WHAT, NO CRYSTAL !?!?

[trucker5774]

Oops! Thought I had at least 1kg of crystal malt..............waters on everything ready to go, just no crystal. I know there are a few recipies for bitters without crystal but the majority have it in. This will be a first for me.

To give a little balance for the lack of "sweetness" I am mashing hotter and have reduced the IBU to 28 from 35. The hops are a little Target at the start (just 5g) and the rest at 30 mins 15 mins and 5 mins which are all challenger...........bit of a suck it and see day

Anyone else brewed a standard bitter without crystal? How did it go?

[WishboneBrewery]

You could just Mash a bit hotter to produce some non fermentables and add a bit of Choc malt for colour.

[trucker5774]

How spooky..........as you can see above I have mashed a little hotter and it was a toss up between black malt and chocolate. I went with 50g of chocolate (19L brew) there was also 100 g of flaked maize lying around so that went in too

[6470zzy]

I became so nervous after reading your post that I had to go out and do an inventory of my grain store..........................and yes, I have crystal

[TC2642]

I've done loads of bitters just using pale malt. Mash out at around 66-68oC and you should get enough body. I like my hops so I will usually do a all pale malt beer with a hop variety I've never tried just to work out the flavours that it will produce. Not had a thin beer yet.

[critch]

my best bitter has no crystal in it and its sells very well. mash at 66-68, ensure salts right ,put a little wheat in ,away you go!

[trucker5774]

Thanks to all................is about finished fermenting now.

Critch, I must have a night around South Road in the near future. Perhaps I can get a pint of yours at Stamps Too.

[beer gut]

Hello everybody i hope you are all well.Iam very expermentle with my brewing ingreadents i do use crystal alot like many brewers however i have also used Cara red malt in a few of my bitters i have also now started using mendolien malt alot in my beers and both i have been more than happy with. I don't think they is anything wrong with using the same malts for the same beers all the time but i also think ales can then start tasting all a like.That's just my point of view and iam still very new to all grain brewing, i know that alot of brewers think you can only use british hops and malts to call a ale a british bitter. I don't know what it is with me i don't like hops that are only used for bittering, i have never used the hop called Target befor caus i have heard a number of times that it can be very very harsh so there for it does not appeal to me, i also love the idea of using dual purpose hop i use them for bittering in my ales.I think the big plus side of using dual purpose hops is that you can use them either early or late in the boil and get fabulous flavour and well blanced bitterness, with hops like Target there are to me very one purpose.My favourate Dual purpose hop so far is a toss up between either Rakau or Challenger both are so highly flavoured and got very good bittering qualitey's.

[TC2642]

You can interchange bittering hops with aroma hops. I use low alpha acid hops all the time for bittering and aroma and still make great beers out of them. Target isn's that well liked by some of my scooper friends and I would only use it in a very dark ale.

Don't think that you have to be constrained by just using bittering hops for the boil and aroma hops for the later additions, mix them up and use them interchangeably.

One of the best beers I made was a all pale malt just using Nelson Savin hops at 90 mins, 60 mins, 30mins and 10mins (from what I can remember). Very enjoyable and a great taste, caramalt is a good one to try aswell.

Never heard of Rakau mind.

[Hoodlum]

I rather like target - it makes a beer somewhat more interesting. My friends have all commented favourably on my target hopped ales as the best of the selection when they do a taste session.

[beer gut]

Yeah i love mixing things up, iam going to start using a method where you add some hops when the wort has dropped down to 80c for half hour.Apprently this gives the ale a much more floral/fruity taste but we will see. The hop called Rakau is a new hop from New Zealand it has a good bitterness level my rakau packet has aau's of 12.6% yet the bitterness is very well balanced. When you add Rakau late in the boil you get very strong fruity taste like Pineapple and passion fruit ect and the smell is just amazing.I have just bought a hop called Crystal caus i have heard some fatastc things about Crystal and i can't wait to try it in my brews.