Bluebird Bitter - Hops & Mash?

[Navigator]

Hi All, I'm about to brew Bluebird Bitter from "Normans Real Ale Almanac" viewtopic.php?p=80537#80537 and have a couple of questions as this is only my 2nd BIAB and I'm new to all grain brewing.

Firstly, in the recipe (as with Normans other recipes) there is no mash time, so can I assume that the mash length would be about 60mins @ 66C?
Secondly, the Challenger hops I'm using are 11.5aa which would make the beer pretty hoppy with the amount required - 65 IBU's according to Brewmate recipe designer. Does that sound ok for this particular bitter or should I reduce the amount of hops to get it down to around 35 IBU's - also should I reduce the boil time ?

Thanks

[Jocky]

I do 90 min mashes for BIAB, because I heard somewhere you should to eke out all the efficiency you can get, but honestly I'm not sure myself.

[jaberry]

The guys over at biabrewer do recommend 90 min mashes but tbh I do 60 min with no real issues

[Navigator]

Thanks guys...will probably stick to a 60mins mash which seemed fine for my last brew regards efficiency. Any idea's regards the IBU's? do you think I should reduce the amount of hops to lower the bitterness? I've got no idea how bitter Bluebird should be...my last pint was about 5 years ago!

[Jocky]

That recipe says 37 EBU, which is about the same as 37 IBU, so it sounds like you need to adjust down a bit. Maybe reduce the boil to 60 mins, and take a bit more off the full boil hops than the 15 min hops so you don't reduce your late hop flavour too.

IBUs are a huge estimation - get in the right area and then make sure you keep notes so you can repeat your brew and adjust the hops next time to suit what you like.

[Navigator]

Thanks Jocky...I've imputed your suggestions into Brewmate: Reduced boil to 60mins, Reduced bittering hops to 20g, it now comes out at 38 IBU's, 3.5 ABV which I think I'll go with...will let you know how it turns out!

[Dave-Leeds]

How did ur brew day go