Good Old English Session Bitter

[Fallen]

Planning to brew a 40L batch of a classic for my grumpy old relatives over the festive period.

Will be using Brewlabs Burton Ale Yeast and probably a balance of chloride and sulphate water treatment. I've heard good things about Amber malt adding an extra 'something' so thought I'd add a little to boost the flavour in such a low gravity effort.

How does this look? Any hints or tips?

English Bitter - 3.6% - 40L


Amber Malt 60 EBC 99 grams 1.5%
Maris Otter Pale Malt 4.5 EBC 6200 grams 93.5%
Crystal Malt 130 EBC 330 grams 5%

Fuggle Whole 3.6 % 90 mins 75 grams
Fuggle Whole 3.6 % 20 mins 25 grams
Golding Whole 4.6 % 20 mins 25 grams
Golding Whole 4.6 % 10 mins 25 grams
Golding Whole 4.6 % 80 steep 25 grams
Golding Whole 4.6 % Dry hop 25 grams


Final Volume: 40 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.037
Final Gravity: 1.009
Alcohol Content: 3.6% ABV
Total Liquor: 58.6 Litres
Mash Liquor: 16.6 Litres
Mash Temp: 67 Degrees
Mash Efficiency: 75 %
Bitterness: 30
Colour: 14 EBC

[RdeV]

Not a bad recipe as far as I'm concerned and it looks the goods, though my first impression is that unless you mash really high for some reason (67C isn't really high) it may be slightly bitter. Bu:Gu of around 0.6, 0.7 maybe in a sweeter UK Bitter, yours is 0.8. So, ease up with the bittering addition a shade and I'd brew it!
It would be easier to take apart if you had IBUs for each addition though and I'm not familiar with the 80 steep, is that adding some steeped hops after fermentation is 80% complete?

I have a slant of that strain here, hoping to try it soon, we don't often get Brewlabs stuff here in Aus.

[Fallen]

I've got a brew going now with wild hops and the Brewlabs slant. This is day 4 of the primary and its smelling really fruity. Can't wait to taste it.

Quite a few of the folks on here do an 80 degree steep instead of flame-out or last minute of the boil for aroma additions. A rapid cooling of the wort to 80 degrees followed by an addition of the aroma hop and steep for 30 minutes prior to cooling to pitching temp supposedly maximises hop aroma. I find adding hops in the last minute of the boil or even at flame out (without cooling first to 80 degrees) drives off a lot of the lovely aromas.

Here are the EBU percentages for the hop additions:

Hop Variety Type Alpha Time lb: oz grams Ratio
Fuggle 90 mins 75 grams 63.5% (19)
Fuggle 20 mins 25 grams 12% (4)
Golding 20 mins 25 grams 15.3% (5)
Golding 10 mins 25 grams 9.2% (3)
Golding 80 steep 25 grams 0%
Golding Dry hop 25 grams 0%

Silly, but I tend to formulate recipes so that I use full 100g packs of hops as I don't like storing them. I could move 25g of the bittering fuggle addition to the 10 min addition? That drops the EBUs to ~26.

The other thing worth mentioning is that my boils are fairly gentle. I have 2 x 3 kW elements in my boiler, using both to get the wort to the boil and then turning one off for the duration of the boil. The result is more of a simmer than a vigorous rolling boil. Would this reduce hop utilisation significantly?

[RdeV]

Thanks for the info, that's another late/ aroma hopping method I wasn't au fait with at all. Perhaps not all that dissimilar to 'cube hopping' we practice quite a bit here where they cube the hot wort and then throw some hops in, pop the lid on and allow it to cool of its own accord. By the time wort is in the No- Chill cube, it certainly isn't boiling and then some brewers will throw in a late hops addition, superb aroma qualities they say- I haven't tried it to be honest, not a huge fan of No Chill with my current setup, but I don't doubt its worth, having done quite a few NCs in the past of course. (Commonly, the Australian brewers All Grain indoctrination involves at least one no- chill batch!)

You could move the additions around like that if you wanted to keep the totals tidy, that may work, I'd leave the 90 minute one there, for sure. My freezer is full of bibs & bobs of hops, so I can see where you're coming from in using rounded quantities. Probably won't hurt! Larger hops additions late are far more easily absorbed than early, can't have too much flavour and aroma!

