul · Mar 20, 2017

As others have said bitters can be one of the simplest reciepes to make.

Marris Otter
Crystal malt (up to 10%, I normally do 5%-6%)

Thats it for the grist. You can add other grains like torrified wheat (for head retention), Amber or biscuit malt to tweek the flavour, or a small amount of chocolate or black malt if it isnt dark enough for you

English hops. The classic being of course Fuggles and EKG. Very simple hop schedule, 60min addition and a 10min additon. Howver if I use a cleaner yeast, like notty I add a 1 min additon too as you dont get much esters from notty

I normally do the IBU's as between 0.5 and 0.7. What this means is the IBU divided by the OG to give you a bittering ratio. There are charts giving all beer styles a ratio so you know what to aim for. You can divide the hops equally to give the ratio or skew them toward the bittering or aroma/flavour additon.

Yeast. English style of course to get some esters in there. Notty, S04, MJ Liberty Bell are all good to use (but as mentioned notty is quite clean so I usually add extra hops just at the end of the boil)

own recipe

Help Support The Homebrew Forum:

dps51

Landlord.

BarnBrian

Junior Member

chuffer

Landlord.

LarryF

Brew Numpty

MrRook

Landlord.

Slid

Forum Friend

Dutto

Landlord.

dps51

Landlord.

MyQul

Chairman of the Bored

Similar threads

Latest posts

own recipe

Help Support The Homebrew Forum:

Landlord.

Junior Member

Landlord.

Brew Numpty

Landlord.

Forum Friend

Landlord.

Landlord.

Chairman of the Bored

Similar threads

Join the conversation!

Join today and get all the highlights of this community direct to your inbox. It's FREE!