Suggestion for special bitter from kit.

[chadjaja]

Whilst not looking at making a carbon copy I'm looking to replicate the style of some great micros such as

Temple special bitter
and
Barrons ESB to which they describe as

Barons ESB

4.7% ABV

Brewer's notes:
An Australian take on the classic British style ale that's known for its big hoppy flavours and solid malt backing.
Barons ESB pours with a brilliant golden colour, topped with a rich cream head. The aroma offers an inviting mix of caramel and malt, combined with hop-driven fruit undertones resulting in a crisp and robust beer with a pleasant bitter finish.

The boys managed to combine the best characteristics of some of their favourite English Bitters such as Old Speckled Hen and London Pride into a champion of the style, chilled like Aussies love it!

Haven't paid much attention to this sort of kit in the past so could anyone make any suggestions on a decent kit to start with, malt additives etc and what hops and yeast to use?

Anything that will improve the normal kit brew for this style of beer. Hopefully a bunch of you have tried the two above beers to give you an idea. Hopefully I can get something at least slightly close.

This forum is much better than the home brew shop to ask questions and the 4 hour response I'd get

Cheers boys.

[Kevnlis]

I would start with a Coopers Real Ale kit, add 1.5 kilos of LLME and flavour/aroma with Styrian Goldings.

[chadjaja]

I've use the goldings tea bags before. Would that be ok to use as its cheap and easy to use.

[Kevnlis]

I've use the goldings tea bags before. Would that be ok to use as its cheap and easy to use.

Cheap? Ya think?

Yeah that should be fine, I would use one in a boil with 4L water and the 1.5 kilos of LLME for 15 min then add the other at flame out. Leave them in the fermentor.

[chadjaja]

I would consider $3.70 for a tea bag of goldings is cheap compared to the cost of beer per carton from the bottle o

So 4 litres of water, hop bag, LLME boiled for 15 mins ya reckon?

Well cant hurt

So I bring it to boil and add the first bag then when on a rolling boil I take it? Then let it boil for 15. Normally these bags sit in a mug of water for 10 before I add them and the water to the brew and the cooling of it after the boil would be enough for the second bag I would assume.

[Kevnlis]

Yes thats right, 4L of water into the stockpot, dump the LLME in, bring to rolling boil, add first bag, boil 15 min, remove from heat and put into fermentor with the kit. Add the second tea bag and top up with water.

If it were me I would cut the bag open and dump the hops in, but that is your call to make.

Here you can get 4x 100g (the sachet has 12g I think?) bags of hops delivered to your door for $25! Great place to start

[chadjaja]

So they store well in air tight containers for a long time I take it? I wouldn't use that much hops for a very long time.

Not unhappy about the total cost of my brew to reach the $30 mark

Thanks for the advice once again and sounds dead easy and the improvement I wanted for this brew.

Gold star stamp on your hand for you

[Kevnlis]

I am not one to slam on products and take business from LHBS's but unfortunately those sachets are usually not up to scratch!

They are usually stored at room temp and have been there for god knows how long.

I have had beers made with them, and they were good drops, but nothing like a beer made with fresh flowers, plugs, or pellets!

Yes, it is best to store them in an airtight container. I use non-permiable zip lock pouches (your normal zip lock bags are not air tight) and store them in the freezer, they keep for a very long time like this.

Best of luck with the brew, let us know how you go please

[chadjaja]

Well its cheaper to get 25grms of pellets of goldings than the two tea bags. If I did that would you suggest it all goes in at once and still boils for 15 mins then? Would that be a better option? I usually then drain the batch using a strainer when using pellets.

I'll be sure to put the results up. As I've learnt already using the search function and reading others success and failures with brews helps out immensely.

while I'm at the brew shop after the hops and can of malt would a better yest be better as well instead of the coopers one? I've only used the s-04 ones for ales before.

[Kevnlis]

I would go with Windsor if you can get it, otherwise S-04 would be fine. The Coopers yeast does not give you the esters which are crutial to this style.

If you get 25g of fresh pellets I would add 10g to the 15 min boil and 15g into the fermentor with the rest. Do not worry about straining them out, they will flocculate themselves nicely.

[chadjaja]

Thanks once again.

I've always strained them out but will give it a go as you say and see how it goes taste wise. Thought I'd end up with green floaty bits if I didn't LOL. I'll go with the safale yeast as I'll just hit the homebrew shop on the way home some time next week.

Now to raid my buildings recycling bins for more bottles My neighbours must think I'm some sort of hobo the amount of time I spend sifting thru them

[rwh]

Good luck getting near the flavour of the Temple ESB. It's one of my favourite beers, but I was talking to the brewer at a G&G brew demo, and it's got the most complex hopping schedule of any beer I've ever heard of. It's a combo of FWH, hopback and late kettle additions, of multiple different types of hops.

But if you get close, let me know!

[drsmurto]

Coopers yeast at higher temps WILL give you loads of esters, just follow the instructions on the kit !

Man i am in a sarcastic mood today......

[PaulSteele]

i was under the impression that traditional ESBs didn't contain a whole lot of hop aroma and flavour, but rather strong malty flavours balanced with strong bitterness?

[drsmurto]

Paul - get yourself to Cellarbrations on fullarton rd, fullarton and grab some ruddles county or landlord. Flavour country. Or old peculier or...... damn they have a good range of pommy beers! drooooooooooool.

I have an ESB on tap (Landlord clone) which has loads of flavour and aroma.

[chadjaja]

Well this batch went in tonight and it looked and smelt great.

I REALLY need a bigger pot. I only have room for 3 litres of water with the malt/hops in the boil.. I think I'm onto a winner though as the Mrs just came out and said "We''ll buy you one on the weekend"

Pretty simple kit beer made that little bit better with more fresh hops pellets, safale yeast and LLME. Fingers crossed it tastes to my liking.

Pitched at about 25 degrees and it should be down to about 18 soon enough and stay there till done.

Thanks again for the help Kevnlis

Mr homebrew shop left me alone this trip but did suggest using cystal in the next batch of this..

[warra48]

Make sure you buy at least a 40 litre or bigger pot. You'll need it eventually when you do AG.

If mrs chadjaja doesn't agree to that, I bought a 19 litre SS pot for about $20 at Big W last year. It is a good size to do extract/specialty/partial brews in, and I now use it for heating my mash and sparge water.

The point is to buy the biggest size you can get away with. You'll be glad you did down the track.

[chadjaja]

Just wanted to make an update post here and say thanks for the help in particular Kev

Whilst not fully carbed just yet I just wanted to try out this beer to see if its shite after it stalled and didn't co operate at the start of fermentation.

This will be a lovely beer by all accounts. Already shows so much promise and I think I'm going to be rapt in the result. Only added about half a teaspoon of sugar to prime to keep the beer a little lower in carbonation. Hopefully thats just enough for what i wanted. Just how carbed can I expect it to be with just a little over half a measure of the normal priming amount?? Can I re prime later on if its not enough? Its been pretty cold at night so I'd expect this take longer than my others to prime up.

Great forum and it helps produce great beer
Cheers fellas.

[Kevnlis]

Glad to hear of your success, this style can really only get better with age.

The half measure of priming sugar should be plenty if you are serving at 8-12C like a real ale should be