Special Bitter/ Strong ale

[oblivious]

Hi all

Brew this last night, I was aiming for a Special bitter

10 pounds English 2 row

1 pound crystal 55-60l

0.5 pound Aromatic malt

0.5 pound Belgian biscuit malt

0.3 pound Amber malt


1.25 oz East Kent Golding 60 mins

1 oz East Kent Golding 15 mins

0.5 oz East Kent Golding 1 mins


Yeast Safale S-04


O.G. 1.063

[SteveD]

Grain bill looks nice. Going to be dark reddish. However, it looks somewhat underhopped. For a bitter of that gravity, I'd of had 4oz Goldings for the full boil alone, never mind late additions. I think it's going to turn out more like 'Special Mild' rather than Bitter. Still, it will be tasty!

[oblivious]

Promash said it should come in at around 28-30 IBU’s, I did not want it to bitter anyway. I am playing around with the ides of dry hopping would 0.5-0.75 oz of Goldings for one week in the secondary be a good place to start?

[SteveD]

Never mind what Promash says...it's American and they're wierd. Experience gives you a feel for what a recipe is going to be like, and I'll bet that it will be underhopped, not least because it's OG1063. What volume have you got?

1/2-3/4 Oz dry hopping is fine, wether in secondary or in the barrel. Boil a hop muslin for a few minutes and loosely stuff the hops in that. You can weigh it down with a boiled stainless steel nut chucked in there with them for use in the secondary or a barrel with bottom tap. With a top tap barrel you can omit the nut and let it float. In both cases the hops are near the beer pickup, so the beer is more likely to be drawn through the hops and into your glass

Don't boil or otherwise sanitise the hops. Hops are antiseptic. In a sense they sanitise themselves. The beer won't go off, not because of that, anyway!

The tube won't block if the hops are contained in the muslin.

[iowalad]

28 IBUs would be malty to my mind but enjoyable if you like emphasis on your malt. 35 to 40 would be balanced but then again I am American (of the beersmith tribe rather than promash).

I look foward to hearing how this one turns out.

[Scooby]

I reckon 1.25 oz in a beer of that strength at normal volume will give you less than 20 EBU

A strong beer needs at least 30 EBU, over double the 1.25oz you have planned

This months newsletter has the math for calculating EBU

[SteveD]

28 IBUs would be malty to my mind but enjoyable if you like emphasis on your malt. 35 to 40 would be balanced but then again I am American (of the beersmith tribe rather than promash).

I look foward to hearing how this one turns out.

Agree. And 28 is obtainable in promash as a maximum, assuming 30% utilisation and full a-acid value ie hops undegraded in any way. (Promash defauts to alpha 4.75 for goldings)

I think it will be a lusciously malty drink with a good hop flavour and aroma. A hop flavoured strong mild, but certainly not a bitter. Looking forward to it.


I'd have bunged in 4oz Goldings at the start of the boil, no hesitation.

[flytact]

Another weird Beersmith American here, going to do something almost exactly like this on Sunday to finish out my 3 beer yeast usage. I'm going to put about an ounce of Fuggles at the start and maybe 1/2 for aroma.

[oblivious]

Hi all

Thanks for the input. I was thinking of skipping the secondary on my this brew and keeping it in the primary for 3 week to clean up the beer. But I am interested in dry hopping, I was wondering has anyone dry hopped in the primary, I am intending to do this for the last week. Are there any problems associated with this?

[Bigster]

I dry hop in the primary - no problems yet .....