I've not heard from
@BeerGuy2020, but I'll assume I got the "angry face" reaction smiley for being a bit free and easy with his copyrighted material? Was not my intention, but its worth reminding folk: The Victorian Bitter recipes above exist because of the hard grafting of
@BeerGuy2020 (Edd). Like most old beer recipes they require a bit of experience to translate into one's own brewing practices, less so for Edd's work because he's already done some of that translating. But the Beersmith worksheets I've posted are my translations for
my setup to make his recipes work on
my systems. They may not work for you and you should figure out how you translate them referring back to Edd's work, not mine.
Having straightened that out I'll possibly undo it all in my next actions! Edd's quite productive and his Website (
Make Mine A Magee's!) has loads and loads of recipes. When I started this it was in response to someone asking if there's any "Victorian Bitter" recipes about. I was sceptical because most people were drinking porter and mild back then, but I was surprised to find a recipe on Edd's site (Morrell & Co's 1889 Bitter). Since then I've found Edd's site to be loaded with dozens of "Victorian Bitter" recipes. Some of them were a bit strong in alcohol because that was the norm back then, but "Bitter" was a more lowly sub-style of the head-banging pale ales, and there was quite a few below 6% ABV (<5% ABV even). So I trawled through the recipes and built the following list of "Bitter" recipes (with a good handful of head-banging pale ales too).
These have been arranged by date as they appear in Edd's blog:
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June 2020
Barclay Perkin 1886 XLK
Peter Walker 1896 X Bitter
Peter Walker 1875 Bitter
May 2020
Thos. Usher 1895 60/-
Hodgsons 1886 XX
Hodgsons 1886 Bitter Ale
April 2020
Barclay Perkin 1880 KKK (*strong!*)
Thos. Usher 1894 IPA
S.H.Ward 1881 444 (*strong!*)
Joshua Tetley 1878 XXXK
March 2020
Chapmans 1875 AK Bitter Beer
Joshua Tetley 1878 No 3 (*strong!*)
January 2020
Joshua Tetley 1868 XK Bitter Beer
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November 2019
Joshua Tetley 1844 Pale Ale
Henry Bentley 1892 XXX
October 2019
Morrell & Co 1853 No 1 Ale (*strong!*)
Joshua Tetley 1886 XXXX (*strong!*)
Peter Walker 1875 Falstaff (*strong!*)
Henry Bentley 1893 India Pale Ale
Henry Bentley 1893 Old Timothy (*strong!*)
Peter Walker 1891 X Bitter
Peter Walker 1875 Bitter
T&G Greenall 1863 Bitter Beer
Henry Bentley 1894 Pale Ale
September 2019
Chapmans 1880 Pale Ale
S.H.Ward 1881 Bitter Beer
Morrell & Co 1889 Bitter
S.H.Ward 1875 XXXX (*strong!*)
Joshua Tetley 1886 KKKK (*strong!*)
Peter Walker 1891 XXXX Stock Ale
Henry Bentley 1894 XXXX (*strong!*)
August 2019
Peter Walker 1891 XX Bitter (Experimental)
July 2019
T & G Greenall 1863 Strong Beer (*strong!*)
Vaux 1899 L/B (Light Bitter)
June 2019
Joshua Tetley 1845 Harrowgate XXX Pale Ale (*strong!*)
Boddington's 1901 AK Bitter Beer
Chapmans 1880 AK Bitter Beer
May 2019
Joshua Tetley 1869 S Ale
April 2019
Charles Rose 1895 AK Bitter Beer
Charles Rose 1898 AK Bitter Beer
Charles Rose 1897 AK Bitter Beer
Peter Walker 1891 XX Bitter
March 2019
Joshua Tetley 1890 E Pale Ale
Thos. Usher 1894 60/- IPA
Henry Bentley 1893 Lager
February 2019
Henry Bentley 1893 IPA
Joshua Tetley 1844 "Sykes" XK & K Pale Ales
Joshua Tetley 1844 Pale Ale
Hills of Cromford 1832 XF
January 2019
Joshua Tetley 1848 IPA
Peter Walker 1891 Falstaff (*strong!*)
Henry Bentley 1893 Golden Bitter Ale
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That'll keep you going for a bit! I've been quite diligent digging out the "bitter" recipes, be there may be more hidden amongst all the other recipes. Edd is working on a book, which might well then make this list quite un-necessary. But for now, get brewing!