Whew! Been a long time since I've brewed..right around a month I do believe..and you know what that means - empty kegs...and empty kegs mean brew a new English Bitter or go broke actually BUYING English Bitters at the local beer joint.I've been working on this style pretty steadily since our trip to London last Thanksgiving, even more so than I've posted (in the past 8 months I count 6 Bitters brewed - only 2 or 3 posted about). I've got to say that I've dialed in the recipe that I, and more importantly my wife, really enjoy. It's a really smooth bitter with just enough bittering (hovering around 25 IBU's), the perfect hint of roasty "biscuit" flavor, mellow/earthy English hops, and the right serving tempeture and low carbonation that makes these guys extra quafable.
This time around I dropped two ingrediants that I've been playing around with in my Bitters for the past few batches - Flaked Rye, and Flaked Oats. Both had a not unpleasant effect on the beer but in a quest to create a great base recipe I've decided to drop back to my core malts for this recipe. In addition to dialing down the extra specialty malts I've decided to play with a new English Hop - Challenger.
Challenger Hops are a disease resistant hybred which came about from crossing East Kent Goldings and Northern Brewer Hops. Primarily used as a bittering hop across the pond it also seems to have a very pleasant "spicy" flavor and aroma. To give it a proper trial I made this ale using only Challengers (note these are my Cascade hops in the picture, just now starting to grow for the summer - 2nd generation).As you can see by the recipe I started with only .5 oz for bittering, which lands me around the IBU's I was shooting for. In addition I went heavy on the flavoring and aroma additions of the hops to get a good sense of their flavor and aroma profile (.85oz and .15oz respectively).
All is all it was kinda a PAIN IN THE ASS to brew today :) . Seriously..up at 5am, after sleeping 5 hours, only to have a stuck sparge which took me 30 minutes of huffing and puffing on our balcony to "unstuck" it, to my burner going out on me w/o me noticing (I boilded over a little). In addition I lost more liquid to evaporation than I ever had before which left me with around 4 gallons from my intended 5 gallon batch..no idea how this happened...I blame the lack of sleep and the Cavs losing last night to Orlando.
Having said that..a PAIN IN THE ASS brewday is still much better than your average day, by a long shot so I've got no complaints. Looking forward to trying this one out in about a week and a half with some friends. I also plan on brewing next Friday afternoon by kegging "Butchers Breakfast" and putting a "Black Bitter" on top of it. Recipe soon to follow on that one. By the way - the name "Butchers Breakfast" came from an experience we had at Smithfield Market, London over Thanksgiving 08.
Also, I uploaded a short video of what is often refered to as the "violent boil" used in boiling your wort while making beer.
Cheers! Brian
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4 comments:
I brewed an ESB with Challenger hops a while back and really liked it. Of course, I'll have to sample some of your bitter to confirm that they're good bittering hops as well. ;-)
Russ - you know your my most expert brew guru..I've already got you down for a growler, you just let me know when your ready to connect with it.
By the way this weekend Three Floyds is having a "Hop Juice Fest", which is a distant (and obviously much hoppier cousin) of the "dark lord day". Was thinking about heading down, you guys have any free time tomorrow afternoon?
I'm just impressed with myself that I had something worthwhile to add regarding a non-German style! As for Hop Juice Fest, I'd be down for it but unfortunately my sister's having a birthday party for her two kids and I can't really get out of that one. If you go, let me know how it goes.
Im also working to perfect my ESB recipe. I did not see the Butcher's Breakfast
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