Another great video. Love the detail and afaic the length is just fine, no worries there unless longer videos are more of a pain to edit and upload. Your love of this particular beer really shined through on this one, so hell, no reason not to give it a 10. It really looked delicious and has prompted me to consider brewing this one towards summer. And if I do I may filch your recipe. BTW, you usually have a Union College t-shirt on, did you graduate from there? My sister-in-law did.....a looooong time ago. Cheers!!
@@TheApartmentBrewer Finally got around to brewing this. Kegged a week ago. I followed your recipe, scaled to my set up, with the only change being Lallemand dry London ESB yeast. Finished a bit high at 1.016 for 4.1% but tastes great. Definitely not clear like yours but hopefully time will help. Thanks for the recipe!!
For one summer I lived in Hounslow near a Fullers’ pub. My bus stop was just in front of it. ESB on cask was my favorite. These seem like simple ales, but they are not easy to home brew well. Make sure you use English ingredients to ensure success.
When living in London I got used to cask bitters and they've since been one of my favorite type of beers. And yes the low abv is a good thing when you live in a culture where you go to the pub for hours most days of the week 😊 It took a few pints to get used to. At first I was not impressed. Thought it was flat and not interesting. But it wins you over quite fast. Love it today.
As a British ex-pat, the non-negotiable requirement for a good bitter (they don't travel well I'm afraid) is why I got into home-brew. Several years later I've brewed many different styles, but the English bitter is is a beer I keep coming back to and remains a crowd-pleaser for all guests regardless of nationality. I really liked the way that you emphasized that despite the name, this style is not "bitter" as such; in fact, this style is ALL ABOUT the complementary balance between the light biscuity malts and the subtle floral hops. That balance has to be just right, so that different flavours gently come through at different times as you drink. Your particular brew looks delicious. The colour looks spot-on. Your malt selection and proportions are great, though you could try swapping our the crystal for Munich cara if you can get hold of that instead. Fuggles is a great finishing / whirlpool hop, but another great and authentic option is East Kent Goldings. I often combine the two for a more complex aroma/flavour. Your yeast choice is perfect, but I've switched over to using Verdant IPA yeast (Lallemand isolated it from a brewery in Cornwall, England) as a reharvested house strain for most beers these days - it is quite fruity and rips through fermentation. You are right about relatively low carbonation (much less than a larger) allowing the flavours to shine through and increasing drinkability, but you could carbonate a little more so there is a loose (large bubble) head sitting on the beer for the first 5 minutes or so that can be re-invigorated by swirling the glass three or for times. Awww, I've just talked myself into brewing one of these . Looks like I'm buying malt this afternoon. Cheers!
As an Englishman Best Bitter is my natural home. Literally grew-up drinking it. I think yours hit the nail right on the head. You've gained the tenth point by using a beer engine in other vids!
Greetings from the UK. I'm born and bred in East Kent, England and a great lover of proper English bitter, especially on cask - another great characteristic of English ale. I have one in the fermenter right now! Don't get me wrong, I love all styles and craft beer. But bitter is what I was brought up on. It's in my DNA! Great video as always.
English bitter was my first taste of real beer. It was made by a Scottish brewer, in Fort Collins, Colorado, in the late 80s. I instantly fell in love. Since then, I've tried to find a beer that resembled that basic bitter, to no avail. So, against my better judgement (lol), looks like I'm getting back into brewing after almost 30 years. My goal is something I read from the Papazian book; a basic bitter that's cask-conditioned and served barely below room temperature. At least, that's my memory of it. I'm guessing that my focus needs to be on the grain, the hops, and the yeast, to even come close to the desired character. Much experimenting lies ahead. And now I need to buy equipment all over again (but no glass carboys!).
Also, I had my first IPA from this brewpub (Coopersmith's). You know what? IT WAS BALANCED. My giant complaint about IPAs generally is that now they all seem to be hops, hops, hops.
British cask ales are my favorites and I love Best Bitter! Based on your description, I’d say you did a 10 out of 10, especially without casking it! Thanks for the recipe and instructions!
Definitely want to try this as an Brit living in the USA. Absolutely correct about the carbonation, also consumed at warmer temps. Yours looks absolutely fantastic
I love your videos! And I think it's clear when you like a beer! When you take that tasting drink you get a sincere smile on your face and that does it for me whether and how much you like the beer! Thank for making these!
Really enjoyed this video! As an Englishman it's quite refreshing to hear someone over the Pond make and give tasting notes on an English beer 😊 New subscriber here and a thumbs up!
Brewed a second batch of this recipe a few weeks ago and it's an absolute banger of a beer. 1st time we had carbonation issues during bottling, but this time around I simply baptized my new keg and carbonated it from a tank. It's amazing.
Excellent video. It's good to see people brewing British ales. I mostly brew English ales and Belgian styles since both, but especially the British, are hard to find in the US. Bitters don't travel well, so the Fuller's you had is nothing like it is on cask in London.
Kinda late to this, but just tried my first bitter, inspired by your recipe, with marris otter, fawcett red caramel malt and biscuit malt, east kent goldings and challenger, and mangrove jack's m36 (thames valley strain I think). And wow, easily one of my best beers. So good, such complex malt, yeast, and hop flavours. It came out way too high in alcohol, 6'5%, and is DANGEROUS. It is absolutely chuggable despite having a smidge more alcohol than most chuggable beers. Didn't clear because I naturally carbonate my mini kegs and there's not floating dip tube for it hahah. But man, so good! I have in the works an english IPA based on your last recipe. Cheers from Spain and thanks for your recipes and work Steve!
