Extra Special Bitter recipe.

[Hawkmoon1704]

Extra Special Bitter
This from an old book I have. Ingredients for 1Gallon.

Finishes at about 6%

Pure Malt Extract Syrup 1.5lbs ( or Dried Powder 1.25lbs)
Cracked Crystal Malt 3oz
Dried Hops 1.5oz (I have used both Challenger and Fuggles separately)
1 sachet of yeast

Make a starter bottle with 1tspn of strong cold tea, 1tspn of lemon juice warm water from kettle and add yeast and cover.
Simmer 5 pints of water and stir in malt extract until disolved, add cracked crystal malt and only half of your hops. Simmer for 15mins then add rest of hops and simmer for a further 10 mins. Take off heat and allow to cool. Strain brew into bucket and discard solids. Put into brew bin or demijon add starte bottle and make up to 8pints with cold water. Put in warm place to ferment at about 18C for 7-10 days or until activity ceases then bottle. Drink after 4weeks or leave upto 9months.

Hope I havent left anything out :0)

[coatesg]

I have never heard of making starters with tea and lemon juice before... you just need water at about 30C to rehydrate modern dried yeasts. Plus, I'd think you'd need to boil the bittering hops for much longer than that to get the right amount of bitterness out of them. If the malt extract isn't boiled before use, then you're also at higher risk of an infection (sterilising the buckets/demijohns/etc is the bit left out .

[Hawkmoon1704]

Yeah well said about sterilising all kit and anything else that will come into contact with your beer.

I've always made a starter pint this way and when I come to add the yeast to the wort it's raging away in the glass. The last brew I made was done in four days with just a 7g pack of muntons yeast from the brew shop . I boil for 30 and 15 and find this gives a lovely bitterness, but I'd say it's all about taste anyway lol. Cheers for the input