homebrewandbeer.com

Due to the arrival of our firstborn recently my brewing (not to mention my sleep) has been somewhat curtailed. I'm looking to do a quickish brew with a can of Muntons Yorkshire Bitter that's fallen into my lap. I'm not altogether sure I'm going to like this kit, although this is purely based on my brew of Cooper's Bitter which was my least favourite brew yet. It was a much darker, sweeter brew than I expected although that may be due to my adding an extra can of John Bull malt extract. I normally use light or extra light spraymalt.

What I'm hoping to do with this kit is to produce something a little lighter in colour, with a stronger hop flavour and aroma. I presume there's nothing I can do to alter the kit's bitterness.

I'm currently really enjoying IPAs and American Pale Ales like Sierra Nevada and Little Creatures. While I don't expect to be able to clone these with this kit as a basis I would like to nudge it a little in the direction of an IPA or an APA but I'm open to other suggestions.

I have plenty of Light DME, LME, the "usual" grains and various different hops such as EKG, Fuggles, Galena, Cascade, Bramling X, Willamette etc.
A mini mash is probably out timewise but I don't mind steeping a little grain to alter the flavour.

Congratulations! Welcome to the tired parents club!

I've very much enjoyed a couple of bitters I've made using a kit + 1kg LDME + 25 - 35g of fuggles boiled for 10 minutes and tossed in. The ones I've done have come out more or less in the style of the bitters from the north of England (Theakston's etc).

You could add bitterness, for example by doing a boil of the LDME with some hops for > 30mins.

T.

bigears

I doubt you will lighten it any, use the kilo of light malt extract, 500 g of clover honey, add 28 g of Cascade or if you can Amirillo at flame out then brew with a yeast like Nottingham or White Labs Dry English Ale.

They will come a bit more to a Little Creatures with the grassy notes

By the way, How do you get Little Creatures in Ireland?

Dogger

Congratulations! Welcome to the tired parents club!

Why Thank You, I think I'll get a pair of those Homer Simpson glasses with the painted on eyes so I can catch up on my sleep in work.

You could add bitterness, for example by doing a boil of the LDME with some hops for > 30mins.

Good point, although I'll probably end up doing an extract recipe and tossing the kit in with 15 minutes to go once I start thinking along those lines. I think I'll end up doing that anyway - it's only an extra hour

doubt you will lighten it any, use the kilo of light malt extract, 500 g of clover honey, add 28 g of Cascade or if you can Amirillo at flame out then brew with a yeast like Nottingham or White Labs Dry English Ale.

I don't have Amarillo but Cascade I always keep on hand. I have to admit I'm not a fan of honey in beer; I find even the slightest hint of it a bit cloying. Maybe the amount you suggest won't alter the flavour though? I guess I could also use Golden Syrup to keep the colour lighter.

They will come a bit more to a Little Creatures with the grassy notes

By the way, How do you get Little Creatures in Ireland?

It's not widely available; I saw it in a wine merchants that occasionaly gets some beers on special and picked up half a dozen. I thought it was a nice tasty drop although I prefer Liberty Ale/Sierra Nevada. Definitely my favourite Aussie brew along with anything Cooper's though.

I like the idea of both recipes and I'm also thinking of turning it into an Irish Red which will be a reasonably good 'fit' for the kit. Most of the commercial Irish Red Ales in Ireland are pretty crap ironically (e.g. Kilkenny) so I might try and brew one that I'll actually like.

Pity you don't like Kilkenny, Bigears. I can't get enough of it here in Melbourne.

the trouble is it's near impossible to clone unless you get into kegging.

blandy wrote:Pity you don't like Kilkenny, Bigears. I can't get enough of it here in Melbourne.

the trouble is it's near impossible to clone unless you get into kegging.

Why is that Blandy?

Hey there blandy. Maybe we could set up an exchange - Kilkenny for Coopers

Lethaldog, to answer your question Kilkenny is dispensed using Nitrogen which gives it a creamy texture like Guinness. The cans have a 'widget' to achieve the same effect.

Kilkenny isn't the worst beer going, just not one of my favourites for this style. We have some great microbrewed versions here, you'll have to pop over and try them

You may be able to get one called 'Molings' by the Carlow Brewing Company which is quite tasty; I don't know if they ship to Australia but they do export. It's not widget'y' though.

Hey big ears,
Why not just do more or less a kit and kilo, quick and easy and you could add in some more hops if you want, being a bitter kit would you really need to?
Id go with 1kg ldme, the kit, maybe a little candy sugar if you want and 25gm cascade( 5 min boil) if you think its necassary and as you know this will only add flavour and aroma not more bitterness!

bigears wrote:Hey there blandy. Maybe we could set up an exchange - Kilkenny for Coopers

Lethaldog, to answer your question Kilkenny is dispensed using Nitrogen which gives it a creamy texture like Guinness. The cans have a 'widget' to achieve the same effect.

