Sweet bitter

Get advice on making beer from raw ingredients (malt, hops, water and yeast)
clarets7
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Re: Sweet bitter

Post by clarets7 » Wed Dec 28, 2022 3:56 pm

Eric wrote:
Mon Dec 05, 2022 9:52 pm
clarets7 wrote:
Mon Dec 05, 2022 6:16 pm
... I'm thinking of getting a couple of Brewlab slants though for this style of bitter, any advice on which one Eric?
Oh dear, I don't know if I can... My gut feeling for a Bitter would be for a high mineral wort, Lancashire, and Tyneside for a lower mineral wort.
I asked Brewlab if they had any recommendations for yeast for ordinary bitters, I mentioned those two. One thing led to another and now I have a vial of each sat in my fridge!

So for the first brew I'll use the Lancashire to make an ordinary bitter, 3.8% to 4.0%, maybe like the original Boddingtons, as I've got plenty of Fuggles and Goldings to use up. Water profile will be close to the guessed Adnams water profile in the Ghost Ship thread viewtopic.php?f=24&t=75633.
Hopefully that fits the bill as high mineral.
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IPA
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Re: Sweet bitter

Post by IPA » Thu Dec 29, 2022 8:27 am

Just before Christmas I bought a pack six 50cl beers brewed by Marsden. Very unusual to find English beer in this part of the world. Bargain price though at 10 euros.
Jennings Cumberland Ale
Hobgoblin
McEwans Levy
Pedigree
Ringwood Razor Back
Charles Wells Bombardier. (Another word stolen from the French) Here though it is pronounced bom bar di eh
I was dicussing these beers with a friend and we agreed that non of them tasted the way that they did years ago in the UK and that they all seemed sweet.
I suggested that it was a cunning plan to wean youngsters off of CocaCola :D :D
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MashBag
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Re: Sweet bitter

Post by MashBag » Thu Dec 29, 2022 9:12 am

oooooo. You might have hit the nail on the head there.

Supermarket wine buyers are well know for just that conversation with winemakers. "oh what a fabulous wine, superb, good structure .... If you could back sweeten it, we will take nn bottles"

Sweet sells. So supermarkets are sweetening to compete.

Never thought about beer. Good spot 👏

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Eric
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Re: Sweet bitter

Post by Eric » Thu Dec 29, 2022 12:51 pm

clarets7 wrote:
Wed Dec 28, 2022 3:56 pm

I asked Brewlab if they had any recommendations for yeast for ordinary bitters, I mentioned those two. One thing led to another and now I have a vial of each sat in my fridge!

So for the first brew I'll use the Lancashire to make an ordinary bitter, 3.8% to 4.0%, maybe like the original Boddingtons, as I've got plenty of Fuggles and Goldings to use up. Water profile will be close to the guessed Adnams water profile in the Ghost Ship thread viewtopic.php?f=24&t=75633.
Hopefully that fits the bill as high mineral.
You start with soft water, so you can brew with a simple bitter beer recipe using different profiles with an appropriate yeast. You should notice a difference, but can't guarantee you will. The greatest mineral content I've seen amongst beer analyses of well known brands were from Bury St Edmunds, which isn't far from Southwold. I think you can call Adnams's a high mineral profile.

As suggested in the video, they adjust their water to a particular profile to make the best beer it will. The belief that starting with a blank slate of soft or RO water sounds great, but what about the absence or lower levels of the minor ions present in profusion in hard water supplies? Do they have no influence on the finished product? I would suggest not overlooking the amount of sodium in their water supply.

Good luck with your project, your findings should be eagerly awaited.
Without patience, life becomes difficult and the sooner it's finished, the better.

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