CS6 - Imperial ESB

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Permalink Reply by Matt on November 6, 2010 at 8:59pm

Been very jealous of reading everyones reviews over the past week so have been rearing to get my hands on my first CS beer and get amongst! Decided to start with this since have a tasty ordinary bitter on tap and was warmed up on one of those.

Beer pours a hazy amber and certainly looks the part of a bottle conditioned ESB, minimal head but perfect carbonation for the style.

Subtle yet distinct hop aroma, caramel also clearly there, not much perceivable yeast character especially on the back of the 1882 ordinary....

Caramel malt also quite dominant in flavour, hop flavour clearly there and overall very smooth and easy to drink. The toffee sweetess seems to define this beer. Could perhaps do with a little extra bitterness to help balance this but overall is still well rounded. I was trying to pick the hops and booted up the computer to investigate, was then amazed to see the ABV of this beer, wouldve picked ~6-7% max so the unassuming stregth of the beer is testament to its cleaness. Overall I enjoyed this and could def go another on its back. Girlfriends comments were caramel corn which actually seemed quite apt after the fact, she also finished very quickly and was equally surprised by the ABV! :D

Permalink Reply by JoKing on November 7, 2010 at 6:05pm

There must be a hell of a lot of kettle caramelisation in your brewery Simon - because looking at this recipe, I could have sworn that this was a 15% Caramalt beer.

Caramel was the dominant flavour in this beer which to my best opinion needed some more edge to help balance it out. I guess it was a bit sweet - but not overly so... I reckon another 10 or so IBU would have made this perfect.

The alcohol is extremely well hidden in the sticky mouthful - I didn't pick it to be so strong - and felt guilty when having to pick up my father'n'law later that night. Towards the end of the glass - I felt satisfied, and I drank the whole bottle - so the beer was good to say the least.

I'm also picking up on a little bit of muckyness when ice cold - reminds me of Rhodotorula.... but I won't go as far to accuse you of this. It definatley faded once warmed up. It might have even been a little bit of vegetal character - nothing sinister though. Do you rinse any of your "post boil" equipment with un boiled water?

Thanks for the beer though - and your hard work. First CS beer for me, and it was a solid drink at that.

Cheers.

Permalink Reply by Stu H on November 7, 2010 at 10:07pm

I'm relatively new to the ESB style - when I was in the UK I mostly stuck to mild and bitter ales (because I could drink 6 or more and not chunder on the train home!). However this is totally comparable to the ESBs I have drunk in the past. While I'm not a massive ESB fan, I find this beer totally to style, and delicious!

Permalink Reply by Stu McKinlay on November 8, 2010 at 12:03pm

I really liked this beer... tasted like an American ESB. Sticky sweet, clean, hoppy, with a dry well attenuated finish. Great hop flavour though could possibly do with a little more in the first part of the boil. I drunk it after dinner, as a bit of a nightcap while watching "24" - some good old fashioned low grade TV thriller. It seemed to lift the character of the show (or lower my taste to its level!).

I assumed it was about 6% and seeing your recipe now I realise why the beer was so sweet... and why I woke up this morning feeling like I'd had one or two more beers than I thought last night!

Thanks Simon.

Permalink Reply by vdog on November 24, 2010 at 12:14pm

Pours deep gold/amber, bit of haze and an off-white head that sticks around a little bit. Caramel and some fruit on the nose - I was getting mango/guava? Also a bit of alcohol evident on the nose. The caramel follows through in the flavour, reasonably full body I thought, with a good whack of bitterness to balance it out (I was nervous after last time but this didn't hurt!). The alcohol seemed to come through quite a bit on the palate too, which made it somewhat heavy going for me.

If I were more of a fan of the style I think I'd have enjoyed this a bit more, so take my comments with a grain of salt - but I certainly couldn't pick any technical faults in it. Well brewed, good work.