Harvey's Sussex Best Bitter Clone Recipe

[molehill]

I just died and went to heaven!

Tasted the first batch today since it has been sitting in the bottle for two weeks and although there was a little haze caused I think by using the Sussex 1 yeast...... It tasted like a decent pint of Harvey's Best! Trust me when I say... If you were handed a pint in a Sussex pub, you would swear it was straight from the barrel!

Bottled the second batch today, which was made using the same recipe, but WLP002 yeast and that had settled out nicely. I made up 46 bottles from 23lt and the final AG was 1011 from an original AG 1042... giving an ABV of 4.1%

Way to go, how encouraging is that . I would have thought that the cloudiness could be sorted out by some cold conditioning. Wish I could taste it myself, it will be another 2 weeks before I'm back in Sussex.

I would have thought 72 hours long enough for cold conditioning? It was left in my workshop with night temps down to 2c and day temps no higher than 10c. No I think it is the yeast that is the issue as it happened with my last brew as well.

I did read on other posts that someone had used a gelatine strip in the secondary bucket for two weeks prior to transferring to the bottling bucket.... Food for thought.

[orlando]

I did read on other posts that someone had used a gelatine strip in the secondary bucket for two weeks prior to transferring to the bottling bucket.... Food for thought.

I just tried gelatine for the first time last week. I allowed the beer to ferment out completely and waited till it had naturally started to clear before crash cooling for 48 hours added the gelatine and 48 hours later kegged it, worked superbly.

[molehill]

I did read on other posts that someone had used a gelatine strip in the secondary bucket for two weeks prior to transferring to the bottling bucket.... Food for thought.

I just tried gelatine for the first time last week. I allowed the beer to ferment out completely and waited till it had naturally started to clear before crash cooling for 48 hours added the gelatine and 48 hours later kegged it, worked superbly.

Very interesting..... Did you prepare it in hot water first or place in the bottom of your secondary before transferring the wort?

[orlando]

I did read on other posts that someone had used a gelatine strip in the secondary bucket for two weeks prior to transferring to the bottling bucket.... Food for thought.

I just tried gelatine for the first time last week. I allowed the beer to ferment out completely and waited till it had naturally started to clear before crash cooling for 48 hours added the gelatine and 48 hours later kegged it, worked superbly.

Very interesting..... Did you prepare it in hot water first or place in the bottom of your secondary before transferring the wort?

Cup of warm water, stirred till fully dissolved tipped into the bottling bucket/keg, beer then racked on top of it.

[molehill]

Thanks Orlando.... Will Definitely try this with my next brew. It could be just the thing to try with the Sussex 1 yeast

[molehill]

I must say that using a gelatine strip as discribed by Orlando has made a big difference to my finished bottled beer. No sediment too speak of and now that I am using live yeast the quality of flavour is second to none. The fact that I am using home made slants and stepping up my yeast is the icing on the cake.

[orlando]

I must say that using a gelatine strip as discribed by Orlando has made a big difference to my finished bottled beer. No sediment too speak of and now that I am using live yeast the quality of flavour is second to none. The fact that I am using home made slants and stepping up my yeast is the icing on the cake.

Well done you, I quite agree with your conclusions and particularly enjoy the yeast ranching part of the hobby. I forgot to mention that the warm water used is from water that is originally boiled to kill most stuff we don't want. I have noticed in the past that it is easy to allow dissolved gelatine to be left behind at the bottom of the cup/bowl you have dissolved it in. Makes sense to thoroughly stir and check you have'nt done the same thing.

[molehill]

Yes.... That happened the first time and I allowed extra soaking and stirring the second occasion.

[Hudders]

I'm excited by this recipe! I'm gunna try it. Any tips on water profile or just stick to a standard bitter type profile?

[molehill]

I have repeated this recipe 5 or 6 times tweaking it slightly to try and improve the end result. I would recommend standard bitter profile and I totally agree with Orlando re.... gelatine. Stir it properly in hot water, leave for 5 minutes then stir it properly again. The water takes on a slightly thicker appearance when it is properly disolved. I now leave my bitters in the the fermentor for 8 days then add the gelatine into the secondary fermentor for a further 7 days... 3 weeks later it is crystal clear, with very little sediment in the bottle.

[Pegasus]

I have repeated this recipe 5 or 6 times tweaking it slightly to try and improve the end result. I would recommend standard bitter profile and I totally agree with Orlando re.... gelatine. Stir it properly in hot water, leave for 5 minutes then stir it properly again. The water takes on a slightly thicker appearance when it is properly disolved. I now leave my bitters in the the fermentor for 8 days then add the gelatine into the secondary fermentor for a further 7 days... 3 weeks later it is crystal clear, with very little sediment in the bottle.

Which yeast are you using now? Or is 1 better than other?

[molehill]

I was disappointed with the Sussex 1 yeast and tried both WLP002 and WLP005. There was little if no difference in my mind between the two. I make my own slants so get enough for 10 brews from one of the White Labs liquid yeasts.... Saves me a fortune.

[Bazz]

Brewed this today, excellent brew day hit all my numbers and is now sat in the brew fridge at 18 degC fermenting with Brewlabs Sussex 1. I'll post back when it's done.

[molehill]

Congrats on an excellent brew day.I was a little disappointed with the Sussex 1 yeast when I did this recipe, but have since learnt that too much haste in getting through the fermenting stage may have spoilt my resulting brew. I am not sure on your follow up processes with fermenting and secondary fermenting, but if I was to repeat this recipe I would make sure fermenting was complete as well as the cleaning up and leave it in the fermenter for at least 2 weeks. Followed by a week minimum in the secondary fermenter.

Good luck and let us know how it works out.

[Bazz]

Cheers molehill, i'm actually away next week until Friday so it'll stay in primary at 18 degC until then and when i return i'll take a gravity reading and if it appears done i'll cold crash for the weekend and then keg Monday evening after work. This is the first time i've used Sussex 1 or indeed any yeast from a slant, but i was pretty impressed with the way it behaved whilst stepping it up, it seems to ferment really fast then drop out like a stone, with some wonderful aromas just in the DME solution.