Bitter (beer)

A glass of bitter

Bitter is an English term for pale ale.^[1] Bitters vary in colour from gold to dark amber and in strength from 3% to 7% alcohol by volume.

Style

Bitter belongs to the pale ale style and can have a great variety of strength, flavour and appearance from dark amber to a golden summer ale. It can go under 3% abv — known as Boys Bitter — and as high as 7% with premium or strong bitters. The colour may be controlled by the addition of caramel colouring.^[2]

Sub-types of bitter

A pint of bitter

British brewers have several loose names for variations in beer strength, such as best bitter, special bitter, extra special bitter, and premium bitter. There is no agreed and defined difference between an ordinary and a best bitter other than one particular brewery's best bitter will usually be stronger than its ordinary. Two groups of drinkers may mark differently the point at which a best bitter then becomes a premium bitter. Hop levels will vary within each sub group, though there is a tendency for the hops in the session bitter group to be more noticeable.

Drinkers tend to loosely group the beers into:

Light ale

Light ale is a low abv bitter, often bottled.^[3]

Session or ordinary bitter

Strength up to 4.1% abv. The majority of British beers with the name India Pale Ale will be found in this group, such as Greene King IPA, Deuchars IPA, Flowers IPA, Wadworth Henrys Original IPA, etc. IPAs with gravities below 1040º have been brewed in Britain since at least the 1920s.^[4] This is the most common strength of bitter sold in British pubs. It accounted for 16.9% of pub sales in 2003.^[5]

Best or special bitter

Strength between 4.2% and 4.7% abv. In the United Kingdom bitter above 4.2% abv accounted for just 2.9% of pub sales in 2003.^[5] The disappearance of weaker bitters from some brewers' rosters means "best" bitter is actually the weakest in the range.

Premium or strong bitter

Strength of 4.8% abv and over. Also known as Extra Special Bitter, or in Canada and the USA, ESB. (ESB is a brand name owned by Fuller's Brewery in the UK)

Golden ale

Golden or summer ale has an appearance and profile similar to that of a pale lager. Hop Back Brewery brewed one of the first, called Summer Lightning, in 1989.^[6]

References

↑ Pattinson, Ron (2004). "Beer, ale and malt liquor: old British beer terminology". Xs4all.nl.
↑ "Caramel color: the science and art". DDW Global. 2001. Retrieved 25 August 2010.
↑ "Michael Jackson's Beer Hunter - Beer Styles: Light Ale". Beerhunter.com. Retrieved 22 March 2014.
↑ "Brewing records". London Metropolitan Archives: Whitbread and Barclay Perkins.
1 2 "Statistical Handbook". British Beer and Pub Association. 2003: 21. ISSN 1475-3545.
↑ "Hop Back Summer Lightning " Beer Culture with Des de Moor". desdemoor.co.uk. Retrieved 5 June 2010.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ale (beer).

Beer styles

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Beer in Germany	Altbier Berliner Weisse Bock Dortmunder Export Dunkel Gose Pale lager Kellerbier Kölsch Märzen Roggenbier Schwarzbier Smoked beer Wheat beer Zoigl

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Beer in the US	Amber ale American Pale Ale American wild ale Cream ale Ice lager Kentucky common beer Pumpkin ale Steam beer

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See also	History of beer Beer and breweries by region Beer sommelier Adjuncts Low-alcohol beer Seasonal beer

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