Ankle Biter is brewed in collaboration with our friends at Salt Beer Factory, we wanted to brew a beer that is both traditional and very special. We chose an Extra Special Bitter as it’s a classic style that really celebrates cask ale. It delivers big, rich, almost decadent flavours, and at the same time it is restrained and well-balanced.  

The malt grist uses Maris Otter as a base malt, and combines a blend of roasted and crystal malts to provide lots of complexity to the flavour profile. Rich aromas of roast coffee, chocolate, tobacco, and sweeter flavours like caramel and demerara sugar are also present.   

We used the UK hop variety Phoenix in this brew, as it works very well in darker beers. Subtle, earthy and spicy notes add another layer of complexity to the more detectable malt flavours.  

Likewise, our house yeast culture provides extra nuance to the flavour profile with subtle fruit esters of pear and hedgerow berries.  The yeast also left just the right amount of residual sweetness in the beer to balance out the hop bitterness and provides the beer with that classic bittersweet finish. 

We will be experimenting with pairing this beer with a cheeseboard or ploughman’s, including some extra mature cheddars and some spicy chutneys, we might even bring out a couple of slices of fruit cake, as I reckon it’d go down pretty well with that too.