Brewday - Best Bitter 10/05/2012

During the spring and summer months my work begins to hot up, so opportunities to brew can be few and far between. It's important to fire up the brewery when a window appears, and as I've had some work cancelled due to the appalling weather, that's today.

I'm revisiting my standard English Best Bitter that I've had problems with since switching the late hop from Styrian Goldings. This time I'm going to have a crack with a higher alpha hop, Aurora, sometimes referred to as a 'Super Styrian'. The remainder of the ingredients will be the same as before.

Best

Special/Best/Premium Bitter

Type: All Grain	Date: 10/05/2012
Batch Size (fermenter): 50.00 l	Brewer: Mark
Boil Size: 62.65 l	Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 90 min	Equipment: Elite Brewery
End of Boil Volume 55.12 l	Brewhouse Efficiency: 73.00 %
Final Bottling Volume: 50.00 l	Est Mash Efficiency 77.4 %
Fermentation: Ale, Two Stage	Taste Rating(out of 50):
Taste Notes:
Ingredients
Ingredients Amt Name Type # %/IBU 8700.00 g Pale Malt, Maris Otter (5.9 EBC) Grain 1 95.0 % 460.00 g Crystal Malt - 60L (Thomas Fawcett) (118.2 EBC) Grain 2 5.0 % 32.00 g Whitbread Golding Variety (WGV) [6.80 %] - Boil 75.0 min Hop 3 12.3 IBUs 30.00 g Progress [7.50 %] - Boil 75.0 min Hop 4 12.8 IBUs 20.00 g Aurora [8.10 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 5 4.4 IBUs 1.00 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 10.0 mins) Fining 6 - 30.00 g Aurora [8.10 %] - Boil 1.0 min Hop 7 0.6 IBUs
Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.042 SG	Measured Original Gravity:
Est Final Gravity: 1.010 SG	Measured Final Gravity:
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.2 %	Actual Alcohol by Vol:
Bitterness: 30.0 IBUs	Calories:
Est Color: 12.7 EBC

As always, nothing seems to go exactly to plan when I'm rushing in the morning. My strike temperature was a little too high, so I had to add some cold liquor to the mash to get the temperature down. It's still at the higher end of the range around 69C (156F) and the mash is now a little thinner than usual, but we'll see what happens. The pH was 5.2

I'm going to split the batch into two and ferment one with US-05 and the other with WLP007. I'll be interested to compare yeasts and see what the pair bring to the table.

Brewday - Best Bitter 29/09/11

I was due to brew the week before, but a dose of incompetence saw the element in the copper burn out. Switched on in error, when the vessel was dry, meant the brewday was cut short.

Thankfully the element was replaced quickly and I was able to start again a week later. After some experimental brews, I wanted an easy drinker that I knew would be good. 

The last brew lacked hop presence, down to the fact that the hops in question had been stored for quite some time. The brew prior to that had used amber malt, which didn't work at all well in a pale ale, so I've been immersed in mediocre beer for far too long.

This recipe is one I've done, in some form or another, for some time. It's a standard English best bitter. I tweak the hops here and there to try and obtain the beer I've planned in my head - I've not always succeeded, but it's always been a pleasure to drink, and I'm hoping this batch will be no different.

There were no hiccups along the way, other than the new element was a bit more efficient than the old one, which I guess should have been expected on the first brew. As a result I boiled off a bit more than planned and ended up slightly short on volume and a tad high on gravity. I couldn't be arsed to liquor back, so left it as it was.

It's currently fermenting at 20C, I'll check the gravity again on day 6 and 7 and see if it's finished. Until then, here's a shot of the sparge in action, and the wort going into the copper;

And here's the recipe, exported from Beersmith. I'll review the beer once it's ready to drink.

  

Best (Elite)

Special/Best/Premium Bitter

Type: All Grain	Date: 29/09/2011
Batch Size (fermenter): 46.00 l	Brewer: Mark
Boil Size: 57.03 l	Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 75 min	Equipment: Elite Brewery
End of Boil Volume 52.00 l	Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Final Bottling Volume: 46.00 l	Est Mash Efficiency 76.1 %
Fermentation: Ale, Two Stage	Taste Rating(out of 50):
Taste Notes:
Ingredients
Ingredients Amt Name Type # %/IBU 9000.00 g Pale Malt, Maris Otter (5.9 EBC) Grain 1 95.0 % 470.00 g Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (236.4 EBC) Grain 2 5.0 % 35.00 g Progress [7.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 4 14.6 IBUs 38.00 g Whitbread Golding Variety (WGV) [6.80 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 3 14.3 IBUs 25.00 g Bobek [4.00 %] - Boil 20.0 min Hop 5 3.4 IBUs 15.00 g Bobek [4.00 %] - Boil 7.0 min Hop 7 0.9 IBUs 1.00 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 10.0 mins) Fining 6 -
Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.045 SG	Measured Original Gravity: 1.048 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.010 SG	Measured Final Gravity:
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.6 %	Actual Alcohol by Vol:
Bitterness: 33.1 IBUs	Calories:
Est Color: 17.9 EBC