The Great Reset (not the conspiracy theory!)

[clarets7]

I've spent too much time over the past 18 months trying to recreate the bitters that I used to drink when I was much, much younger, without the success that I would have liked. Not failures, perfectly good beers, just not quite what I was after. As I've said before, achieving a good 3.6% to 3.8% traditional bitter seems to be an art rather than a science. I'm lucky in that my local is a permanent beer festival with 6 real ales on hand pump, and pump four is reserved for traditional bitters around that range, but I'd say only about one in four of the beers featured I would have more than a pint of, so either it is difficult or it's just me (although the Craven BYB (Best Yorkshire Bitter) is an exception to that!)!

Anyway, I digress, all I'm really after is some recommendations for which of the Brewlab yeasts to use to go back to brewing some of the paler beers that I used to brew when I first started with all grain brewing, clones of Exmoor Gold, TT Landlord and Pictish Brewers Gold for example. I've been using the Brewlabs Lancashire for the past year (thank you Eric for the recommendation), I suppose living in Yorkshire I should really try the Yorkshire strain, has anybody on here used it and got any feedback? Or maybe the Sussex??

I need another sack of grain so will be ordering from the Malt Miller ( I tried the local breweries and they were not helpful ), they supply the Brewlabs yeast and I've been quite happy with the Lancashire for the maltier beers, but looking for a bit more yeast character in the paler beers.

[guypettigrew]

Umm, two of the beers you've mentioned, Exmoor Gold and Landlord, are way above the 3.6%--3.8% you're trying to brew.

Not being difficult, just thought I'd mention it!

Guy

[timstaley]

Brewlabs West Yorkshire makes a perfect landlord clone
Sussex1 make a lovely beer not sure if it a perfect clone of Harvey’s as I have never had the original. Burton is my favourite so far, I am brewing my way round the county going to try the Kent next.
Re bitter like you used to drink in the past have you experimented using sugars?

[clarets7]

Umm, two of the beers you've mentioned, Exmoor Gold and Landlord, are way above the 3.6%--3.8% you're trying to brew.

Not being difficult, just thought I'd mention it!

Guy

Didn't make myself clear there, in the last year or so I've been trying to replicate the bitters I drank as a youth, they would have been Greene King bitter, Ridleys bitter and unless I could avoid it Tolly Cobbold. I'm going to go back to the paler beers such as Landlord and Exmoor Gold, was just asking which Brewlabs yeasts would be best for those.

[clarets7]

Re bitter like you used to drink in the past have you experimented using sugars?

To be fair only in one brew, and that was only because I needed to up the gravity, it wasn't by design. It would give me a lower FG I suppose.