Strong Bitter Tasting

Extra Strong, Extra Special

It's a glorious hot summer's day in sunny Manchester so the perfect opportunity to drink a chilled glass of Extra Strong/Special Bitter (ESB).

Hazy!

This is the beer I brewed on 9th June (recipe here) and took to Manchester Beer Week Homebrew Expo after only two weeks conditioning. Ideally I should have left it for a few more weeks so after more than four weeks in bottles I think it's time for another taste.

Disappointingly it's still a bit hazy but that aside I am very pleased with this. At 5.1% abv it has a bit of a boozy kick but is still very drinkable, which is a slight worry as it's not exactly a session ale. It's not hoppy, but neither is it too bitter at 35 IBU's. The malt flavours are more prevalent but it's not too sweet, overall a very pleasant, traditional style ESB.

Clear!

Quick update, after another four weeks the beer is now crystal clear! Once again standard homebrewing rules apply; if it's not right at first just leave it for a while, it won't get any worse and might just improve.

Bottling - Strong Bitter

No Caps!

Time to bottle the Strong Bitter brewed on the 9th of July. Fortunately I realised just before starting that I only had silver caps which I'd already used on my Best Bitter previously. Since I normally can't be arsed with labels I tend to use different coloured caps to distinguish between beers, especially important for two beers similar in colour. So after a quick trip to the local homebrew shop I was ready. The final gravity was 1.010 (exactly as forecast) - giving me 5.1% abv. I filled 28 x 330ml , 21 x 500ml and one 750ml swing top as I almost ran out of bottles.

Brewday - 09/06/2017 Strong Bitter

Leftover Beer

I had sufficient spare ingredients left for one more brew, so I decided to make a strong bitter.

Recipe (BIAB):

• Mash for 1 hr at 67°C
• Boil for 60 mins
• Mash water volume 30lt
• Maris Otter 4.4kg
• Crystal Malt 150g
• Carapils 140g
• Chocolate malt 12g 
• Saaz 50g (60 mins)
• Saaz 25g (15 mins)
• Goldings 20g (15 mins)
• Cluster 20g (15 mins)
• Irish Moss 1 tsp (15 mins)
• Goldings 22g (at turn off)
• Gervin GV12 English Ale Yeast 11g pack
• Cluster 22g (dry hopped 4 days)
• Recipe in Brewers Friend

Results:

I got 23lt in the fermenter, the OG was 1.050 (slightly higher than expected!) and hopefully it should finish around 1.010 (5.1% abv) with 35 IBU's.

 Fermentation is going well!