Wet-Hopped Ordinary Bitter

I feel lucky to have next-door neighbours who are avid beer drinkers, particularly living where we do.  The husband prefers his tipple light and balanced, while the wife likes hers all over the map, strength and style wise.  They've reacted very enthusiastically to everything I've shared with them, and have returned in kind with some of their local commercial favourites.  This summer they generously volunteered to water my hop bines in our long absence.  I was able to give the hops one pruning before we left; I wasn't going to further burden friends who were already doing me such a big favour.

Upon returning to town, we found the hops in prime shape, ready to be picked.  The thing was, I couldn't tell what was what; the three separate plants had spent the summer growing up and out, tangling together inextricably.  That's what happens, obviously, when you're not on hand to continually prune and sort out the bines as they grow; I just wasn't expecting this level of entanglement, as last year they weren't too tough to separate.  I'd planned on doing an ordinary bitter with the wet Goldings and Willamettes, but since it was impossible to separate them from the Centennials, DeAunn and I picked them all together and into the brewpot they went.

With the success of the ultra-simple recipe for this summer's best bitter, I went much the same route with this English-style beer.  All Maris Otter base, with under a pound of British crystal for residual sweetness.  A little bit of UK bittering hops at the start of the boil, then all those fresh, wet hops at the end.  It's always enjoyable to see all of those green cones swimming in the kettle.  Last year's dry Willamettes went in for dry hop.

Starting so small, this bitter didn't take long to ferment, and I was pouring it under a month from brewday.  This turned out to be another reminder of why I should brew more session beers: the first glass begs for the next, and at 3.3% that doesn't become a problem.  It turned out maybe a little drier that I would've liked, so I'll increase the crystal or raise the mash temp a couple degrees next time.  I can't complain about the drinkability, though, with a bit of crackery malt meshing well with the slight mineral flavour from the yeast.  The one letdown was the lack of hop presence; the bittering is nicely balanced, but for all of that vegetable matter that went in late, there's not a lot going on in the nose.  That being said, it's an exceptionally fine, restrained beer that I've pretty much decimated by this point.  And I got the reaction I'd hoped to receive from my neighbours; while they're always appreciative, this beer went over VERY well, especially with the husband.  I won't lie: it's nice to hit the bullseye.

Wet Hop ‘13 - Ordinary bitter with all the hops straight off the bines

Batch size: 6 gallons
Projected OG: 1.036
Projected SRM: 7.5
Projected IBU: 30.8
Boil time: 60 minutes
Brewhouse efficiency: 85%

Grains
90.3% - 6 lb Maris Otter
9.7% - 12 oz British medium crystal

Hops
.5 oz Phoenix (10.2%) (60 min)
11.1 oz Wet homegrown 2013 hops (Willamette/Centennial/Goldings) (10 min)
4.7 oz Homegown 2012 Willamette (dry hop - 10 days)

Yeast
WY1469 West Yorkshire Ale - 1 qt starter on stirplate

Extras

Irish moss (10 min)

Water additions (mash)
10 qts RO water
1 g Gypsum
1 g Baking soda
1 g CaCl

Brewday: 25 August 2013
Mash: 154F for 60 minutes
Pre-boil volume: 7.3 gallons
Pre-boil SG: 7.2P (1.029)

Fermented in swamp cooler; started at 65F, rose to 67F.

28 August 2013: Visible (via airlock) fermentation complete; removed from swamp cooler & left at ambient temp (~70F) to finish.  Krausen still present the next day; agitated fermenter to encourage flocculation.

Dry hop: 2 September 2013
Took some work to get the whole-cone hops wetted and working on submerged.  Sample I snuck tasted excellent.

Bottled: 12 September 2013
FG: 1.010
ABV: 3.3%

Bottled with 3.2 oz table sugar.