Looks very tasty! I've brewed some ESB's lately, and one thing i'll continue doing is using Fullers fermentation regime. Pitch at 17 C. Let it increase 1 degree a day untill its at 20c and let it stay there until it's 50% done. Then decrease the temp back down to 17c and let it ride out. As soon as u reach final gravity, drop the temp down to 6c. The yeast will then hibernate and won't be able to clean up the ester u really want for this syle of beer.
Thanks for doing this. A good basis to start from would be Timothy Taylor, with their styles. The American micro explosion seems to be making up for years of producing Budweiser Coors etc. And it's way out of balance for me. Centuries of brewing have resulted in the beer styles of Europe for a reason. Sociability balanced with taste and sessionability. I mean many of the new American ales that get the most praise have IBU'S levels of 150 - 1000! The taste buds cannot discern taste after around 110. If it's not melting your tongue off, it's a beer of little worth it seems to American beer aficionado these days. And this mind set is dominating the market .
Excellent video. Thanks for putting this on here. When I have a beer at home, I like my bitter/Pale ale at 12 degrees C from my beer fridge. I'm not sure what temperature it'd be on draught at my local, but I think it'd be similarly cooled. Cheers from Wiltshire, England.
Maybe interesting to know that another yeast for English Bitter is Wyeast 1469 (West Yorkshire) which is the actual strain they use in the Timothy Taylor brewery in West Yorkshire. Timothy Taylors is a very popular brewery in the UK and their Landlord is a classic of the style. In the UK there are all grain Landlord kits but there are also recipes online.
Just brewed your recipe. Thank you. I’m an ex pat who is very beer home sick. Keep up your great channel and we appreciate your enthusiasm to the craft.
Love your videos. My suggestions: 1. Put the ingredients and brewing profile on the screen as opposed to the notebook. 2. Skip the part about the actually brewing steps just shorts clips as people are familiar with mashing, boiling, etc. Overall very good job!
@@TheApartmentBrewer not too much "skipping" lol dont forget there are still newbie brewers out there who love to take on board everything. . It really depends on how much hassle it is to you is what i say 🍺🍺
Please correct me if I'm wrong... BJCP changed the name of the ESB in 2015 because Fuller's Brewing Company has been found to own the trademark to ESB. They changed the category to British Bitter with the Sub-Categories being Ordinary Bitter, Best Bitter, and Strong Bitter... The only reason I know this is because it's my literal favourite style of beer. :D
Great video. Love your approach to brewing. But please tell me we’re you got your hands on the 0,5 l Mack brewery glass your drinking out of?? Been to Tromø?? The northernmost mainland brewery in the world.
Just getting into your channel as a noob to homebrewing - I’m enjoying your content very much, so thank you for it all and long may it continue! As a Brit I think that looks and sounds like a good solid pint, but as you mentioned cask conditioning I think that would be one way to improve it if you were inclined to do so, especially if you serve it using and old-style beer pump. My experience of bitters and British ales (I’ve drank more than a few in my time!!) is that they really do benefit from this. Not taking anything away from you, of course but it’s something to consider for the style of beer. Keep up the great work and content! Cheers 🍻
I would love to, but it is so difficult and very expensive to get a cask setup going on a homebrew scale unfortunately. Glad you enjoyed the video though!
Great channel. I'm English and there is a lot of very mediocre bitter and best out there, but a good one is very enjoyable (Marble of Manchester Pint is a good example).
Just saying, can’t speak for everyone, but I enjoy the longer detailed videos. Being a home brewer myself it’s interesting to watch the process others are doing with different equipment and such. 🍺🍺cheers
I am a loyal subscriber and love your videos! I am only a few all-grain brew days into this hobby, but I have been brewing “beers” for a couple of years for “other purposes”. As a fellow engineer I am very interested in the “hows” and “whys” of home brewing which you do an excellent job explaining. Length of your videos is just fine by me! Many thanks.
I would like to see how you come up with a recipe and how you work out the amounts of grain,what sort of grain,hops,etc for that style of beer. Also what water profile you go for to suit the beer style you're brewing and how you adjust the salts you add to get to your desired target.
I'm 62 years old and from South East London. I must say it looks and sounds like (from your tasting notes) the beers I I've known and enjoyed all my life. If you're in London try Fuller's London pride and Fuller's ESB from the cast !! 👌
I love your videos with the details and reasons on your procedure and planning. I am a new home brewer, with my 5th batch just brewed last weekend, and planning for my next three brewing. Just ordered my new batch of malts and yeasts.. I will be bottling my ESB tomorrow, but I prefer to change things in my recipees. It is a bit more abv and a bit more hops.. For suggestions, you may try 7-7-7 minute video if you wanna shorten.. Entry info and planning / brewing / tasting and ending.. Wish you all stay safe at your home..
So chuffed you like the style. I’m drinking a bitter home brewed with a West Yorkshire yeast strain - Admittedly I’m from Yorkshire so a little bias but nevertheless it’s a great beer. Tonnes of malt, balanced bitterness and great mouthfeel. I also under carbonate this style, it’s the closest I can get to ‘pub cask beer’
Very much enjoy your informative videos! It's helpful to know what to look for in every beer style. If I were to be overly critical, it would be that I'm not a huge fan of some of your background music. Maybe it's just the volume? Sometimes I find myself turning down the volume until I anticipate you speaking again. Stay safe!
Unfortunately traveling to the mountains for outdoor activities is canceled for a while, at least until everything calms down. But theres still brewing!
