# Local English style bitter



## Blind Dog (2/12/14)

Just wondered if anyone had tried any decent, local (i.e. Aus or NZ) English style bitter? 

Had a half of Pommy Bitter at Redoak this lunchtime and it was awful. Well maybe not awful - too cold, too fizzy and a really nasty aftertaste that I couldn't place (metallic crossed with yeast)

Also had the recent misfortune of trying Burleigh's My Wife's Bitter (from bottle) - tasted like a stale and overly sweet dandelion and burdock or cheap supermarket cola but with a medicinal twang to it. Its drinkable really cold, but that defeats the purpose

Had high hopes for both as they're both award winners, but seriously disappointed

Just wondered if anyone had tried decent Aussie (or Nzud) made bitter that I might be able to get hold? I know I can (and do) brew my own, and I also buy Hook Norton's beers reasonably regularly (although why they don’t import their ordinary bitter is beyond me) but would also like to try some locally made craft bitters if I coudl find some. I like 4 Pines EBS, but at $8 a bottle it’s not cheap and I like the lower ABV bitters anyway

(PS: I hear good things about Vaucluse Bitter, but I've not found it anywhere!)


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## thylacine (2/12/14)

As you are in Sydney, "The Welcome Hotel" Rozelle had Fullers ESB on tap while visiting last month.

I use some Victory malt in ESB recipes.

Cheers


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## welly2 (2/12/14)

Give the Lord Nelson's Victory Bitter a go. It's a stronger bitter (5%) so more like a Fullers ESB but I remember it being my beer of choice when I was living in Sydney and going to the Lord Nelson. I liked it a lot but as most beer in Australia, served too cold.


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## wide eyed and legless (2/12/14)

Try the Stoke Bomber Kiwi Pale Ale, don't serve cold, low carbonation, and an excellent beer.


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## antiphile (2/12/14)

Like you, I really enjoy a good English Bitter, but for some reason they seem to be losing popularity amongst craft brewers. I just had a quick look through the first 20 pages of Crafty Pint's new beers (http://craftypint.com/beers) and only five out of about 200 to 300 brews go close to this style. 

They were so rare I even noted the page numbers (4, 5, 10, 17 and 18), but at least in most cases they give stockist or location information.

Cheers


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## welly2 (2/12/14)

I don't think the traditional English bitter is very trendy at the moment. Clearly the hoppy IPA is king right now. English bitters don't seem to have changed a great deal or progressed much for many, many years. I suppose they've fallen out of favour a bit. I still love a good English bitter and do miss them already. Perhaps that should be brew number two for my 3v system.


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## manticle (2/12/14)

Let me know when you find one. I used to enjoy hargreaves hill but the hopping these days is aggressively us. Unless you get this stuff on handpump, it is always too cold and fizzy.


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## Feldon (2/12/14)

Should be a seasonal beer the local craft brewers get on to for Queens Birthday, or whenever the princess pops out a new kid.


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## Tahoose (2/12/14)

I agree manticle, not a bad beer but not what I was after in an esb. 3 ravens make another one, but not really my thing. 

The good thing is that there is a hope for this style with the growing craft beer movement, I am quite surprised with the amount of poms that have moved here over the last 100 odd years, that we don't have a fully fledged mild/esb brand.


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## Topher (2/12/14)

Hey OP, had one from black duck brewery at the (recently renovated) old KB hotel in Sorry Hills. Nice drop. I think it was just called proper bitter.


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## mje1980 (2/12/14)

I love uk ales but can't bring myself to keg them anymore. They are just so much better through an engine I wait til I've borrowed the clubs engine and enjoy them cool, lowly carbed and they just can't be beaten. Means I don't drink them very often but it's worth it. In the keg, cold they just don't do it for me anymore. Engine or nothing FTW


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## rude (2/12/14)

Wide eyed and legless has made his own beer engine was in a thread I read using a caravan hand pump with cube
maybe give him a pm mje it impressed me
Just getting into kegs at the moment but once I'm sorted will be looking into his pump build $50 from US


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## manticle (2/12/14)

mje1980 said:


> I love uk ales but can't bring myself to keg them anymore. They are just so much better through an engine I wait til I've borrowed the clubs engine and enjoy them cool, lowly carbed and they just can't be beaten. Means I don't drink them very often but it's worth it. In the keg, cold they just don't do it for me anymore. Engine or nothing FTW


Can't you not cool the keg so much? I'm sure beer engines are better but my uk styles are carbed low and not served cold (10-12 if I use the fridge, more often ambient so closer to 16-20). Makes a big difference.


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## S.E (2/12/14)

mje1980 said:


> I love uk ales but can't bring myself to keg them anymore. They are just so much better through an engine I wait til I've borrowed the clubs engine and enjoy them cool, lowly carbed and they just can't be beaten. Means I don't drink them very often but it's worth it. In the keg, cold they just don't do it for me anymore. Engine or nothing FTW


That’s just bollocks Mark, you should know better than that by now. The engine is just a mechanical pump used lift beer from UK pub cellars up to the bar above.
It’s called an engine because years ago (before cars) all mechanical devices where called engines.

