The coming of Adams

So happy to have my keg system back!

And no, this isn't Sam Adams we're talking about here, it's my long-anticipated first Princeton batch of homebrew, a SMaSH Yorkshire bitter made with Maris Otter malt and Willamette hops.  Last week after cleaning and sanitizing my kegs and tap system, I finally got the beer flowing here at Yorkshire Meadows.  Even got to test it out on some friends, who officially praised it as "a great EPA"...will unleash it on a few more this weekend at the Gervin Manor Halloween extravaganza.

Here's the basic rundown so those tasting it--or those who might not get to--know what to expect from it.  As you can see from the picture, it is a nice golden beer with a brilliant white head that is rather thick and frothy.  Head dissipates into a ring of foam but leaves some de-lovely lacing.  Aroma is lovely Willamette hops...but I wish it were a little bit stronger...oh well, we'll do some dry/keg hops next time.  Flavor is earthy and floral, with the Willamette hops dominating a lot of the profile.  I really like their character; it's like if hops of the delicious East Kent Golding variety had just a touch of that American Northwest pine/citrus hop flavor and aroma, which is really quite nice.  Hop flavor gives way to a nice biscuity malt flavor that comes only from Maris Otter, no specialty malts.  Yeast profile is damn near perfect and leaves a nice residual sweetness that balances out the hop bitterness very well.  At just around 4% ABV, this is a great session beer, too.  Easy drinking for sure.  Anyway, that was just a quick rundown...I'll post a real review sometime in the near future, near because I don't see this batch lasting long.

Stairs make for great gravitational siphoning into kegs!