British Beer Styles
From Mild to Russian Stouts.
As you move from east to west across europe you see a changing focus from bottom fermentation to top fermentation. Britain is as far as you can go into ale country, the land where top fermentation is king. It seems remarkable that since the introduction of lager to the british isles in 1882 ale has remained dominate. Most british ales should be served at around 55 degrees fahrenheit. The continuing practice of cask conditioned ale in Britain is also an oddity as cellaring casked ale largely went out of style in the rest of the world, leaving Britain with the only remaining cask ale infrastructure. A remarkable aspect of drinking in Britain and Ireland is that 85% of all Beer is consumed in Pubs, Clubs, and Restaurants, only Czechoslovakia comes close at 45%.
Ale
Most British brewers make several styles of ale, among those types the Bitter style is the most popular in England and Wales, in Scotland and Ireland there are different traditions. The color, gravity, and palate of the various styles in england as as much determined by the Breweries as they are by national consensus, there are recognized styles but they are not as defined as the german classics. There are also some regional accents of the styles which are more or less defined.
Cask-Conditioned Ale
In the most traditional form, British Ale is cask-conditioned, this is what is meant by “real ale.” The term indicates that the ale went into the barrel with some residual sugar and living yeast, and enjoys a secondary fermentation. If at the end of primary fermentation there is not enough either sugar or yeast it can be given a dosage of either as in champagne production. The object is to deliver a living ale, with natural carbonation in the cask. A challenge in truly great cask conditioned beer is managing the cellar of a pub. Cask-conditioned ale can take some time to mature in the cellar as the natural carbonation of the cask builds and the flavors of the ale are evolving as the yeast acts on the remaining residual sugar in the brew. There is even a desire to preserve the tradition of cask conditioning in wooden casks, though most breweries use metal casks now.
Porter
A modern porter has a gravity in the 1040–1050 (3.5–5.2% abv) range, is black in color, almost opaque, with mahogany highlights, it resembles a dry stout but is lighter in body and less creamy. The dryness is coffee-ish and fruity, which comes from highly roasted malts, and the lighter body come from greater attenuation, the fruitiness comes from the top fermentation and is not masked by bitterness but can show hop character. The bitterness is balanced and is not as intense as in dry stouts. This modern interpretation is a credible descendant of the original brew.
Historically potters enduring popularity can be traced to the British Empire, it was popular in London during the height of Britain’s industrial and economic growth. The first mentions of the style were in 1722 and it peaked in 1800 and then largely vanished between the world wars. The earliest examples of a porter wouldn’t be recognizable to a modern beer drinker, considering the prevalence of “small beers,” which were second runs of water through the mash. The earliest porters were blends of first second and even third run fermentations. In the height of the popularity of the style collapses of the massive tuns caused tragedies, such as the collapse at the Horse Shoe brewery in 1814 which killed eight people. The style took longer to reach Ireland only really entering into the region around 1800.
Pale Ale
A copper to reddish-bronze ale with pale clarity: the distinction arises because in 1750 when the name of the style originated most beer was either dark from roasted malt additions or cloudy from yeast or unfiltered beer. A classic Pale Ale has an original gravity of between 1045–1055 (4.5%-6% ABV), a copper color,a clean and complex palate with an accent toward yeasty fruit driven freshness, some malt character and a dry hoppy finish. Some premium examples are dry-hopped or given a warm conditioning. Some producers make a higher-gravity pale ale (7%-8% ABV) but still attenuated down to a relative lightness of body, in the American market this might be considered either an ‘imperial’ or ‘double’ Pale Ale.
Traditionally the fermentation of a pale ale took place in a series of linked wooden barrels called a “Burton Union,” sadly by the beginning of the 1980s the decision was made to remove these from all but one brewery. The last operating Burton Union is in the possession of the Marston Brewing company.
The City of Burton is on the river Trent, and the Trent Valley was known for its Breweries at least as early as the 1600s. In 1822 the head brewer at Allsopp developed a pale type. In the search for markets and the city of Burton found a market for its Pale Ale in the British Empire. The ale sent to India was brewed to a high gravity to allow it to mature over the journey, the style should have a bitterness of at least 40 IBU.
