It’s been a while since I had a chance to write here and last weekend my wife and I finally had a proper tasting of the Black Ale that was split on hops – each batch got dry hopping with a different hops variety: Golding vs Fuggle hops.
The beer itself is my standard Black Ale from an extract. It had the right color, been boiled with Fuggles and resulted with a 3.89% ABV – a littler lower than the usual, but still ok. To the comparison:
The same:
Both beers presented same ABV, same color, and same quantity. The process was kept exactly the same throughout, so nothing will be different, but besides what I mentioned, they are completely different, so, in which why?
The difference:
Goldings: Aroma is floral and slightly sweet (my wife called it “better”), the flavour is round and malty with a light bitter end. Altogether a very nice and “fuller” version of the Black Ale.
Fuggles: Earthy and tangy aroma, sweeter on the tongue but bitter and tangy flavor. Much more “aggressive” tasting beer and it had a much better head than the Goldings.
The result is excellent as it shows that dry hopping works only on aromas and on the “higher” flavors, which allows for a lot more to play with. The difference between the two version is surprising, though, I wasn’t expecting changes in how malty the beer will feel, but it did, and it was great.
At the end of the day, I prefer the Fuggles hops version – it is the “original” taste I had for the Black Ale and it is the taste I’m looking to stay with. The Goldings version was excellent, but the change was too big in opinion, so i will need to utilize Goldings hops in other places.
