Best Bitter
I just returned from a visit to London where I attended the Great British Beer Festival. London has always been a favorite of mine. The city, its people, its history, and its beer make for a wonderful experience. During my previous visits, the beer has always been about either mass-market lager or traditional British ales and it seemed like lager was getting the upper hand. It was getting harder and harder to find real ale and I wondered if the good folks at The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) were possibly fighting a losing battle. However, on this recent visit, I wondered if the tide has begun turning again. Cask ales are on the upswing, but a substantial number of handles are now “American-style” beers. I could still find bitter, but the newest brewers are putting at least some of their focus on American-style pale ale or American-style IPA. Some brewers focus almost exclusively on American and Belgian-style beers, and even the older, more traditional brewers are experimenting with the new breeds of American-grown hops.
I love the fact that more breweries are opening. I love that new brewers are not just focusing on the traditional styles, but instead they are being more experimental. However, just like the massive influx of lagers before, I worry about the pressure of all these new brands on the traditional British beer scene. If everyone starts brewing double IPA with Simcoe® and Amarillo® fermented with California-type ale yeast, then that is too much America in the UK for me. We visited a number of pubs where the majority of the taps were “modern” styles and sometimes there were no traditional styles. I was a little disappointed, as I travel to experience something different, something I cannot find at home. While there are benefits to a smaller world through the Internet and easy travel, I do not want to keep repeating the same drinking experience everywhere I go. I want some cultural differences in beer. So, even though I did taste all of the new beers I came across, I drank more pints of best bitter than anything else.
Best bitter, also referred to as special or premium bitter, is a moderate-strength English ale. It is a beer with plenty of flavor and body, but an ABV in the low 4 percent range. This is the middle ground of the bitter family, and there are a few key differences from other members of the bitter family. Strong bitter (English pale ale) tends to have a fuller malt backbone than best bitter and the appropriate bitterness to balance the additional malt. When you compare best bitter to ordinary bitter, best bitter usually has more malt character and that extra malt character often results in a more balanced beer. This can make the overall impression of best bitter seem less bitter than many examples of ordinary bitter. Cracker and biscuit notes from the malt are also supported by a slight touch of caramel. The hops are often floral, herbaceous, or spicy, but with restraint. The same goes for bittering. Best bitter should be firmly bitter, but the bitterness should not overpower the malt. Balance is important and most examples range from balanced to moderately bitter. The overall impression is all of the flavors in balance. Yes, plenty of malt character and some residual malt sweetness, but balanced with the bittering, hop character, and the esters from fermentation.
In any beer, the base malt plays a big role in the malt character. British pale ale malt is a key component of any bitter recipe. It provides a background biscuit-like malt character that many people associate with fine British beers. British pale ale malt is kilned a bit darker (2.5–3.5 °L) than the average American 2-row or pale malt (1.5– 2.5 °L) and this higher level of kilning brings out the malt’s biscuit-like flavors. A few malt companies (Crisp Malting is one) still produce British pale ale malt from cultivars such as Maris Otter using a traditional floor malting method. The result is malt with a slightly darker color (3.5–4.0 °L) and more flavor than other pale ale malts. It is the malt of choice for many English beer fanatics. British pale ale malt is highly modified and well suited to single infusion mashes and a moderate mash temperature around 152 °F (67 °C) is a good target for this beer style.
If you brew with extract, your best choice is an extract made from British pale ale malt. There are some British-style malt extracts currently on the market made from 100% Maris Otter malt and they are an excellent choice for English beers. If you end up using domestic 2-row malt extract, you might need to compensate with some additional specialty malts such as Munich, Biscuit or Victory®, but use restraint. For a 5-gallon (19-L) batch, add no more than 1 pound (0.45 kg). Adding more tends to make the specialty malt the focus instead of a complement.
