Easy Drinking Bitter

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Hops_and_Dreams

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Afternoon Folks,

I would like to make an easy drinking bitter using up various things I have in stock/left over. It would be nice to have something other than the hop forward beers I have been making, plus I keep telling the father in law that I'll make some beer he likes as he doesn't like hoppy beers. I'm still after a bit of hop flavour and not a pint of malty liquid.

I have come up with the following and would appreciate your feedback as I've not made this style before.

Batch 23ltr
ABV 3.8%
IBU 29
SRM 10
OG 1041
Mash at 67/68??


3750g Pale Malt
250g Crystal Light
250g Torrified Wheat
150g Dextrose
100g Crystal Dark

25g Fuggle 60min
20g EKG 20min
20g Styrian Celeia 5min

1tsp Irish Moss 15min

Use either S-04 or GV-12 yeast

I also have 250g Special B if that would work instead of the dark crystal.

Thanks for your input!
 
I've found 27-29 IBUs seems to suit many palates. And its surprising how much quicker it "matures". I can drink 27 IBU bitter a day after it goes in the cask! (Hand pumped, very low carbonation). But a 34 IBU seems to take a couple of weeks to mellow. So you should be alright with 29 IBU.

I wouldn't mess with "Special B" in such a low gravity bitter, and even your dark crystal will be noticeable. I put in just 120g of dark crystal, 400EBC, (in 65 litres!) because I didn't have enough ordinary crystal (just a kilo!) and the effect was very noticeable; the bitter (about 4.2%ABV) came out much darker and with a pronounced increase in "caramel-ly" flavour (not my assessment, but another with whom I barter kegs of beer for hours on his horses!). I'll repeat it, but cut back the dark crystal (which is already about 1/5th of what you are suggesting).
 
Your reciepe is similar to the Gales Butser bitter reciepe from BYOBRA that I regularly make (but usually change the hops/shedule but keep the grist the same). I prefer to mash at 66C
 
Your reciepe is similar to the Gales Butser bitter reciepe from BYOBRA that I regularly make (but usually change the hops/shedule but keep the grist the same). I prefer to mash at 66C

Cheers MyQul, so go with the recipe above and mash at 66c then?
 
Yes, although that is a decent amount of crystal in there, which is fine if the thats what your after - the GBB recipe has 85g crystal with an OG 1.034 so slighty lighter than your reciepe. Just for comparison London Pride has just about 10% crystal, your reciepe is about 7.75% (if I've inputted everything correctly)
 
Yep, you're bang on with 7.75% according to brewtoad. Still learning with crystal malts, so not really sure what I want! I like London Pride, so I guess that's a start.
 
I would like to make an easy drinking bitter using up various things I have in stock/left over. It would be nice to have something other than the hop forward beers I have been making, plus I keep telling the father in law that I'll make some beer he likes as he doesn't like hoppy beers. I'm still after a bit of hop flavour and not a pint of malty liquid.
I have come up with the following and would appreciate your feedback as I've not made this style before.
Batch 23ltr
ABV 3.8%
IBU 29
SRM 10
OG 1041
Mash at 67/68??

3750g Pale Malt
250g Crystal Light
250g Torrified Wheat
150g Dextrose
100g Crystal Dark

25g Fuggle 60min
20g EKG 20min
20g Styrian Celeia 5min

1tsp Irish Moss 15min

Use either S-04 or GV-12 yeast

I also have 250g Special B if that would work instead of the dark crystal.

Thanks for your input!
I just wondered how this had turned out.
I have all the ingredients and was thinking of converting the recipe into a simple extract brew.
 
Afternoon Folks,

I would like to make an easy drinking bitter using up various things I have in stock/left over. It would be nice to have something other than the hop forward beers I have been making, plus I keep telling the father in law that I'll make some beer he likes as he doesn't like hoppy beers. I'm still after a bit of hop flavour and not a pint of malty liquid.

I have come up with the following and would appreciate your feedback as I've not made this style before.

Batch 23ltr
ABV 3.8%
IBU 29
SRM 10
OG 1041
Mash at 67/68??


3750g Pale Malt
250g Crystal Light
250g Torrified Wheat
150g Dextrose
100g Crystal Dark

25g Fuggle 60min
20g EKG 20min
20g Styrian Celeia 5min

1tsp Irish Moss 15min

Use either S-04 or GV-12 yeast

I also have 250g Special B if that would work instead of the dark crystal.

Thanks for your input!

That looks like a good recipe :thumb:With an ABV below 4% & not too many hops it'll be a lovely malty session beer.:thumb:
Just my opinion but you may concider changing the Dextrose for golden syrup this is very similar to invert sugar used in commercial brewing & will not add appreciable flavour or any homebrew twang that can sometimes be noticeable with dextrose in any quantity.
 
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