So there is no mashout at a higher temperature with this recipe? I plan on brewing this in 1-2 weeks. I never had a Bitter before, maybe I should try a bought one before in order to be able to judge the outcome
@@TheApartmentBrewer since we're not going to halve the yeast, that makes me wonder, is it possible to have too large of a yeast starter? Or are there times that you'd intentionally not make one?
I have purchased the ingredients for this one for my next brew. I don’t know if you’ve endorsed one of your recipes as highly as this one, so I am excited to try it. First time trying one of your recipes, and I’m looking forward to it.
@@TheApartmentBrewer I have this fermenting now. The wort sample tasted great. The yeast took a long time to take off. The smack pack took almost a whole day to START to swell. Fingers crossed!
Looks great that mate,I love how you've brewed an English bitter and even put it in a classic english pub glass,I'm looking to brew more english bitters and ales this year,I'm brewing a brown ale next week,hopefully close to a newcastle brown ale clone. I'll try get some footage and will give you a shoutout on my next vid too. Another great video as usual mate. Cheers stay safe 🍻🍺
Next level up is to brew a Best Bitter in a Cask/Bag in box system and run it off a beer engine. Makes a world of difference, especially with a sparkler to give it a head that is nearly identical to a nitro pour.
For this beer can you talk about why you went with higher sulfates than chlorides? Not knowing anything myself, I’d expect higher Cl for a more malt-forward beer like this accentuate mouthfeel maybe?
Thats a great question actually. Yes, it does seem counterintuitive, but this adds some of that "flinty" character that english ales are known for. Even though its not "bitter" by todays standards, you should still get some hop character. A malt-forward profile can make this type of beer too sweet and unbalanced.
@@TheApartmentBrewer Interesting, makes sense. After thinking more it sounds like 'drinkability' of a pub ale or table ale (is that even a thing?) would mean you may not want that creamy/fullest body and something with a little more balance I suppose. Thanks for the info, keep it up, I'm learning a lot!
Got them on Amazon, there should be a link to them somewhere in the description. I just force carbonate with a lower pressure than my other beers and shut off the gas supply to that keg via distributor. When it starts pouring too slow, I'll just re pressurize the keg with serving pressure. I am in southern NH, yes.
Looking to brew this recipe this weekend, thanks for the details. Are you able to share what method you use to carbonate? This is only my second brew and that was a struggle the first time. We used table sugar and some of the beers we bottled were perfect but there was a wide variety of carbonation levels that we had while drinking the batch. Thanks and happy new year!
I believe I kegged this one but when bottle conditioning the best way to get consistent carbonation between bottles is to mix priming sugar solution into the whole batch of beer before transferring to bottles, that way every bottle.gets basically the same amount
Plenty of 10 min brew videos out there. I like the length of yours in that sense, that's your style. I like your tasting notes. Idk, not much I would change. I've had a hard time with high flocking UK yeasts. A oatmeal stout with wlp002 and a porter with wlp007 both got stuck. (The oatmeal stout actually made bottle volcanoes...). Any tips to fully attenuate those?
Thanks, I'm glad you appreciate the details! As far as attenuation the biggest things I've found that help are making sure you have sufficient oxygen and pitch rate. Then if you want to really squeeze all the attenuation you can get out of it, ramping up the temp over the course of fermentation will help a lot. Good luck!
I’m considering using a burton water profile for an ordinary bitter. But it just seems that So4 at 725ppm and HCO3 at 300 is just a little outrageous, thoughts?
That might get a bit nuts, you definitely want it to be high mineral content but that might get a bit too flinty. Maybe try brewing two batches with different water profiles to see what you like?
Editing process is great, i don't think you need to cut stuff out. I'd be curious to see a speed challenge for brewing. Genus logged 3 hours for all grain in one of their videos.
Love all your detailed videos! If you like exploring English style, have a look at English Golden Ale. Super easy to brew and always a crowd favorite with friends and family here. Brew on, Mate!
when I lived in England my exes dad used to make fun of me when I would order a Best Beer. I liked them but apparently theyre kinda lowly in some places. I reallyyyy miss the beer there. I much prefer the beer there but it is where I learned to like beer so I might be partial
ehh watched your kveik video last night before doing up a batch of an ordinary bitter almost hit the Burton-on-Trent water profile to the tee they're ripping after 4 hrs 2 gal @90F (< 1/8th pitch), 3 gal @72F (7/8th pitch) thanks for the info, cheers
Looks like a great beer and great recipe! How did you decide on the water profile and what did it bring to the beer? We did a high chloride bitter this past summer in an attempt to enhance malt flavors and I didn't much care for that. Looking at doing a high sulfate this next time but maybe not as much and certainly not as high as Burton on Trent.
My process is to basically see what other people have has success with and then tailor that to my own city water supply profile. I'm happy with the water chemistry I used on this beer because despite the SO4/Cl ratio it is still quite balanced. I would imagine that the unique biscuit character would be overwhelming with a high Cl level. And even with high sulfate, English hops seem to be quite tame. Never tried full on burton on trent, but most advice I have seen is to avoid directly copying the city water profiles and just use them as guidelines, in fact Palmer himself has said this. Cheers, and definitely looking forward to what you guys come up with - love your videos!
Just brewed this on Thursday following your video my ph seemed a bit high + didn't have any Gypsum to lower it, anyway it was bubbling away Thursday night all day Friday but it seemed to have become stuck on Saturday I panicked and went off and bought more yeast added it and it started again untill today when it had stopped again. I then checked my gravity and it seems it's already at final gravity should I keg it or leave it another few days? Just seems it was a bit quick to ferment?
