Aussie bitter ale

[Gnomebrewer]

Hi all,

I was reading the aabc style guidelines and was intrigued by this style. Are there any commercial examples still available? (I'm guessing the modern bitters don't count since they are too light in colour and lagers).


What would you come up with for a recipe for one of these?


Cheers

Boags XXX ale. I think it's still an ale rather than lager - definitely has some yeast fruitiness.

 

[Bribie G]

Interesting that it's about a year since this thread started. Back then the problems with discussing "Australian Bitter" were that not much was known about the grains and yeast and character of such a beast.
Anyway we all know that as soon as industrial refrigeration became available at the beginning of the 20th century, brewers switched to lagers and only a couple of examples survived. Plus we have no knowledge of what hops were used before Pride of Ringwood.

All wrong (I've already beaten myself up a few times over posts I made to this effect) :lol:

All that has been swept away by the publication of the brilliant "Bronzed Brews" by Peter Symons who did masses of original research into brewing history in Australia.
For starters, until the 1950s and presumably beyond, most draught beers in pubs were still ales. Filtered, chilled and carbonated, but ales nonetheless.
He explained that as breweries redeveloped their plant after the Second World War, more and more beers kept the same names but went to lager.

Pride of Ringwood wasn't available until the 1960s but brewing logs are very clear about hops used prior to that, mainly Kent Goldings, Fuggles, some Golden Cluster bred from US strains, and a number of Tasmanian hops such as "Tasmanian Straights" and some Euro imports.

Hopefully we will get access to a typical ale yeast of the era, Melbourne 1 Ale Yeast from Whitelabs.

From brewing logs Symons gives us the ability to have a pretty good stab at the malts and sugars used (Even CUB have a problem recreating old recipes such as Bulimba but have a good shot at it usually, so it's not just home brewers)

Putting it all together with his new information I feel that a rewrite of the BJCP section on Australian Bitter is well due. It's style 8.1 in this PDF.

Here's a couple of sentences that don't seem to ring true:

A distinctive peppery, herbaceous note from Pride of Ringwood hops should be noticed
Nope, that's an anachronism if we are looking at a style that was predominantly pre-60s.

Originated independently of English Bitter, and remained a bottled style exclusively.
No, most of it was draught as explained in Symons.


(street frontage of the Orient Hotel, Newcastle)

Modern Bitter remains by far Australia’s biggest selling packaged beer style, and following draught release in 1992, market leader Victoria Bitter now accounts for one quarter of total Australian beer sales.
By that time, ales were just about extinct so VB was a lager. Personally I don't feel it has any place in this particular BJCP entry.

The overall description of the style is pretty accurate, low hop aroma, use of sugar, refreshing bitterness etc. However I think the guidelines could be rewritten to take account of the information now available to us. I don't know who wrote the guide that presumably was submitted to a committee at BJCP, maybe they frequent this forum?

In his last chapter Symons stresses that we shouldn't try to strait-jacket these old brews into modern "styles" , however in this unique case I think the style guide should be polished up.
Old almost extinct brews have been very successfully resurrected, a great example being Porter. So it's worth looking into the exact history of what beers we are trying to recreate here, and exhibit in comps.

 

[Blind Dog]

Your pdf link, links to your post (at least it does on my iPad)

Whilst I think that recreating brews from the past is interesting, if they can't give a current commercial example, how can it be a style? It's just a historical footnote. I have enough problems that a single commercial example can be a style'. Having a style for a beer that doesn't exist is just weird and pretty stupid.

Oddly enough, there doesn't appear to be a style where VB as currently brewed is listed as an example (I only checked the obvious styles though, so might have missed it)

 

[RdeVjun]

This is one of the pdf versions of the current national guidelines (AABC, based on BJCP 2008) and the green death rates a mention, but necessarily as an relevant example.
"Commercial Examples: The major Bitter Ale brand names have survived but the modern versions are all lagers and the term “Ale” has been dropped from labelling (eg. Victoria Bitter, Melbourne Bitter, Castlemaine XXXX Bitter, Toohey’s Red Bitter, West End Bitter, Emu Bitter, Cascade Bitter, Boags Strongarm Bitter)."