Bitters
The term Bitters dates to the time when every brewery produced as its everyday ales a Mild and a Bitter. Some breweries have two Milds a dark and a pale, and most make two bitters, an ‘Ordinary’ and ‘Best.’ Bitter is always, in british terms, pale, meaning translucent: a few have an “old gold” color; some are bronze; the greatest number are copper-red. Bitter should be certainly be dry. The dry ness derives from a hop emphasis whereas some examples certainly have plenty of aroma and may be dry-hopped. The foundations of the style should be generous use of bittering hops. Even a bitter that is notably aromatic will have a smack of hops the classic variety being east kent goldings. An “ordinary” bitter may have a gravity as low as 1035; a premium Bitter may be in the mid to upper 1040s; a strong bitter may be in the 50s most breweries have at least two gravities of bitter and some have three. There is a reason for the success of lower gravity bitter, hop-acid bitterness cannot emerge so well in a bigger ale.
There are large regional differences in bitters brewed in different districts of England. London and the Southeast have dry, hoppy, and sometimes aromatic examples. The East has tartly fruity interpretations of bitter. In the North makes full creamy nutty with a sweetish character from the hop variety named Bullion. The Northwest and Manchester area makes dry bitter that can almost be considered austere with long hoppy finishes. In the Midlands makes fruity elegant bitters and the west midlands bitter tends to be sweetly malty and fairly light bodied. Wales has sweetish malty bitter that is often quite big in body and full in color. The west of england has soft and fruity examples.
Mild
As Porters sweeter, gentler young brother, Mild was originally a London style.Today the style is hard to find in the capital. The style is a low gravity beer with low hop bitterness. The most loyal region to the style is the west midlands pale, the next is the Northwest. The Mild style is a low gravity refreshing style of beer that has a reasonably broad definition from pale gold to dark copper with aroma and tasting notes ranging from fruit to chocolate and coffee, even licorice, with a restrained hop dryness to quench thirst.
Brown Ale
If Britain has a dessert beer it is Brown ale. the making of crystal malt which is widely used in the style concentrates the natural sugars of the barley and produces a toffeeish richness. Brown ale was originally a london style, there are now two broad types one described as southern and another as northeastern. The southern style is very dark in color, almost opaque, definitely sweet in palate, and low in gravity and alcohol content. The northeaster style is translucent, deep amber color, a medium gravity and alcohol content, and a medium sweet palate. The whole range is malt-accented and notably clean tasting. In some markets it is called Nut Brown, it is indeed nutty tasting, and well rounded, complex, and rich.
English Stouts
Sweet stout or milk stout is defined by its ingredients which include lactose and chocolate malt. the style has just enough hoppy dryness to give a bittersweet note to the chocolate-malt character, there are gently roasty notes, too, in the full palette. A well rounded smooth brew. Essence of oyster is used in some examples. Oatmeal stout was a recognized variation on sweet stout the oatmeal imparts a particular silkiness of texture.
“Russian” Stout
It was an industrial revolution, that made russian stout. Britain was able to brew on an industrial scale before it had good enough roads to sell the beer internally. Export versions of stout would have been brewed to a higher gravity, so they could enjoy a second fermentation at sea. this would help protect them from infection as would the high hopping rate. The style first became popular in russia so the name became russian or imperial stout. The terms porter and stout are use in the baltic region for brews in this style.
Old Ale
The classic old ale of England is a specialty product from the greene king brewery of the county of Suffolk. The ale is a blend of two brews. the first has a gravity of 1106 and is aged in an unlined, covered oak vats for between one and two years. a dosage of ten percent of this brew is added to a dark ale of 1058 with claret color and medium body, with a winy, bitter fruit nose and palate and an iron-like note. An old ale is usually dark and on draft.
Today the term “old” is used to define many ales only some of which have long periods of aging in their maturation. Some have gravities in the 1040s but many are much stronger. The lower gravity examples are fruity malty and smooth. as they gain alcohol they tend to gain depth of flavor and drying finish there are a wide variety of fruit flavors associated with the style from apple to peach to blackcurrant, chocolate and vanilla notes from malt and lots of warming alcohol in the strongest variants of the style.
Barley Wine
Traditionally British brewers call their strongest ale a Barley Wine. There are both dark and pale types of Barley wine. THe pale types tend to be dryer with a more warming finish. The dark styles tend to be fruity with hints of banana or perhaps licorice, because of the tradition of naming a breweries strongest brew a barley wine there are almost as many styles of barleywine as breweries.
Scotland
Has a tradition of full-bodied, malty ales, they are often but not always dark, there are a full range of gravities but it is known in the export markets for its strong ales. The classically dark scottish ales are defined by black malt, this provides color and dryness with a sweeter undertone of crystal malt, but pale ale malt is also used. The ales are not as hopped as they are south of the border, they are made to be malty. The counterpart to mild is called Light or sixty shilling. Ordinary bitter correlates to Heavy or seventy shilling. Premium bitter is to Export or eighty shilling. the strongest brews are called wee heavy.
