Ordinary bitter with biscuit malt

[marchio-93]

Hello everybody! What about this recipe? It's the second time I brew a bitter but the other one was awkward because of the bitter taste from biscuit (7%). I'd like to keep it because of the bready taste!

81% Pale Ale
11% Pilsner
5.5% Crystal 75L
3.5% Biscuit
0.4% Carafa Special III (for the color)

E. K Goldings 60' - 22 IBU

OG 1.039 FG 1.010

 

[downzero]

The base malt for bitter is Maris Otter. 22 ibu is not bitter enough for bitter, either (no pun intended). The biscuit malt is fine at 5.5%. I'd also skip the dark malt even in the tiny percentage you're offering, but you probably won't notice it.

 

[marchio-93]

The base malt for bitter is Maris Otter. 22 ibu is not bitter enough for bitter, either (no pun intended). The biscuit malt is fine at 5.5%. I'd also skip the dark malt even in the tiny percentage you're offering, but you probably won't notice it.

So the idea of put a low level of ibu because of the bitter taste of biscuit malt does not make any sense?

That small amount of carafa is because of the color, I earn some point of EBC and I don't want to add much crystal with his to sweet flavor

 

[downzero]

So the idea of put a low level of ibu because of the bitter taste of biscuit malt does not make any sense?

That small amount of carafa is because of the color, I earn some point of EBC and I don't want to add much crystal with his to sweet flavor

It makes no sense to me to model a beer and then deliberately brew it outside of the style guidelines. I can see shooting for the bottom portion of the range if to offset other flavors, but if the style guideline is, for example, 25-35 IBU, and what you brew is 15, you certainly have beer, but you do not have the beer style you sought to make. If what you want is something other than the style that is outlined in the guideline, then so be it, but if you wanted a beer called "X" and your color, gravity, bitterness, abv, etc., are not within the wide range that style X allows, then you simply do not have that style of beer, since beer styles are defined objectively by these criteria and subjectively by descriptions of how they are supposed to smell and taste.

 

[Sammy86]

Hello everybody! What about this recipe? It's the second time I brew a bitter but the other one was awkward because of the bitter taste from biscuit (7%). I'd like to keep it because of the bready taste!

81% Pale Ale
11% Pilsner
5.5% Crystal 75L
3.5% Biscuit
0.4% Carafa Special III (for the color)

E. K Goldings 60' - 22 IBU

OG 1.039 FG 1.010

If it were me I'd get rid of the pale and Pils and change it all to MO, I'd also get rid of the carafa no need for it IMO.

Keep it simple and let the hops shine...I like to add Willamette at the end of my boil for my bitter but that's my personal preference.

good luck out there

 

[marchio-93]

It makes no sense to me to model a beer and then deliberately brew it outside of the style guidelines. I can see shooting for the bottom portion of the range if to offset other flavors, but if the style guideline is, for example, 25-35 IBU, and what you brew is 15, you certainly have beer, but you do not have the beer style you sought to make. If what you want is something other than the style that is outlined in the guideline, then so be it, but if you wanted a beer called "X" and your color, gravity, bitterness, abv, etc., are not within the wide range that style X allows, then you simply do not have that style of beer, since beer styles are defined objectively by these criteria and subjectively by descriptions of how they are supposed to smell and taste.

I think the beauty in our hobby is in trying, discovering, trying to go a little further. If I want a bitter I buy it from some pub, in fact I'm not asking you if this recipe is suitable for bjcp, but if from the point of view of flavors it can be interesting. Anyone can tell you what the basic malt of a bitter is, and I add that in all homebrewing books a bit of toasted malt is included as a possibility.

However thank you

 

[BigEd]

Hello everybody! What about this recipe? It's the second time I brew a bitter but the other one was awkward because of the bitter taste from biscuit (7%). I'd like to keep it because of the bready taste!

81% Pale Ale
11% Pilsner
5.5% Crystal 75L
3.5% Biscuit
0.4% Carafa Special III (for the color)

E. K Goldings 60' - 22 IBU

OG 1.039 FG 1.010

A bitter is a simple beer. Keep the grain bill to 95% good quality British pale malt (standard is fine, Maris-Otter would be even better), about 5% medium UK crystal (55L). If you want to throw in a touch of biscuit for enhanced aroma 2-3% is good. BTW I have never heard of or experienced a "bitter" flavor from biscuit malt. The IBU number should be 75% of the OG, so about 30 IBU. I would also suggest doing a traditional 90 minute boil with two hop additions, one @ 90 and one @ 15 minutes.

 

[Hanglow]

I'd increase the hops by at least 50%, personally I'd double them for a bitter. You could maybe call it a boys bitter or even a pale mild if you wanted to without increasing the hops

Using a touch of roast malt is fine for colour. The 11% pils is a bit odd I assumeyou are using it up? You won't really notice it though so its fine

 

[marchio-93]

I'd increase the hops by at least 50%, personally I'd double them for a bitter. You could maybe call it a boys bitter or even a pale mild if you wanted to without increasing the hops

Using a touch of roast malt is fine for colour. The 11% pils is a bit odd I assumeyou are using it up? You won't really notice it though so its fine

The pils it's just to finish the storage, and maybe can help for the foam!

Do you think 7% of crystal 75L would give too "sweet" and malty to the final beer or it's fine? Because at 5% it's still too pale for me

 

[Northern_Brewer]

It's a classic mistake to use "flavour" ingredients to hit colour targets on British beer, when British brewers use caramel or a touch of black malt to increase colour. And they're not as brown as some people think - not only are golden bitters increasingly the norm (ie with no crystal), some of the classics are actually quite pale - see eg :
https://untappd.com/b/timothy-taylor-s-landlord/8676/photos

Fuller's use 7% of light crystal in their main partigyle, but my personal taste is for about 3% crystal (and I really don't care what colour it is).

 

[downzero]

I think the beauty in our hobby is in trying, discovering, trying to go a little further. If I want a bitter I buy it from some pub, in fact I'm not asking you if this recipe is suitable for bjcp, but if from the point of view of flavors it can be interesting. Anyone can tell you what the basic malt of a bitter is, and I add that in all homebrewing books a bit of toasted malt is included as a possibility.

However thank you

Enjoy your mild ale then! There's nothing wrong with mild ale, it just isn't bitter.

 

[ESBrewer]

It's a classic mistake to use "flavour" ingredients to hit colour targets on British beer, when British brewers use caramel or a touch of black malt to increase colour.

And the parti-gyle method as such lends deeper color for the high gravity beers because the color elutes early compared to the sugars that need to be washed out extensively .