JOHN SMITHS MAGNET BITTER, anyone?

[Dr. Dextrin]

The nearest I've ever come to brewing something like John Smiths (I didn't repeat it) was with about 6% crystal, quite a bit of Goldings and Nottingham yeast. In my view the almost metallic taste is what you get if you combine crystal malt that's had all the sweetness fermented out (hence the Nottingham) with that orange-pith flavour you get from Goldings when used both for bittering and flavour. I suspect JS doesn't actually use a lot of Goldings, but probably something with more alphas that tastes similar. Eliminating all trace of sweetness is the way to go! So probably a low mash temperature.

Seriously, I hope you don't follow this advice.