CS5 - Imperial Bitter

[Simon David kelly]

Well, technically it's an under-dryhopped Imp APA that tasted more like a strong Flowers Original ....

 

Tastes ok but could have been better.

[Reviled]

Do we get to see a recipe Simon?

[Simon David kelly]

Why yes, yes you do :o)


0.32 kg Light Dry Extract (8.0 SRM) Dry Extract 3.72 %
8.00 kg Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (3.0 SRM) Grain 92.46 %
0.33 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 3.81 %
14.20 gm Chinook [13.00 %] (Dry Hop 3 days) Hops -
100.00 gm Cascade [5.70 %] (25 min) Hops 40.9 IBU
250.00 gm Styrian Goldings [4.88 %] (5 min) Hops 25.1 IBU
1 Pkgs SafAle English Ale (DCL Yeast #S-04) [Starter 2 L] Yeast-Ale

[Reviled]

Wowza, 250gms of Styrians at 5?? Is that for 20 litres??

[Simon David kelly]

Oh yes :o)

I think though that it doesn't quite come over as I had hoped. I think that the water was too soft and some of the hop flavour has been lost.

[JoKing]

S-04 has a good habit of chewing up hop flavour and aroma.

[Simon David kelly]

What's the better yeast to use if I want a good hop finish?

[Reviled]

US-05 ;o) But that wont push through the malt as much as an english strain, I like 1469 but in my experiance all of the english strains like to steal hop flavour and aroma...

Ive used 1026 british cask once which maintained a fairly decent hop aroma, but personally I just up the late hops if using an english strain...

[JoKing]

This Thames Valley II maintains a nice hop note. Any strains that say that they have a neutral finish should leave some hops intact. Other discriptors to look out for woul be "clean".

You can still use S-04, but I would probably not have as many late kettle additions and use them as a dry hop instead. For the last couple of brews, I have just chucked in dry hops when I pitch the yeast. It's not as "Smells like sticking your head in a hop sack" as when you put them in secondary, but it is still quite hoppy. They take on the yeast attributes this way too - I just did an ESB with Thames II and Amarillo, and the Amarillo really comes acoss marmaladey. More so than when I've dry hopped with Amarillo in the secondary. Weird. Awesome too.

[vdog]

Cracked this one this afternoon. Instant hit of bubblegum/butterscotch (?) on opening and pouring it into a jug. Great burnished amber colour with a clean white head.

Thought it had good malt heft to it, nice and chewy, but it was overshadowed by the bitterness, and I think the alcohol as well. An interesting beer for sure, but not one I could drink a lot of.

[Simon David kelly]

There was definitely a little something wasn't there ... not sure what it's from though ...

I'm going to dial back the hops on the next one in the 5 minute addition and put some in as dry.

[vdog]

It actually reminded me of a beer I had a little while ago from Mike at Brewers Coop - he said it was a hoppy, bitter IPA-style, but when I cracked it I had to check he hadn't given me the wrong bottle - I got a real bubblegum/spice thing off it that made me think belgian. I wonder whether the extract could be contributing that character?

[Simon David kelly]

I did this one from all grain, but I didn't do a D-rest and it ran a bit hot during the ferment ... I was at 22C for the whole duration.