Cornish style bitter

[man_beach]

I'm interested in producing a traditional Cornish style bitter - something along the lines of Spingo Middle, Sharpe's Special or St Austell HSD.

Drinking Middle in The Blue Anchor, Helston recently, I thought I detected a distinct peppery flavour (which I've also tasted with Sharpe's Special) so I'm assuming a long boil with something like Goldings would be called for? Any suggestions?

[nbpicklesno2]

I'm not sure what makes a Cornish bitter a Cornish bitter but you could go the route of propagating some St Austell yeast. I had some but can't really remember where I got it from. Possibly one of the Marks and Spencer's range of bottle conditioned ales. Seems like a reasonable assumption to me.

I'm not really being much help, am I?

[serum]

The only yeasts I know with a real peppery taste are saison yeasts. They're very dry and the beers are highly carbonated which adds to it. Goldings is a popular hop in them so I'd stick with that bit maybe look for a yeast that attenuates well (but probably not as well as a saison).

[man_beach]

I'm assuming that the pepperyness which I get with both Sharpe's Special & Spingo Middle comes from the hops, rather than the yeast? HSD, for example, has progress & goldings (according to the St Austell website) - but then, I don't get the pepperyness with that. All are fairly old style beers so I wouldn't expect anything fancy in the ingredients - but who knows?

[charliemartin]

I've cultured up yeast from a Marks & Spencer Cornish beer before. It was a beast of a yeast. Very vigorous fermentation and quite high attenuation iirc. I made one of my best beers (a bitter) with that yeast. Can't recall any peppery flavour from it though.

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[alix101]

Lots of crystal....low esters and clean water...

[Matt12398]

The bitters brewed by Cornish brewers are all traditional English bitters so there is no Cornish style bitter per se. There's nothing distinctively Cornish about them so I'm at a bit of a loss to tell you what the taste you're picking out is.

Each of the brewers you describe use different yeasts. Sharps and St. Austell Burtonise their water, I suspect Blue Anchor also do. I'd suspect it's a hop flavour you're picking out.

[man_beach]

The bitters brewed by Cornish brewers are all traditional English bitters so there is no Cornish style bitter per se. There's nothing distinctively Cornish about them so I'm at a bit of a loss to tell you what the taste you're picking out is.

Each of the brewers you describe use different yeasts. Sharps and St. Austell Burtonise their water, I suspect Blue Anchor also do. I'd suspect it's a hop flavour you're picking out.

..which is why I suggested goldings?

[Piscator]

Progress in the boil with late Goldings to finish would be my choice.

Cheers
Steve