American Craft Bitters?

So, I'm in love with my homebrew versions, Marrris Otter / East Kent Goldings / various English Ale yeast.

And I just had a Tetley's widgit can, which was pretty good, however...

Are there any American Craft Brewery Bitters out there?

Not that I know of, at least bottled or canned. The best English style bitter I've had was Anderson Valley's ESB. I know that's a little bigger of a beer, but still pretty authentic tasting.

Fuller's has an ESB you can get in the states. Not an American Craft Brewery though.

A couple years ago, I was at Sierra Nevada in Chico, CA. They have a great restaurant/tap house, and I sampled many of their beers. My favorite was Best Bitters, only sold on location. I really wish they would bottle'em up and send some my way for a fee.

I think Left Hand Sawtooth is classified as an "American-style" ESB. It doesn't look like it has Maris Otter or English hops. So you have to be careful.

I want an English style Bitters made in America. If I can make them, why don't our breweries?

I enjoy Honkers Ale by Goose Island.

Hex said:

I want an English style Bitters made in America. If I can make them, why don't our breweries?

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Maris Otter is expensive and they like to use American hops. Craft beer fans want American levels of hops and don't care enough about malt in sessions beers.

Hex said:

I want an English style Bitters made in America. If I can make them, why don't our breweries?

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Because nobody else (not speaking the small population of homebrewers) wants to buy them.

Hex said:

I want an English style Bitters made in America. If I can make them, why don't our breweries?

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They're not a popular style, I agree. I was actually discussing this with the guys at AleSmith, as their Anvil ESB is one of my favorite beers period. Since you're in CA, you should probably be able to find AleSmith. That one is worth hunting down, for sure.

Green Flash just came out with an ESB style beer, but I found it to be just OK. I think Avery also makes one that I've seen in stores.

I have had a "Brutal Bitter" from Rogue but it's not on their website so it might have gone the way of the buffalo. I'll let you know if I think of any others, I'm also a big fan of the style.

Was Brutal Bitter re-named Brutal IPA? It does use Maris Otter. That reminds me that Rogue Younger's Special Bitter is, IIRC, a more traditional example. The stats:

7 Ingredients:
Malts: Northwest Harrington, Klages and Crystal 50-60.
Hops: Willamette and Kent Golding.
Yeast & Water: Rogue’s Pacman Yeast & Free Range Coastal Water.

Avery has an ESB that I quite enjoy, although it reminds me more of an American Style IPA.

Bridgeport also has an ESB, but I'm convinced I had a bad bottle of it. It was not very good. I'm willing to give it another try.

And Ska Brewing out of Durango, CO has a nice ESB in a can.

What's the US equivalent of the bog standard bitter? Some sort of amber or 'Irish Red' sort of thing?

It seems weird that there'd be this massive hole in the beer range but, speaking as a casual observer who doesn't know what he's talking about, it sometimes seems as if US beer goes straight from the macro bland to the beer obsessive cascade-y super flavoured. Not much in the middle to hit that satisfying but unobtrusive area where you go 'mmm, that's good. Now, you were telling me about that idiot who nearly hit your new car yesterday?'.

That is just based on hanging around and eavesdropping here mind

Mind you, to be quite honest Anchor Steam tastes like a decent bitter to me, so maybe I've just answered my own question!

I'm with you. My next recipe to focus on is a house ESB. I'm not going to venture from the classic English model, either- MO, English Crystal, some sugar (at least for the first go), and then some combo of Target/Northdown/EKG/Fuggle, fermented by an English strain. I love English bitters, and want to have them around all the time (though I have a serious relationship with American hops as well).

The only American bitter I've had that has compared to the stuff I've had in Britain was on cask at Cambridge Brewing Co. I haven't had many, though.

I like Stoudt's Scarlet Lady.

http://www.stoudtsbeer.com/brewery_styles-flag-ship.html#

I think that New Belgium's winter seasonal 2 Below is an ESB, and it's pretty decent.

They don't distribute very far, but Climax brewing here in jersey does an ESB that I like a lot. It is the only one I have had, so I can't really compare it.
A- on BA, 73/83 on RB so I guess its not too bad...

Geofferson said:

And Ska Brewing out of Durango, CO has a nice ESB in a can.

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This is good, bonus that it comes in can.

Pyramid made an ESB that I drank a lot in college, it was good to me then but that was years ago.