Recipe

British Nineteenth-Century Best Bitter

British Nineteenth-Century Best Bitter

(5 gallon/19 L, all grain)
OG = 1.044  FG = 1.010
SRM = 9 IBU = 30  ABV = 4.4%

Ingredients
8.0 lbs. (3.6 kg) two-row pale ale malt (3° L)
1.0 lb. (0.45 kg) crystal malt (40° L)
6.75 AAU East Kent Goldings hops (75 min.) (1.35 oz./38 g of 5% alpha acid)
0.5 oz. (14 g) Fuggles hops (15 min.)
0.5 oz. (14 g) East Kent Goldings (0 min.)
Wyeast 1028 (London Ale) or White Labs WLP026 (Premium Bitter Ale) yeast
0.75 cup corn sugar (for bottling)

Step by Step
Mash the grains using a single-infusion mash. Mash in at 152 °F (67 °C) and let the mash rest for 60 minutes. Recirculate the wort for 20 minutes or until wort runs bright. Then sparge for about 90 minutes while raising the temperature of the mash gradually to 170 °F (77 °C).

Boil the wort for 90 minutes. Add hops at the times indicated. Chill the wort to 68 °F (20 °C), aerate and pitch yeast. Ferment at 68–72 °F (20-21 °C) for one week. Rack to secondary for two weeks. Bottle, condition for one week and serve at 50–55 °F (10-13 °C).

Issue: May-June 2002

Recipe author Horst Dornbusch’s more modern recreation of a historical Best Bitter from the 1800s.