I’ve been thru several iterations of Ordinary Bitter since the beginning of the year (as well as Mild and Scottish 60/- and 70/-). Out of ~six beers, I think I’ve brewed two good ones. Not great but good.
Something Denny said the other day on the subject bears repeating (paraphrasing here): there aren’t many ingredients in these beers so make each ingredient pack a punch.
I’ve seen many recipes from books such as Talley’s Session Beers, Wheeler’s British Real Ale, Ron Pattinson’s Blog, Brewing Classic Styles, etc. Most typical Ordinary Bitter grain bills I’ve seen list a very large amount of base malt (high 80 to low 90%), med crystal, a tiny bit of roast for color adjustment, and sometimes they list a sugar and other times they don’t.
This tells me Denny’s comment is key. I also think the house yeast plays a huge role in the body of these beers as does technique such as milling, mash, and fermentation.
Someone else (can’t recall who) commented that my efficiency was too high. It seems the ingredients lists when given in weight from the sources above would produce much higher ABV beers given my routine efficiency. Especially with the 90 min boil Wheeler recommends. This could indicate a point of diminishing return on a fine crush. I am not sure about that but possibly they don’t mill the grain as fine as I do therefore there’s more malt in a recipe. I’d like to taste two beers side-by-side, one with less malt crushed finer and one with more malt crushed coarser, to see if there is a perceptible difference to me.
Also, I’ve decided I am not a huge fan of some British hops. So I use this quote to my advantage: “The style nazi [wants] to define something as "English" or "British" by the use of UK malt and hops. Even though beers actually brewed in Britain over the last 150 [years] have almost always contained some non-British ingredients.” — Ron Pattinson
I hope this gives you some ideas. Let us know how it turns out.
Cheers!