A beer which, considering how much time I spent in Teley's pubs, I drank remarkably little of. With all their pubs in Leeds selling Mild as well, what point was there drinking Bitter. It's only when I strayed into their pubs elsewhere that I was forced to opt for Bitter.
To be honest, it was quite similar to the Mild, in many ways. Their beers definitely had a house character. Which I suppose came from the yeast. The Bitter was fairly light, dry and not that bitter. A good drinking beer. And pretty pale. Not quit in the Boddies range, but paler than Southern Bitters.
Was it a typical West Yorkshire Bitter?I don't know. There weren't really a huge number of beers around to compare it with. Websters, I suppose. I can't remember ever drinking their Bitter. Their Mild, yes. But not the Bitter.
Consulting the trusty Whitbread Gravity book, Websters Bitter was around 85% attenuation. Pretty dry, then. Even drier than the Tetley's Bitter below.
Let's see what the specs tell us.
| Tetley cask Bitter specifications | |
| O.G. (in package) | 1035.5 +- 1.0 |
| PG (in package) | 1006.5 - 1008.0 (Target less than 8) |
| Apparent atten (Z) | 78.84 |
| Limit Atten | 1003.5 - 1.0 |
| Alcohol (v/v) | 3.63 +- 0.17 |
| (w/v) | 2.90 - 0.14 |
| Colour (EBC) | 21 +- 2 |
| Bitterness (EBU) | 30 +- 3 |
| Haze (EBC/*F) | Polished (Fined) |
| PH | 4.1 +- 0.1 |
| Head Retention (secs) | > 100 |
| S02 (ppm) | ¬> 20 |
| Cu (ppm) | ¬> 0.2 |
| Fe (ppm) | ¬> 0.4 |
| Yeast Count (10^ cells/ml) | 0.5 +- 0.4 |
| Microbiological | Absence of beer spoilage organisms |
| Packaged in Cask | 9 : 18 : 36 : galls. |
| Storage:- | |
| Shelf Life (weeks) | 4 min |
| At Brewery (days) | 5 prior to trunking |
| or Depot | 14 days max. |
| Recommended age at point | |
| of sale (weeks) | ¬> 3 |
| Source: | |
| Tetley Beer and Malt Specifications, 1985, beer page 1. | |
Summary: middling gravity, quite highly attenuated, pretty pale, not very Bitter. Exactly my impressions
Interesting that it was held for five days after racking. Presumably to let it condition in the cask for a while. Meant to be sold pretty fresh, in no more than three weeks. Unsurprisingly, as a low-gravity cask beer. Get it into condition and then drink it.
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