I find that most of us that have been homebrewing for a while tend to brew the styles of beer that we like to drink the most. I know one member of the local homebrew club that brews a lot of American style IPA's because that is the kind of beer he likes to drink the most. I personally like to brew a lot of English Bitters, Altbiers, and various German lagers (Helles, Dunkle, and Bocks). These are the beers I like to drink the most. It doesn't mean I don't like Stouts, Brown Ales, IPA's, etc. I love those styles of beer too but they are beers that I drink mostly on occasion. I'll drink more Stouts in the winter for example but an English Bitter is a year rounder for me. Actually the Bitters have gradually become my favorite style all around. When I'm at the BBC in Sandwich the Fuller's London Pride is my "go to" beer. That beer is a classic English Best Bitter. I also reallty love Coniston's Bluebird Bitter when I can get it. The Bluebird Bitter has this certain, really pleasant taste that I couldn't quite put my finger on but I knew I liked it a lot.
This is where clone homebrewing comes in. I did some research over the internet. Firstly I started with the breweries own website where they come right out and say that they use Pale Malt, a dash of Crystal Malt, and Challenger Hops. They even give you the bitterness range that they use. I also just did some random google searching to see what other homebrewers might have done to mimick this beer and they pretty much all followed that which is on the brewery website.
http://www.conistonbrewery.com/coniston-ales.htm
I had never used Challenger hops before so I thought perhaps this was the ingredient that gave that particular flavor that I love about this beer. I figured I'd be brewing lots of it so I bought 1 pound of Challenger hops pellets to use. I put together a grain bill of mostly English Maris Otter pale malt and some English Medium Crystal malt. I probably used more Crystal than needed (1/2 pound) as my beer came out slightly darker than Coniston's so there is a chance to fine tune. However combining this grain bill with the Challenger hops pretty much did the trick. The beer came out very reminiscent of Coniston's and is unbelievably drinkable. I did brew 10 gallons and used Safale 04 on half and Nottingham yeast on the other half. I've only tried the Nottingham version so far with great results but we'll see how the Safale 04 stacks up next.
I'll probably tweak the recipe a bit once in a while simply because us homebrewers are wont to do that and we can do it. We don't have to brew to consistency like a commercial brewery does. I'm going to want to do a version that uses East Kent Goldings in addition to the Challenger out of curiousity. My next batch, I'll probably just drop the amount of Crystal a bit but stick to Challenger hops and crank out another 10 gallons that way.
I will aslo say that one of the things I really love about this style of beer is that the flavors are very pleasant and very subtle. These beers are incredbily drinkable. They don't hit you in the face with a burst of flavors but by the time you get to the bottom of the pint you can't help but want to go back and have another one.
