#22 Ordinary Bitter

It's been a long wait for the Belgian Tripel to finish fermentation, and now that it's finally wrapping up activity, I was able to start the new strain of Wyeast 1968 London ESB yeast in an Ordinary Bitter. With all the additional sugar added and the high gravity of the Tripel, it took a while for me to see activity slow and was hesitant to take the beer out of the fermentation chamber too early. I think I'll let it settle out at basement temperatures and bottle it when I get a chance in 750 mL cork and cage bottles while saving the Trappist High Gravity strain for either a Dubbel or Dark Strong/Quad brew later this fall.

The Krausen on top of the Ordinary Bitter
after about 16 hours

Out of the yeast strains that I have used so far in my brewing, the 1968 London ESB strain is by far my favorite. If there was one strain I had to select as my "house" strain, the 1968 would be the one I would go with. I used it last fall to brew a Porter (Deschutes Black Butte clone) and a strong ESB. Both came out fantastic with a slighly sweet finish, very silky, malty, nice fruit flavors, and just overall great beers for fall and winter drinking. This time around I want to use the strain as much as possible, and I'm hoping to step this strain up starting with the low gravity Ordinary Bitter, then progressing to a Porter, and finishing with the same strong ESB recipe I created last year.

"Double-dropping" the Ordinary Bitter
into a second fermenter

Last summer I brewed an Ordinary Bitter with the Thames Valley strain and after hearing about the "Double-Drop" method of fermentation used by the brewers at Brakespear for their Ordinary Bitter, I chose to do the same. Although I made the beer undrinkable with an overzealous addition of gypsum salt, I could taste a nice, unique, and what I thought to be English fruit and malt character in the beer. This could be due to the yeast alone, but I'd like to see what the double drop does to this year's Ordinary Bitter. The beer's been at about 66-67 F overnight and has formed about an inch of Krausen. After "droping" the beer into another fermenting bucket, the beer and active yeast were able to separate from any trub that made it into the fermenter from the boil kettle. I splashed the first gallon of the wort coming from the fermenter into the bottom of the new fermenting bucket, adding additional oxygen into the wort to allow for a unique fermentation. The theory is that adding additional oxygen after fermentation has begun will allow for additional growth of yeast, additional ester production and thus those fruity flavors, and will put yeast cells on different cycles of aerobic metabolism, anaerobic fermentation, and conditioning. I'm hoping this yeast responds well to this process and if not, I'll likely give this beer another shot either before or after brewing up the Porter.

I also plan on trying to serve this beer in a way at least partially resembling a traditional English cask. I'll transfer to the keg, with priming sugar (and hopefully some finings if I can get some before that time), allow that to carbonate and condition, and either serve with a small amount of CO2 at my basement temperature, or serve from the kegerator at slightly colder temps.

Ordinary Bitter

Batch Volume (Gal): 6.0

Pre-Boil Volume (Gal): collected 4.0 of wort, 

     topped up to 6.0 before boil

Total Grain (Lbs): 8.34

OG: 1.036   Anticipated FG: ~1.009   Anticipated ABV: ~3.54%

IBUs: 32.9

SRM: 13.6

Brewhouse Efficiency: 70%

Boil Duration: 95 min

Grain                             (Lbs/oz.) (%)

Pearl (British) 2-row         7        84.0

Crystal 120                       15 oz.    11.5

Special Roast Malt           6 oz.     4.5

Hops                          (AA%) (IBU) (Oz.) (Boil[min])

East Kent Goldings   4.5      25.4    1.25         90

East Kent Goldings   4.5       7.5      0.8         30

East Kent Goldings   4.5        0      0.75          0

Yeast

Pitched Wyeast Activator packet of 1968 London ESB yeast directly into wort

Water

Ca: 100 Mg: 2 SO4: 205 Na: 10 Cl: 29 HCO3: 45

Mash Schedule

Single Infusion   60 min 150 F (aimed for 152-153 F), 10 min mashout at 165 F

In Mash: 5 g CaSO4, 0.5 g NaHCO3, 1 mL Lactic Acid; pH ~5.1-5.2

In Boil: 3 g CaSO4, 1 g CaCl2

Relative to my experience brewing the Tripel, this brewday went great. The only number that I had hoped to hit but failed to was my mash temp. I'm not sure this will be a huge issue for the final beer since there are many variables that could have produced a more dextrinous beer even before I had a lower mash temp, so I'll just have to see how this beer ferments out. I also could have done with a bit more yeast (1.2 packets of yeast or made a starter instead of just pitching one) but I'm sure this beer will ferment fine with the yeast I added. If anything it'll make for a beer that is a bit fruitier and finishes a bit higher, which with my lower than desired mash temp, could be a good thing.

The new "hands-off" grain mill setup

After a few brews with plenty of frustration due to my grain mill, I think I've finally found a happy medium between wet and dry milling. I realized that I have been using a bit too much water to condition my malt before milling and that has just turned my malt into dough on the rollers, causing them to bind up and in essence creating mush instead of grist. I only used about 100 mL of water for this particular grain bill (the suggested rate is about 100 mL per 11 lbs of grain) and it worked beautifully. With some additional time for the grain husks to absorb the water I sprayed before milling, the grist was crushed very easily without having to stop halfway through milling and without any dough buildup on the rollers. The grist looked just as great as it has when I've wet milled properly as well; very pillowy with the majority of grain husks left intact and the starch ground into both large and smaller particles. Hopefully this wet milling process will work with some future brews as wet milling is something I'd really like to continue using as part of my brewing process.

Once this Ordinary Bitter ferments (hopefully within the week) I plan on brewing a Porter with the 1968 strain and then possibly continuing the Trappist High Gravity strain with another strong Belgian ale. It'll be good to have another beer on tap (or "cask") as my supplies of homebrew are dwindling and I need a sessionable beer before football season is over.