Dutchess Ales Duffield Best Bitter

Courtesy of Mike Messenie at cask-centric Dutchess Ales in Wassaic, New York, this homebrew-scale recipe is a pleasantly lush and nuanced take on their original Best Bitter, meant for natural cask-conditioning in a 5.4-gallon (20-liter) “pin.”

“Discovering that a standard five-gallon homebrew batch fits snugly in a 5.4-gallon pin was the birth of Dutchess Ales,” Messenie says. “This recipe makes a slightly [drier and hoppier] ale than the ‘classic’ English best bitter, but it certainly fits the mold, as both the U.K. and U.S. brewing industries evolve in this direction.”

ALL-GRAIN

Batch size: 5 gallons (19 liters)

Brewhouse efficiency: 75%

OG: 1.045

FG: 1.010

IBUS: 33

ABV: 4.6%

MALT/GRAIN BILL

6.9 lb (3.1 kg) Thomas Fawcett Maris Otter 8 oz (227 g) Thomas Fawcett Oat Malt 6 oz (170 g) Thomas Fawcett Crystal 45L 6 oz (170 g) flaked oats

4 oz (113 g) Bairds Light Munich

HOPS & ADDITIONS SCHEDULE

0.5 oz (14 g) Centennial at 60 minutes

[18 IBUS]

0.5 oz (14 g) Willamette at 10 minutes

[3 IBUS]

0.25 oz (7 g) Centennial at 10 minutes

[3 IBUS]

0.5 oz (14 g) East Kent Goldings at 10

minutes [4 IBUS]

2 tsp (10 ml) Irish moss at 10 minutes 0.25 oz (7 g) Willamette at whirlpool

[1 IBU]

0.25 oz (7 g) Centennial at whirlpool

[2 IBUS]

0.25 oz (7 g) East Kent Goldings at whirlpool [2 IBU]

YEAST

White Labs WLP039 East Midlands Ale or White Labs WLP005 British Ale

DIRECTIONS

Mill the grains except for the flaked oats, then mash the grains with the oats at 151°F (66°C) for 60 minutes, aiming for a water-grist ratio of 1.3. Vorlauf briefly to ensure the runnings are clear, then run off into the kettle. Sparge and top up as necessary to get about 6 gallons (23 liters) of wort—or more, depending on your evaporation rate. Boil for 60 minutes, adding hops and Irish moss according to the schedule. After the boil, stir for about 10 minutes to create a vortex, adding the whirlpool hops when the temperature has dropped to about 185°F (85°C) and allow 20 minutes to settle. Chill to about 66°F (19°C), aerate well, and pitch the yeast. Ferment at 67°F (19°C) for about 8 days.

Sanitize the cask and insert the keystone. Prepare priming solution with 1.2 oz (34 g) of dextrose diluted in about 1 cup (237 ml) of water, add solution to the cask, then rack the beer into the cask via the shive hole (on top). Hammer in the shive and condition at 64–70°F (18–21°C) for about 10 days. Cool to 52–55°F (11–13°C) if possible, then tap and enjoy with friends. This will yield about 32 imperial pints (about 38 U.S. pints)—a good party.

BREWER’S NOTES

Gear: You’ll find that homebrewed cask is a well-received party trick. All the components—pins, shives, keystones, spiles, taps—are readily available online from places such as U.K. Brewing Supplies. Give real ale a try!

Yeast: We love the East Midlands strain, but the readily available WLP005 fits as well, as both veer slightly dry with more subtle ester production than most English strains.

Water: I aim for a 1:1 calcium sulfate-tocalcium chloride ratio. You can also toy with just a dash of calcium carbonate to emulate the fine ales of Britain’s South. oxidation as well as infectious microbes just a few days after the casks are broached.

Beautifulbitters,inprofile

Bitters are light-bodied beers, with a focus on quaffability. While all-malt versions are common, so are versions with adjuncts such as corn and even sugar. Unmalted grains such as flaked barley and wheat can improve body and head retention. The magic of bitter is that brewers can manage to create satisfying beers even with substantial adjunct contributions.