While there are some modern examples of best bitter that are quite pale, generally you need to add a touch of caramel character. Even a small dose of crystal malt adds caramel notes as well as body, and helps fill out the malt flavors. The type of crystal malt also makes a difference. Darker color crystal malts add richer colors, as well as some dark caramel, toasty, roasted, and even subtle raisin flavors. Lighter color crystal malts add sweeter caramel notes. The average commercial example has around 5% crystal malt. The maximum crystal malt this style can handle is in the range of 8–10% with a color range of 10–150 °L. A bitter with 10% 150 °L crystal malt may not be cloying, but it can be too intense a flavor for this style. A bitter with all light color crystal malt will tend to lack depth of character.
Some bitter recipes include other specialty malts as well. My favorites are Special Roast, Victory®, Biscuit, and Aromatic, but you can make a fine bitter without them. Commercial recipes range from minimal, low color, specialty-malt additions to considerable amounts of mid-color malts. Some commercial recipes also use a little chocolate or black malt for color. If you take this approach, the amount of highly kilned malt should be small enough that the flavor is not apparent in the finished beer. Use an ounce or two (28–57 g) at most in a 5-gallon (19-L) batch. Specialty malts are a big part of what differentiates one brewer’s bitter from another, so feel free to play around with the amounts or types, but just remember that the best commercial examples are quite simple and rely on great quality ingredients and great fermentation.
One of my favorite best bitters on this trip was Sambrook’s Wandle. Head Brewer Sean Knight told me that they use pale ale malt made from Maris Otter and about 5% crystal 150 °L. From that, they get plenty of malt complexity and fullness.
While corn, cane sugar, and other adjuncts are traditional in brewing many English beers, I usually omit simple sugar, unless I am brewing a big beer and I need to increase wort fermentability to thin the body. If you are using extract with a very low attenuating yeast strain and have trouble getting it to finish low enough, then replacing some of the extract in your recipe with simple sugar can help. Simple sugars ferment fully, thin the beer, and provide very little in the way of flavor contributions. I have seen recipes that use brown sugar, but do not count on it to add much in the way of flavor. Use it only for thinning the beer. If you want to add brown sugar/caramel type flavors, use caramel malts. Corn and other non-barley adjuncts reduce the overall malt flavors when used in place of the base malted barley. I prefer a bold base malt flavor, so I do not use adjuncts in my best bitter.
While you can find some commercial examples of best bitter brewed with non-English hops, brewers often refer to those beers as American pale ale rather than English bitter. It is really best if you use English hops for this style, such as East Kent Goldings, Fuggles, Target, North-down, Bramling Cross, Boadicea, Goldings, Progress, Challenger or many others. The bittering level for best bitter is in the range of 25–40 IBUs. You want noticeable hop bitterness, without overwhelming the malt background.
Keep in mind that there are many factors at play in the final impression of bitterness for the drinker. The starting and final gravities, the character malts selected, the type of base malt, the yeast strain, the pitching rate, and even the yeast cell size have an impact on the perceived bittering. For most best bitters, a bitterness to starting gravity ratio (IBU divided by original gravity) ranges between 0.6–0.9, but stick to 0.7–0.8 for the best result. Often there is a hop addition at 60 minutes and an equally sized late hop addition near flameout. The late hop additions might equal an ounce (28 g) for a 5-gallon (19-L) batch. Remember that this is not an extremely hoppy style, so do not go overboard. Traditional cask conditioning can include dry hopping, perhaps 1⁄4–1⁄2 an ounce (7–14 g) per 5 gallons (19 L). If you do dry hop this beer, you might need to reduce the late hop additions to keep the hop flavor and aroma in balance.
