Advice on my Special Bitter recipe please?

[farmhousekeg]

Hi all

I am hoping for some comments on my planned Dizzy Donkey Special Bitter recipe before I get the brew going, hopefully over the weekend. Don't hold back - all comments are welcome as always! I have never brewed a beer in this style so I have just made it up by looking at other recipes etc and thinking of what might work, based on available ingredients.

Batch Size: 23.00 L
Boil Size: 32.30 L
Estimated OG: 1.049 SG
Estimated Color: 30.4 EBC
Estimated IBU: 28.1 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 82.00 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
3.90 kg Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (5.9 EBC) Grain 84.78 %
0.30 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (118.2 EBC) Grain 6.52 %
0.30 kg Wheat Malt (10.0 EBC) Grain 6.52 %
0.05 kg Black Malt (1100.0 EBC) Grain 1.09 %
0.05 kg Chocolate Malt (940.0 EBC) Grain 1.09 %
16.00 gm Northdown [7.60 %] (90 min) Hops 12.8 IBU
21.00 gm Boadicea [5.60 %] (90 min) Hops 12.3 IBU
12.00 gm Bobek [5.20 %] (15 min) Hops 3.0 IBU
1.00 items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 min)
1 Pkgs Windsor Yeast (Danstar #-)

I have deliberately gone for slightly lowish BU:GU ratio as most of my beers so far have had a ratio of 0.8 or more and I want to see how a beer will taste with a lower ratio (this one is around 0.6). Beersmith estimates an FG of 1.012 (although I wondered if the Windsor might stop higher than that) and 4.9% ABV.

Looking forward to hear your opinions - cheers.

[farmhousekeg]

Anybody have an opinion or am I alone on this planet?????

[SiHoltye]

Never used Windsor but heard it is a lower attenuating yeast than some. As for the recipe...get it brewed, looks good enough Sorry I'm not of much constructive use but I'm not good at 'reading' recipes'. Not brewed enough yet. For me a touch of wheat, and the much loved crystal are a no-brainer. I'd up the crystal to 10-15%, drop the black, raise the OG to 1.055ish and ibu's to 32. Nice hops.

[farmhousekeg]

Cheers Si - it went in the MT as described as I didn't get a reply before I got it underway tonight so we will see how it turns out . Boiling as we speak! Got 1.041 into the boiler as estimated by Beersmith so looks like I am on target for the OG around 1.050

Thanks for your comments anyway. I just wanted to use the black malt to try it out as I never used it before - wanted a darker coloured bitter as most of mine have been much paler so far - somehow stonger bitter and darker colour goes together in my mind I've also never used Windsor but it seems to be recommended for stronger ales so I thought I'd give it a go. As you say it should leave a slightly higher FG than say S-04.

[SiHoltye]

Good luck, sure it'll be a cracker. That whole best/premium bitter section of english bitters is so diverse it offers so many flavours and balances. Definitely my favourite styles of beer.

How did you take your into boiler SG reading? I ask because for the last 3 or 4 brews I've drawn off a hydro sample from the boiler as I'm waiting for it to come to the boil, cooled it to 20degsC, and taken the reading. Each time that reading has been higher than the fermenter OG! I'm wondering if the sugars are sinking to where the tap is, and that I should wait until the rolling boil to get a mixed wort reading? Dunno, just wondered what you did really.

[alefric]

That is one big recipe!.....Good luck hope it turns out o.k......as for windsor i use it a lot and normally without rousing but beware it can ferment out very quickly, as little as a couple of days sometimes but it does produce a great flavour.

Andrew

[haz66]

Even though i`ve just added 20g of Black Malt to my brew today TTL, i dont really like the taste that a lot of it can add.
So i usually bung loads of Crysatl in to darken my beers as it has a lot nicer flavor than Black Malt, i did a Hobgblin clone
that used 100g of Black Malt and it tastes quite burnt, so i thought 20g might darken without adding the taste, i`ll have to wait
and see.

[Alton_Bee]

if you want to darken your beer witout the "burnt" taste of black why not try adding Carafa instead ?

[boingy]

Anybody have an opinion or am I alone on this planet?????

Heheh. Sometimes posts get a bit swamped on this forum.

As for the recipe, my comment would be that you look to have way too many ingredients there. Bitters are simple beasts, typically two or three grains and one or two hops. So if it was me I'd drop the black and choc malt and one of the hops. I'd also increase the IBU a little. But these are just personal opinions. There is no right and wrong way. Your recipe will certainly work and you've started brewing it so just see what you think of the end result.

[farmhousekeg]

How did you take your into boiler SG reading? I ask because for the last 3 or 4 brews I've drawn off a hydro sample from the boiler as I'm waiting for it to come to the boil, cooled it to 20degsC, and taken the reading. Each time that reading has been higher than the fermenter OG! I'm wondering if the sugars are sinking to where the tap is, and that I should wait until the rolling boil to get a mixed wort reading? Dunno, just wondered what you did really.

I wait until all the wort has run from both batch sparges into the boiler, give it a gentle stir to mix it and then take a sample. Cool that to a point where I can take an gravity reading and use the correction factors in Graham Wheelers book to give me the corrected gravity. Seems to work out OK that way. Thanks for your comments on the recipe. I'll post again on this thread when I sample it

That is one big recipe!.....Good luck hope it turns out o.k......as for windsor i use it a lot and normally without rousing but beware it can ferment out very quickly, as little as a couple of days sometimes but it does produce a great flavour.
Andrew

Yeh, it got going very fast and I can see that it is slowing down a little today after about 36 hours. I'll take a gravity reading when the froth has died back a bit and see how far its gone. Thanks for the advice.