As one would expect, pale ale malt is generally the base. This is a little more highly kilned than lager malt, at 2 to 4° Lovibond (4 to 8 EBC), making a golden amber beer with a crisp, biscuity character. In earlier days, a dark pale ale malt called “imperial” was available; some older books show four color levels, with a special paler one just for IPAS. Check the manufacturer’s specs, as there still may be some choice available.

In such a delicate beer as bitter, the gorgeous complexity of a characterful base malt can really shine. Breeders developed Maris Otter, a low-yielding barley variety specifically for brewers. Released in 1966, it was popular in the 1970s, then nearly went extinct until—fortunately—grain dealers revived it a few decades ago. It’s hard to describe: fuller, richer, just more beery overall, making for a more profound drinking experience. Golden Promise is a British heritage-whiskey barley (not smoked, if you’re wondering), while small and mid-size maltsters in the United States and elsewhere are experimenting with breeds that offer much more flavor than the widely available barleys.

Darker malts add character but should be used with a deft touch. Biscuit or amber malt is a good deal darker at 20 to 30°L (52 to 79 EBC). With a sharp, toasty personality that’s great for brown ales, it should be used sparingly. Vienna and Munich malts, while not traditional, offer clean caramel and cookie notes that can add a lot of depth. Crystal malts are common, but they need to be used much more subtly than in old-school American pale ales. Flavors range from kettle-corn to sweet caramel to toffee and toasted sugar; obviously, the paler ones can be used more freely than the darker ones. A key fact is that each manufacturer’s process is somewhat different, and since Maillard browning is highly sensitive to process conditions such as time, temperature, and moisture level, two products with exactly the same color rating can taste very different from each other. (Making and tasting malt teas is actually an enlightening homebrew-club activity that’s not too hard to organize.)

“Bitter” is not a misnomer—or at least

it shouldn’t be. These beers are tilted at least partially toward hops, although each brewery has its own house character, from balanced to bracing. Remember: These are in the neighborhood of 4 percent ABV, so loading them up with 80 IBUS is likely to be a disaster. Less is more. Depending on the beer, 20 to 40 IBUS is appropriate. Dry hopping is usually a nice touch.

To be in style, bitter really depends heavily on English-style hop varieties, with their subtly bright herbal character. East Kent Goldings has been the premium choice for at least a couple of centuries. There are other English hops to explore, though: First Gold offers close-to-classic aroma, with extra bitterness; Challenger and Progress bring a little more earthiness; Northdown has a dark, somewhat woody character. Many Slovenian hops have English parentage; you can slip in some Glacier without upsetting the style paradigm. German Opal is equally clean and subtle.

Yeast really matters here. Two London brands represent classic examples: Young & Company’s and Fuller’s, each representing a very different take on the style. Young’s range is more crisply bitter, while Fuller’s is rounder and more malty. The recipes are different, of course, but much of the credit is due to the difference in their yeasts. Young’s yeast enhances hop bitterness and hop character; Fuller’s suppresses them. How this occurs is a bit of a mystery, although yeast are pretty potent little chemical factories. Boddington’s strain (aka Conan) is said to enhance mouthfeel, appropriate perhaps for “the cream of Manchester,” as they call it—it’s also popular among brewers of hazy IPAS. With a little sleuthing, you can connect which yeast from available sources matches which classic brewery.

Bitter fans are passionate about their favorites and other controversies: Should it have a generous head, or not much? Should one use a sparkler attachment on the faucet to fluff up the head? Is it kosher to use a cask breather to limit the introduction of air, keeping the beer fresher for a few more days, even though it’s not traditional?

These controversies and others will keep the arguments going in the pubs—beer after delicious beer.

In such a delicate beer as bitter, the gorgeous complexity of a characterful base malt can really shine.