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As promised last week, this time around I’m tasting the Best Bitter I brewed up on the last Brew Day.
I’m not as happy with the Bitter as I was with the Pale Ale. A fair amount of it can be chalked up to the yeast, I think (Burton Ale Yeast, WLP-023). It’s just not settling out like it should, leaving the beer hazy. Also, it doesn’t seem to ferment out nearly as dry as the London Ale Yeast (WLP-013); at least, not in this iteration.
Between the yeast still in suspension, and the relative warmth of the fermentation putting out lots of esters, I’m getting a bunch of fruit in this one, mostly in the nose–almost like peaches, if you can believe that. Despite being more aggressively hopped than the Pale (3.5 ounces, versus 2 in the Pale), I’m not getting that as much; it’s not coming across with as much bitterness. Some of that is probably due to the roasted grains in the Pale, which were absent from the Bitter, but I’d expect some of the “greener” bittering from the hops.
It throws a lovely, thick white head, which quickly falls to an eighth of an inch that sticks with the beer for the rest of the glass. It’s not highly carbonated, by design; I wanted it to resemble something from a cask, so I was aiming for about 1.5 volumes. Despite that, it’s pressurizing itself in the keg to about 8 PSI, which is making for an aggressive head when I pour it.
In all, it’s a solid beer, just not exactly to my taste. If I do it again, it’ll have to be in steps, to see how various “improvements” change it. First, I’d have to do it with the WLP-013, then maybe try an all-grain version of it. Fermenting it cooler than I did (about 70 degrees) would probably help with the esters, but I’d probably have to shake it up a bit during fermentation, to rouse the yeast. I’ll admit to also being curious about the Extra Special Bitter, which is a slightly different recipe than this one. It might be worth trying it out on a future Brew Day.
My next Brew Day, on the 21st of October, will feature a mini-mash Irish Red Ale, again from a MoreBeer kit. Being a more “complex” brewing style, I’ll only be doing the one beer; it’ll probably take me a fair part of the afternoon. I plan on using the WLP-013 again, because I think it will really play nicely with the style: rich, lightly roasty, and nicely dry on the palate.
In non-brewing news, with the turn of the seasons, it’s time to get into curing meats again. I’ve already got about 9.5 pounds of pork belly curing in the fridge, a week or two from being delicious homemade bacon. Also, I’ve been eyeing the recipe for bresaola, and I think that once things cool off a little more, I’ll be able to pull that one off in the cellar. I’ll go more in-depth into procedure and recipes and such in a future post.
What sort of autumn deliciousness have you been up to, readers? Let us know in the comments!