Baritone Bitter tasting

A few weeks back I wrote about the Bass inspired beer I brewed using all Northern Brewer hops. I've decided to call it Baritone Bitter, as it's not a clone at all really, just has a few things in common with cask Bass.

Apart from a few Sierra Nevada clones where I used it as a sub for Perle in a mid boil addition, I hadn't really experimented much with Northern Brewer. The results are quite surprising. There's a total absence of fruity hop aromas/flavours, some floral, but a huge amount of that earthy almost root vegetable aroma - it reminds me of a beetroot chocolate cake I made a while back. This is a really interesting beer, with flaws, but certainly something to build on for the future.

The flaws - it's too bitter. I no-chilled this batch, and usually when I no-chill the late hops are relatively low in AA%. My Northern Brewer were 9%, and I think the late hops have had a huge contribution to the bitterness. I think I'm up at or over 40IBUs, and this could stand to drop by about 10 or so. In saying that, now that it's fully matured in the keg, the malty notes are coming through more and are masking the bitterness well. Obviously the bitterness is dropping back a little with time too. Early on the bitterness was overpowering. For such a poorly balanced beer, it managed an 87 in a recent comp (where it was still a week or two away from proper condition), so I'm quite happy with it. The water treatment has had a huge effect. It's hard to put it in words, but the hop character is transformed into a huge multi-layered effect, and brings me right back to pints of Marston's Pedigree I've had before. The yeast is spot on, with definite 'English' character that is dry and minerally without being at all harsh.

This is another recipe to build on and improve. I will probably scale back the bitterness about 5-10IBUs next time, and bump up the crystal slightly, to 6 or 7%. I will also add another late hop, probably East Kent Goldings, or maybe Styrians. While the hop character is really interesting, it could be a little broader, and a bigger floral dimension would really add to the character of the beer.

Overall a very worthwhile experiment!