Finney's Bohemian Pilsner - "What the Ella"

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Permalink Reply by Ross on March 24, 2014 at 4:49pm

Appearance: Deep golden colour – Looks good.

Head: Was there at the start but it didn’t hang around long.

Aroma: Spicy aroma with light malt coming through. Smells like there could be a fault in there but it is so faint I can’t put my finger on it.

Flavour: Initial hit with the malt flavours, Then the bitterness comes through and slightly lingers. Medium mouth feel and good carbonation.

Over all: A nice beer that I am enjoying drinking in the sun. Would go back for another after finishing the bottle.

Permalink Reply by Paul Finney on March 25, 2014 at 9:55am

I have my Judges notes here. Oh, and FYI - final gravity was 1.016 from memory

Judge #5 - 26

Aroma - 6 - Good aroma, fine malt and faint hops

Appearance - 2 - Good colour and clarity

Flavour - 11 - Little bit of DMS flavour, overall good flavour

Mouthfeel - 2 - DMS

Overall impression - 5 - Good colour and clarity, could be a bit cleaner

Judge #6 - 21

Aroma - 5 - Tangerine and grape aromas with an underlying sweet malt nose. A touch of DMS

Appearance - 2 - Faint haze with coarse-ish carbonation. Film of head

flavour - 6 - fine mouthfeel and that DMS comes through. Quite prominent bitterness with orange peel and light caramel. Lengthy finish, not enormously well balanced.

Mouthfeel - 3 - fine carbonation with some astringency

Overall Impression - 3 - A bit unbalanced and then corn at the finish. 

Judge #4 - 25

Aroma - 5 - Slight DMS, solvent

Appearance - 2 - Low head, golden

Flavour - 10 - Good bitterness

Mouthfeel - 3 - thin

Overall impression - 5 - DMS, low malt

Permalink Reply by Crusader-Rob on March 30, 2014 at 8:25pm

Nice Solid beer. 

Aroma: Pilsner/ Bitter bite on the aroma. smell is good, almost a weird spice?

Appearance: Clarity is perfect, brillianty clear, golden colour, really nice looking beer.

Flavour:Good spiced flavour I get the eElla flavour coming through. firm bitterness ,and aroma comes through in the flavour. Spiced flavour of some sort, could be the dms a little bit.. i do get a light dms flavour coming through but for me it doesn't take away from the overall beer

Overall: Good beer, Kegged beer seemsthe way forward no crap in the bottom. the carbonation is probably on the lower end that may be the bottling from the keg.

Permalink Reply by Stewy on March 31, 2014 at 9:24pm

Forgot to make notes on this Finney but I really enjoyed this Pilsner.

Permalink Reply by oliver on April 1, 2014 at 8:17pm

Bottle: PF on the lid.
Aroma: peach, nectarine, musty

Appearance: pale golden colour, thin fluffy head, some lacing around the glass, great clarity

Flavour: Grainy malt character, lots of peach, solid bitterness (little lingering), some malt sweetness up front, dry finish, plenty of hop flavour.

Body: med-full body, under carbed (but enjoyable)
Overall: great beer, possibly a tad too bitter for me, some plastic/musty/phenolic notes, very enjoyable.

Assuming the peach comes from the hop, great fruitbowl type character, will have to try it one day :)

Permalink Reply by Paul Fraser on April 2, 2014 at 8:57pm

Poured a nice golden colour. Awesome clarity with a thin white head.
Aroma of some kind of fruit (stone/ tropical) and a light spice. Slight solvent with a deep sniff.
Flavour is light malt balanced with the hop fruitiness. Bitterness lingers a bit. There may be DMS but it is very slight for my palate
Med body, slightly under carbed but still ok.
A few wee changes and this could be great. I personally think the bitterness lingers about a tad too much. Bringing the 25min addition later might help. I think this is my first time trying Ella. I think it suits this style well. Good beer Finney. Cheers

Permalink Reply by Paul Finney on April 3, 2014 at 11:37am

Yeah, the bitterness is too much. It is better than my last pils though which was even more over the top! 

Overall i quite like the beer, and the hop. Just wish it was a bit less bitter and it would be really nice drinking. 

Still, my Pilsners are getting better! It certainly benefited from that little bit of Auroura

Permalink Reply by Paul Fraser on April 3, 2014 at 4:47pm

Did you do any water adjustments?

Permalink Reply by Paul Finney on April 3, 2014 at 5:13pm

Not for this one

Permalink Reply by Julie Fitzjohn on June 1, 2014 at 5:09pm

Hi Paul

I tried this weeks ago and my computer ate the reply like six times. not sure why it was jinxed.  but here I go again. 

appearance - clean beer, bit under carbed which i think was cos i left it too long

aroma - i sniffed really hard for the DMS but don't have well enough developed detectors. some spicy hops, more malt than i expected

flavour - i was surprised by the malt flavours. i suspect this is because I have only drunk a few commercial pilsners and i wonder if they aren't bohemian.  i thought the ella worked well.  it had a nice taste that married well with the pilsner style

overall - i didn't realise a pilsner could be so malty so it has been a pleasant educational experience for me. i liked the ella. enjoyable. thanks 

Permalink Reply by Paul Finney on June 3, 2014 at 2:03pm

The extra malt flavours could be because of the melanoidin malt. I may back it down to 100g, or 150g if i did it again. Ella seems to be a nice hop