Kmflett's Blog

The return of London Ordinary Bitter: Five Points Ordinary

Five Points after launching a Best Bitter in cask have now announced an Ordinary bitter. Details are below:

A drinkable, balanced session bitter brewed with British Goldings and Challenger hops from Hukins Hops in Kent. Expect floral, earthy notes from the hops and a touch of toffee-like sweetness from the crystal malt.

Its currently available in 5l mini-kegs but one presumes in due course will appear on cask.

It’s a welcome reminder of the great tradition of London ordinary bitters which despite the name were anything but ordinary.

In my younger days I regularly drank Youngs Ordinary in the Spread Eagle in Camden Town- a rare north of the river outlet for the then Wandsworth brewery. Working in  Vauxhall from 1980 the team of professionals I was with for reasons I never fully discovered had links with Youngs and on special occasions a cask of ordinary would appear in the office sometimes accompanied by John Young himself. I don’t recall too much about those occasions except that not all of my colleagues, being lager drinkers, were persuaded of the delights of cask beer.

To my taste however Youngs Ordinary was a highly drinkable bitter beer, what would now be called a session bitter. Of course it was nowhere near as bitter as Holts bitter was at least then, but compared to the Youngs Special it was much less strong and rather less sweet.

It was indeed boring brown beer and to a degree went out of fashion with the rise of craft beer ten and more years ago now. Benchmark pale ales were the craft equivalent but they were more hoppy and less brown than a beer like Youngs Ordinary.

Youngs Ordinary is (I think) still brewed at the Eagle brewery in Bedford (Marstons owned) which means it doesn’t really qualify as a London bitter anymore because it lacks the vital ingredient of Thames water. It might be argued however that the key issue here is not the precise river but whether it is hard or soft water. Bedford is hard water so the distinction may be marginal or simply London-centric.

However other bitters historically certainly felt within the remit of London bitters including Morrells (Oxford) Brakspears (Henley) and Wethereds (Marlow).

Ordinary bitters are drinking rather than sipping and should have a good balance between malt and hops. When I was drinking Youngs Ordinary the balance tilted towards the malt, perhaps now a little more towards hops but the core point remains.

In short then the launch of Five Points Ordinary is good news for tradition and for lovers of good beer in the difficult times of 2020 too.