Kilkenny isn't the worst beer going, just not one of my favourites for this style. We have some great microbrewed versions here, you'll have to pop over and try them

You may be able to get one called 'Molings' by the Carlow Brewing Company which is quite tasty; I don't know if they ship to Australia but they do export. It's not widget'y' though.

Gees m8 i tell you if i could afford it i would deffinately come over and knock a few back with you, maybe 1 day, as for the kilkenny- i wasnt aware that they pour with nitro i thought this was just a can thing, i dont mind the cans but i wouldnt say they are fantastic

Next time I'm in Oz I'll make sure to arrange a few meet ups.

Thanks for all the suggestions guys. I'll let you all know what I decide on over the weekend. I need to use some liquid yeast that's past its use by date so I'll have to factor that in to the equation as well. One is English Ale, the other is Irish Ale (both White Labs). I'll probably make a starter with one or other tonight and brew tomorrow or Sunday.

Probably go the english and dont worry if its out of date i had one that was out of date by 9 months and it worked just fine

That's what I like to hear - did you make a starter? I don't normally bother with White Labs as it works straight from the vial but as it's out of date I may play safe.

I usually use wyeast and make a 2 litre starter to begin with then bottle this into 6 stubbies after fermentation then use each one of these as a starter in a 750ml longneck, havent actually used whitelabs but im sure they would be pretty much the same

Yeah, much the same, I've used both and I find WL starts very easily. I'll make a starter this time around. Cheers!

bigears wrote:Next time I'm in Oz I'll make sure to arrange a few meet ups.

Thanks for all the suggestions guys. I'll let you all know what I decide on over the weekend. I need to use some liquid yeast that's past its use by date so I'll have to factor that in to the equation as well. One is English Ale, the other is Irish Ale (both White Labs). I'll probably make a starter with one or other tonight and brew tomorrow or Sunday.

Nice choice you have there bigears. 2 of my favorites.
IMO if you go for an APA I'd be inclined to try the Irish over the English. From my experience the Irish finishes a little drier than the English which I think would sit nicely with an APA style.
The 002 doesn't attenuate as low as 004 & IMO better choice (along with some Fuggles, EKG or Brambling X) if your after something a little heavier in body.

Well here's what I did in the end:

First off I decided not to bother mashing or steeping any grains. I boiled just over a gallon of water and decided that the brew length would be 30 minutes since the Muntons already has bittering hops of some description included.

Added 40g Willamette at 30 mins without adding any extract.
At 15 minutes I added 500 gr Extra Light DME and 500gr Wheat DME.
At 5 minutes I added 30gr Cascade.
At 0 minutes I added the Muntons kit.
I had added both hop additions in bags and I decided to put the Cascade into the fermenter.
I also added a starter of White Labs 004 Irish Ale. I guess this is going to be a cross between a Bitter/APA so it will be interesting to see how it pans out.

I bottled a six pack of this when I was transferring to secondary and I tried one last night after just a week in the bottle. It's got a nice level of bitterness and a really fresh citrussy aroma. This is something I've been lacking in some of my beers and I'm wondering what made the difference:

1. I used more hops, I guess that one is pretty straightforward, but I didn't use drastically more.
2. I boiled the hops in water for 45 minutes before adding extract for the final 15 minutes. From what I've read this leads to better hop utilisation as against boiling in the wort for the whole period (bearing in mind I was boiling about 8 litres and topping up the fermenter with cold water).
3. I chucked the final addition of aroma hops into the fermenter in the hop bag. It stayed there in primary for 14 days before I racked.

I'll be interested to see how the bottles from primary compare to the bottles from secondary. I listened to one of the 'basic brewing' podcasts recently where Dave Hogsdon of Wyeast was recommending not to rack to secondary and not to use a bottling bucket as each step is introducing more oxygen. This goes against everything I've been doing since I started to brew but I'll make a comparison with my secondary bottles to see what the difference is. The beer was surprisingly clear already although there is more sediment in the bottles than usual.

Edit: I forgot to mention, I found my last couple of beers too sweet but the extra hop bite really balanced the flavours in this one.

I'll be interested to see how the bottles from primary compare to the bottles from secondary. I listened to one of the 'basic brewing' podcasts recently where Dave Hogsdon of Wyeast was recommending not to rack to secondary and not to use a bottling bucket as each step is introducing more oxygen. This goes against everything I've been doing since I started to brew but I'll make a comparison with my secondary bottles to see what the difference is. The beer was surprisingly clear already although there is more sediment in the bottles than usual.

If your careful then it shouldnt do any harm, i rack every brew and with my lagers i rack then rack again into a container that i refridgerate with then rack again to bulk prime and have never had any dramas whatsoever, just be careful not to splash it around and it will be fine If it works for you then stick to it