Brains Bitter Clone

[Troy Destroy]

Found a clone for Brains Bitter in Brewing Crafts by Mike Rodgers-Wilson.

Will post recipe on here late but talks about using Golding hops. Was thinking of changing it up a bit an using Challenger as a bittering and both Goldings & Fuggles for aroma.

Anyone have an idea about balance regarding how many grams of each I should use?

The recipe recommends the Beermaker's Draught kit. Any idea if the hops I'm looking at using would overpower or make the kit taste off?

Cheers folks.

[emnpaul]

I've read the book you are referring to and you should be aware that it is an advertisement for brand x home brew supplies (all of the recommended brands, with the possible exception of Munton's, were under the one umbrella at the time of publishing) while at the same time running down Cooper's as much as possible without actually mentioning their name (as that would leave them liable for defamation).

Bearing that in mind I'm pretty sure you could use any brand of draught kit to good effect. Even Cooper's.

The hop combo you're suggesting should work well together. 20g Challenger for bittering should be plenty and for mine I'd start with 10g fuggles and 20g goldings this time around and tweak it for the next batch if necessary. If your brew ends up tasting off I'd be looking somewhere other than the hops provided they were handled properly prior to chucking them in your brew.

[Troy Destroy]

Cheers emnpaul, I thought that might have been the case with that book. Does have some good recipes though.

My local homebrew store don't sell Beermaker's kits, but recommended the Thomas Coopers Premium Draught instead.

Cheers for tips on the hops too. Hope to get this one started soon.

[Troy Destroy]

The recipe goes as such...

Brains Bitter

Ingredients
Beermakers Draught (I'm substituting in Thomas Coopers Premium Draught)
Crystal grain 200g crushed
Dextrose 400g
Bittering hops Golding Pellets 20g (I'm substituting in Challenger)
Finishing hops Goldings Pellets 10g (I'm substituting in 10g Fuggles & 20g Golding)
Safale Yeast

Other than what emnpaul mentioned previously, any other suggestions, or does that sound about right?

[Troy Destroy]

Doing a little more research and thinking, as the TCP Draught uses Cascade hops, I'd be better off using the TCP IPA or Coopers International English Bitter as these kits use Styrian Golding hops instead.

[earle]

IMHO the kit is not going to add much in hop flavour or aroma if you're adding extra hops. My approach would be to treat the kit as a prebittered extract. Choose one based on colour and ibu, get the character you're after out of your spec malts and hops. The coopers English bitter has quite a high ibu which is actually higher than the style guidelines, the draught makes a much better base for your beer as it has a lower ibu that let's you add a bit more bitterness with your hops.

[emnpaul]

How are you buying your hops? You won't get much flavour or aroma from a bittering addition of 20g of challenger and if you don't already have them in your freezer you might be better off saving your money and using fuggles or goldings for bittering instead.

[Oliver]

Coincidentally, I am currently devising a recipe for my next beer, which will be an English bitter. Looking at recipes, many of them are bittered with Goldings, sometimes with the addition of Fuggles. Goldings tend to be more common for finishing than Fuggles, although a couple of recipes I've seen in Brew Your Own Real Ale at Home, which is a book put out by CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale), do use Fuggles late in small amounts.

Have a look at this thread on bitterness of tins of Coopers concentrate: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=9932&start=20#p99360

I would be worried that if you start with a Coopers English Bitter can that you're going to end up with a beer that's way too bitter after you've added your other hops.

Coopers Lager is always a good base. But the Draught looks like it's only a little higher in bitterness (you might want to check on the Coopers site whether this has changed). I'd aim for 35-40 IBUs or so in total.

If you haven't done so already, get yourself some brewing software so that you can work out how much the extra hops will contribute to bitterness. Brewmate is a popular free option, while if you want the Rolls-Royce fork out the $30 or so for BeerSmith. I reckon the late hops may be enough on their own to get you to target IBUs, without any bittering hops.

The recipes in Brew Your Own Real Ale at Home don't seem to be too heavy-handed in late hopping. 7-15g total in the last 15 mins seems to be about all they recommend. Having said that, it's only one book that I've been reading so I am sure there are other perspectives!

Cheers,

Oliver

[SaazGorilla]

I remember Brains beers quite fondly when I was in Wales (too many years ago).

While I don't expect to get an accurate clone with my Kit and Bits, nor could I even remember the exact taste anyway, I was hoping for something in the general area upon which to base further brews.

I've got a tin of Coopers Premium Draught, as well as a tin of Liquid Light Malt Extract and a sachet of S04.

For a hop regime, I was thinking either:

EK Goldings 15g 30 min
EK Goldings 15g 10 min

or

EK Goldings 20g 20 min
EK Goldings 20g 10 min
Fuggles 10g 10 minutes.

Any suggestions? Also, I've discovered the joys of dry hopping thanks to Boonies LCPA clone. Would you recommend a dry hop for such a beer?

[Oliver]

Coming in late on this one, sorry.

The tin will give you about 31 IBUs. What bitterness are the extra hops going to give you? Doc is the expert on English ales, but in my experience you wouldn't want to go too far above about 40.

I'd put Fuggles (probably along with Goldings) in earlier and leave the later additions as just Goldings. Add 15g at 10 minutes and adjust the other additions to meet your target IBU.

Let me know how it goes.

Cheers,

Oliver

[Troy Destroy]

Picked up a Toohey's Special Draught tin as it was on special (and thought this would be fine for just a base).

Have made a standard K'n'K Cooper's Cerveza (only my second brew) and it has come put top notch so going to have a crack at this Bitter next, as want to step up to K'n'B.

The recipe I posted really doesn't make any reference to what kind of Crystal. For a Bitter, would people recommend anything in particular, dark, light, in between?

Oliver & SG, how are your Bitters going?

Cheers!

[Troy Destroy]

Think I've answered my own question, looks like they use a pale in Brains Bitter.

Cheers!

[Oliver]

Light or medium will be OK. 200g dark will probably be too much if added to a kit. Or do a combo of, say, 50g dark and 150g light.

[Troy Destroy]

So I have some malt, but wondering, does anyone suggest a hop bag, and would muslin/cheesecloth be better than nylon for steeping the grains?

Cheers!

[emnpaul]

Hop bags made of Swiss Voile are the go. If your home brew supplier carries them, get one.

Your alternative is go to Spotlight and buy some from a roll and get someone you know who can sew to make it into a bag for you. Doesn't need to be fancy. Just a tube and you can tie a knot in either end to contain your GRAIN.

Edit: changed hops to grain.

[Oliver]

Not sure how wide the rolls of Swiss voile are, but because you're only using a small amount of grain you could probably just put the grain in the middle of a bit of the fabric then gather it at the top and tie it off, or use some string to tie it off.

Cheers,

Oliver

[drsmurto]

Or use a stocking.

[Troy Destroy]

Thanks for all the tips all, finally put this one down overnight. Very interesting process, but the smell of the Fuggles & Goldings was amazing! Interested to see how this one goes.

[Troy Destroy]

It's been in bottles since New Year's Eve, dying to crack one to try but want to give it a decent amount of time. Thinking after a month in bottles should be fine, if I can resist.

[Oliver]

Crack one now. After almost three weeks it should be good to go, I reckon.

Oliver