Much has been written about the high sulfate water of Burton-upon-Trent being a key element in brewing bitters. It is true that water with high sulfate content enhances the sharp, bitter aspect of hops. However, you can easily overdo it, which results in a chalky, metallic, or harsh character. Brewers today brew good bitter with a wide range of water types. In most cases, any water is well suited as is, unless it is on the soft end of the spectrum. If you have soft water, add some gypsum or Burton Salts, but start low, targeting half the amount of sulfate typical of Burton water. Use no more than 1 teaspoon of Burton Salts per 5 gallons (19 L) or no more than 3 grams of gypsum per gallon (4 L). It is always better to add less. While this will not exactly mimic the water of Burton-upon-Trent, it is more than enough to accentuate the hop bitterness. You can add your mineral salts to the mash or, if you are extract brewing, you can add the mineral salts to your kettle. For all other water types, first try brewing this style without any additional mineral salts.
Fermentation creates much of the flavor and aroma in most British beers. “English” yeast strains provide a variety of interesting esters and tend to be low to moderately attenuating, leaving some residual sweetness to balance the bitterness and help fill out the beer. They are also extremely flocculent, which makes them ideal for cask conditioning. Most of these yeasts produce moderate esters at cool fermentation temperatures (less than 65 °F/18 °C) and abundant fruity esters, alcohol notes, and even some spicy notes at high temperatures (greater than 70 °F/21 °C). In general, it is better to start in the middle of this range, letting the temperature slowly rise a few degrees over a couple days. This creates the expected level of esters and keeps the amount of diacetyl in the finished beer at a minimum.
There are a number of excellent English yeast strains to choose from, but the safe choices for this style are White Labs WLP002 (English Ale) and Wyeast 1968 (London ESB Ale). Both of these yeast strains provide a nice ester profile without being over the top. If you like to experiment with different yeasts, try to select English yeasts that have an attenuation percent from the 60s to the low 70s. If you prefer dry yeast, Safale S-04 is a good option.
Serving bitter at cellar temperature, around 50–55 °F (10–13 °C), allows the character of the beer to come out and can improve drinkability. Colder temperatures suppress the beautiful flavors and aromas of this style, so avoid serving the beer below 50 °F (10 °C).
Target carbonation around two volumes of CO2 for bottled beers and 1–1.5 volumes for keg and cask conditioned beer.
A Bitter to Be Proud Of
(5 gallons/19 L, all-grain)
OG = 1.042 FG = 1.011
IBU = 35 SRM = 9 ABV = 4.1%
Ingredients
8 lbs. (3.65 kg) English pale ale malt
7 oz. (200 g) English crystal malt (75 °L)
5.5 AAU Target hops (60 min.) (0.5 oz./14 g at 11% alpha acids)
3.75 AAU Challenger hops (3 min.) (0.5 oz./14 g at 7.5% alpha acids)
4.25 AAU Northdown hops (3 min.) (0.5 oz./14 g at 8.5% alpha acids)
2.5 AAU East Kent Goldings hops (3 min.) (0.5 oz./14 g at 5% alpha acids)
Irish moss (15 min.)
White Labs WLP002 (English Ale) or Wyeast 1968 (London ESB Ale) yeast
1⁄3 cup corn sugar (if priming)
Step by Step
I use Crisp Malting’s British Pale Ale malt (made from Maris Otter) as my base grain, but other malts of a similar nature should work well. Remember, the bulk of the flavor comes from the base grain, so try to get British pale ale malt. The crystal malt should also be of British origin as it makes a substantial difference. I have had great success with Simpsons and Bairds, but feel free to substitute any high quality malt of a similar flavor and color from a different supplier. My hops are in pellet form and come from the UK via Hop Union or Hopsteiner.
Mill the grains and dough-in targeting a mash of around 1.5 quarts of water to 1 pound of grain (a liquor-to-grist ratio of about 3:1 by weight) and a temperature of 148 °F (64 °C). Hold the mash at 148 °F (64 °C) until enzymatic conversion is complete. Infuse the mash with near-boiling water while stirring or with a recirculating mash system raise the temperature to mash out at 168 °F (76 °C). Sparge slowly with 170 °F (77 °C) water, collecting wort until the pre-boil kettle volume is around 5.9 gallons (22.3 L) and the gravity is 1.035.
