AG#21 -John's Special Bitter

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DaveyT
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Re: AG#21 -John's Special Bitter

Post by DaveyT » Thu Apr 20, 2017 10:37 pm

Nice! I have real problems with brown beers. Blond and dark are fine, but the middle ground is a bit bland. I'll look into that water profile you mention. I used bottled water so I hope it'll be easy to work out what's in it.

You're right, it looks cracking in a pint glass! Well done!

David
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Monkeybrew
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Re: AG#21 -John's Special Bitter

Post by Monkeybrew » Sun Apr 23, 2017 9:42 am

DaveyT wrote:Nice! I have real problems with brown beers. Blond and dark are fine, but the middle ground is a bit bland. I'll look into that water profile you mention. I used bottled water so I hope it'll be easy to work out what's in it.

You're right, it looks cracking in a pint glass! Well done!

David
Thanks David.

I know you mean about mid brown beers going bland, this brew has faded a bit on the flavour front. I have found that keg beers seem to lose flavour quicker than bottled ones.

This is still a nice beer, and is just a bit more like a stronger ordinary bitter now.

I will brew something similar again, but will add some amber or brown malt as I find this gives a bit more character, and I will up the hops slightly as well.

Cheers

MB
FV:


Conditioning:
AG#41 - Vienna Lager - 5.6%
AG#42 - Heritage Double Ale - 10.5%

On Tap:
AG#44 - Harvest ESB - 5.4%
AG#45 - Amarillo Gold APA - 5.2%

DaveyT
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Re: AG#21 -John's Special Bitter

Post by DaveyT » Tue Apr 25, 2017 10:02 pm

I was thinking of amber and brown malts in a bitter. Maybe 5% of each plus 5% crystal. I've only got rye crystal in at the moment but I think it's great.
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Monkeybrew
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Re: AG#21 -John's Special Bitter

Post by Monkeybrew » Wed Apr 26, 2017 10:28 pm

DaveyT wrote:I was thinking of amber and brown malts in a bitter. Maybe 5% of each plus 5% crystal. I've only got rye crystal in at the moment but I think it's great.
I wonder if it may be a bit dry is you use Amber, Brown and Crystal Rye :-k , only one way to find out though.........

Still might tweak the below MK2 recipe a little, but it's not far off where I want it.

John's Special Bitter MK2
Special/Best/Premium Bitter

Recipe Specs
----------------
Batch Size (L): 23.0
Total Grain (kg): 4.240
Total Hops (g): 115.00
Original Gravity (OG): 1.042 (°P): 10.5
Final Gravity (FG): 1.010 (°P): 2.6
Alcohol by Volume (ABV): 4.18 %
Colour (SRM): 9.9 (EBC): 19.5
Bitterness (IBU): 31.0 (Tinseth)
Brewhouse Efficiency (%): 73
Boil Time (Minutes): 60

Grain Bill
----------------
3.604 kg Maris Otter Malt (85%)
0.212 kg Biscuit (5%)
0.212 kg Brown Malt (5%)
0.212 kg Crystal 60 (5%)

Hop Bill
----------------
23.0 g Challenger Leaf (6.6% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil) (1 g/L)
23.0 g Progress Leaf (6.4% Alpha) @ 30 Minutes (Boil) (1 g/L)
23.0 g Progress Leaf (6.4% Alpha) @ 5 Minutes (Boil) (1 g/L)
23.0 g East Kent Golding Pellet (6.5% Alpha) @ 0 Minutes (Aroma) (1 g/L)
23.0 g Fuggles Pellet (5.6% Alpha) @ 7 Days (Dry Hop) (1 g/L)

Misc Bill
----------------

Single step Infusion at 61°C for 90 Minutes.
Fermented at 19°C with Safale S-04

Notes
----------------
Total Liquor - 33L
Mash Liquor - 11L
Sparge Liqour - 22L

Salifert Test -

1 -
2 -
3 -

Starting Alkalinity - CaCO3

Treated Alkalinity - CaCO3

CRS @

Mash pH -

Water Profile - Graham Wheelers Mild

Pre-Boil -

Recipe Generated with BrewMate

Cheers

MB
FV:


Conditioning:
AG#41 - Vienna Lager - 5.6%
AG#42 - Heritage Double Ale - 10.5%

On Tap:
AG#44 - Harvest ESB - 5.4%
AG#45 - Amarillo Gold APA - 5.2%

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orlando
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Re: AG#21 -John's Special Bitter

Post by orlando » Thu Apr 27, 2017 7:47 am

You might want to look again at that mash temp MB. Reading the thread you said you wanted a malt forward beer for the original and mentioned in your reviews that it was a little dry. You mashed that at 66, whereas this one you've gone for 61. In my view that is not going to hit the target beer if your intention is to keep the initial objective. I'm not convinced by biscuit malt either as I find MO gives you that, to keep a maltier profile without giving up too much in colour you could use some Munich, like the original, or Vienna. Your choice of Brown Malt is interesting, I reckon that should give you just a hint of chocolate just don't go any further or it becomes too intrusive, using it slightly less should give it a certain elusive but interesting flavour. I think this is a beer you should work at to get spot on, looks potentially fabulous to me, but I am an old brown beer fart. :lol: One final observation, hope you don't mind :D , I would allow it to ferment a little higher to get the SO4 to give you a little ester along with the malt.
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Monkeybrew
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Re: AG#21 -John's Special Bitter

Post by Monkeybrew » Fri Apr 28, 2017 4:41 pm

Hi Orlando and thanks for your observations.

I've clearly had an issue in Brewmate with the mash temperature setting as it should read 67C #-o

On reflection I have gone off piste a bit, from the MK1 attempt, so will have another play with the malt bill and report back.

I have used small amounts of Brown malt in best bitters before and liked the results, so will keep that in my next attempt.

Cheers for now.

MB
FV:


Conditioning:
AG#41 - Vienna Lager - 5.6%
AG#42 - Heritage Double Ale - 10.5%

On Tap:
AG#44 - Harvest ESB - 5.4%
AG#45 - Amarillo Gold APA - 5.2%

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