Begin Brewing!

The finished bitter, bottled and labeled Another style I've never brewed, but always wanted to, is the standard English Bitter. This is a low-alcohol, slightly bitter, session beer enjoyed in many British pubs. I started with a bit of research on the style. I found two good articles, one in Craft Beer and Brewing Magazine , and one from BYO Magazine .  From these articles, I got some recommendations for formulating my own recipe: For the grist: Maris Otter should be the base malt Victory Malt Crystal Malt (up to 10% of the grist, 40L to 150L, use less if it's darker) Crystal 80-90L is common Special Roast Malt Biscuit Malt Specialty malts are what differentiate one brewer's bitter from another Simple sugars are not recommended, as they will thin out and dry the beer For hops: East Kent Goldings Fuggles Challenger Willamette Northdown BU/GU ratio from 0.7 to 0.9 30 IBUs is about right The bulk of the hopping should occur at the 60-minute mark A...

Looks a bit darker here than it really is My last Extra Special Bitter (ESB) used continual hopping with Styrian Goldings. This version abandons that (primarily because the Zymatic can't simulate it) in favor of four hop additions.  This version also includes an ounce of Special B to bump up the malt complexity slightly. I'll also use Wyeast Thames Valley Ale Yeast this time around because I'm already using half the package for the Manny's Pale Ale clone I'm brewing and it'll shave a little off the cost of this batch. According to Wyeast's web site, this is an appropriate ESB yeast.  I've also decided to add a few pellets of East Kent Goldings to bring a little bit of a familiar flavor to the beer without overwhelming it. Ingredients 3.5 pounds Maris Otter Malt 10 ounces Crystal 40L 7 ounces Crystal 60L 5 ounces Crystal 10L 5 ounces Victory malt 1 ounce Special B 0.30 ounces Styrian Goldings @ 6.3% AA (60 min.) 2 pellets East Kent Golding...