English Bitter

[MattyV]

Hey guys,
I plan to put down the following in the hope of trying to get somewhere close to an English Bitter style brew.

1 x can of Coopers Bitter
1.5Kg of liquid Amber Malt
10g Fuggles
10g Golding
Safale S04

Going by others experiences with this style of brew, how do you think the above would turn out? Any suggestions?

[Ash]

How are you adding the fuggles & goldings? short boil or dry hop?

It sounds like it would be a good start in the right direction regardless. Perhaps if this one isn't strong enough flavor/aroma wise double the hops next time - the ESBs the old pommy bloke my local brew club bring in really smack you in the face aroma & flavor wise, which the base Coopers Bitter kit itself doesn't so that's where you'll need to fiddle around to get the taste you are after (IMHO).

Good luck

[MattyV]

How are you adding the fuggles & goldings? short boil or dry hop?

On advice from my HBS guy, I steeped the hops for about 10 min in hot/boiling water before adding the resultant Hop water to the fermenter. Not sure if this was the right way to go, just following the advice I was given. I was thinking I may dry hop into secondary when I rack, for more aroma. Thoughts?

[Ash]

That's the dodgy way, though better than nothing I guess. Was it teabag hops? 'Cause that is what their instuctions say to do. If they weren't kept in the fridge/freezer don't buy them in future.

I'd dry hop for sure.

[MattyV]

That's the dodgy way, though better than nothing I guess. Was it teabag hops? 'Cause that is what their instuctions say to do. If they weren't kept in the fridge/freezer don't buy them in future.

I'd dry hop for sure.

They were the pellet style, and were stored in the fridge. HBS guy said to just put them in a coffee plunger and steep them that way. When I dry hop into secondary, should I use the teabag hops, plug hops, or just throw pellets in?

[Ash]

I just toss in pellets, don't even bag them or put them in a strainer - they settle out ok.

[MattyV]

Nice. How much Dextrose do you reckon I should bulk prime the batch (23Lt) with? I am thinking about 160g?

[Ash]

Found this calculator --> http://www.geocities.com/lesjudith/Alco ... lator.html

160gm would be about right for normal 2.4 vol of CO2 in your beer, though I think bitters are meant to be lower carbed

[Pale_Ale]

I've used that calculator many times and it is a handy tool indeed.

[drsmurto]

A bitter 'should' be low carbed, traditionally they are flat and pumped thru a hand pull sans gas.

I would aim for no more than 100g bulk priming for this style but at the end of the day, its what you like that counts.

As for the hops, they really needed to be boiled for 10-15 mins to extract flavour (IMHO). Since you steeped them i wouldnt worry to much about dry hopping.

Let us know how it turns out, i made somehting similar many moons ago without any hops added. Wasnt too impressed but it was drinkable all the same.

Cheers
DrSmurto

[MattyV]

Thanks guys for all your advice. Going by that calculator, it recommends about 50g of Dex. I know an English Bitter should be very softly carbonated, but that seems really low. Still, it probably knows better than me! I think I'll go for about 80-90g and see how it turns out. Cheers!

[Ash]

I'd rather over-carb it than under in this case

[Pale_Ale]

Thanks guys for all your advice. Going by that calculator, it recommends about 50g of Dex. I know an English Bitter should be very softly carbonated, but that seems really low. Still, it probably knows better than me! I think I'll go for about 80-90g and see how it turns out. Cheers!

It does sound low but it is in fact correct. English Bitter has very low carb. That said, I think you could safely go 80-100g and it would still be quite low carb.