Question About Bitters and Pale Ales.

Things sold as "bitter" in the UK vary quite a lot, but classic mid-brown bitters are probably closer to US amber ales (but probably lower gravity and without any American hop character) than pales.

I'd probably associate Wales with not drinking more than anything else - it's traditionally been a stronghold of Methodism with an associated history of temperance. That said, you wouldn't know that from a visit to Cardiff city centre on a Saturday night. Otherwise, I don't think there's any distinctively Welsh drink - traditional Welsh breweries tend to have fairly similar lineups to equivalent brewers in England.

 

Pale ale / bitter, they're one and the same.

 

I had my money on @marquis to say that! Fair point in a historical British context, although I was assuming that the OP was referring to pale ales in the US sense...

 

That said, these days I'd struggle to draw the line between pale bitter and trad golden ale, and between hoppy golden ale and cask APA, so yeah...

 

The term Pale Ale was used to denote those Ales brewed using Pale Malt.Not that the Ale was pale though it would usually have been paler than the Beers which used Brown Malt.
In the 19th century Mild was not dark (Mild simply meant unaged , if it was aged it was Old Ale) so in a pub Mild Ale and Pale Ale would look the same.The customers therefore took to calling the Pale Ale Bitter.
Brewery records of the time rarely if ever refer to a Bitter being brewed.
Pale Ale or PA at the brewery, Bitter in the pub.

 

Confusion arises when on this website, and on others, English Pale Ale and English Bitter are described as separate styles. So too are English Porter and English Stout, and then there's the ESB thing, which is not nor has it ever been a described style in the UK.

 

Are we talking in traditional terms, Bevis? Surely it's a bit more of a smorgasbord now?