Beach Brew

I had the first tasting of the ESB and APA yesterday. First impressions are good. Only a week in the bottle but both beers are tasting great.

At the first sip I wasn’t too sure about the ESB. It tasted ok but not very strongly of anything. However, as it got a chance to warm up everything changed. It just got better and better as it warmed. A really rich malty aroma and flavour. The Marris Otter malt was perfect for this style. Added with some chocolate and caramel flavours from the specialty malts it was fantastic. It has just enough of a hint of the Goldings on it. This is one f the first English ales I have made without any dry hopping. I think this was a good decision for this style.

The APA has turned out just how I was aiming. It has lighter body that my usual APA that is normally made with an all Munich malt base. This one was about half and half with ale malt. I did go a little high in dry hopping on this which has made it a little resiny but other than that it is exactly what I was looking for. All Amarillo as usual with a great hop flavour on the finish.

The APA and the ESB were bottled on the weekend. The APA in particular was very cloudy. It got a little shaken up but also had a lot of dry hops in to which wouldn’t have helped. It even got the hops stirred up enough to jam up the bottling valve so I lost a few liters of the APA. Still tasted great at bottling.

The ESB had a little haze but was not cloudy like the APA. It is reasonably dark so hard to tell exactly how clear it is This one had no dry hops in it. I was considering a dry hopping but it had a nice if subtle hop flavour when I racked it so I didn’t bother.

Will give moth of these a tasting this Saturday. Probably a little too soon but these are both beers best drunk reasonably fresh.