REVIEW : Muddydisco - Harvest Pale

[Wez]

MD kindly provided me a bottle of his Harvest Pale to try / review.

Here are my tasing notes:

Presentation is excellent great label, which may have been borrowed? *cough!
Slight hiss upon opening
Good strong citrus hoppy aroma jumping out of the bottle and a lovely smell when pouring
Poured with a thin head which quickly dissapeared
Carbonation is light but good, and doesn't get in the way of the taste as I find it does when overly carbed.
Clear, almost polished - easy feck test pass and a light golden colour
Very clean tasting beer the beer taste changes as you drink each mouthful, initially hoppy, then the bitterness which is I would guess 60 IBU +, then a lovely lingering dry hoppy finish which lingers and leaves you wanting more.

This is a lovely pint and right up my street! MD is knocking out some good beer! Would happily down another two or three of these although due to the hoppiness, anymore than that and i'd be after the gavison.

Nice work MD, lovely pint. :clap:

 

[robsan77]

Is that a clone of this : http://www.castlerockbrewery.co.uk/beerlist.html

might have a copyright infringment their

 

[Wez]

Is that a clone of this : http://www.castlerockbrewery.co.uk/beerlist.html

might have a copyright infringment their

:wha: do you mean the label?

If you mean the beer, we all had better watch out! :rofl:

 

[Muddydisco]

It's actually a comparision brew, Me and a few others are doing, with permission from the head brewer. So I think I may get away with the label. Can't wait for Feb when the head brewer himself trys it and compares to the original.
This isn't really my style of beer so It's good to know I have got it right Wez!
Your bitterness buds need Calibrating its around 80 IBU. Polished I say, Yes :thumb: sounds good as it's the first 1 micron filtered beer I have done. Looks like all the others from now on will get the same treatment.
Why didn't I start this brewing lark years ago. I could be running a Micro by now!
Missed chances I have a wife now, so thats a no!

 

[Wez]

Polished I say

Wasn't quite - very close but not quite there :thumb:

Also there were 1 or two bits of "something" in there - not sure how the filter works, could something have come away during the process?

A great beer though.

 

[robsan77]

That is great that the head brewer is doing that with you guys. I wish I'd started doing this years ago and then maybe I could be in that position. Harvest pale is one of my favs. Being a nottingham boy I drink it a lot!

 

[Muddydisco]

They look like yeast strands or protein strands I had a couple but they broke up to nothing when I tried to fish them out?
Can't say they are the filter material as I would of said they would of settled to the bottom and this was top tap keg?

 

[Wez]

Dunno - my skilled lips drank around them :lol:

 

[Muddydisco]

I'll double check everything in the keg and possibly filter again before I bottle the one that will be going for a real test!

 

[Vossy1]

How did you go about the filtering process md, would be interesting for the forum :thumb:

 

[Muddydisco]

Ok I'll post it on here somewhere when I Next filter one out.
But that brew was done on the cheeky side as All I did was clear in the fridge for a day or two then when running off from FV to keg I used a Bag filter designed for Bio diesel washed in Videne and rinsed well in the top of the keg, so it stopped any nasty big lumps (bigger than 1 micron anyway) getting into the keg.

Next brew will be gravity fed through the filter you supplied me Which I shall take pics of and post it on the forum how's that V?

 

[Vossy1]

Sounds good to me :thumb:
Did you have a lot of stuff trapped in the filter ?

 

[Muddydisco]

Yes I was suprised There was a definate yeasty colour to it nothing big and nasty as it was already clear by standard means but after running it through the bag you could see more yeast stuck in the bag. I know I'm not going to have any Natural conditioning ( might get a tiny bit) but I'm hoping to keep yeast out of kegs and just force carb that way I can take kegs anywhere :) and still have clear beer

 

[Vossy1]

I know I'm not going to have any Natural conditioning ( might get a tiny bit)

Filtering at 1m will remove all yeast and is typically used where a shelf life of several months is important.
Filtration at 3-5m will remove dead and dormat yeast, but will allow active yeast through.

 

[Aleman]

It actually all depends on what the rating of the filter is.

If it is a nominal filter then it lets stuff through that is bigger than the rated size.

If it is absolute then it stops anything (99.5%) bigger than the rated size.

I would suggest using 1 micron nominal pleated filters as they don't strip out as much flavour (and yeast) as a 1 micron absolute . . . and the pleated filters are easier to clean than the spun ones . . . they just cost a lot more . . . 1 micron nominal spun carts can be had at 5 for 8.50 which makes them disposable . . . a pleated filter of the same rating is around 12.50.

 

[Aleman]

I sampled this last night.

Completely polished beer with a slight sediment in the bottle. Good hiss on opening with a floral/citrussy note . . . fairly subdued though. Poured to form a good head which faded leaving a light lacing . . . easily a Feck Test Pass.

A Clean crisp beer with a long bitter finish . . . I couldn't help feeling that the flavours were not as sharp as they could have been . . . possibly a sign of some very low level oxygen pick up along the way. This was the sort of beer I was aiming at with my Pale Rider . . . I will be upping the hops next time though.

I loved it, and could have finished off a few more . . . definitely my sort of beer

 

[Muddydisco]

Thanks Aleman I have found your level! No wonder you don't want the coffee stout :rofl:
I'm going to be addressing the oxygen issue from the next few brews onwards so will have to brew again and see if you can Tell the difference

 

[Muddydisco]

Well,l had the beer circle taste Comparison last night! There were 11 beers all very similar. Now the group in majority have all made their's green beers as Castle rock serve their around 3 weeks old, and mine was around 7-8 weeks old.
In a blind taste test I reckonised my own beer in my notes!! and came second i n the group test, the first being a not so green beer, Overall I'm very pleased with how this has turned out, but it's not my style of drink, so won't be making it again.

 

[tubby_shaw]

I sampled this the other day

The delay in tasting was due to the beer throwing a sediment that formed on the side of the bottle, but a little "jiggling" had the sediment settle firmly on the bottom of the bottle :thumb:
As can be seen from the photo the beer poured completely clear and was polished "star bright"
On opening there was a slight hiss which belied the carbonation level in the glass as there was a constant bead rising throughout the drinking of the beer, the carbonation level although a touch high for the style suited this beer.
The aroma was Gooseberry and grapefruit, on tasting the citrus theme continued on tasting with a nice light mouthfeel and a good hop dryness which coated the tongue and teeth and lingered pleasantly.
All told this was a good beer that I could imagine myself drinking on a summers evening sat next to the chiminea after a BBQ.

 

[unclepumble]

Just sampling one of these as I type.

Bottle opened with a slight hiss, and poured with quite a thin head that soon faded to a thin lace that stays all the way down, a Highly polished beer, with not a drop of sediment in the bottle.

Nose is citrus towards grapefruit, citrus abound in the taste, mouthfeel is light and very refreshing, bitterness lingers leaving a dry finish.

I could happily sit in the garden a summers day and sink a few of these, which is compliment enough as this is not my favourite style of beer, But I know a landlord who would love this in his pub, he loves this style.


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