It’s been a busy summer without much brewing, but I’m hoping to get back to my regularly scheduled beer making this fall.

To start, Adrienne has requested a Best Bitter, after humoring my lineup of sour and saison experiments the last 6 months. No complaints from me though, English Bitter is one of my favorite beer styles.

I brewed a Best Bitter last year that I liked a lot. This time, for some variety, I’m going to brew a batch based on the 2021 NHC winning recipe from the pale British ale category. Compared to my recipe from last year, this will be a bit darker and maltier, a lot hoppier, and should have more body from a much higher mash temperature.

The original recipe is in the September/October 2021 Zymurgy if you are a subscriber, but this is pretty close.

Recipe

I couldn’t get Weyermann Caramunich like the original recipe used. To substitute I used a mix of Caravienne and Briess Caramel Munich (which is much darker than the Weyermann version)

Batch size:      5.5 gallons
Target OG:       1.044
Target FG:       1.017
Target ABV:      3.7%
Caluclated IBU:  38.3
Calculated SRM:  11.9

Grain bill:
7lb Maris Otter            (74.7%)
12oz Rye Malt              (8%)
8oz Caravienne             (5.3%)
8oz Briess Special Roast   (5.3%)
6oz Briess Caramel Munich  (4%)
4oz Caraaroma              (2.7%)

Mash (Batch Sparge): 158 °F @ 1.5 qts/lb

Hops:
1 oz  Fuggles (4.7% AA) @ 60 mintutes (18.3 IBU)
1 oz  Fuggles           @ 20 mintutes (11.1 IBU)
1 oz  Fuggles           @ 10 mintutes (6.6 IBU)
3 oz  Fuggles           @ 1  mintute  (2.4 IBU)

Yeast:
WY1968 London ESB

Notes

2021-09-25 - Brew day. pre-boil gravity was a bit high. Added a quart of water near the beginning of the boil.

Got ~5.5 gallons of wort into the fermenter at 1.045. Starting fermentation at 67 °F. Following the NHC recipe, I’ll increase one degree per day up to 72 °F.

2021-10-19 - Kegged and serving now. FG is 1.012. Lower than expected. I don’t usually mash low graivty beers this high, and it’s my first time using WY1968, so not sure why I ended up with a different FG than the zymurgy recipe.

Changes for next time

This came out pretty well but I would make some tweaks. Getting a bit of diacetyl .I thought fermentation was warm enough to not worry about this, but I’ll do a diacetyl rest next time.

Can’t say whether I prefer Fuggles or EKG, but from memory I preferred last year’s bitter, so maybe I’ll go back to EKG next time around. I would also like a bit more bitterness, despite this being almost 40 IBU in the calculator, it doesn’t really taste like it.

Lastly, I’d like it to be just a little less roasty. Maybe drop the caramel munich.