In the Fermentor: Twitter Bitter

I was asking around on Twitter about what beer style I should brew with some of my lingering grains, hops and yeast from 2013. The finalists came down to a Mild or an Ordinary Bitter. I've decided to combine both into a brew with the flavor of a Bitter, but the low ABV session beer goodness of a Mild.

Since my goal was to brew without taking a trip to a Homebrew store, everything in the beer below was already on hand at home. My hop quantities are a little odd, because I was trying to use up open Challenger and EKG packages. The finished beer should have a nice sweet/bitter balance and an alcohol content of around 3.5%.

Here's the 5-gallon recipe:

Grains:
5 lbs Fawcett Optic Malt
8 oz Briess Caramel 80L
8 oz Fawcett Amber Malt

Hops:
1 oz Challenger (6.9% a.a.): 60 min
0.5 oz Challenger (6.9% a.a.): 20 min
0.75 oz East Kent Goldings (4.5% a.a.): 0 min

Total Boil Time:
90 min

Yeast:
White Labs WLP002 - English Ale

Mash Schedule:
Saccharification Rest: 156F for 75 min
Mashout: 168F for 15 min

Original Gravity:
1.034
Estimated Final Gravity:
1.008

IBU: 34
SRM Color: 11

Fermentation Schedule:
1 Week Primary
2 Weeks Secondary
2 Weeks Bottle Conditioning

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Colorado Kitchen Brew

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