I always favour a longer rather than a shorter boil, particularly for UK Bitters, it lends a slight caramel note boost which is often lacking from the dry, low- spec malt varieties I seem to like, with a moderate crystal addition like that it would be less obvious but still worthwhile IMO.

You folks with all your wild hops really annoy me, any local hops that we get are treated as though its the finest gold, whereas they seem to be just weeds there!

[Barley Water]

Oh, you guys must like to live on the edge. I would be very hesitant to suggest it is a good idea to just let the wort cool on it's own, actually I go in the other direction. The problem with letting warm wort just sit around is that you run the risk of wild yeast in the air taking hold and ruining all that hard work. My current set up uses an immersion chiller with 50ft of copper tubing and I try to get the wort to pitching temperature as quickly as possible. Check out the Mr. Malty website, there is a good discussion of the benefits of quickly cooling the entire wort. One of the reasons I built mine was for hop bursting, I want to try and trap the aroma in the wort by cooling it down really quickly. Of course, a little dry hopping also helps in that regard.

I also disagree with the notion that your beer will be sweeter if you mash at a higher temperature. If you mash hot (and I would recommend that especially with a 1.037 O.G. beer) you will generate more dextrans which will give your beer more body, aka better mouthfeel. Dextrans however are flavorless, they will not make your beer sweeter. The way to control sweetness involves choosing a more or less attenuative yeast strain as well as grist composition. With a low O.G. beer like this, I would opt for a less attenuative strain, like the Fuller's yeast for example. Also, you can adjust your grist and add more crystal type malts which will add non-fermentable sugars to the beer. Sweeter beer is going to give the impression of higher gravity as it increases mouthfeel although it will tend to dampen the bittering effect of the hops to some extent. Finally, I have found that the addition of small amounts of roasted malts, like amber for instance, tends to make the beer seem dryer, everything else being equal (I do this in my IPA but then my O.G. is around 1.065 in that beer so body is not an issue).

I think low O.G. gravity beer is difficult to make well, many examples seem weak and watery. Periodically, I like to make a quaffing ale and I always try to brew in such a way as to trick the drinker into thinking that there is more there than is actually the case. Anything you can do to make the beer more interesting is always helpful. If you can find a yeast strain that will add just a little diacetyl, that is also useful since it tends to boost the mouthfeel for some reason. Avoid the clean fermenting American ale yeasts for this type of beer as they do not tend to add any interest to the final product.

[Fallen]

If you mash hot (and I would recommend that especially with a 1.037 O.G. beer) you will generate more dextrans which will give your beer more body, aka better mouthfeel.

Agreed, I'm raising the temp to get more body, not sweetness. I normally mash at 66. Will 67 make a significant difference or would you mash even higher?

With a low O.G. beer like this, I would opt for a less attenuative strain, like the Fuller's yeast for example.

I've made session ales with US-05 in the past and it's been a complete waste of time. I really want to make a nice session beer that you can spend the night on without getting totally blootered. Yeast choice has probably been the main problem to this point. As such, I'm planning to use Brewlabs Burton Ale Yeast with lots of minerals added to my (already fairly mineral rich) water. Struggling to find detailed info on attentuation. Brewlabs website gives its characteristics as:
2556 Burton 1- Single character. Standard and Best Bitter production. High mineral worts preferred. Moderate sulphur character.

Finally, I have found that the addition of small amounts of roasted malts, like amber for instance, tends to make the beer seem dryer, everything else being equal (I do this in my IPA but then my O.G. is around 1.065 in that beer so body is not an issue).

Would you recommend dropping the amber and increasing the percentage of crystal to, say, 10% or maybe using Caramalt or Munich?

[Fallen]

Right folks, so far I've got responses from residents of Australia and USA. Although possibly expats (EDIT: with very good, much appreciated suggestions), would any of the Brits fancy pitching in with words of wisdom or have good old English session bitters fallen out of favour?

It'll be at least November 6th before I start brewing this one so plenty of time for lively debate.

What MAKES a really good quality English session bitter IYHO?

[coatesg]

Good session bitter: Well balanced, good aroma, some decent flavour (either hops, yeast or malt, or combination thereof), not too high carbonation but decent head (even as a southerner , I find helps with the aroma of the pint).

