Sorry for the late update. The Broken Spear bitter came out fantastic. The grain bill has roughly 2% black malt for coloring. I'm a bit unsure if the black malt also added a dryness or slight roast to the beer or if that was a yeast contribution. It may also have a minerally, slightly grainy quality. The former might be the yeast, the latter might be a result of using a corona mill that is noticeable on younger, low gravity beers. Esters were slightly restrained this being the first pitch, having used a 2-cup starter and a 65F fermentation temperature. Dropped brilliantly clear after a week or so in the keg, post dry-hop.
Rinsing the yeast cake for my second batch, a ~100% pils hopped with 3.5oz of Amarillo at 15 minutes, I used a bit of slurry and probably fermented at 64-65F. My attenuation suffered, down to 67% from 75%. The body is medium/medium-full (mashed higher than I wanted at 155F) but I think I got more supporting esters such as apple/pear. The large Amarillo hop addition (lemony grapefruit) could be masking it. This pale beer has dropped very clear despite not using irish moss. Unfortunately I lost half the keg due to my inexperience in kegging.
A third batch using a commercial wort, about 12% crystal/carapils, also left a medium/full mouthfeel. It was a bigger beer (1.057) but attenuated more, again at 75%. This one was fermented at 68-69F for 3 days and allowed to free rise, eventually getting to 78F. Esters definitely more pronounced, apple/pear. The beer has a smaller Cascade/Willamette whirlpool addition that is stronger in the commercial version. My fermentation esters seem to be fighting with it in aroma/flavor, though to be honest the beer is just 6 weeks old.
So far I think I like the strain. It drops clear and provides some character, that at least for me, needs careful pairing if using a lot of hops. It seems to have done well with the EKG/Styrians of the bitter, stood up to Amarillo, but oddly seems to fight with the Willamette/Cascade (if fermented warm). Whether it accentuates the malt is a quality that I'm not picking up on, yet.