Brewing the House Bitter (1.3)

I've mentioned before that, too me, a good bitter (pale ale, whatever...there, I said it) is the platonic ideal of beer.  For a while I've been working a a good house pale, starting back in the day with something a lot like a Sierra Nevada, and slowly, but surely, working my way to something more closely resembling it's malty cousin across the sea.  There is absolutely nothing better than having a good bitter on tap in the house—also, it keeps my wife happy (sometimes I love my honey-do list).   

Despite the long-term love affair, development of a house beer has been willy-nilly, with batches tucked in between my more numerous one-off batches.  This is fine, because I love pales/bitters in nearly all of their permutations and I am not—NOT—someone who cares that much about consistency in a home-crafted beer.  However, since purchasing a copy of BeerSmith, which has some nifty version controls, I've decided to work on dialing the beer in, if only as an exercise in getting my process more consistent, which I do care about. 

I'm on the third batch since adopting a somewhat controlled method of recipe development, and I've enjoyed every batch so far.  I started with Jamil's recipe for an ordinary bitter from Brewing Classic Styles, scaled up for my system.  I've played around with the yeast, using the new Yorkshire Ale strain, S-04, and British Ale II, and I'll be using the Wyeast 1968, London ESB strain this time.  This time will be the first time that I've played around with the specialty grains in the recipe, trading out half of the British dark crystal for special B, and half of the special roast for pale chocolate.  With four different specialty grains, this is starting to look like a real homebrew recipe!  I have a suspicion that it'll come out muddled, and I'll end up with a much more simple recipe in the end--probably just Munton's dark crystal.

Foam Control is Essential.  Also Plastic Wrap. 

Another change I'm making this time—okay, so this isn't exactly controlling for variables—is that I'm switching out the EKG and sending in the fuggles.  I'm a big fan of fuggles, which I think have a nice earthy, sometimes pipe-tobaccoe nose, that goes really well with the toffee notes of the darker crystal malts I like.


This will also be the first time that I've tried this recipe as a no-sparge recipe.  I upgraded to a larger cooler mash tun in the hopes of being able to make no-sparge session ales, as I've heard the technique can be helpful for giving a low-gravity beer a nice, rich body.  I also find that I frequently overshoot my expected gravity when there's not much grain.

Big flavors in a little beer, folks.

BeerSmith 2 Recipe Printout - http://www.beersmith.com
Recipe: House Bitter (1.3)
Brewer: Vince Dongarra
Asst Brewer: 
Style: Standard/Ordinary Bitter
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (30.0) 

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 13.09 gal
Post Boil Volume: 11.96 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 11.00 gal   
Bottling Volume: 10.42 gal
Estimated OG: 1.038 SG
Estimated Color: 12.7 SRM
Estimated IBU: 30.3 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 75.3 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt                   Name                                     %/IBU         
14 lbs                Pale Ale (Crisp) (4.0 SRM)               90.3 %        
8.0 oz                Muntons Dark Crystal (135.0 SRM)         3.2 %         
8.0 oz                Special B (Dingemans) (147.5 SRM)        3.2 %         
4.0 oz                Pale Chocolate (200.0 SRM)               1.6 %         
4.0 oz                Special Roast (50.0 SRM)                 1.6 %         
57 g                  Fuggles [5.00 %] - First Wort 60.0 min   21.2 IBUs     
28 g                  Fuggles [5.00 %] - Boil 30.0 min         7.3 IBUs      
1.00 Items            Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins)        -             
28 g                  Fuggles [5.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min          1.9 IBUs      
1.00 tsp              Yeast Nutrient (Boil 3.0 days)           -             
1.0 pkg               London ESB Ale (Wyeast Labs #1968) [124. -             
28 g                  Fuggles [5.00 %] - Dry Hop 3.0 Days      0.0 IBUs      


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Light Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 15 lbs 8.0 oz
----------------------------
Name              Description                             Step Temperat Step Time     
Mash In           Add 5.81 gal of water at 167.4 F        155.0 F       75 min        
Mashout           Add 9.64 gal of water at 177.2 F        168.0 F       40 min        

Sparge: Batch sparge with 1 steps (Drain mash tun, ) of 168.0 F water
Notes:

I love how fast low-gravity english beers can be made. 

This came out a very decent 3% quaffer in about a week and a half. 

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Created with BeerSmith 2 - http://www.beersmith.com
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