I brewed utilizing Fuggle Hops rather than EKG like the recipe called for as I'd purchased a pound to use on my next beer. I used the While Labs High Gravity Yeast (WLP 99) which is reputed to be from the brewery that this recipe was made by (Eldridge Pope). This yeast was used to brew my next beer (a big English Barleywine).
The beer has gotten more and more carbonated over the last month - WLP 099 is a capricious SOB if it's still fermenting 2 months after pitching and 1 month after bottling (or there is some infection although no visual, aroma, or taste evidence of that).
Time for a tasting
Tasting Notes:
- Aroma:
- Herbal, tea-like, and slightly grassy hop aroma dominates along with a bit of light malt
- Appearance:
- Golden in color and pretty clear. Pours with a 3 finger rocky head that fades down to a thin layer pretty quickly.
- Flavor:
- Light bready malt up front. Get an almost lager-yeast like character from the beer - very neutral with no fruit ester. Some hop flavor is mixed in (herbal and teal like) and then there is firm hop bitterness in the finish. This is balanced by a bit of sweet malt. A bit of alcohol comes through in the flavor.
- Mouthfeel:
- Light bodied and fairly dry. It drinks very smoothly. Crisp and refreshing
- Overall:
- It's nice to have a bitter beer to drink again (I've ended up buying 2 cases of commercial beer in the last few months due to lack of pale ale). I've gone through about half the batch since bottling a month ago. This is a really drinkable beer. Tough to say how it should have turned out but this English Pale ale is interesting in that it has almost no yeast character (could tell someone it is a lager and they'd believe it) - the Eldridge Pope strain (WLP 099) is not estery at 70 F with a 1.051 beer it turns out. Regardless, the English Fuggle hops deliver the goods - flavor, aroma, and bitterness are all quite nice.
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