Add the bittering hops once the wort is boiling, The total wort boil time is 1 hour. During that time add the Irish moss or other kettle finings with 15 minutes left in the boil and add the last hop additions with 3 minutes remaining. Chill the wort to 68 °F (20 °C) and aerate thoroughly. If you have a nice, fresh package of liquid yeast, you can pitch it direct, although making a 1-liter starter is always a good idea.
Ferment around 68 °F (20 °C) until the yeast drops clear. With healthy yeast, fermentation should be complete in a week or less. Allow the lees to settle and the brew to mature without pressure for another two days after fermentation appears finished. Rack to a keg and force carbonate or rack to a bottling bucket, add priming sugar, and bottle. Target a carbonation level
of 1–2 volumes depending on your packaging. If you are cask conditioning the beer, add priming sugar, any cask finings (gelatin or isinglass), and possibly dry hop with another ¼–½ oz. (7–14 g) of whole East Kent Goldings. Allow the beer to condition in the cask for several days and serve via a beer engine or by gravity feed at 50–55 °F (10–13 °C).
A Bitter to Be Proud Of
(5 gallons/19 L, extract with grains)
OG = 1.042 FG = 1.011
IBU = 35 SRM = 9 ABV = 4.1%
Ingredients
5.4 lbs. (2.4 kg) English liquid malt extract
7 oz. (200 g) English crystal malt (75 °L)5.5 AAU Target hops (60 min.) (0.5 oz./14 g at 11% alpha acids)
3.75 AAU Challenger hops (3 min.) (0.5 oz./14 g at 7.5% alpha acids)
4.25 AAU Northdown hops (3 min.) (0.5 oz./14 g at 8.5% alpha acids)
2.5 AAU East Kent Goldings hops (3 min.) (0.5 oz./14 g at 5% alpha acids)
Irish moss (15 min.)
White Labs WLP002 (English Ale) or Wyeast 1968 (London ESB Ale) yeast
1⁄3 cup corn sugar (if priming)
Step by Step
I use an English-type liquid malt extract custom made for my homebrew shop from a 100% Maris Otter malt. Both Muntons and Crisp offer a Maris Otter liquid malt extract as well. It is always best to choose the freshest extract that fits the beer style. The crystal malt should also be of British origin as it makes a substantial difference. I have had great success with Simpsons and Bairds, but feel free to substitute any high quality malt of a similar flavor and color from a different supplier. My hops are in pellet form and come from the UK via Hop Union or Hopsteiner.
Mill or coarsely crack the specialty malt and place loosely in a grain bag. Avoid packing the grains too tightly in the bag, using more bags if needed. Steep the bag in about 1 gallon (~4 liters) of water at roughly 170 °F (77 °C) for about 30 minutes. Lift the grain bag out of the steeping liquid and rinse with warm water. Allow the bags to drip into the kettle for a few minutes while you add the malt extract. Do not squeeze the bags. Add enough water to the steeping liquor and malt extract to make a pre-boil volume of 5.9 gallons (22.3 liters) and a gravity of 1.035. Stir thoroughly to help dissolve the extract and bring to a boil.
Once the wort is boiling, add the bittering hops. The total wort boil time is 1 hour after adding the bittering hops. During that time add the Irish moss or other kettle finings with 15 minutes left in the boil and the last hop additions with 3 minutes remaining. Chill the wort to 68 °F (20 °C) and aerate thoroughly. If you have a nice, fresh package of liquid yeast, you can pitch it direct, although making a 1-liter starter is always a good idea.
Ferment around 68 °F (20 °C) until the yeast drops clear. With healthy yeast, fermentation should be complete in a week or less. Allow the lees to settle and the brew to mature without pressure for another two days after fermentation appears finished. Rack to a keg and force carbonate or rack to a bottling bucket, add priming sugar, and bottle. Target a carbonation level of 1–2 volumes.
