Tasting - Ordinary Bitter

First Pint

1 Month from Brewday

Brewday Notes
Brewday Video

Appearance

Pours with a tight fluffy head which eventually settles down into thin layer that sticks around though most of the pint. While free of sediment, the clarity isn't quite as bright as Brown Porter. Colour is a deep gold to orange, very nice.

Aroma

I fermented a little too cold and I'm finding there isn't much in the way of yeast character which is unfortunate since I believe it's one of the style's defining character traits.  The East Kent Golding hop aroma really pops and man does it smell amazing!  I am still getting some wonderful malty aroma hits as well.  Very inviting.

Flavour

My biggest concern when developing this recipe was finding the right balance between malt and hops.  I was looking for a mildly hoppy pint, perhaps something more inline with a Kentish Bitter, yet still balanced and very drinkable.  With such a small amount of actual malt in the beer, I was very skeptical of the many 30+ (even 40+) IBU recommendations found online.  In the end, I decided to err on the side of caution and scale back my bitterness to the 25-26 IBU range and I can say that it was most certainly the right call. The resulting beer has exactly the balance I was shooting for.  I could not be more pleased!

Overall Impression

Steve L - "Looks great, I bet it tastes like an English bitter."
Wife - "It's flat."

A very nice, easy drinking, well balanced ale.  At 3.2% ABV, definitely a session brew!  The hoppiness is on point, could perhaps use more body... what can you expect from OG 1.038.  Perhaps another small percentage of a very light crystal malt could help in the body department without taking away from the current hop profile?  Otherwise the maltiness on point.  I am enjoying the small addition of Brown Malt, comes through very subtle, slight black tea note (but not astringent).  Perhaps this could be increased slightly as well?  My only regret is that it lacks some much needed yeast character.