First public tasting of Handlebar Bitter v2

It's only 3.5 weeks in the bottle but I tried one last Friday and instantly fell in love.

The Handlebar Bitter is a bigger version of the Ordinary Bitter recipe from Jamil's Brewing Classic Styles book. I'm still tied pretty heavily to that book for my recipes, but it's indispensable. If you're looking to get started or want to investigate different styles, I can't imagine a better resource. Enough of that, though.

I put Handlebar in the Special/Best Bitter category since the estimated 70% efficiency of my mash ended up being higher, and with a target OG of 1.038 I managed 1.045 @ 75°F. Target FG was 1.009 and I logged 1.012 at bottling.

[Side Note: I'll post the recipe I used once I find a decent way to do so on Blogger. I also want to post my current brewery setup, as I'm finally getting to a point that I feel really efficient, and that I have the right tools for the job.]

The main changes were moving to Fuggles from Kent Goldings (I know, not really a change), increasing the bittering addition, and sliding the 1 minute final addition up to 10 minutes for just a little bit more of a hop kick. For the grain bill, I replaced Special Roast with Caramunich, because that's what the brew shop had on hand.

I brought a bottle to Whiskey Wednesday at work today and got great feedback. For being such a light beer it has a great mouthfeel, and the hops feel just right. The carbonation is low as it should be. What I love most about it is that it drinks so easily, and when you're done your mouth feels empty without it. Nice drying quality. Does that sound right?

[Side Note 2: part of this blog is to help me expand my brewing/tasting vocabulary. For instance, I still don't quite know what 'bready' means in regard to mouthfeel. I'm pretty sure this brew is bready though, dammit.]

I think I'm going to try to find a local competition and enter this in the English Pale Ale - Special/Best/Premium category. I'm pretty middle of the road for that style stat-wise. I've got another bottle or two to hand out to some trusted tasters, but so far overwhelmingly positive. I knew even at the real ale stage that this was pretty special.