You can't get a better bit of bitter
In the latest of our series on beer styles, Roger Protz turns his attention to best bitter.
It is a common mistake to think that ‘best bitter’ is just bitter with hair on its chest. While it is true that some versions of ‘best’ are stronger versions of their weaker brethren, many brewers take the opportunity, when fashioning a higher gravity beer, to blend different varieties of malt and hops.
That Yorkshire classic, Timothy Taylor’s Landlord (4.3%), is a golden beer, made from pale malt only, while the brewery’s Best Bitter (4%) – in reality a member of the bitter class – is a more typical British colour of deep, burnished bronze due to the addition of 5% crystal malt. Landlord has just 20 colour units, Best 27. In this case, both beers enjoy the same hopping regime of Fuggles, Goldings and Styrian Goldings, but offer aromas and palates distinctively different – citrus fruit to the fore in Landlord – as a result of it circulating over a deep bed of Styrians prior to fermentation.
Some versions of bitter and best share the same recipe and are none the worse for that. Those superb Thames Valley beers, Brakspear Bitter and Special, use identical grains, hops and brewing sugars, with additional water or “brewing liquor” used to produce Bitter. Arkells of Swindon brew 2B and 3B, 3.2% and 4% respectively, from the same mash of grain and hops, again adding brewing liquor to reduce the alcohol for 2B. “Bigger bitter” would never catch on in a world obsessed with marketing and obesity, but that is effectively what we are talking about: beers with bigger aromas and flavour.....
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By Roger Protz
Section : Beer styles
Page number : 64
