CS1 - Finneys Ordinary Bitter Version2

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Ralph on March 22, 2013 at 9:37pm

Nice malt aroma, little bit of bread on the nose.

Very deep copper colour, nice clarity, good light fluffy head retention. Not sure what the colour range is for Ordinary Bitter? I would have thought this was almost on the too dark side?

Light malt on the palate up front running through to some dark malt flavours towards the end. Finishes with a nicely balanced hop bite.

Light mouthfeel. Appropriate for style I would have thought?

My overall impression is that this is a nicely balanced and good tasting ordinary bitter. This seems like a great quaffer to have on hand all year around. Well done Finney!

Permalink Reply by Paul Fraser on March 22, 2013 at 10:06pm

My first drink of the night.

appearance - Good clarity when held up to the light. Too dark for style. BJCP describes colour as light yellow to light copper. Lasting tan head.

aroma - nice malt aroma, no hop aroma. Makes me want a sip.

flavour - nice malt flavour coming through with a med/low bitterness. Light body with a dry finish.

overall - A pleasant drinkable bitter which is just a tad too dark for style.

Well done, much enjoyed.

Permalink Reply by Dougal on March 23, 2013 at 9:03pm

Enjoyed this with onion bhajis. 

Pleasant malty nose. Chewy malt sweetness held in balance by hop bitterness. Hop character is soft and earthy. Great mouthfeel: very good balance between the body and carbonation in such a small beer. Really surprised that you didn't mash this higher than 66C! 

It's got that savoury character that I really like in bitters. There's a slight sharp ester note, but it works with the overall beer. Dark malt toastiness is a touch too prominent for me and maybe masks some of the crystal? (That's personal preference though, I've had quite a few English bitters that taste similar.)

Good job!

Cheers.

Permalink Reply by oliver on March 24, 2013 at 10:56pm

Pulled it out of the fridge and tried some while it was still cold:

Aroma: herbal, floral, hoppy, cherry.

Tastes fairly clean.

Too heavily carbonated straight out of the bottle, makes it hard to taste the malt.

Colour: dark brown, ruby highlights.

Good size head that sticks around for ages.

Excellent mouthfeel, great session beer.

As the carbonation drops and it warms up it's reminding me of a handpulled bitter - very nice.

Warming up now...

Picking up some fusels, not unpleasant though. Nice bready, malt character, caramel is coming through a bit more now, still pretty subtle. 

Overall a great session beer.

What temp did you ferment at Finney?

Permalink Reply by Crusader-Rob on April 1, 2013 at 9:04pm

i enjoyed this beer.

Appearance, a tad too dark, but i really like the colour on these beer, dark enough but you can stillsee through it, nice and clear. good head, that stuck to the glass.

aroma. good prominent hop aroma, from the english hjops. nice and bitter too.

Flavour: hops nice and bitter slight dark note in there again.

Overall, probably not to style, but hey they're only a guide anyways..

Permalink Reply by Mike on April 4, 2013 at 11:56pm

Finneys Bitter

Appearance: Very very dark for style. Too dark. Dark Brown with slight amber coming through when held to light. Crystal 120 needs to be like 60 or something... Good clarity. Retains head well.

Aroma: Slightly sulphury sweet spicy hop nose. Some esters. Slight perfumey note, soapy? Slight Fusel alcohols?

Taste: Slight acetaldehyde in the mouth, lingering bitter finish. Slightly too bitter for style? Maybe not enough base malt to back it up. As it warms this becomes more balanced...good work! A slightly thin kind of bitterness, maybe from high alpha american bittering hops. Slight Fusel alcohols?

Mouthfeel: Quite thin and dry but doesn't feel too thin.

Finish: Dry, slight malt. Mildly astringent, slight huskiness (sandiness?) on the palate.

Overall: A very drinkable bitter, I picked up on a few flaws that other people didn't, maybe I had a bad bottle, or served too cold? Mind you I let it warm up, it improved. I definitely picked up acetaldehyde though, but no diaceytl. 

Permalink Reply by Paul Finney on April 5, 2013 at 4:55pm

Thank you all for your feedbacks. It seems i am close to a good beer here :)

This is the first time i have gone back and redone a beer, so hopefully the next batch will be even better.

Personally I'm finding it a nice beer to drink. Certainly once it warms up and de-carbs a bit it is really drinkable. When i redo it i will bottle some up with no sugar to use with the beer engine to see how that goes. Hopefully that would be sooo good!

I also think the beer is a little dark. When i looked back at beersmith it didn't seem to dark on the screen. But looking at the recipe 25srm is a bit too high, maybe the screen needs it's colour setting sorting.

On an aside, i think the recipe is a bit out!! I ordered 100g of fuggles and used it all. So, i think i ended up with putting 25g at 15mins, and a 50g dry hop :) and probably a bit more in the bittering. I really need to make better notes!

So onwards to v3...

Permalink Reply by Paul Fraser on April 5, 2013 at 5:35pm

Finney, I learned a wee while ago that the colour pic is never really accurate but really just a guide. You can just estimate it from your experiences.

Permalink Reply by Dougal on April 6, 2013 at 12:54pm

I also think the beer is a little dark. When i looked back at beersmith it didn't seem to dark on the screen. But looking at the recipe 25srm is a bit too high, maybe the screen needs it's colour setting sorting.

A technical point about colour and computer monitors is that unless your screen is calibrated, the colour and tone can vary hugely. You can't really trust it.

Permalink Reply by Ralph on April 10, 2013 at 8:28pm

and a backlit screen looks different to something seen in normal light...