Left it for another week and it had totally finished ( I used a different yeast) kegged it and just had my 1st drink today and it's a very nice bitter so thank you for your very informative videos 🙂
I think your videos are great, and full of info. I don't see a problem on the length of the videos, but if you really want to make shorter videos, maybe you could do a voice over of the ingredients while we see the process, like saying the malt percentages while you're pouring it into the mash water. Keep on going, man! Greetings from Mexico city, and happy quarantine, i watch your videos(since I have no ingredients to brew right now), among other stuff, to get through.
Might be a mash temperature thing as well. 1.022 is pretty common with english yeasts if theres any maltotriose in there, a switch to nottingham yeast should solve that issue for you
I think you can shorten the detail of the brew itself to some degree. It's interesting to hear the recipe, watch short clips of the brew/problems encountered, and see the tasting. But I think the recipe and tasting are most interesting for viewers. Thanks the for videos, gonna brew this bitter next!
Got this cold crashing ATM. I tasted it before and it was a bit like marmite/Vegemite... This normal..? Hoping it sorts itself out with crashing. Cheers Paul
Thanks mate, just tasted again after cold crash and getting better but still there. I'll update you after first one out keg. (They are yeasty in taste)
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Another great video. Love the detail and afaic the length is just fine, no worries there unless longer videos are more of a pain to edit and upload. Your love of this particular beer really shined through on this one, so hell, no reason not to give it a 10. It really looked delicious and has prompted me to consider brewing this one towards summer. And if I do I may filch your recipe. BTW, you usually have a Union College t-shirt on, did you graduate from there? My sister-in-law did.....a looooong time ago. Cheers!!
Yup, thats my alma mater! Thanks for the kind words, and my recipe is in the description for a reason - I absolutely encourage you to use it!
@@TheApartmentBrewer Finally got around to brewing this. Kegged a week ago. I followed your recipe, scaled to my set up, with the only change being Lallemand dry London ESB yeast. Finished a bit high at 1.016 for 4.1% but tastes great. Definitely not clear like yours but hopefully time will help. Thanks for the recipe!!
@@MrThesem Time always helps!
Most people think they messed up their brew, but just waiting seems to right a lot of wrongs.
@@crabmansteve6844 Exactly. Mine cleared up just like Steve's and was delicious. I can see this one being in my regular rotation.
English bitters are the reason I started home-brewing. I was stationed there for four years in the 80’s and loved their bitters.
For one summer I lived in Hounslow near a Fullers’ pub. My bus stop was just in front of it. ESB on cask was my favorite. These seem like simple ales, but they are not easy to home brew well. Make sure you use English ingredients to ensure success.
As an Englishman, I can say with sincerity, you nailed it!
Have the same beer glass, that brewery is from my hometown 🍻 cheers
When living in London I got used to cask bitters and they've since been one of my favorite type of beers. And yes the low abv is a good thing when you live in a culture where you go to the pub for hours most days of the week 😊
It took a few pints to get used to. At first I was not impressed. Thought it was flat and not interesting. But it wins you over quite fast. Love it today.
As a British ex-pat, the non-negotiable requirement for a good bitter (they don't travel well I'm afraid) is why I got into home-brew. Several years later I've brewed many different styles, but the English bitter is is a beer I keep coming back to and remains a crowd-pleaser for all guests regardless of nationality. I really liked the way that you emphasized that despite the name, this style is not "bitter" as such; in fact, this style is ALL ABOUT the complementary balance between the light biscuity malts and the subtle floral hops. That balance has to be just right, so that different flavours gently come through at different times as you drink. Your particular brew looks delicious. The colour looks spot-on. Your malt selection and proportions are great, though you could try swapping our the crystal for Munich cara if you can get hold of that instead. Fuggles is a great finishing / whirlpool hop, but another great and authentic option is East Kent Goldings. I often combine the two for a more complex aroma/flavour. Your yeast choice is perfect, but I've switched over to using Verdant IPA yeast (Lallemand isolated it from a brewery in Cornwall, England) as a reharvested house strain for most beers these days - it is quite fruity and rips through fermentation. You are right about relatively low carbonation (much less than a larger) allowing the flavours to shine through and increasing drinkability, but you could carbonate a little more so there is a loose (large bubble) head sitting on the beer for the first 5 minutes or so that can be re-invigorated by swirling the glass three or for times. Awww, I've just talked myself into brewing one of these . Looks like I'm buying malt this afternoon. Cheers!
This is an awesome comment! I think I need to brew another one of these!
As an Englishman Best Bitter is my natural home. Literally grew-up drinking it. I think yours hit the nail right on the head. You've gained the tenth point by using a beer engine in other vids!
Sounds perfect. English ales are my favorite, I wish they were more prominent in the United States. Nice!
Greetings from the UK. I'm born and bred in East Kent, England and a great lover of proper English bitter, especially on cask - another great characteristic of English ale. I have one in the fermenter right now! Don't get me wrong, I love all styles and craft beer. But bitter is what I was brought up on. It's in my DNA! Great video as always.
Glad you enjoyed it! I've got to do more English Pale Ales!
English bitter was my first taste of real beer. It was made by a Scottish brewer, in Fort Collins, Colorado, in the late 80s. I instantly fell in love. Since then, I've tried to find a beer that resembled that basic bitter, to no avail. So, against my better judgement (lol), looks like I'm getting back into brewing after almost 30 years. My goal is something I read from the Papazian book; a basic bitter that's cask-conditioned and served barely below room temperature. At least, that's my memory of it. I'm guessing that my focus needs to be on the grain, the hops, and the yeast, to even come close to the desired character. Much experimenting lies ahead. And now I need to buy equipment all over again (but no glass carboys!).
