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Beginner's Best Bitter: Classic English Ale Recipe

A copper-coloured, easy-drinking British best bitter that is ideal for your first all-grain brew. Maris Otter malt, East Kent Goldings and Fuggles hops and a forgiving English ale yeast make a 4.1% session pint with real pub character.

Best Bitter · 4.1% ABV · 31 IBU · 20 Litres · 7-10 days primary + 2-3 weeks conditioning · beginner

Beginner's Best Bitter: Classic English Ale Recipe
Dan Gold

Brewing figures

Original gravity
1.042
Final gravity
1.011

Best bitter is the backbone of the British pub: copper-coloured, gently malty, with an earthy, floral hop bite and a finish that makes you want another sip. It is also one of the friendliest styles for a first all-grain brew, because it relies on a simple grain bill, two classic English hop varieties and a forgiving fermentation temperature. This recipe makes 20 litres of a 4.1% session ale that tastes like it came straight from the cellar of your local.

Recipe at a Glance

  • Batch size: 20 litres into the fermenter

  • Original gravity (OG): 1.042

  • Final gravity (FG): 1.011

  • ABV: approx. 4.1%

  • Bitterness: approx. 31 IBU (Tinseth)

  • Colour: amber to light copper

  • Brewhouse efficiency assumed: 70%

Equipment Needed

  • Brew kettle of at least 30 litres (or an all-in-one electric brewing system)

  • Mash tun, or a large grain bag if you brew in a bag (BIAB)

  • Fermenting vessel of 25 litres or more, with airlock

  • Hydrometer and trial jar

  • Digital thermometer

  • Wort chiller or an ice bath

  • No-rinse sanitiser

  • Bottling bucket, bottles (about 40 x 500ml) and caps, or a small cask/keg

  • Kitchen scales and a long stirring paddle

Ingredients (20 Litres)

Grains

  • 3.5 kg Maris Otter pale ale malt

  • 250 g crystal malt (about 120–150 EBC)

  • 150 g torrefied wheat (helps head retention)

Hops

  • 40 g East Kent Goldings (about 5.5% alpha acid) – 60 minute boil

  • 20 g Fuggles (about 4.5% alpha acid) – 15 minute boil

  • 20 g East Kent Goldings – at flameout

Yeast and Extras

  • 1 sachet (11 g) of a dry English ale yeast, rehydrated

  • 1 Irish moss (kettle finings) tablet – 10 minutes before the end of the boil

  • About 85 g dextrose (brewing sugar) for priming, if bottling

Hop alpha acids vary from harvest to harvest. If your hops are stronger or weaker than listed, scale the 60-minute addition up or down to stay around 30 IBU.

Mashing

  1. Heat the strike water: Heat about 11 litres of water to roughly 73°C. Adding room-temperature grain should bring it down to the target mash temperature.

  2. Mash in: Stir the crushed grain into the water slowly, breaking up any dough balls.

  3. Rest: Hold the mash at 66–67°C for 60 minutes. This slightly higher temperature leaves a little more body, which suits a bitter.

  4. Sparge: Rinse the grain with about 17 litres of water at 76–77°C, collecting roughly 24 litres of wort in the kettle. BIAB brewers can mash with the full volume (about 28 litres at 69–70°C) and simply lift the bag.

Boil

  1. Bring the wort to a rolling boil and add the 40 g of East Kent Goldings. Boil for 60 minutes in total.

  2. With 15 minutes to go, add the Fuggles.

  3. With 10 minutes to go, add the Irish moss tablet.

  4. At flameout, add the final 20 g of East Kent Goldings and let them steep for 10 minutes.

  5. Chill the wort to 18–19°C as quickly as you can, then transfer it to your sanitised fermenter, leaving the hop debris behind. You should have about 20 litres at 1.042.

Fermentation

  1. Aerate the wort well by sloshing the fermenter, then pitch the rehydrated yeast.

  2. Ferment at 18–20°C. Activity usually calms down after 4–5 days.

  3. After 7–10 days, check the gravity on two days in a row. When it is stable at around 1.010–1.012, fermentation is finished.

Packaging and Conditioning

  1. Bottling: Dissolve about 85 g of dextrose in a little boiled water, add it to your bottling bucket and rack the beer on top. This gives a gentle carbonation of about 2 volumes, in keeping with the style.

  2. Mini cask or keg: Prime more lightly (around 40–50 g) for a soft, cask-like condition.

  3. Keep the bottles at room temperature for two weeks to carbonate, then move them somewhere cool for at least another week.

Serving

Serve at cellar temperature, 11–13°C, in a nonic or dimpled pint glass. Expect toffee and biscuit from the malt, a soft orange-marmalade fruitiness from the yeast, and a clean, earthy bitterness to finish. A best bitter is at its best within two to three months of brewing.

Tips for Success

  • Sanitise everything that touches the wort after the boil.

  • Control the temperature. English yeast fermented too warm can taste harsh and solventy, so keep it below 20°C.

  • Be patient. A bitter improves noticeably after a couple of weeks of cool conditioning.

  • Water: A little calcium sulphate (gypsum) in the boil sharpens the hop bite, as in classic Burton-style bitters.

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