Straightforward · 20 litres · all grain
Best Bitter
The everyday English pint: bready malt, earthy hops, and a dry finish that asks for another. Low gravity, so there is nothing to hide behind.
Original gravity
1.042
at 72% efficiency
Final gravity
1.012
72% apparent attenuation
Alcohol
4.0%
by volume
Bitterness
30 IBU
Tinseth
Colour
8.7 SRM
17 EBC, Morey
Grain bill
3.85 kg
0.19 kg per litre
Brewed to Best Bitter, and all five computed figures land inside the published ranges for it.
OG inFG inABV inIBU inSRM inWhat decides this beer
Mash warm and do not over-attenuate. A bitter that finishes at 1.008 is thin and sad; the body is what makes a 4% beer satisfying.
Fermentables
| Malt | Weight | Colour | Extract | Of grist |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maris Otter Worth the premium here. The malt is the beer. | 3.35 kg | 3 L | 37 ppg | 87% |
| Crystal 60L | 0.35 kg | 60 L | 34 ppg | 9% |
| Torrified wheat Head retention. | 0.15 kg | 2 L | 36 ppg | 4% |
Colour and extract are read from the malt reference, not typed into this recipe, so they are the same figures every other page on the site uses.
Crushing your ownGrain mill$92.90Hop schedule
| Hop | Weight | Alpha | Time | Contributes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| East Kent Goldings | 38 g | 5% | 60 min | 23.5 IBU |
| East Kent Goldings | 20 g | 5% | 10 min | 4.5 IBU |
| Fuggle | 15 g | 4.5% | 5 min | 1.7 IBU |
Alpha acid varies by crop year and lot, which is why it lives on the recipe rather than on the variety. Brew to the figure printed on your packet and the bitterness will move; the IBU calculator will tell you by how much.
Method
- 01Mash at 67C for 60 minutes.
- 02Boil 60 minutes on the schedule above.
- 03Ferment at 19C. This strain flocculates hard, so rouse it gently on day three if the gravity stalls early.
- 04Package at a low carbonation, around 1.9 volumes. Fizzy bitter is wrong.
Numbers for the day
- Mash
- 67 C for 60 min
- Strike water at 3 L/kg
- 73.4 C
- Strike volume
- 11.6 L
- Boil
- 60 min
- Ferment
- 18-20 C
- Carbonate to
- 1.9 volumes
- Priming dextrose
- 81 g
- Yeast
- Yorkshire AleWyeast 1469
Strike temperature assumes grain at 20C and priming assumes the beer peaked at 20C after fermentation. Recompute both for your own kitchen on the strike and priming calculators.
For the mashDigital thermometer$12.31
For the fermentTemperature controller$36.00Before you package
Take a gravity reading two days apart and only package when it has not moved. A beer bottled while still fermenting keeps fermenting in the bottle, and the sugar you prime with lands on top of whatever was left. At 1.9 volumes this one needs about 81 g of dextrose for the batch.
To know it has finishedHydrometer and trial jar$21.99