Tuesday 11 August 2015

Dry Hopped Solera First Pull Results

Ahh, freshly poured. A dichotomy of aged sour and fresh dry hops!

This beer turned out really well. It's a great sign for the solera in my basement. It's almost close to being too sour, where when you take that first sip it goes "POW!" across your cheeks.

Appearance: Ended up with a sort of honey colour, with a thick sticky head that takes a few minutes to break down despite the acids. No haze despite the heavy dry-hopping.

Aroma: Dry hops upfront, orange, mango and peach are dominant, but there is a bit of resin notes from the columbus hops. I was hesitant about this hop initially, but I don't think it clashes. There's a pissy/overripe fruit aroma in terms of funk. Not much barnyard.

Tate: Puckering sour at first sip! THP right after the first swallow - lingering cheerios, but it's young in the bottle so that should disappear. Fruity hops flavor much like the aroma: orange and peach and a bit of pine/dank. Some leather, must and funk in the finish, but it's not a funk-bomb. The aftertaste is cheerios and peaches and funk.

Mouthfeel: Thin, dry, pretty typical. Good carbonation. After the swallow there's a distracting bitterness in the back of the throat and some astringency that may be from the oak in the solera.

Overall: Good! Intriguing! The aroma worries me a bit, because when I have my nose in there too long I almost wonder if I'm smelling alcohol notes or if it's solvent/ethyl acetate? Second opinions have so far disagreed so I'm probably paranoid! I'm not a fan of that bitterness in the back of the throat, so I hope that goes away in time.


Any cigar fans? I'm having my first undercrown for a belated birthday!

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