Also, I had my first IPA from this brewpub (Coopersmith's). You know what? IT WAS BALANCED. My giant complaint about IPAs generally is that now they all seem to be hops, hops, hops.
British cask ales are my favorites and I love Best Bitter! Based on your description, I’d say you did a 10 out of 10, especially without casking it! Thanks for the recipe and instructions!
As an English rookie homebrewer, I greatly appreciated this video. This style of beer is my favourite and you have earned my subscription for sure!
Awesome! I'm really happy you're enjoying it, thank you for the sub!
Definitely want to try this as an Brit living in the USA.
Absolutely correct about the carbonation, also consumed at warmer temps.
Yours looks absolutely fantastic
I brewed this 5 weeks ago and it turned out amazing! Thanks for the recipe. Your videos are great!
I love your videos! And I think it's clear when you like a beer! When you take that tasting drink you get a sincere smile on your face and that does it for me whether and how much you like the beer! Thank for making these!
Would love to see you try this again in the future in the cask style with a brew in bag.
Really enjoyed this video! As an Englishman it's quite refreshing to hear someone over the Pond make and give tasting notes on an English beer 😊
New subscriber here and a thumbs up!
Awesome, glad you enjoyed it and cheers!
Brewed a second batch of this recipe a few weeks ago and it's an absolute banger of a beer.
1st time we had carbonation issues during bottling, but this time around I simply baptized my new keg and carbonated it from a tank.
It's amazing.
Excellent video. It's good to see people brewing British ales. I mostly brew English ales and Belgian styles since both, but especially the British, are hard to find in the US. Bitters don't travel well, so the Fuller's you had is nothing like it is on cask in London.
Nice work, I love english ales. Here in australia we have lots of loosely british heritage but surprisingly we have not adopted their beers at all.
Think that must be for climate reasons only really?
Kinda late to this, but just tried my first bitter, inspired by your recipe, with marris otter, fawcett red caramel malt and biscuit malt, east kent goldings and challenger, and mangrove jack's m36 (thames valley strain I think). And wow, easily one of my best beers. So good, such complex malt, yeast, and hop flavours. It came out way too high in alcohol, 6'5%, and is DANGEROUS. It is absolutely chuggable despite having a smidge more alcohol than most chuggable beers. Didn't clear because I naturally carbonate my mini kegs and there's not floating dip tube for it hahah. But man, so good! I have in the works an english IPA based on your last recipe. Cheers from Spain and thanks for your recipes and work Steve!
Looks very tasty! I've brewed some ESB's lately, and one thing i'll continue doing is using Fullers fermentation regime.
Pitch at 17 C. Let it increase 1 degree a day untill its at 20c and let it stay there until it's 50% done. Then decrease the temp back down to 17c and let it ride out. As soon as u reach final gravity, drop the temp down to 6c. The yeast will then hibernate and won't be able to clean up the ester u really want for this syle of beer.
Cool idea! Basically stopping short and then lagering a bit. May have to try that next time I do something similar to this
@@TheApartmentBrewer You won't regret it. I am sure you know, but have suckbackin mind when dropping temp down to 6c.
Thanks!
Your pint of bitter looks so appealing I just had to make a copy of your recipe, Thanks from England.
I'm going to make this over the weekend. Thank you.
lived near oxford for 3 years in a neighborhood called botley hill and the hook norton bitter was my favorite
looks absolutely delicious, with the fine british malts, the colors perfect, enjoy.......cheers
Thanks for doing this. A good basis to start from would be Timothy Taylor, with their styles.
The American micro explosion seems to be making up for years of producing Budweiser Coors etc. And it's way out of balance for me. Centuries of brewing have resulted in the beer styles of Europe for a reason. Sociability balanced with taste and sessionability.
I mean many of the new American ales that get the most praise have IBU'S levels of 150 - 1000! The taste buds cannot discern taste after around 110. If it's not melting your tongue off, it's a beer of little worth it seems to American beer aficionado these days. And this mind set is dominating the market .
Excellent video. Thanks for putting this on here. When I have a beer at home, I like my bitter/Pale ale at 12 degrees C from my beer fridge. I'm not sure what temperature it'd be on draught at my local, but I think it'd be similarly cooled. Cheers from Wiltshire, England.
Maybe interesting to know that another yeast for English Bitter is Wyeast 1469 (West Yorkshire) which is the actual strain they use in the Timothy Taylor brewery in West Yorkshire. Timothy Taylors is a very popular brewery in the UK and their Landlord is a classic of the style. In the UK there are all grain Landlord kits but there are also recipes online.
Yes! I will be looking into brewing with that strain when I do more bitters in the future
A nice bitter is always enjoyable
Cheers Steve
Thanks Jesse! I agree, one of my new favorite styles of beer.
Just brewed your recipe.
Thank you. I’m an ex pat who is very beer home sick. Keep up your great channel and we appreciate your enthusiasm to the craft.
Oh come on, just give it a 10/10. Anyway, love your videos, always looking forward to them. And we share the love for English beer styles. Cheers 🍻
Haha thank you for the kind words. I wish there was more English beer available here in the States! Cheers!
Awesome content as always man!!
🍺🍺cheers
Nice video :) I am going to try brewing this myself! greetings from germany
Love your Videos!
Good job!
Thanks!
My favorite yeast for an ESB is Voss Kveik. Just fantastic. Got this idea from David Heath's ESB recipe. Haven't looked back.
Love your videos. My suggestions:
1. Put the ingredients and brewing profile on the screen as opposed to the notebook.
2. Skip the part about the actually brewing steps just shorts clips as people are familiar with mashing, boiling, etc.
Overall very good job!
