BeerSmith™ Recipe Cloud

Notes

Hink: Fat: Strong bitter, often referred to as English pale ale or Extra Special Bitter (ESB is the name of a beer from Fuller's, not really a style name) is an average to moderate strength English ale. A strong bitter should be firmly bitter by taste (often falling in the range of 30 to 50 IBUs), but the bitterness should not overpower the malt. Balance is important and most examples range from balanced to moderately bitter. While many commercial examples can be described as "hoppy," do not confuse this style with American pale ale. Strong bitter has more fermentation and malt character than American pale ale and the hop character is nothing like the big, bold hop character you find in many American-type pale ales. Moderate is the key word here and the hop character should be somewhat restrained and balanced, never overshadowing the fermentation and malt character. While there are some modern examples of strong bitter, called summer bitter, brewed with pale malt only, my feeling is that a proper English bitter must have at least a touch of caramel character. Even a small dose of crystal malt adds caramel notes, body, and helps fill out the malt flavors. The type of crystal malt also makes a difference. Darker color crystal malts add richer colors, as well as some dark caramel, toasty, roasted and raisin flavors. Lighter color crystal malts add sweeter caramel notes. The maximum crystal malt this style can handle without getting heavy and cloying is around 8 to 10% with a color range of 10 to 150 °L. However, the darker the crystal, the less you should use. A bitter with 10% 150 °L crystal malt may not be cloying, but it can be too intense a flavor for this style. On the flip side, a bitter with all light color crystal malt will tend to be sweet and lack depth of character. Some bitter recipes include other specialty malts. My favorites are Special Roast, Victory, biscuit and aromatic, but a fine bitter can be made without them. Commercial recipes range from including minimal, low-color specialty malt additions to considerable amounts of mid-color malts. Some commercial recipes also use a little chocolate or black malt for color. If you take this approach, the amount of highly kilned malt should be small enough that the flavor is not apparent in the finished beer. Use an ounce or two (28–57 g) at most in a 5-gallon (19-L) batch. Specialty malts are a big part of what differentiates one brewer's bitter from another, so feel free to experiment. If you do want to brew a summer bitter, just replace any specialty malts with more British pale ale malt.