Taking Delight in the Ordinary

In North America, the low-gravity Bitter — what pub-goers in the UK tend to call the “Ordinary” — remains a neglected style.(1)  I suspect that this is due in no small part to the fact that the typical characteristics of the Ordinary conflict with the aesthetic that dominates North American craft brewing:  while North American brewers strive for ebullience by designing beers with bold and aggressive flavours (like the hoppy burn of American IPAs, or the assertive roast character of robust porters, or the flavours imparted by barrel aging), the Ordinary Bitter emphasizes drinkability and balance instead.  Yet the Ordinary can be astonishingly complex in its own right, since its balance can be weighted subtly in any number of directions:  toward malt (often toasty or biscuity); toward hops (often, but not exclusively, of a traditional British character); or toward the esters produced by distinctive strands of yeast.

A Sample of Landlordish drawn directly from my fermenter on bottling day.

Because the style permits so many variations, and because most recipes are simple enough that mistakes in the brewing process translate into noticeable flaws in flavour, it can be difficult to brew Ordinaries consistently and well.  At this point, I’ve brewed roughly a dozen different batches; while none of them have fully captured the flavour of the best examples of the style that one can find on cask in the UK, many have nevertheless been quite good.  For my most recent effort, I used a recipe inspired by one of the most exceptional Ordinaries ever produced — Landlord, brewed by Timothy Taylor in West Yorkshire.  The grist consisted overwhelmingly of Golden Promise, supplemented by a touch of dark crystal malt for colour and flavour, and by some acidulated malt to control the pH of the mash; the hops included equal charges of Fuggles, East Kent Goldings, and Willamette, in enough quantities to nudge the beer firmly in the “hoppy” direction; and the yeast, Wyeast 1469, was a strain that originated form the Timothy Taylor brewery itself.(2)

The resulting beer — which, for lack of imagination, I’ll simply call Landlordish — was tasty enough that it did not occupy space in my fridge for very long at all.  With a nice amber hue and orange highlights, it certainly looked like an Ordinary, even though it ended up somewhat stronger than I had anticipated (4.4% ABV rather than about 4%).  More importantly, the aroma and flavour of the beer really did remind me of some of the pale ales I’ve had on cask in England and in Scotland.  The nose was dominated by a light aroma of malt, with a hint of some fruit — peach, I think, along with Seville oranges.  The first impression on the tongue was semi-sweet biscuit, which gave way almost immediately to a noticeable and refreshing bitterness, and then to a nice and subtle finish that struck me as spicy and floral.  While I certainly wouldn’t want to put this beer it up against Landlord in a taste test, I definitely wished I had more as I drained away the last of the eight bottles I harvested from my one-gallon fermenter.

Recipe Specifics:

LANDLORDISH

Vitals

Batch Size:  1 Gallon

Target / Actual OG:  1.044 / 1.046

Target / Actual FG:  1.014 / 1.012

Target / Actual ABV:  3.97% / 4.40%

Target Colour:  9.3 SRM

Target IBUs:  41.4

Mash Profile:  Single infusion, mash temp 154

Boil Time:  60 minutes

Grains

28 oz. Fawcett & Sons Golden Promise (94.28%)

1.2 oz Fawcett & Sons Dark Crystal II (4.04%)

0.5 oz Best Malz Acidulated Malt (1.68%)

Hops

0.28 oz Fuggles (4.5% AA) at 60 minutes for 26.66 IBU

0.28 oz East Kent Goldings (5% AA) at 15 mins for 14.7 IBU

0.28 oz Willamette (5% AA) at 0 mins for aroma

Yeast

Wyeast 1469 West Yorkshire

Notes:

(1) The only easily available North American example of the style that leaps to mind is Goose Island’s Honker’s Ale.  Left Hand’s Sawtooth is also widely distributed, but at 5.3% ABV it’s really an ESB (Extra Special Bitter) rather than an Ordinary.

(2) Timothy Taylor seems to use Styrian Goldings rather than Willamette as the aroma hop, but my local homebrew shop was unfortunately out of Styrians.