Thanks, in the early section of the video I actually do that when I go over the recipe, but cutting down on the transfer footage is a good suggestion
@@TheApartmentBrewer not too much "skipping" lol dont forget there are still newbie brewers out there who love to take on board everything. . It really depends on how much hassle it is to you is what i say 🍺🍺
Please correct me if I'm wrong... BJCP changed the name of the ESB in 2015 because Fuller's Brewing Company has been found to own the trademark to ESB. They changed the category to British Bitter with the Sub-Categories being Ordinary Bitter, Best Bitter, and Strong Bitter... The only reason I know this is because it's my literal favourite style of beer. :D
Great video, man. New subscriber now. Love that you waited to publish the video so you could show grain to glass.
Great video. Love your approach to brewing. But please tell me we’re you got your hands on the 0,5 l Mack brewery glass your drinking out of?? Been to Tromø?? The northernmost mainland brewery in the world.
Thanks! Glad you enjoy the content. Never been to Mack - I got it as a gift. But its on the bucket list!
Just getting into your channel as a noob to homebrewing - I’m enjoying your content very much, so thank you for it all and long may it continue! As a Brit I think that looks and sounds like a good solid pint, but as you mentioned cask conditioning I think that would be one way to improve it if you were inclined to do so, especially if you serve it using and old-style beer pump. My experience of bitters and British ales (I’ve drank more than a few in my time!!) is that they really do benefit from this. Not taking anything away from you, of course but it’s something to consider for the style of beer. Keep up the great work and content! Cheers 🍻
I would love to, but it is so difficult and very expensive to get a cask setup going on a homebrew scale unfortunately. Glad you enjoyed the video though!
Great channel. I'm English and there is a lot of very mediocre bitter and best out there, but a good one is very enjoyable (Marble of Manchester Pint is a good example).
Glad you enjoy it!
What do you think about doing a Scottish Ale using a very long boil
Its definitely a project I want to work on. Did the same thing for my doppelbock, 120 min boil. Just need a lot of space in the kettle!
This was excellent! I learned so much! Thanks for sharing! What a nice lookin beer you made there! great video! cheers!
Thank you!
top video as usual! - my favourite bitter is 100 per cent pale malt and EKG - simple but gorgeous.
Just saying, can’t speak for everyone, but I enjoy the longer detailed videos. Being a home brewer myself it’s interesting to watch the process others are doing with different equipment and such.
🍺🍺cheers
Thanks! I appreciate the feedback, glad you enjoyed it. Cheers!
I am a loyal subscriber and love your videos! I am only a few all-grain brew days into this hobby, but I have been brewing “beers” for a couple of years for “other purposes”. As a fellow engineer I am very interested in the “hows” and “whys” of home brewing which you do an excellent job explaining. Length of your videos is just fine by me! Many thanks.
I would like to see how you come up with a recipe and how you work out the amounts of grain,what sort of grain,hops,etc for that style of beer.
Also what water profile you go for to suit the beer style you're brewing and how you adjust the salts you add to get to your desired target.
That's a good idea, I'll try to put together something like that for a future video
@@TheApartmentBrewer
Thank you. 👍🏻🍻
@@birdybro9403 th-cam.com/video/MP2IRulwL3I/w-d-xo.html
here is one I did on water a while back, which may be helpful
I'm 62 years old and from South East London. I must say it looks and sounds like (from your tasting notes) the beers I
I've known and enjoyed all my life. If you're in London try Fuller's London pride and Fuller's ESB from the cast !! 👌
I like the glass in the beginning, Mack from Tromsø in Norway. The northern most brewery in the world.
A gift from one of my brothers, hope to go there myself some day!
Really interested to know more about calculating water treatment specifically gypsum and chalk for South Coast England bitters.
Great job! Is your record book available for purchase? Keep up the great job
Really liking all the different styles you do in these videos, i think you've easily hit all the styles i have been waiting to try
Awesome stuff, love your videos. Is the recipe for a five-gallon batch?
Yep!
Thank you!
I love your videos with the details and reasons on your procedure and planning. I am a new home brewer, with my 5th batch just brewed last weekend, and planning for my next three brewing. Just ordered my new batch of malts and yeasts.. I will be bottling my ESB tomorrow, but I prefer to change things in my recipees. It is a bit more abv and a bit more hops.. For suggestions, you may try 7-7-7 minute video if you wanna shorten.. Entry info and planning / brewing / tasting and ending.. Wish you all stay safe at your home..
Thank you! Glad you appreciate the details, and good luck with the next batch, stay safe and thank you for the suggestions!
Personally I really like the “longer” videos! Either way I’ll keep watching enjoying and learning.
Fantastic. Love the video and the level of detail!
wow - must be good if it compares with fullers!
nice description of proper english ale
So chuffed you like the style. I’m drinking a bitter home brewed with a West Yorkshire yeast strain - Admittedly I’m from Yorkshire so a little bias but nevertheless it’s a great beer. Tonnes of malt, balanced bitterness and great mouthfeel. I also under carbonate this style, it’s the closest I can get to ‘pub cask beer’
Very much enjoy your informative videos! It's helpful to know what to look for in every beer style. If I were to be overly critical, it would be that I'm not a huge fan of some of your background music. Maybe it's just the volume? Sometimes I find myself turning down the volume until I anticipate you speaking again. Stay safe!
Keep them long. This way i can relax and drink a beer, or two, and enjoy some good TV. Any big hikes coming up? Enjoy some of your beers on a peak!
