John Palmer's Lord Crouchback's Special Bitters?

[mobilecabinworks]

Has anyone actually brewed John Palmer's "Lord Crouchback's Special Bitter" recipe? I am looking at trying it out, and have been doing a lot of research on tweaking the recipe a bit. Think I have something figured out, but just wanted to see if anyone had any feed back from the original recipe. Don't need to invent the wheel more than once. Thanks.

 

[McGarnigle]

Has anyone actually brewed John Palmer's "Lord Crouchback's Special Bitter" recipe? I am looking at trying it out, and have been doing a lot of research on tweaking the recipe a bit. Think I have something figured out, but just wanted to see if anyone had any feed back from the original recipe. Don't need to invent the wheel more than once. Thanks.

I brewed it once and it was good, except I went too far with the low carbonation aspect. Note that his online recipes differ from his book recipes because the latter assume late extract addition.

 

[mobilecabinworks]

Thank for the info. I have been playing with the recipe a bit in qbrew and thinking about giving it shot. I simplified the hops and added some more steeping grain and a little maltodextrin. Anyway I hope there are some other folks with more feedback as well. Thanks again.

 

[DSmith]

I did this as my first homebrew and am enjoying it now after 4 weeks in the bottle, 4 weeks in primary. I carbinated it with 3 oz of corn sugar and it's a little undercarbed. Here's a pic.

I'm brewing this again as a learning experience. The second time includes a stirplate for the starter (I used a 1L starter the first time, shaken), 3:1 distilled water:tap water (I sent in for a Ward's water analysis and have very high alkalinity) and aeration with a wine degasser. Another big change is that I got the water up to boiling before adding any LME, still using late addition. The color is much lighter than the first time I brewed this. The first time, I needed about an extra hour of heating to get the cold water + first addition of LME up to boil uncovered. It's a lot to change but I know 100% of the ingredients (different water) are the same so changes in the end result are from brewing experience and equipment. I'm bottiling this second ESB this weekend and can post a pic of the color compared to the first.

 

[mobilecabinworks]

Awesome thanks. Do you find it to be a little thin? From what I was reading I thought it might need some more body. I like my bitters with a little body.

 

[mobilecabinworks]

Here's the recipe as I have modified (simplified parts) of it. Everyone give me your thoughts on it. Thanks.


Lord Simpleton's Special Bitter - Extract

Style: Extra Special/Strong Bitter (English Pale Ale)
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Recipe Gravity: 1.051 OG
Recipe Bitterness: 34 IBU
Recipe Color: 11 SRM
Estimated FG: 1.013
Alcohol by Volume: 5.0%
Alcohol by Weight: 3.9%

Ingredients
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Light LME 3.00 lb, Extract, Extract
Light LME 3.50 lb, Extract, Extract
Crystal 60L 1.00 lb, Grain, Steeped

Kent Golding 1.00 oz, Whole, 60 minutes
Kent Golding 0.75 oz, Whole, 30 minutes
Kent Golding 0.75 oz, Whole, 15 minutes

Maltodextrin 4 oz - 15 min before knockout w/final extract addition

Wyeast 1318 - London Ale III

Recipe Notes:
10 days @ 65 degrees F in primary.
*Grain is steeped for 30 mins @ ~150 degrees F
*Add second 3.5lbs of LME with final hop addition and maltodextrin w/ flame off.
*Alternate: Wyeast 1099 Whitbread Ale, or Wyeast 1275 Thames Valley Ale.

Batch Notes:
3 gallon boil w/ 2 cooled in fermenter.