Extrapolate, please. Too bland? Other than real Ringwood (which we can’t get) what would you use?
I’ll be tempted to do a split batch and compare.
Does that mean that Fuller’s ESB, London Porter, and Chiswick Bitter are British beers for those who do not like British beer? 
The production brewery has a 150 bbl Huppmann brew house and conical fermenters, so not Peter Austin. I can’t say what the brewpub in Bend has.
Fullers is considered to be a gold standard for English beer by Americans because most have never experienced a fresh English bitter on cask (which is also why we have Americans brewing English-style ales that contain large amounts of caramel malt). Due to the UK’s gravity limiting tax laws, English bitter relies on yeast cultures that have a lot of character. Many of the more flavor positive English strains have either not made it to our shores or have been purged from the Wyeast and White Labs lineups in favor of more neutral strains due to American taste preferences. Wyeast 1968/WLP002 is fairly neutral when it comes to British yeast strains. Alan Pugsley put it best when he stated that Americans consider Ringwood to be a strong flavor producer when it is actually fairly neutral compared to many British strains.
With that said, if you want to use a beautiful strain with a lot of British character that is acceptable to the American palate, push Wyeast to release 1768 English Special Bitter or White Labs to release WLP033 Klassic Ale. Those offerings are the Young’s Ram Brewery culture. It has a unique, but pleasant ester profile that screams, “I am British.” If either of these cultures does get released, for heaven’s sake, do not strangle the fermentation by starting it at 15C or 16C (59 to 61F), let it breath.
By the way, like Wyeast 1450 (BrewTek CL-50), we can thank Maribeth Raines for Wyeast 1968/White Labs WLP002 and Wyeast 1768/White Labs WLP033. These cultures were first introduced to the home brewing community as BrewTek CL-160 (Fullers) and BrewTek CL-170 (Youngs).
BrewTek CL-160 British Draft Ale
One of our (Brewtek’s) favorite Ale yeasts, gives a full bodied, well rounded flavor with a touch of diacetyl. This yeast has a way of emphasizing malt character like no other yeast we’ve used. Highly recommended for Porters and Bitters.
BrewTek CL-170 Classic British Ale
Like CL-160, produces a beautiful draft bitter or Porter. This yeast leaves a complex ale with very British tones and fruit like esters, it also produces a classic Scottish Heavy and plays well in high gravity worts.
For those who question the White Labs WLP033 Klassic Ale link, look at White Labs’ description for this strain:
"WLP033 Klassic Ale Yeast
Traditional English style, single strain yeast. Produces signature ester character, and does not mask hop character. Leaves ale with a slightly sweet malt character. Best for bitters, milds, porters, and stouts. Also good for Scottish style ales."
BrewTek CL-170 was my house ale strain for five years.
Can you culture Young’s from a bottle?
Isn’t WLP033 a permanent offering from White Labs? Looks like it is.
Young’s Special London Ale is bottle conditioned, but I have never encountered it in the United States. The old Ram Brewery is now a museum, or at least part of it is a museum. Production was moved to Charles Wells in 2007, so I do not know if they are still using the Ram culture or if they are using the Wells culture (which is available as WLP006 Bedford British).
No, it is not. The strain does not appear on the poster that they supply to home brew supply stores. I contacted White Labs a couple of months ago to ask if they were planning to offer as a seasonal, but they had no plans to do so in the immediate future. I am beginning to wonder what kind of volume we would need to have Wyeast or White Labs perform a one-off propagation? They have to have different size propagators.
I’d sign on for an order.
So, short of a yeast we cannot currently get, what would you recommend for “real” British character?
Most of the British seasonals that White Labs offers should have more British character than WLP002, which is probably why they are seasonals. Have you ever tried Wyeast 1318?
Not that I can recall, but it is possible. If so, never more than once.
I’ll give it a try. Looks like it will be time for a 10 gallon batch and a side-by-side fermentation.
I’ve got to get some Belgians in the pipeline, too, though.
This is supposedly what Tired Hands Brewing uses for their APA, although that beer is heavily hopped so I’m not sure the character would be noticeable.
Pitching rate and fermentation temperature also play into the final profile. That being said, most of the strains available from Wyeast and White Labs are fairly mild compared to some of the strains that are directly available in the UK. I have had a few that I imported from Brewlab that were too flavor positive for me. We are talking Belgian strain flavor positive, especially with respect to phenol production.
I have a strain in my bank that I need to revisit this winter. The strain is CBS 1171, which is an ale strain that was isolated at the Oranjeboom Brewery in February of 1925. I have only used it one time, and it produced a little too much amyl acetate for my tastes.
I want to get me some of this!
Is there a readily available commercial beer that is bottle conditioned with the true ringwood strain and from which it can be cultured?
Here’s your starting point. I’m not sure who bottle conditions on this list, but even if it isn’t bottle conditioned, an unfiltered bottle may get you enough yeast to start stepping up a culture:
http://www.pugsleybrewing.com/pugsleysinstallations.php
Coming from New England, I’m familiar with a lot of these breweries. Most of them produce good beer, some of them produce excellent beer, but a handful produce dirty butter-bombs.
The Pugsley-built craft breweries use sterile filtering. The culture is multi-strain with two primary strains and usually several variants that can differ from brewery to brewery.
We need to start a write-in campaign to get White Labs to offer WLP033 at least as a seasonal. Companies are in business to make money. If there is enough demand, White Labs will propagate it.
I get more butterscotch than butter when Ringwood is not handled correctly. Like most Yorkshire cultures, Ringwood has high O2 demands.
I usually pick it up as movie-theater popcorn in the aftertaste. It is especially pronounced retronasally and in the beer burps to me.
And even the worst offenders with Ringwood aren’t half as bad as whatever Red Hook is doing, while we’re on the topic.