Unfortunately traveling to the mountains for outdoor activities is canceled for a while, at least until everything calms down. But theres still brewing!
Another great vid, love esb's and fuggle hops... really don't mind the length of your vids as they informative all way through 🍺
Awesome, thank you!
Is that 2nd Hop column for Dry hopping?
So there is no mashout at a higher temperature with this recipe? I plan on brewing this in 1-2 weeks. I never had a Bitter before, maybe I should try a bought one before in order to be able to judge the outcome
You can mashout if you want to, there is no particular reason why I didn't do one.
I'm curious about trying this but I'd need to do a smaller batch in order to do all grain. Should i just do half of everything to do 2.5 gal batch?
If you want to do a half batch there is nothing wrong with splitting the batch 50/50
@@TheApartmentBrewer since we're not going to halve the yeast, that makes me wonder, is it possible to have too large of a yeast starter? Or are there times that you'd intentionally not make one?
@@afhostie on the homebrew scale that's not an issue really
If you miss the original gravity reading you're wanting, is there anything you can do? Can you just boil longer to concentrate it?
Yup, if you really want to hit the OG that badly you can just boil it down. Tradeoff is less volume, darker color and probably more bitterness
I have purchased the ingredients for this one for my next brew. I don’t know if you’ve endorsed one of your recipes as highly as this one, so I am excited to try it. First time trying one of your recipes, and I’m looking forward to it.
I think it's awesome you want to brew one of my recipes! Best of luck for your brew, hope it turns out great for you!
@@TheApartmentBrewer I have this fermenting now. The wort sample tasted great. The yeast took a long time to take off. The smack pack took almost a whole day to START to swell. Fingers crossed!
Might have had some older yeast there! Relax, don't worry, have a homebrew!
@@TheApartmentBrewer there should be an acronym for that...
I use the same system and always struggle with water volumes as the grain basket is on legs so the water beneath the basket does not soak the grains?
Great video, If you're making more English Ales a Beer Engine with a sparkler on is well worth the investment
what pressure did you use to carbonate, planning a bitter but may bottle to get the low carbonation
Looks great that mate,I love how you've brewed an English bitter and even put it in a classic english pub glass,I'm looking to brew more english bitters and ales this year,I'm brewing a brown ale next week,hopefully close to a newcastle brown ale clone. I'll try get some footage and will give you a shoutout on my next vid too.
Another great video as usual mate.
Cheers stay safe 🍻🍺
Thanks! Ooh I could definitely go for some classic brown ale myself. Good luck and thank you!
@@TheApartmentBrewer I know same here haha,I'll have to look into how much it'll cost to ship some beer mail over to you
I love some Bitter!
Happy Easter my friend.
Happy Easter to you too!
As always great vids. What water calculator are you using?
Thanks! I use the integrated one in beersmith
Are you from the Albany area? I Noticed the Wolf Hollow glass and you had a Union College tshirt on in another video. Anyway Cheers!
Used to live around there in my college days
Next level up is to brew a Best Bitter in a Cask/Bag in box system and run it off a beer engine. Makes a world of difference, especially with a sparkler to give it a head that is nearly identical to a nitro pour.
Stay tuned!! That exact thing is coming in a few weeks!
@@TheApartmentBrewer Looking forward to this.
Cask ale is a rare thing in my area.
I heard you mention you are in NH, what is your LHBS? I am in the Salem/Derry area and I haven't found anything great around me. Thanks
I use jaspers in Nashua. They are fantastic and also have very quick local shipping.
@@TheApartmentBrewer Cool thanks! I'll have to go check them out this week
For this beer can you talk about why you went with higher sulfates than chlorides? Not knowing anything myself, I’d expect higher Cl for a more malt-forward beer like this accentuate mouthfeel maybe?
Thats a great question actually. Yes, it does seem counterintuitive, but this adds some of that "flinty" character that english ales are known for. Even though its not "bitter" by todays standards, you should still get some hop character. A malt-forward profile can make this type of beer too sweet and unbalanced.
@@TheApartmentBrewer Interesting, makes sense. After thinking more it sounds like 'drinkability' of a pub ale or table ale (is that even a thing?) would mean you may not want that creamy/fullest body and something with a little more balance I suppose. Thanks for the info, keep it up, I'm learning a lot!
Exactly, glad I can help!
Where did you the tap handles? Great job! How did you lower carbonate the one beer with others? Did I catch you are in NH as well.
Got them on Amazon, there should be a link to them somewhere in the description. I just force carbonate with a lower pressure than my other beers and shut off the gas supply to that keg via distributor. When it starts pouring too slow, I'll just re pressurize the keg with serving pressure. I am in southern NH, yes.
Nice! I'm going to be working on belgian styles this year, but have my eye on an ESB to brew for fun soon.
Very nice! It's been a whole since I brewed a Belgian but I'm thinking a late spring witbier would be nice.
Can you do a whirlfloc vs no whirlfloc batch test? I don’t think you need it.
Hi, could you told me how may liters of water do you use to do this recipe, I know that depends your equipment but i need a point to start
I'd start with about 30L
@@TheApartmentBrewer Thanks Sr.. nice videos.. Regards from mexico.
Looking to brew this recipe this weekend, thanks for the details. Are you able to share what method you use to carbonate? This is only my second brew and that was a struggle the first time. We used table sugar and some of the beers we bottled were perfect but there was a wide variety of carbonation levels that we had while drinking the batch. Thanks and happy new year!
I believe I kegged this one but when bottle conditioning the best way to get consistent carbonation between bottles is to mix priming sugar solution into the whole batch of beer before transferring to bottles, that way every bottle.gets basically the same amount
Plenty of 10 min brew videos out there. I like the length of yours in that sense, that's your style. I like your tasting notes. Idk, not much I would change.
