Landlord and Session Bitter updates

I now have both the Landlord and Session bitter on tap. I guess it's time to report on them. Let's start with the session bitter.

First off, let me say that this is exactly what it's supposed to be - a session beer. It can be drunk in quantity without tiring the palate or becoming overpowering. There is a subtle malt backbone, which I think come's more from the maris otter backbone than the victory malt. The hop aroma is quite subdued too, and I may need to look at how I dry hop as it seems to have made little difference to the beer based on earlier fermenter samples. Certainly there is a detectable late hop aroma from my 'method argonoise' experiment, and this was present too in fermenter samples. This is a recipe I will return to, though I will modify it and play with it to see what else I can tease from it. A negative is the yeast character. I'm not crazy about what the wy1275 brings to the beer. On it's own, the beer is quite pleasing, but when I've had it with certain types of food (spicy in particular), there's a sort of mineral character I don't care for.

session bitter

The Landlord is a triumph - there's no other word for it. My housemates remarked on brew day just how good the mash smelled. Very early fermenter samples were sublime - and indeed fermenter samples were taken quite frequently I was enjoying them so much. Luckily I still had enough beer left to fill the corny. The final product is just wonderful. I have to admit that I have never before used Golden Promise, thinking that any difference between it and Maris Otter wouldn't be worth mentioning, but I was wrong. The malt flavour in this is just spot on for Landlord, and must be derived from the malt, with Golden Promise forming 97% of the grain bill. It's the interplay between that malty backbone and the beautiful hop character that sets this apart. If you have ever eaten pure heather honey, the delicate floral character of this beer is quite similar. I'm also impressed with how much other people have liked this beer. It's a beer with serious flavour, and I don't think the lager boys would be too impressed with it. I can only assume that most of my friends are now firmly on the craft beer bandwagon here in Melbourne, and can take strong flavours and aromas. There will be tears when this keg runs dry.

landlord (with stephen fry in the background!)