Ottawa Foodies

Today I'm trying to brew a simple British Bitter. "Simple" being the key word here - I know very little about this style of beer. About brewing it at least. The last 7 or 8 years I've concentrated on German and North American styles, and the only British style I've really tried my hand at is Porter (and a bit of Brown Ale but mainly the North American sort)

So best I can tell this is going to turn into more of a Mild than a Bitter (darker in colour), in spite of the best coaching efforts from the lads on the brewers' list.

No big deal - one thing I always say to beginners is to "just brew some beer". Keep good notes, and even if it doesn't turn out to be what you had in mind, it's actually pretty difficult to not brew a good beer as long as you follow good sanitation. So I'll take my own advice on this one :-)

Grain Bill :
- 9kg Marris Otter Pale Ale (90%)
- 200g Malted Oats (2%)
- 100g Belgian Aromatic (1%)
- 100g Weyermann CaraAmber (1%)
- 500g Weyermann CaraMunich II (5%)
- 100g Weyermann Carafa I (1%)

I ended up mashing really low - 148F - the reason being twofold : (1) by design since the above has a fair bit of various crystal malts (everything but the Marris Otter and Carafa) so would otherwise end up too sweet if I didn't mash really low (which produces more fermentable sugars vs unfermentable ones, compared with mashing higher in the 160F range), and (2) I'm recalibrating my thermometer and ended up screwing something up - thought I was actually mashing at 151F not 148F. Oh well, it will still be beer. And in the end I'll probably be happier with the higher fermentability (and therefore lower resisidual sweetness) of the lower mash temp.

I'm using Simcoe hops for the first time today. HOly smokes they smell great! Just added 1.5 oz to 55 litres. They are fairly bitter at 12% Alpha Acids (AA).

I'll boil for 50 minutes, then add 1 oz of 5.5% AA British East Kent Goldings (EKG) hops, then boil 10 minutes more and turn off the power and add 1 more oz of the same EKG.

In about 3 weeks this beer will be ready to drink!

Hey Zym,

What kind of yeast did you use ?

I assuming it's a bottom fermenting strain, based on the beer style, but is it dry ? or liquid and what is your source ?

I use to love this stuff.

Back in the 80's, when I ran my own mash tun, it was somewhat difficult to get your hands on some decent brewing grains. The only ones I can remember were 2 row pale, crystal and chocolate. All generic ...meaning no specific malt or brand name.

Wow, from your grain bill, it looks like homebrewing has come along way.

All "indigenous" British beers are brewed with top-fermenting (ale) yeast, actually. I'm splitting this batch 22 litres with White Labs WLP013 London Ale (which I've been growing in my new stir plate) and 22 with Fermentis S04. The WLP013 is a liquid strain that you can buy in a tube from www.skinaneybrewing.com, and the S04 is a high quality dry strain which IIRC Defalco's now carries.

Yes, grains have come a long way even in 10 years. Our brew club buys a tonne or so of malt every year on a big order from Montreal. Really huge selection but you have to buy a sack (25kg) at minimum.

Oh My !!

How could I have said '... bottom fermenting strain...' when referring to brewing English beers (and not lagers). A mega-whoops, for sure.

I do remember a big difference between the dry yeasts that I could get in brewers stores (e.g. DeFalco's) and the liquid yeasts I could get from some guy that worked out of the University of Guelf. His sources were varied, but mainly from bottled imported beers that had a yeast sediment in them.

In fact, the only beer I ever brewed that DID NOT taste like homemade were made from those liquid yeasts.

Even to this day, most homebrews that I have tried, taste homemade. I wonder why that is. I suspect the brewing from malt extracts (instead of grains or a combo of grains and malt extract)and/or the use of quality yeasts.

What do you think Zym ?

and BTW, Do you filter ? or use any clarifying agents ?

PS: For the rest of the Ottawa Foodies - Beer IS food !!! Kinda like a liquid bread but with a kick !

Malt extract is it almost for sure. THere are some extremely good dry yeasts these days - in fact I've used them almost exclusively for about 5 years now and am just getting back into liquid (thus the stir plate). There is a much greater variety in liquid, but no longer a much greater quality.

I use Irish Moss in the last 10 minutes of the boil to clarify. Though my beers get consumed so quickly they rarely have time to drop completely bright in the keg. Some day production will surpass consumption and I'll manage it. Fortunately it's usually just "chill haze" which is a protein and is completely flavourless.

BTW, you made the top/bottom mistake last time so I think you just have it in your head backwards :-)

Captain C & Zym - LOL, of course BEER IS FOOD, it can be found right there in the GRAINS Category of the Canada Food Guide. Just like WINE is part of the FRUITS Listing. I think you'll find no argument from the Winos here... especially seeing as us wine affectionatos require 7 to 8 servings a day vs your recommended 6 to 7.
;-P

Good reason to go with the macrobiotic diet - primarily grains based :-)

Wow, this is much more advanced than my previous brewing experiences.... open can add to warm water...beer, not great beer though.
I wish I had the patience.

Orleansfoodie, if you are interested there are lots of guys locally who are eager to teach how to brew from grain. You just missed our annual spring Big Brew in May.

I think it would be very interesting actually, I'm not sure how often you hold big brew's (will there be a summer big brew?) but if it comes to mind when the next one occurs let me know, I'll be quite an eager student.