Even though i`ve just added 20g of Black Malt to my brew today TTL, i dont really like the taste that a lot of it can add.
So i usually bung loads of Crysatl in to darken my beers as it has a lot nicer flavor than Black Malt, i did a Hobgblin clone
that used 100g of Black Malt and it tastes quite burnt, so i thought 20g might darken without adding the taste, i`ll have to wait
and see.

I've never used black malt before so let's see Hopefully 50g will add a bit of colour without overpowering the taste.

As for the recipe, my comment would be that you look to have way too many ingredients there. Bitters are simple beasts, typically two or three grains and one or two hops. So if it was me I'd drop the black and choc malt and one of the hops. I'd also increase the IBU a little. But these are just personal opinions. There is no right and wrong way. Your recipe will certainly work and you've started brewing it so just see what you think of the end result.

Point taken Boingy. I'm a bit new when it comes to knowing how the recipe for a particular style should be formulated so that's a learning point for me. I did wonder about the chocolate but thought I'd bung in a little as I made a mild with quite a bit and thought I'd try to add a little flavour with the chocolate. The hops idea was just a bit of a "punt" on my part as I have used single or max 2 hops until now and just fancied a bit of a mixture for a change - no planning just wild thinking on my part! . I'll post the results here in a few weeks when I can drink it!

[boingy]

I've just re-read my post and it reads as if I'm being a bit harsh. That wasn't my intention - they are just my personal opinions. I've tried all sorts of recipes but the fact is that the best beer I brew is a simple Ordinary Bitter. Pale malt for the bulk sugar, crystal for colour and sweetness, maybe a tad of torrified wheat for head retention plus a single hop, usually Goldings. It pleases me to brew great stuff with minimal ingredients (and it helps with the inventory). That's not to say you should do the same. As long as you balance the malt with the hops you end up with something good, possibly great.

My next brew is going to be a double batch of Ordinary but using the Susan hops I got from Barley Bottom. I've never tried this hop before but as long as the alpha acid on the packet is vaguely accurate then it will turn out fine. At lkeast I hope it does because due to life changes that may be happening to us soon this may be my last batch for a while.

[farmhousekeg]

I've just re-read my post and it reads as if I'm being a bit harsh. That wasn't my intention - they are just my personal opinions. I've tried all sorts of recipes but the fact is that the best beer I brew is a simple Ordinary Bitter. Pale malt for the bulk sugar, crystal for colour and sweetness, maybe a tad of torrified wheat for head retention plus a single hop, usually Goldings. It pleases me to brew great stuff with minimal ingredients (and it helps with the inventory). That's not to say you should do the same. As long as you balance the malt with the hops you end up with something good, possibly great.

My next brew is going to be a double batch of Ordinary but using the Susan hops I got from Barley Bottom. I've never tried this hop before but as long as the alpha acid on the packet is vaguely accurate then it will turn out fine. At lkeast I hope it does because due to life changes that may be happening to us soon this may be my last batch for a while.

No offence taken Boingy Its good to learn from those on here with more experience and that's exactly why I tend to post my recipes for comments. This is only AG number 7 for me so its early days. Interesting point you make about the balance between hops and malt. I have scoured a lot of recipes and a couple of books for info on this but there doesn't seem to be a hard and fast rule. Do you have any information on that subject. Until now my brews have all had a BU:GU ratio around 0.8 whereas this Special Bitter is closer to 0.6 I deliberately formulated it that way so that I can see for myself what effect this has. I suppose this means it will taste more malty that my other beers? Are there any rules of thumb? The only one I read somewhere was that the limit for BU:GU was generally thought to be around 1.0

Hope your life turns in a good direction - that last comment sounds a bit ominous - good luck

[boingy]

Not that ominous, just a bit inconvenient for brewing in the short term. This coming week is the clicher (I'll leave you guessing...)

As for beer style guides there is an American organisation called, rather grandly, the "Beer Judge Certification Program" or BJCP. Their purpose is to standardise beer judges and competitions. As part of this mission they have categorised loads of beer styles. Obviously, being American, they are entirely wrong about everything (soz US members ) but the guide is not a bad place to start when you want to characterise a beer. Here is the online version of the style guide. Remember that this is just a guide and there are no rules - if you want to brew a jet black pale ale with 5 IBU then that is your choice (just don't hand it to a BJCP judge...);

http://www.bjcp.org/2008styles/catdex.php

Cracked open my Summer Lightning variant this weekend. Great taste, poor clarity. I blame the yeast (cos it can't possibly be my fault).

[farmhousekeg]

Thanks Boingy - now saved as a favourite.

[farmhousekeg]

I'll post the results here in a few weeks when I can drink it!

Not drinking it yet but the latest news is that Windsor only took it to 1020 and then it stuck. I added another sachet of Windsor but still no action! Desperation then meant that I added a sachet of Saf-04 as the beer was just too sweet for me. That got it started very slowly and it finished on 1015. Primed and into bottles yesterday looking rather "muddy" which I suppose is due to the Windsor - I have read on here that it can take forever to clear. Still, no rush as I have plenty of beer in stock Will post again when I pop one open!