I've had a hard time with high flocking UK yeasts. A oatmeal stout with wlp002 and a porter with wlp007 both got stuck. (The oatmeal stout actually made bottle volcanoes...). Any tips to fully attenuate those?
Thanks, I'm glad you appreciate the details! As far as attenuation the biggest things I've found that help are making sure you have sufficient oxygen and pitch rate. Then if you want to really squeeze all the attenuation you can get out of it, ramping up the temp over the course of fermentation will help a lot. Good luck!
Hi Sr. where do you buy your brewing Salts?online?
Typically at my local homebrew store or through a homebrewing supplier on Amazon
I’m considering using a burton water profile for an ordinary bitter. But it just seems that So4 at 725ppm and HCO3 at 300 is just a little outrageous, thoughts?
That might get a bit nuts, you definitely want it to be high mineral content but that might get a bit too flinty. Maybe try brewing two batches with different water profiles to see what you like?
Editing process is great, i don't think you need to cut stuff out. I'd be curious to see a speed challenge for brewing. Genus logged 3 hours for all grain in one of their videos.
Really enjoyed this video, as I am getting ready to brew my first all grain ESB. What did you do to actually under carbonate your Best Bitter?
If you're bottling, use half the amount of priming sugar, and if you're kegging, just force carbonate for a shorter time or lower pressure
What is the story behind the Mack glass? Surprised to see one in NA🙂
Birthday present from my brothers who visited Tromsø!
Love all your detailed videos! If you like exploring English style, have a look at English Golden Ale. Super easy to brew and always a crowd favorite with friends and family here. Brew on, Mate!
Thanks, I appreciate the feedback! I'm thinking about doing an English Golden sometime later this year in fact!
@@TheApartmentBrewer The official style is British Golden Ale. Also look at Golden Promise Malt if it is available in your area.
when I lived in England my exes dad used to make fun of me when I would order a Best Beer. I liked them but apparently theyre kinda lowly in some places. I reallyyyy miss the beer there. I much prefer the beer there but it is where I learned to like beer so I might be partial
ehh watched your kveik video last night before doing up a batch of an ordinary bitter
almost hit the Burton-on-Trent water profile to the tee
they're ripping after 4 hrs
2 gal @90F (< 1/8th pitch), 3 gal @72F (7/8th pitch)
thanks for the info,
cheers
Just pitched amother kviek beer myself, it's awesome yeast. Cheers!
Looks like a great beer and great recipe! How did you decide on the water profile and what did it bring to the beer? We did a high chloride bitter this past summer in an attempt to enhance malt flavors and I didn't much care for that. Looking at doing a high sulfate this next time but maybe not as much and certainly not as high as Burton on Trent.
My process is to basically see what other people have has success with and then tailor that to my own city water supply profile. I'm happy with the water chemistry I used on this beer because despite the SO4/Cl ratio it is still quite balanced. I would imagine that the unique biscuit character would be overwhelming with a high Cl level. And even with high sulfate, English hops seem to be quite tame. Never tried full on burton on trent, but most advice I have seen is to avoid directly copying the city water profiles and just use them as guidelines, in fact Palmer himself has said this. Cheers, and definitely looking forward to what you guys come up with - love your videos!
@@TheApartmentBrewer Thanks, we'll have to try this water profile for our next Bitter About the Spurs or whatever Tottenham-themed bitter we make.
Just brewed this on Thursday following your video my ph seemed a bit high + didn't have any Gypsum to lower it, anyway it was bubbling away Thursday night all day Friday but it seemed to have become stuck on Saturday I panicked and went off and bought more yeast added it and it started again untill today when it had stopped again. I then checked my gravity and it seems it's already at final gravity should I keg it or leave it another few days? Just seems it was a bit quick to ferment?
Left it for another week and it had totally finished ( I used a different yeast) kegged it and just had my 1st drink today and it's a very nice bitter so thank you for your very informative videos 🙂
I think your videos are great, and full of info. I don't see a problem on the length of the videos, but if you really want to make shorter videos, maybe you could do a voice over of the ingredients while we see the process, like saying the malt percentages while you're pouring it into the mash water. Keep on going, man! Greetings from Mexico city, and happy quarantine, i watch your videos(since I have no ingredients to brew right now), among other stuff, to get through.
Thanks for the feedback, I appreciate it!
Not sure why, but my FG for this beer (both times I brewed it) ended at 1.022. I did sub out the special malt for chocolate malt tho.
Might be a mash temperature thing as well. 1.022 is pretty common with english yeasts if theres any maltotriose in there, a switch to nottingham yeast should solve that issue for you
@@TheApartmentBrewer would you say WLP002 does the same thing?
Not exactly. WLP007 is a closer equivalent
I think you can shorten the detail of the brew itself to some degree. It's interesting to hear the recipe, watch short clips of the brew/problems encountered, and see the tasting. But I think the recipe and tasting are most interesting for viewers. Thanks the for videos, gonna brew this bitter next!
Thanks for the ideas!
Got this cold crashing ATM. I tasted it before and it was a bit like marmite/Vegemite... This normal..? Hoping it sorts itself out with crashing. Cheers Paul
Not sure what that flavor is, never tried either of those. Usually these things will get better with time though
Thanks mate, just tasted again after cold crash and getting better but still there. I'll update you after first one out keg. (They are yeasty in taste)
@@TheApartmentBrewer so I re-brewed it and no infection this time. Well worth the wait... can't get beers like this in Australia. cheers