Mt. Baldy Bitter

In an effort to try out some new styles, particularly those on the simple end, I elected to try an English-style bitter. The grain and malt bill is simple, hops are straight-forward, and it should all be ready to bottle in a week. This recipe is called "Mt. Baldy Bitter," in honor of one of the 10,000+ ft snow-capped peaks visible from my neighborhood.

Mt. Baldy Bitter
Ingredients

• 8 oz. biscuit malt
• 8 oz. 10° crystal malt
• 3 lbs. light dry malt extract
• 1 lb. amber dry malt extract
• 2 oz. Fuggles hops (4.20%)
• 1 pkg. Danstar Nottingham yeast
• 1/2 tsp. Irish moss

Steps

• Heat 3 gallons of water to 158°, steep biscuit and crystal malt at this temperature for 60 minutes. Sparge with 2/3 gallon of water at roughly the same temperature.
• Heat mixture to boil, turn off heat. Add dry malt. Return to boil, add hops.
• Boil for 60 minutes total. Add Irish moss for the final 15 minutes of boil.
• Cool using coiling coil, decant into fermentation bucket. Top up with water to reach just a shade under 5 gallons. Add yeast.
• Starting gravity was 1.035 at 60° (calibrated from 1.034 at 70°).

The calculations in BeerSmith 2 estimated a starting gravity of 1.036, bitterness of 27.9 IBU, color of 7.1 SRM, and 3.6% a.b.v. The starting gravity is just a touch short, but not by much. Another BeerSmith success!

I plan to let this ferment for one week, and then bottle with 2/3 cup corn sugar. As a good English-style ale, I'm going to let it bottle condition. Conveniently, both of my carboys are in use, so it's a good time to bottle directly!