I’ve been on a brewing hiatus for almost 6 months due to circumstances out of my control. I won’t bore you with the issues we have had with our rental after returning from vacation to a flooded house but needless to say I haven’t had the room in the garage until recently after a huge reorganization. Anyhow, focusing on my passion for English bitters I have been trying to narrow down how to best achieve them with my equipment, processes, and local water.
Mouthfeel is really important in a bitter and a beer that is really dry detracts from that in a bitter. I’ll reiterate a few things I’ve posted before about beer dryness and a few more observations on dryness I’ve gleaned going back through my older recipes and notes:
- Unless using 100% RO water it’s a waste of time cutting tap with RO.
- Unless you’re good at discerning when to stop a fermentation a mash temperature below 154F will give you a pretty dry beer with sugar in the grist.
- If using sugar, invert leaves a silkier mouthfeel but is a hassle to make.
- If your beers are still becoming too dry with a high mash temp and using sugar in the grist skip the sugar and use more malt.
- Still having dryness issues? Try 100% RO. It’s either an added expense or a hassle though.
- Still having dryness issues? Substitute a pound of wheat for barely.
- Scale back the bittering hops and add them as late additions.
- Keep carbonation medium to low.
This one is all malt. The recipe is based more on a pale ale that I have had success with but with a scaled back gravity and 100% EKGs.
6 gallons
Estimated OG: 1.047
Estimated FG: 1.012
Estimated Color: 6.7 SRM
Estimated IBU: 33 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 65.00 %
ABV: 4.6%
Grain
10 lbs Pale Ale Malt (3.5 SRM) 83.3%
1 lb Crystal 20 (20 SRM) 8.3%
1 lb White Wheat (3.2 SRM) 8.3%
Schedule
60 minute Boil
14.00g EKG [6%] – 60 min 9.5 IBUs
14.00g EKG [6%] – 30 min 7.3 IBUs
28.00g EKG [6%] – 15 min 9.4 IBUs
56.00g EKG [6%] – Steep 10 min 6.9 IBUs
Whirfloc or Irish Moss 20 min
1tsp yeast nutrient 15 min
Mash and Sparge
100% Ventura (high bicarbonates and sulfates)
3g Calcium Chloride added to mash water
2ml lactic acid added to mash water
3g Calcium Chloride added to sparge water
2ml lactic acid sparge water
Mash in 4.75 gallons water 162F and let stabilize to 152F for 60 min
Mashout 170F
Batch sparge 4.75 gallons cold
Yeast
Safale S-04 English Ale Dry Yeast
Fermentation
Ferment until done 65F
Cold crash one day
Add gelatin and rack to keg and carbonate using your preferred method