Ordinary Greatness

It's always nice to keep a beer on tap that you can drink more than a few pints of and still remember to feed the dogs. English bitters are a great beer for that. For a long time I would never order an ordinary bitter or extra special bitter off of a beer menu because I always thought they were going to be, well...bitter. In fact they are usually much less bitter than a standard American pale ale having an average IBU of 25-35.

Since trying a few I thought it was time to throw one on tap. My plan was to shoot for a beer on the high end of the ordinary bitter style range but after hitting some really good efficiency on my new system I ended up with a wort more resembling a premium bitter, clocking in at 1.045.

Gregg and I made 10 gallons of this beer using imported ingredients that will resemble a beer that would get served to you in England. Although these are typically served from a cask, which I don't currently have, I plan to keep the carbonation low at around 1-1.5 volumes.

Brew day went well and we ended up with exactly 10 gallons of wort. To make things more interesting Gregg decided to pitch WLP 001 and I pitched S-04 English Ale yeast so that we could taste how each yeast effected the flavor of the final product.

Fermentation started within a few hours and was churning strongly by morning sitting right at 68*, ambient temps of 65*. One day into fermenting I slowly lowered the temps down to 65* to keep esters at a minimum. It was done within 3 days and had already flocullated and dropped out, S-04 is a workhorse!



Brewed 3/5/11

3/13/11 - FG 1.010 Tasted some diacetyl but it was very clear.

3/22/11 - Diacetyl was gone, Kegged.

Ordinary Greatness

13.3 LBS Maris Otter
8 oz Crystal 120L
4 oz Special B
1.5 oz Fuggles 60 min
.7 oz Fuggles 30 min
.6 oz East Kent Goldings 30 min
.4 oz East Kent Goldings 10 min
Irish moss 10 min
Yeast nutrient 10 min