Top to bottom: Landaff, Hook’s Cheddar, Wagon Wheel

Bitter and Extra Special Bitter (ESB)

STYLE NOTES: For many British people and for Anglophiles everywhere, the “pint of bitter” defines the pub experience. Modest in alcohol, the beer won’t derail your afternoon if you have one for lunch, and countless hardworking blokes have a couple of pints at the end of the day with no harm done. That explains their reputation as session beers, a sensible choice for a long evening with friends.

An English or English-style bitter is fundamentally a pale ale with the volume turned down: less alcohol, less malt character, lower IBUs (a measure of bitterness). Despite the name, these brews aren’t particularly hoppy or bitter (although American versions can be more hop forward). The “bitter” moniker arose as a way for customers and publicans to distinguish these draught brews from sweeter, less-hopped mild ales.

The style parameters are broad in this category, but a classic bitter showcases British hop varieties. Less blatantly aromatic than most American types, British hops contribute more subdued aromatics, often described as fruity, earthy, or resiny. Some American craft brewers use English hops in their bitters and ESBs in a nod to the style’s origins, but they may incorporate the more citrusy American hops, too.

Bitters are easy-drinking beers, with low carbonation and only about 3.5 percent alcohol. They are more common on draught than in bottle, and it is standard practice in pubs to serve them at cellar temperature, not chilled. From a Best Bitter, Special Bitter, or Extra Special Bitter (ESB), expect more alcoholic strength, malty aroma, and bitterness, but even these brews rarely surpass 6 percent alcohol or approach the tongue-gripping bitterness of an IPA.

In the glass, bitters and ESBs tend to have an amber or copper hue with sparkling clarity. Malt makes the first aromatic impression, often with notes of toffee, light caramel, toast, cereal, or crackers and sometimes a bitter-orange or woodsy scent. Malty sweetness gives way to a dry and moderately bitter finish, with the piney, fruity signature of English hops.

BEERS TO TRY: AleSmith Anvil Ale ESB; Coniston Brewing Bluebird Bitter; Fuller’s ESB; Fuller’s London Pride; Great Lakes Brewing Moondog ESB; Morland Old Speckled Hen; Pretty Things Hedgerow Bitter; Samuel Smith’s Old Brewery Pale Ale; Yards Brewing Extra Special Ale; Young’s Bitter.

CHEESE AFFINITIES: Bitters and ESBs are beers of relatively low strength and complexity and fare best with cheeses that are similarly easygoing. Cheeses with bold, pungent, or sharp flavors can dominate these beers, making them taste thin and watery. Instead, look to mild, approachable cheeses made for everyday consumption, cheeses with sweet, buttery, or nutty flavors that are easy to like.

The 25-pound Wagon Wheel is the largest cheese produced by Cowgirl Creamery, a California dairy that made its name with the petite cow’s-milk Red Hawk and Mt. Tam. Modeled loosely on Asiago, Wagon Wheel is a pressed-curd, natural-rind cheese from organic cow’s milk, matured for two to three months. The butter-colored, semifirm interior has a buttery aroma with a hint of the barnyard fragrance of Italian Fontina. The flavors are well balanced and mellow, and the cheese melts well. A grilled-cheese sandwich made with Wagon Wheel would be a feast with an ESB.

New Hampshire’s Landaff Creamery produces its Old World–style cheese from the raw milk of its own Holstein cows. Modeled after Caerphilly, a cheese of Welsh origin that is mostly made in England today, the 9- to 10-pound wheels of Landaff spend three to four months in the aging cellars at Jasper Hill Farm in Vermont. This carefully monitored maturation, or affinage, produces a handsome mold-cloaked natural rind over a pale gold, semifirm interior. The texture is open and crumbly; the aroma redolent of butter, cave, and earth. Like Caerphilly, Landaff offers a bright lemony tang that harmonizes with the piney aromatics of English hops.

Hook’s Cheddars are among Wisconsin’s finest cheeses, especially the batches that receive extra aging. These 40-pound block Cheddars mature slowly in vacuum-sealed bags so they never develop a rind, but they do gain complexity over time. A five-year-old Hook’s Cheddar will be creamy and utterly smooth, with just a hint of a bite. After seven to ten years, the cheese will deepen in flavor, diminish in tang, and develop some of the crunchy protein crystals typical of Parmigiano Reggiano; at that mellow stage, it pairs beautifully with a lightly malty ESB. The fifteen-year-old Cheddar, sometimes for sale at the creamery’s booth at the Dane County (Madison) Farmers’ Market, is a flavor sensation.

MORE CHEESES TO TRY: Beehive Promontory; Caerphilly; Capriole Julianna; Cougar Gold; Garrotxa; Hook’s Seven-Year Sharp Cheddar; Juniper Grove Farm Tumalo Tomme; Keen’s Cheddar; Matos St. George; Midnight Moon; Montgomery’s Cheddar; Point Reyes Toma.