Onwards to a basic extract brew...

Hops have been added to beer for about 500 years in England, they were used way before this in Germany and many other European countries though. Hops are a natural preservative and add bitterness, aroma and flavour to ales. Ales that contain hops are generally referred to as bitters. Before hops were used in England beer was bittered using plants such as yarrow or heather and I'll be making some beers using these traditional ingredients later on.

The next experimental brew will be a simple bitter. I've kept to the same basics as before but added a few traditional extras to improve the taste. I've substituted some of the sugar for honey and added some fuggle hops. I chose fuggle hops with a harvest alpha of 5.0% as I'm also going to dry hop this brew after primary fermentation has completed. Here's the ingredient list:

26 litres of Water, 1.8kg Malted Barley (bought as an extract), 1kg Sugar (Dextrose), 30g Fuggles Hops, 300g Honey, Brewers Yeast.

This simple experiment was to produce a bitter that is as simple as possible but with a good taste and some character. I didn't add hops to the initial brew but dry hopped for a week before moving to the brew to secondary fermentation. Dry hopping is simply adding hops after most of the fermentation has calmed down. Normally hops are boiled and added to the malted barley prior to fermentation but this removes much of the hop oil. Dry hopping after fermentation keeps bitterness low but adds hop flavours and aroma to the beer.

Most of the recipes I'll add to this blog can be made using grains instead of extracts. Later I'll be making some all grain beers, some using a combination of grains and extracts so there should be something for everyone!