CS5 - Imperial Bitter

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Ally Mcg on June 8, 2010 at 12:26pm

Not wanting to contradict too much Si but your recipe says


0.32 kg Light Dry Extract (8.0 SRM) Dry Extract 3.72 %

and you're saying it was an AG. Where did the extract go?

Permalink Reply by Simon David kelly on June 8, 2010 at 12:32pm

Bugger, you're right ... had to add it in when the mash only hit 54% instead of 60% ....

Maybe it is what gave the butterscotch ...

Permalink Reply by Martin Bridges on June 9, 2010 at 9:11pm

As usual, not looked at any other notes beforehand. Decanted into a jug then poured into a pint glass.

And what a lovely looking pint it is. Deep amber, slight haze, with a fluffy creamy head which subsides slightly.

Slight pear drops aroma (estery?). Not unpleasant. However, by the end of the glass I was picking up a slight sweaty socks aroma. Sweet-ish.

This is a lovely ESB! Rich malt character, lovely hop balance through the mid-palate, nice body. Definite orange marmalade flavour (Styrians?). Only slightly let down by a lingering harshness/astringency. Really gripped the back of my palate and sides of tongue, leaving me with the wrong memory of the beer.

Having read the recipe (good God man!) I'm guessing that the haze is from hop oils, and that the astringency could be tannins. I'm really not sure you got full value from those 250g of Styrians.

Still, I would readily drink pints of this. Clear up the haze and smooth out the finish and I'd rarely drink anything else!

Permalink Reply by Simon David kelly on June 10, 2010 at 2:56pm

So your saying more hops then ;o)

I was wondering what to brew next and I think it shall be a slightly changed "ESB".

Thanks for the feedback Martin, I'll look at spacing out the hopping a bit to reduce those oils.

Permalink Reply by Reviled on June 15, 2010 at 12:22pm

Pours hazy orange with a 2 finger head, aroma is sort of malt driven with caramel and vanilla notes, sweet malt up front with a bit of hot alcohol, a creamy mouthfeel with more hints of vanilla. Balanced finish with some floral bitter notes that linger. Nice beer but you definately havn't got the value of the 250gms you've thrown in there, not sure if thats because of yeast or water, probably the S-04 but ya never know...

Permalink Reply by Ally Mcg on June 16, 2010 at 9:01pm

Okay, so had this one tonight after a couple of Epic PA's which may have affected my taste buds

Butterscotch, a little sweat on the nose and a smidge of parmesan rind at first sniff. Step back, clear my head then try again. Same but with a little more vanilla. Massively bitter. Like chewing throw a hop toffee. Layers of hop, like a savage hop attack but strangely muted and looking at the recipe I guess thats due to the 250g styrian addition at five. There's hops, but not a lot of depth. Sweet solventy alcohol which underpins the hoppiness.
I can see what you intended here and with a few tweaks I think you could get something really drinkable. Enjoyable trying this one even tho its not for me. Cheers

Permalink Reply by Barry on June 16, 2010 at 9:44pm

Chose this one as a nightcap. It's a bloody big cap.

Pours a slightly cloudy amber golden with pillowy white head that leaves wonderful lacing down the glass. Almost tart green spicy hop with a bit hotness on the nose.
Taste is a short hit of sweet followed by a long stretch of BITTERASFUCK. It really smacks the sides of the mouth this beer, not in a bad way, in a really unique way - not over the top piney citrussy American-ness, but earthy spicy slightly green BITTERNESSNESS. It's not even way out of balance, it's really pretty bloody tasty. But it is sure damn BITTERASHELL.
As the glass goes down and warms up it really is tasting damn good. Each mouthfull gives you a sweet fresh malty start only to be DAVIDTUALEFTHOOKEDBYBITTERNESS. POW.

Really tasty beer Simon, really enjoyed it. Nicely brewed mate!

Permalink Reply by JackoNZ on June 18, 2010 at 9:59am

Finished the night off with this, or should I say it finished me off!! Wow this beer is big, a little haze on the pour, nice big frothy head. Aroma, couldn't really put my finger on it, floral maybe? I could also smell the hop bitterness before I'd even had a taste! Then when I did try it I nearly fell off my chair. Really massively bitter on the tongue, I had a slurp of my home made winter vegetable soup to calm the pallette down then went back for another go. Found it difficult to get much more than some sweet toffee malt and hops. Unfortunately it's too big for my pallette and me and the girlfriend both struggled to finish the glass with dinner. I reckon if you dialled back that 5 min addition and dropped the alcohol strength down a bit you could have a real tasty ESB. Good luck with the re-brews and thanks for sharing.

Permalink Reply by Haish on July 1, 2010 at 10:59am

Pours a hazy amber with smallish white head. Huge orange floral hop aroma instantly fills the room, hops dominate the nose. First sip is like a tactical strike on the tastebuds but there's not as much hop flavour as the nose suggests. There's enough malt sweetness to balance the bitterness, but the balance is firmly towards the hops.

Nice beer Simon. I don't think I've done a 250g hop addition before, I bet the neigbourhood smelt awesome when you dropped those in! This beer and Dale's are pushing me to do a bit of experimenting around late hop bittering.

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