Best

At Saltaire we're always looking for ways to refresh our core range of cask beers and one style that's been missing, until now, was a traditional Best Bitter. Our core bitter, Titus, is very popular, but at 3.9% it isn’t really a ‘Best’ Bitter which usually has a higher in ABV with a fuller body and more flavour. We also wanted to use all British malt and hops in the recipe.

Right now we’re hearing plenty of noise from the market that there just aren’t enough breweries making a Best Bitter. After years of exciting and progressive beer development maybe people are starting to hanker after something a bit more traditional? US brewers are even starting to look at traditional British styles such as bitter and mild to add to their predominantly IPA and pale offerings.

We asked Ben, one of our brewers, to develop a recipe and the result is Saltaire Best, Ben's first commercially released beer recipe!

For this beer we wanted to stay traditional with no ‘modern twists’ or special ingredients, just a straight forward, authentic beer, that’s satisfying and well balanced. We used wheat malt for head retention, crystal malt for colour, mouthfeel and sweetness, and roasted barley for colour and to bring a spicy, satisfying depth of flavour. A blend of British hops – Admiral, Challenger and Goldings come together to complement the malt flavours with notes of orange and subtle sweet spiciness. Show Less