El Dorado & Zappa Pale Ale - Tasting Notes

Time for a tasting of my most recent Hoppy Pale Ale - an El Dorado & Zappa hopped version.  This beer was brewed on 8/14, spent 6 days on 8 oz of dry hop, and then was kegged on 8/28.  I've been drinking it the last couple weeks now.  This, like all the hoppy beers I've brewed in the last several months, is a a pale ale strength beer (~4% ABV) which focuses on Aroma and Flavor hops.  I'm using flaked grains quite a bit in these beers to help with body and typically mash warm to try to retain some additional malt character and then bittering at a fairly consistent amount to end up with a product that has a nice firm bitter character - bitter but not aggressively so.  

This base beer creates a nice palate to experiment with different dry hopping combinations.  Dry hopping is such a wonderful approach to getting intense hop flavor and aroma in a beer.  I've tried quite a few now and have never gotten a combination I don't like.  For this one, I decided to try a couple hops I purchased in bulk:  El Dorado at 6 oz of dry hop and Zappa at 2 oz of dry hop.  I've used these both separately where the El Dorado produced a Citrus character where the Zappa had a piney, grassy, and marijuana like character - both very good beers.  The Zappa was a very pungent hop compared with the El Dorado so I opted for a fairly restrained portion.  We'll see how that turned out in the following tasting notes.

Anyway, I will say  I've very much enjoyed drinking this beer - a beer I can have 3 of in a night and not have a problem.  Time to do a tasting before it's gone.

Tasting Note:

• Aroma:
• Grassy, piney, and a slight bit of citrus character.  Maybe get a small bit of bready malt coming through.  A bit of a spicy character in there too.
• Appearance:
• Pours with a 1-2 finger head that lasts for several minutes and leaves lacing on the glass.  Light gold and a little hazy
• Flavor:
• Piney and herbal hop flavor up front.  This lingers into the finish which has a medium bitterness along with lingering hop flavor.  Slight bit of bready malt and a touch of sweetness in the mix to providing a little balance to the hops.  Not really picking up any alcohol or yeast character
• Mouthfeel:
• Medium-light bodied and pretty dry.  A little bite of bitterness prickling the tongue but still easy drinking
• Overview:
• This is another nice hoppy pale ale.  Easy drinking with delicious hop derived flavors.  This one is fairly boldly flavored but not quite as bold and bright as the last one that used Zappa only.  The El Dorado is a more mild hop and I think the 6 oz used were somehow out competed by the 2 oz of Zappa here.  This beer is certainly no chore to get through but I'm not sure I'd call Zappa and El Dorado a winning combination (at least these crops in these proportions).