I don't think 30IBU is high at all - in fact it looks nicely balanced (though it depends a lot on your system and utilisation vs calculated results). If you want to try out the amber and get good flavour contribution from it, I would use at least 5%, and your choice on dropping the crystal. Also, I would maybe reduce slightly the late hopping though if I were doing it - one addition of ~22g at 15min and the same at 0 min.

I just brewed something similar, but for a bit more amber presence, I would brew: 91% Pale, 5% amber, 4% crystal 120EBC. Mash @ 68C. 22IBU or so from bittering hops. Late Hops: (in a 40L batch:) 12g Fuggles 15 min, 12g Goldings 15min, 22g Goldings 0min, 16g Goldings dry hop (for 4 days). Interesting yeast (ie not US05/Nottingham...)

Importantly - it's your beer, so go with it!

[dave-o]

I don't think 30IBU is high at all -

I think Rdev may have made the same mistake as me - assumed it was a 23l brew and looked at the 75g of bittering hops, without actually looking at the IBU.

[boingy]

30 IBU is bang on for that style I reckon.
Not too strong and with classic English hops it's right up my street.
Not sure what the amber adds - I've never used it but with only 1.5 % of the grain bill it's going to be fairly low key.

Yummy! When can I come round and sample it?

[pdc]

I've just used the burton yeast. Has a nice corn like taste in the fermenter - completely gone when it was kegged.

I love amber malt and would definately up it to 5%. I've gone off crystal and I use amber as a replacement in recipes calling for crystal.

25-35 IBUs I just find it takes longer for the flavours to mellow for higher IBUs.

It's all about personal taste though...

[Fallen]

Yummy! When can I come round and sample it?

Whenever you like. I'm not too far from Chipping Norton. Public transport's not great back to Gloucestershire, although the magic beer scooter works wonders!

[RdeV]

I hear you Barley Water! Rest assured, No Chill seems to work well as an alternative to a chilling method, I don't do it much these days but it is very popular here for a variety of reasons (eg. drought/ chilling water use, storability, less equipment, cube hopping etc), while the near- boiling wort pasteurises the container, so there's generally no infection problem once sealed in a cube, but each to their own.
I suppose I was really thinking less- dry, IMO body and apparent sweetness seem to go hand in hand to some extent. Quite right too, these lower- OG beers can be difficult to do satisfactorily, my best results have been with lower attenuators, Wyeast 1768PC is great in this situation if you can get it.
I'd certainly try it at 30 IBUs, (dave-o, I did see it in the OP), by all means do it, I've got my own preferences though and would either reduce or shift some hops to later additions, but, most importantly- its your beer and you get to decide what's going into it!

[coatesg]

Whenever you like. I'm not too far from Chipping Norton. Public transport's not great back to Gloucestershire, although the magic beer scooter works wonders!

Much more handy for me though I'll hop on the S3 bus - it goes from my stop too

Re: amber - at low amounts, it gives colour and a v slight roasty edge. At higher amounts, you're looking at a biscuity, dry roast (think digestives!). Nice malt.

[Rookie]

Planning to brew a 40L batch of a classic for my grumpy old relatives over the festive period.

Will be using Brewlabs Burton Ale Yeast and probably a balance of chloride and sulphate water treatment. I've heard good things about Amber malt adding an extra 'something' so thought I'd add a little to boost the flavour in such a low gravity effort.

How does this look? Any hints or tips?

English Bitter - 3.6% - 40L


Amber Malt 60 EBC 99 grams 1.5%
Maris Otter Pale Malt 4.5 EBC 6200 grams 93.5%
Crystal Malt 130 EBC 330 grams 5%

Fuggle Whole 3.6 % 90 mins 75 grams
Fuggle Whole 3.6 % 20 mins 25 grams
Golding Whole 4.6 % 20 mins 25 grams
Golding Whole 4.6 % 10 mins 25 grams
Golding Whole 4.6 % 80 steep 25 grams
Golding Whole 4.6 % Dry hop 25 grams


Final Volume: 40 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.037
Final Gravity: 1.009
Alcohol Content: 3.6% ABV
Total Liquor: 58.6 Litres
Mash Liquor: 16.6 Litres
Mash Temp: 67 Degrees
Mash Efficiency: 75 %
Bitterness: 30
Colour: 14 EBC

I love a good old session bitter. Your recipe looks good to me. The only thing I do different is I use victory malt instead of amber and all goldings.