We are officially on to British Bitters! Yes, I am skipping around a bit. Why? Because I compete often in homebrewing competitions, and sometimes the organizers will limit acceptable styles pretty heavily. This happened to be one of them.

This is one of the best beers I have ever made. See my recipe and process below!

What is a Best Bitter?

This beer falls under the British Bitters category, and is set between its brethren the Ordinary Bitter, and the Strong Bitter. As you can probably guess, the progression of these three styles is based on strength with Ordinary right around 3.5% ABV, Best Bitter around 4.3% ABV, and Strong Bitter right around 5.2%.

All three have similar characteristics but this is a good guide for a Best (or Special) Bitter:

And finally, a comprehensive look at Best Bitter:

• Overall Impression: A flavorful yet refreshing session beer. Some examples can be more malt-balanced, but this shouldn’t overshadow the overall bitter impression. Drinkability is crucial.
• Appearance: Pale amber to medium copper. Good clarity. Low to moderate white or off-white head.
• Aroma: Low to moderate malt aroma, possibly with a low to medium-low caramel note. Bready, biscuit, or lightly toasty malt complexity is common. Mild to moderate fruitiness and hop aroma.
• Flavor: Medium to high bitterness. Fruity esters can range from moderately low to moderately high. The malt profile is typically bready, biscuity, or lightly toasty. Low to moderate caramel or toffee flavors are optional.
• Mouthfeel: Medium-light to medium body with low carbonation.
• ABV: 3.8% – 4.6%

History

The British Bitter name came about to differentiate these beers from other local styles, particularly mild ales. What is interesting, is that the term “Bitter” was used to define pale ales in Britain in the early 19th century. The actual brewers referred to these by the term “pale ale, but someone ordering one in a pub would have asked for a “bitter” to differentiate it from a Mild Ale. Crystal malts really made a big leap during this time, increasing in popularity.

During the 20th century, the Bitter became the most popular style of beer sold in pubs all over Britain. Nowadays, it has been described as the national drink of Britain!

This brew is traditionally cask conditioned, and meant to be served rather warm (cellar temp/ 50F – 57F) and with low carbonation.

Mash Profile

This is a super simple mash schedule.

Nothing but a single rest at 150F for 60 minutes. If you notice head retention problems you could always add in a 15-minute protein rest!

Recipe

As with most beers, when attempting to replicate a regional style, you want to use ingredients local to that region.

In this case, we are concerned with water profile, hops, yeast and malt.

Hops: Look for traditional British hops such as EKG. You want to target earthy notes primarily. EKG also provides a sweet, silky and honey-like character that melds nicely with caramalts and the breadiness of Maris Otter.

Malt: Sticking with tradition, go with Maris Otter or a similar malt like Golden Promise to achieve a toasty, bready base. For specialty malts, you will have to use caramalts and a bit of Special Roast to get additional caramel and roast character.

Yeast: I highly recommend using Wyeast 1968, London ESB Ale. This strain is actually recommended for cask conditioning. It is known to produce distinctly malty beers, also attenuates less than other strains, meaning you’ll retain some body and sweetness in the end. Note that the temp range for this strain is between 64F and 72F.

Play with temperatures on this, because you can actually go quite high on the fruity esters for this style, something that fermenting on the higher end of the temp range (70F – 74F) accomplishes.

This strain is also known to produce brightly clarified beers within days after primary fermentation. Make sure to check out my other post on achieving award winning clarity.

If you are NOT using ALDC, I recommend a full D-Rest because this strain is known to produce hefty amounts of Diacetyl. Also, you SHOULD be using ALDC as your silver bullet. See why in our earlier article diving deep.

Water: I went with a fairly traditional British water profile here, accentuating hop flavor. Yes, that’s right, I accentuated hop flavor but not necessarily malt character! This is because the earthiness from the EKG is really important. After all, this is a BITTER!

I also added some carbonate to help achieve a fuller mouthfeel.

The water profile I used is as follows (using RO):

• Ca: 88
• Mg: 15
• Na: 10
• Cl: 85
• SO4: 145
• HCO3: 37

Results

I… LOVE this beer!

This was my first time making a Best Bitter (or any Bitter for that matter) and I am not sure I would change much other than carbonation levels.

I really think this is going to be difficult to dial in any further. It’s one of those beers that does so well, you end up having to make small tweaks to see if you can add a point here or there!

Aroma: Caramel, toffee, earthy, biscuit and bread.

Flavor: Matches the aroma! Nice toasty bready notes, followed by caramel, toffee and biscuit, medium fruit from yeast really makes this beer pop. A subtle earthiness from hops. Nice bitterness that stays on the tongue post-drinking.

Mouthfeel: Medium-Light body, smooth, could use a little less carbonation. Dry finish.

Appearance: Brilliant clarity (after allowing to settle after pouring), Copper/Amber. Excellent head retention and medium white head.

Conclusion

I shall be making this again! I want to increase late hop additions very slightly, carbonate to a lower level (maybe 1-1.5 volumes) and might play around with fermentation temps but I have to say I really like the amount of fruit the yeast phenolics added.