I agree with Bribie, I get a sense that the contemporary Australian 'Bitter' bears little relationship to its predecessors, while the current guidelines seem to have been formulated at least in part around modern beers and even the marketing influences, not necessarily the factual evidence that has been unearthed by Symons and elsewhere.

I don't think that a beer's commercial presence should indicate anything more than some commercial interest feels a particular recipe is worth monetising. I may use a particular commercial beer as a style example, but not a benchmark.

The latest BJCP 2015 edition, which presumably AABC style guidelines will be updated from and is AFAIK accepted internationally as the beer style bible, sadly doesn't bode well for anything other than 12B. Australian Sparkling Ale.

 

[manticle]

Interesting that it's about a year since this thread started. Back then the problems with discussing "Australian Bitter" were that not much was known about the grains and yeast and character of such a beast.
Anyway we all know that as soon as industrial refrigeration became available at the beginning of the 20th century, brewers switched to lagers and only a couple of examples survived. Plus we have no knowledge of what hops were used before Pride of Ringwood.

All wrong (I've already beaten myself up a few times over posts I made to this effect) :lol:

All that has been swept away by the publication of the brilliant "Bronzed Brews" by Peter Symons who did masses of original research into brewing history in Australia.
For starters, until the 1950s and presumably beyond, most draught beers in pubs were still ales. Filtered, chilled and carbonated, but ales nonetheless.
He explained that as breweries redeveloped their plant after the Second World War, more and more beers kept the same names but went to lager.

Pride of Ringwood wasn't available until the 1960s but brewing logs are very clear about hops used prior to that, mainly Kent Goldings, Fuggles, some Golden Cluster bred from US strains, and a number of Tasmanian hops such as "Tasmanian Straights" and some Euro imports.

Hopefully we will get access to a typical ale yeast of the era, Melbourne 1 Ale Yeast from Whitelabs.

From brewing logs Symons gives us the ability to have a pretty good stab at the malts and sugars used (Even CUB have a problem recreating old recipes such as Bulimba but have a good shot at it usually, so it's not just home brewers)

Putting it all together with his new information I feel that a rewrite of the BJCP section on Australian Bitter is well due. It's style 8.1 in this PDF.

Here's a couple of sentences that don't seem to ring true:

A distinctive peppery, herbaceous note from Pride of Ringwood hops should be noticed
Nope, that's an anachronism if we are looking at a style that was predominantly pre-60s.

Originated independently of English Bitter, and remained a bottled style exclusively.
No, most of it was draught as explained in Symons.

Standard Bitter.jpg
(street frontage of the Orient Hotel, Newcastle)

Modern Bitter remains by far Australia’s biggest selling packaged beer style, and following draught release in 1992, market leader Victoria Bitter now accounts for one quarter of total Australian beer sales.
By that time, ales were just about extinct so VB was a lager. Personally I don't feel it has any place in this particular BJCP entry.

The overall description of the style is pretty accurate, low hop aroma, use of sugar, refreshing bitterness etc. However I think the guidelines could be rewritten to take account of the information now available to us. I don't know who wrote the guide that presumably was submitted to a committee at BJCP, maybe they frequent this forum?

In his last chapter Symons stresses that we shouldn't try to strait-jacket these old brews into modern "styles" , however in this unique case I think the style guide should be polished up.
Old almost extinct brews have been very successfully resurrected, a great example being Porter. So it's worth looking into the exact history of what beers we are trying to recreate here, and exhibit in comps.

I would take it up with reps from aabc first but also make suggestions to someone like Kristen England from BJCP. If the historical evidence is there, they should hopefully take note.

 

[JDW81]

Standard Bitter.jpg
(street frontage of the Orient Hotel, Newcastle)

OT:

I used to live just around the corner from the Orient on corlette street. Twas my local for many a year.

That tile sign brings back many a happy memory.

Thanks for the reminder Bribie.

JD