Strong Bitter Tasting

Extra Strong, Extra Special

It's a glorious hot summer's day in sunny Manchester so the perfect opportunity to drink a chilled glass of Extra Strong/Special Bitter (ESB).

Hazy!

This is the beer I brewed on 9th June (recipe here) and took to Manchester Beer Week Homebrew Expo after only two weeks conditioning. Ideally I should have left it for a few more weeks so after more than four weeks in bottles I think it's time for another taste.

Disappointingly it's still a bit hazy but that aside I am very pleased with this. At 5.1% abv it has a bit of a boozy kick but is still very drinkable, which is a slight worry as it's not exactly a session ale. It's not hoppy, but neither is it too bitter at 35 IBU's. The malt flavours are more prevalent but it's not too sweet, overall a very pleasant, traditional style ESB.

Clear!

Quick update, after another four weeks the beer is now crystal clear! Once again standard homebrewing rules apply; if it's not right at first just leave it for a while, it won't get any worse and might just improve.

Manchester Beer Week Homebrew Expo

Free Beer!

Manchester Beer Week finished on Sunday 2nd July with the now regular Homebrew Expo organised by Manchester Homebrew and held at Beer Nouveau in Ardwick. 16 homebrewers presented free samples of 50+ beers, covering all styles, to discerning drinkers. There were two competitions; "A Beer For Manchester", judged by a distinguished group of drunks experts and a Best in Show award voted for by expo visitors.

A piss up in a brewery

I brought along an exciting range of traditional bottled beers but there was also loads of keg and even one cask beer. A few highlights for me were a Banoffee Wheat Beer (it actually tasted like banoffee!), a Rye IPA (I must use some rye malt soon) and the beer judged to be winner of the Beer for Manchester competition, "Cosmetically Challenged" a New England IPA brewed by Tom, which would stand up to anything made by a commercial brewer. The Best In Show beer was another great example of a NEIPA, "Lazaretto" brewed by my fellow Chorlton Homebrewer Simon. There were loads of other great beers as well, too many to mention. The overwhelming impression I got from the expo was the sheer high quality and vast range of homebrewed beer and it has definitely inspired me to try a few new things.

Winner!

I took samples of five beers and even made the effort to label them using Beer Labelizer once I had thought of names for all five.

Four of my five beers (the Alt bier is missing)

The beers I took to the Expo were:

• Altbier "Alles Klar"
• Porter "3rd Prize"
• Another Pale Ale "Muddy Waters"
• Best Bitter "Boring Brown Beer"
• Strong Bitter "Strong & Stable"

I'm pleased to say that all five were well received and I was really thrilled with all the positive feedback I got from visitors and judges alike. My highest scoring beer in the Best in Show award was my most recent brew, the strong bitter "Strong & Stable" which achieved an average score of 7.8/10. If I had been able to give it a bit longer to condition it may have scored even higher.

Special thanks have to go to Connor and Jai for organising Manchester Beer Week, Steve at Beer Nouveau for the use of his brewery and Craig and Rich from the Manchester Homebrew group for arranging the expo.