So, is it? Who’s to say? It drinks like a Best.” “It’s got this weird heritage grain in it. Is it a Best Bitter? Head-Fourman says probably not, if you’re being strict about it. It takes a while to run its course, so we go next door to chat over coffee as it chunters away. Tanks whir through an automated process, pumping and rinsing different cleaning agents through the brew kit-disinfectant, caustic wash, acid wash. Head brewer Robin Head-Fourman is in the middle of a Friday clean-down when I turn up. But not too long ago, you would have seen drinkers in its taproom sinking a cask beer called Bampa by the dimpled jugful.
People who know Beak Brewery will tell you most of its beers are super-pale, super-fresh, and super-hopped. Not bad for a canned example of a style that lives for cask.įor most beer fans, the town of Lewes, Sussex, is synonymous with the august institution that is Harvey’s Brewery-but there’s another brewery making a name for itself locally.
I’ve spoken to a lot of brewers since-ones that would all be classed as bleeding-edge craft brewers-who recall the beer also, and who enjoyed it as much as I did. “People who liked Bitters loved it,” Dickison says of their collaboration. That’s a lot to live up to, but the Boxcar x Mills Best went down well. Malt, yeast, hops, water, they’re all there, and nothing too powerful that you can’t taste them all.”ĭickison says Best Bitter is one of the most comforting and moreish beers you can find. Mills says he likes how the style displays “every ingredient in equal measure. Set against its English hops is what Dickison calls “a decent amount of malt character” Bitter’s variation is such that some examples taste biscuity and bready while others recall caramel, treacle, and dried fruit. With its moderate strength (typically between 3.8% to 4.6% ABV) gentle carbonation when served on cask and subtle, balanced flavor profile, Best Bitter remains steadfast in its refreshment. You can enjoy it all night without it stealing your attention away from your mates or leaving you unbearably wobbly when the bell rings for last orders. When it’s done right, Best Bitter is the ultimate pub beer. “Goldings smells like English countryside pubs,” he says, “where the first pint of Bitter seems to magically disappear shortly after it’s placed in front of me.” Wonderful hop aroma, then it was just so easy-drinking and flavorful.”ĭickison, too, finds it nostalgic. “I’d never heard of it,” he says, “and had to wait at the bar for the new cask to be pulled through.” It was worth hanging about for-that first pint out of a fresh cask is a rare treat. Mills says it takes him back to his early 20s and his first taste of Timothy Taylor’s Landlord, considered an emblematic example of the style (even though it is officially classed as a Pale Ale-more on that later). I like to think Best Bitter makes more memories than it obliterates. Still, Best Bitter’s latest evolution will no doubt impact the style’s trajectory-and at a moment when many aspects of traditional British brewing are imperiled, that change may be what’s needed to awaken a new cohort of drinkers to the style’s long history, its value, and its ongoing vitality. Best Bitter is a varied style that has long resisted easy categorization, and simplistic proclamations of its comeback are hampered by the fact that, in many pubs and among many traditional breweries, it never actually went away. Others are more wary, and wonder what might become of Bitter once it has passed through craft beer’s funhouse mirror. Some drinkers are delighted to see modern brewers pick up the style, seeing in the trend a welcome opportunity to revisit a much-loved classic. have all recently brewed Bitters independently or in collaboration, as have more than two dozen others, per my informal tally. (Along with another traditional British Ale style, Mild, but that’s another story.) Breweries the likes of Cloudwater Brew Co., DEYA Brewing Company, Anspach & Hobday, Lost and Grounded Brewers, Northern Monk, and North Brewing Co. That can proved not to be an outlier: Two years later, Best Bitter is having a moment. From Barons to Barrels with Captain Pabst.Message in a Bottle with Brewery Ommegang.Beer is Labor with East Brother Beer Co.Let Go or Get Dragged by Jerard Fagerberg.
Ferments at Low Temps by Stephanie Byce.
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