British Bitters

[An Ankoù]

Oh boy, we do have different tastes. Well kept cask Shepherd Neame beers are, for me, in a completely different league to the bottles.

Agreed. The bottles are too gassy. Make me fart !

 

[An Ankoù]

I think a proper bitters are quite difficult...its water and definitely yeast driven.

Water driven?

 

[Clint]

Salts,chems,profile..call it what you like.

 

[Agentgonzo]

Salts,chems,profile..call it what you like.

"Terroir"

 

[Clint]

..of which I have 3.
Jack,border and a cross.

 

[Sadfield]

..of which I have 3.
Jack,border and a cross.

What's the third terrier angry about?

 

[Clint]

Well...she's not so much cross more like highly strung...jack/poodle.

 

[MrRook]

Sort off, I’ve done my fair share of those as it’s a style I like a lot ((cwtch, 5am et) However they include some dark malts, hints of coffee and chocolate etc. and I’m after something a bit lighter with more caramel/toffee. Sort of amber like spitfire or doombar maybe.

Replace the dark malts with some crystal?

 

[Braufather]

Replace the dark malts with some crystal?

After going round in circles I think I’m going to brew another zombie dust clone using English yeast and malts with citra.

 

[Slid]

I know this goes right against the grain and is maybe bordering on heresy but I much prefer comercial bottled bitters compared to pub draughts. For me they are more lively and cleaner. I love Bottled shepherd neame beers as they are nice and hoppy but am also a fan of more malty bottled beers like Tim Taylor and black sheep amongst others.

I want to make an ESB but more to the commercial bottled style ( although will be racked To a keg.) than typical pub draught.

I think I read somewhere on here that some breweries actually use different yeasts for batches that will be bottled ( in fermentation not just to bottle condition) so that Could be an option, so I’m thinking of using A typical ESB malt profile but maybe a clean US yeast, carbonating well and may combine some uk hops with some new world.

Has anyone any thoughts or tips?

Sounds good to me. I use US 05 as default yeast for many beers, including English styles. They are definitely "cleaner" tasting than other yeasts, more "in Style". So - ESB Grain Bill, whatever hops to bitter and your choice of finishing hops, especially US "C" hops. That was a tip from the local Bank Top brewery, when I poked my nose in a couple of years ago.

 

[Braufather]

Sounds good to me. I use US 05 as default yeast for many beers, including English styles. They are definitely "cleaner" tasting than other yeasts, more "in Style". So - ESB Grain Bill, whatever hops to bitter and your choice of finishing hops, especially US "C" hops. That was a tip from the local Bank Top brewery, when I poked my nose in a couple of years ago.

I’ll give that a go. In the end this time I went have ordered ingredients for zombie dust. ESB yeast , some crystal Munich and melodidon malt in there with citra.

 

[Clarence]

I also much prefer bottle conditioned beers ,

Belly conditioned beers are the way forward. Certainly in my case.