Recipe Formulation

[monk]

Hi guys. I'm trying to put together a recipe for what will hopefully become a house bitter. The plan is to keep brewing it and changing a variable each time until I get it nailed. Here's what I have so far for the recipe:

2 kg English DME
225g Crystal 75L
110g Biscuit Malt

Fuggles for bittering and aroma
White Labs Premium Bitter ale yeast

My plan is to make an all Fuggles batch, then an all Kent Goldings batch, then maybe a combo, or add some Target or Challenger. That way I'll learn the specific flavor and character of each hop. Also, I'd like to play with a bit of biscuit malt, and maybe some amber or aromatic malts. I made one batch that had them all...it was good, but so complex it was hard to distinguish what malt made what contribution.

Now here're my questions:
1. Does anyone know the typical gravity:bitterness ratio for a special bitter? I think it's like 1:.8 or something, but I'm not sure. I want to know how many IBU's to shoot for.

2. Does anyone have any input or suggestions? Any hard-earned experience you'd like to share? I'm curious to hear others' opinions.
Thanks in advance!

monk

[bitter_dave]

1. Does anyone know the typical gravity:bitterness ratio for a special bitter? I think it's like 1:.8 or something, but I'm not sure. I want to know how many IBU's to shoot for.

Ray Daniels (p. 164) gives an analysis of published gravities and IBUs of commerically available British bitters and pale ales (from the Protz Almanac).

Of all pale ales and bitters, the ratio between OG and IBUs ranges from 0.58 to 1.09, so a big range. However the average for an ordinary or best/special bitter is 0.80, and for a strong bitter 0.70. So a beer with a gravity of 1.040 would have on average 32 IBUs (40 x 0.8=32). So yes, you are spot on.

[Frothy]

are you doing a mini-mash? That IBU ratio is interesting, I'm in the same boat as I hope to keep fiddling a bitter recipe from palmers until it resembles my favourite frog island brew.

Matt

[monk]

1. Does anyone know the typical gravity:bitterness ratio for a special bitter? I think it's like 1:.8 or something, but I'm not sure. I want to know how many IBU's to shoot for.

Ray Daniels (p. 164) gives an analysis of published gravities and IBUs of commerically available British bitters and pale ales (from the Protz Almanac).

Of all pale ales and bitters, the ratio between OG and IBUs ranges from 0.58 to 1.09, so a big range. However the average for an ordinary or best/special bitter is 0.80, and for a strong bitter 0.70. So a beer with a gravity of 1.040 would have on average 32 IBUs (40 x 0.8=32). So yes, you are spot on.

Ah, splendid. That's what I was hoping for. I think I'll go for 1.044 and 34 IBUs. That will be quite a bit of Fuggles, I hope the freezer's stocked well enough! I'm going to call it "Completely Befuggled Bitter". Pretty cheesy name, but oh well.

[bitter_dave]

I'm going to call it "Completely Befuggled Bitter".

Inspired

[mysterio]

Good call with the single hops. My personal favourite for an English bitter is Fuggles.