A sparkler fitted to an engine will give a creamy head to some malty ales (in the northern UK style) but can ruin the hop character of others.
The simplest way to enjoy UK ales at home here in OZ is carbonating and serving directly from a cube.

If you insist on only drinking ‘’real ale’’ through an engine your welcome to use mine as I only use it for club gatherings.


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## mje1980 (3/12/14)

I thought you'd chime in Sean . I just like them better through the engine, even without the sparkler I love what it does to the ale. Flavours just seem to be accentuated. 

Manticle, my old keg fridge was a dedicated keg fridge and I had a controller on it. It sat at around 10c. I kegged heaps of mild and bitter then. My new keg fridge has a freezer section which gets used for unnecessary items like food, so I can't control the temp. So it's basically ice cold permanently . Now I only keg easy drinkers like blondes and ( gasp! ) lagers


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## manticle (3/12/14)

Ice cold beer is more shameful than drinking lager. Except when it's 40 deg.

But still....


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## NewtownClown (3/12/14)

Young Henry's Real Ale.... It is even served at Wetherspooon's Pubs in England and won Best Real Ale at a recent Beer Festival in the UK - talk about coals to Newcastle...




Blind Dog said:


> (PS: I hear good things about Vaucluse Bitter, but I've not found it anywhere!)


Joking, right?


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## mje1980 (3/12/14)

manticle said:


> Ice cold beer is more shameful than drinking lager. Except when it's 40 deg.But still....


True, that's why I'm slowly building a collection of brett porters, saisons, beire de gardes, berlinner weisse and Flanders browns, in champagne bottles. I don't drink that much these days and those full flavoured beers are what I'm keen for.

The absolute highlight of my beer year are the real ale fests the brew club puts on.


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## primusbrew (3/12/14)

Stopped in at the Loch Brewery (and Distillery) on Sunday. They have three beers available, all apparently traditional UK styles. Best Bitter, Amber Ale and Dark Ale. I'm not too familiar with UK beers but all seemed OK. Flavours were probably a little subtle for my liking but perhaps this is to style... They had the amber on a hand pump too. 

Not sure if it will be easy to find their beers as they are a pretty small operation but could be what you are after.


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## AntonW (3/12/14)

Bring back the bitter!


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## kaiserben (3/12/14)

You'd think with the recent addition of hand pumps and/or casks to nearly every craft beer venue that English style bitters would've made a bit of a comeback (but pubs just seem to whack any old beer on the hand pump; like why would you bother putting a double IPA through a cask and hand pump???)




NewtownClown said:


> Young Henry's Real Ale.... It is even served at Wetherspooon's Pubs in England and won Best Real Ale at a recent Beer Festival in the UK - talk about coals to Newcastle...


YH's Real Ale is probably the best of the readily available Aus-made bitters around, but for me it's nearly, but not quite there. It's just missing something. 

I had an ESB by Brewtal Brewers a while back and it was spectacular. Absolutely perfect to my taste. A bit hard to get a hold of their beers here in Sydney, but reasonably easy for anyone in Brisbane to taste their stuff.


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## Bribie G (3/12/14)

Problem with real ales in Australia is that in the UK they are designed to be served at cellar temperature from a non-pressurised cask that has been handled at the pub by a cellarman who knows his shyte, and it has to be consumed fairly quickly by a fairly solid fan base.

It's rare that you would find such a pub in Australia outside of a highly concentrated population of beer drinkers (Surry Hills, Glebe, Brunswick etc etc) and an enthusiastic pub landlord. Even in "concentrated" areas such as the Rocks in Sydney . Competent beers are certainly produced (Lord Nelson, Red Oak, etc) but are invariably pressurised and frozen and come out nothing like what you would get over the bar in the UK.

When the odd UK tap beer pops up it's more than likely the pasteurised kegged version (think Old Speckled Hen, Bombardier and the others that used to come over when UK themed pubs were popular before our own craft industry grew up).

Those keg versions were basically what CAMRA was all about and whilst they can be a pleasant drink they are not really real, if you get my drift. Some of them even come over deliberately lightly carbed so they can be drawn through and engine, but they are keg bright beer nonetheless.

Best UK style ale I've had recently was the London IPA brewed by Ross at Bacchus Brewery and bar in Brisbane, served right and from the cask B)


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## Dips Me Lid (3/12/14)

If you count Auckland as local it's worth a trip to Galbraiths Alehouse, all traditional English styles, Bitter, Mild, Best, ESB and Porter all served low carb, a couple on hand pumps.

They brew on site in a great old building, the brewer was an ex-pat Brit if I remember correctly.

All the beers were excellent, I'd never leave the place if it was my local pub.


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## Bribie G (3/12/14)

A lot of the old UK brands have been laid to rest.

Thank God for that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6n1hQdCdCP8


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## Tilt (3/12/14)

Dips me lid's hit it on the head. Galbraiths in Auckland does ripping bitter "Bobs" named after the bloke who taught the owner to brew. 
Other NZ bitters possibly available close to home in the bottle: Three boys best bitter, townshends 
Old house ESB or Emersons bookbinder for an NZ hopped version. All good, all (relatively) local


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