Seeking a good bitter recipe

[BeerCat]

You will want to adjust your water with chloride and gypsum. Have a look at this thread here.

 

[Galena]

I‘m not that keen on Marston’s “Pedigree“ though - it has a slight note of ‘drains’ (perhaps sulphur in their water?)

Pedigree is a shadow of it's former self. It was reformulated (dumbed down) so that landlords of pub company pubs who can't be bothered with cask ales can serve 'cask ales'. It was a lovely drink in the 70's. I had some bottled Pedigree recently when Morrisons swapped it out for what I actually ordered, I found it boring but drinkable, I couldn't detect drains, maybe that is the cask version?

 

[PhilBrew]

I enjoy a lot of different bitters - Tring Breweries “Side Pocket”, a well kept London Pride or a Black Sheep spring to mind.

... I've never had the Tring beer, but if you look at the recipes in that book of yours for Pride and Black Sheep you'll see (as if to emphasise my point about combos of bittering hops ) that for Pride you'd use Target:Challenger:Northdown in a 50:25:25 ratio and for Black Sheep Fuggles:Goldings, 50:50

I‘m not that keen on Marston’s “Pedigree“ though - it has a slight note of ‘drains’ (perhaps sulphur in their water?)

... in that case, if you do decide to start treating your water, you might want to keep your Sulphate:Chloride ratios down in the 2-3:1 zone (rather than go for something more "Burtonised", like the 5.6:1 that Galena/Five Points recommend) ... and avoid using the Marston's yeast which does tend to throw extra mineral flavour/aromas too (that's WLP0023 IIRC, but I'm not sure as I got mine on a slope from BrewLab)

I had some bottled Pedigree recently when Morrisons swapped it out for what I actually ordered, I found it boring but drinkable

... the stuff brewed for cask is still brewed in Burton, in their expensively refurbished union sets, and if you can find a pub that looks after it well (which admittedly can be very challenging), can still be a very good beer, IMHO ... the stuff in bottles is brewed and bottled in Wolverhampton ... next to the Banks' stuff in bottles, next to the Jennings stuff in bottles, next to the Ringwood stuff in bottles ...

Cheers, PhilB

 

[Cheshire Cat]

I tend now to stick with a range of bitters which I brew, these are
1. Summer Lightning
2. Tribute
3. Otter Ale
4. Jail Ale
5. Exmoor Gold

 

[MickDundee]

I’ve only ever brewed 2 bitters. The first one was about 3 or 4 years ago and it was pretty bland and carbonation was too high. I can’t even remember which recipe it was now - one of the Graham Wheeler ones I think.

I thought I’d have another go a couple of weeks back. I did the Graham Wheeler Boddingtons clone (slightly tweaked to use up some of my leftovers). I kegged it on Friday and had a pint to “check the carbonation” on Sunday. Even after only 2 days in the keg it was lovely (although no head).

In addition to experience (I’d only been doing all grain for about 6 months to a year last time) there were 3 main differences between the 2 beers.

The first was the yeast - I used London Ale III which is meant to be the Boddingtons strain (trust the American yeast manufacturers to name a Manchester beer’s yeast “London”) as opposed to S-04 (which I’ve never particularly liked) in the first attempt.

The second was water treatment - my tap water is perfect for lagers (My local microbrewery reckoned we have a very similar water profile to Pilsen when I did their tour a couple of years back) and it makes a decent pale but is far too low in calcium for bitters.

Thirdly the first one was bottle conditioned and even 1.5-2g sugar per bottle gave it too much fizz. I used a corny this time to get a low carbonation - 10PSI for 24hrs then down to 2PSI for a further 24hrs and for serving - and it just has the tiniest fizz on the tongue like a freshly changed cask. I reckon I could only do better with the carbonation if I was actually using a hand pull system.

 

[Sadfield]

Concentrate on the process and keep the recipe simple, aiming to get the best out of the yeast, water, hops and malt. Prioritising them in that order.

@PhilBrew and @trueblue make some great points. I'll add that water treatment, as well as being critical to mashing, is like seasoning food. Not enough makes meals bland, too much is unpalatable, judged correctly elevates flavours.

 

[BlackRegent]

The first was the yeast - I used London Ale III which is meant to be the Boddingtons strain (trust the American yeast manufacturers to name a Manchester beer’s yeast “London”) as opposed to S-04 (which I’ve never particularly liked) in the first attempt.

Bloody hell, I never knew that! Who'd have thought we'd have Boddies to thank for the NEIPA revolution

 

[BlackRegent]

Here's the Malt Miller's premium Landlord AG kit:

https://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/product/timothy-taylor-landlord-premium-kit/
Like you, they've gone for Wyeast 1469 as an upgrade. I get the sense they've refined this recipe over time so it might be a good one to get to see if there are noticeable improvements on your first effort. As it happens, I bought this kit very recently, I just haven't got round to brewing it yet!

 

[Galena]

... the stuff brewed for cask is still brewed in Burton, in their expensively refurbished union sets, and if you can find a pub that looks after it well (which admittedly can be very challenging), can still be a very good beer, IMHO ... the stuff in bottles is brewed and bottled in Wolverhampton ... next to the Banks' stuff in bottles, next to the Jennings stuff in bottles, next to the Ringwood stuff in bottles ...

Cheers, PhilB

Marstons bottle an amazing amount of third party beers.
I disagree to some extent about the cask ale though, yes I am aware it is brewed in Burton, but it is not the same beer as it was years ago (that much is a fact) and definitely dumbed down for lazy landlords and that was from a mate of mine who works for Marstons at Burton