Best Bitter

Most of the batches my dad and I brewed this summer were ten to thirteen gallons, much larger than my normal five- to six-gallon scale.  Between the much bigger grain bills involved in these high-volume batches, the frequency with which we brewed (often once a week), and the distance to the local homebrew shop, it's only reasonable that my dad keeps a few bags worth of base grains on hand.  In this sea of malt, though, even significant amounts of a particular grain can be overlooked at times.

Such was the case with an eighteen-pound portion of Maris Otter a few months ago.  It had been meant for a stout, I believe, but my father had missed the bag of Maris sitting among all the other grains, using an American pale malt instead.  So we were left to devise a recipe to properly exploit this fine English malt.  My thoughts went right to bitters.

Adding just a pound of lighter German caramel malt (antithetical for a British ale, I know) in place of the amber malt I couldn't procure, I angled to create a best bitter.  Northern Brewer for bittering hops, Bramling Cross for flavour, and Goldings for aroma, without a dry hop; we kept it simple. Working with dry yeast also kept the process from getting complex, saving us from having to grow up a large pitch a liquid strain before setting it to work on this middleweight wort.

Efficiency was higher than expected, and we ended up with a slightly bigger beer than intended.  After a few weeks of age, though, it really melded well, combining bready, slightly crusty malt backbone with a subtle kiss of hops.  Once we got going on it, this one didn't last long.  I foresee a return to more balanced, sessionable beers in the coming months.

Best Bitter

Batch size: 12 gallons
Projected OG: 1.051
Projected SRM: 5.2
Projected IBU: 24.4
Boil time: 60 minutes
Brewhouse efficiency: 85%

Grains
94.7% - 18 lb Muntons Maris Otter
5.3% - 1 lb Weyermann Carared

Hops
1 oz Northern Brewer (9.6%) (60 min)
1 oz Bramling Cross (7.4%) (20 min)
1 oz Goldings (5.8%) (10 min)

Yeast
2 pkgs Nottingham, rehydrated

Extras
2 tablets Whirlfloc (15 min)

Brewday: 1 July 2013
Mash: 152F for 60 minutes
Mash pH: 5.96 - 2 ml Lactic acid added
Mashout @ 168F
Fly sparge
Pre-boil volume: 14.75 gallons

Fermented at 62F ambient.

Bottled: 12 July 2013
FG: 1.012
ABV: 5.1%
3 gallons bottled with 1.6 oz table sugar; remainder kegged.
Cold, uncarbed sample was a bit watery, but had a nice grainy/bready finish.