HobGoblin Extra Strong Ale - Tasting notes

I thought this day would never come! Whilst the rest of the calendar appears to disappear in the blink of an eye, the days before I can taste a new brew seem to drag infernally. So, it was with much excitement that I cracked the lid on a bottle of HobGoblin Extra Strong Ale, 4 weeks after sealing this magnificent beer away.

Method: All-grain

Specialty grains: British crystal malt, British chocolate malt, British black patent malt.

Hops: Fuggles (bittering), Styrian Goldings (flavour and aroma).

Yeast: Irish Ale (liquid)

Comments: As another all-grain brew, I found my initial gravity to be lower than expected, but surprisingly, it fermented out until I had achieved the required ABV.

ABV: 5.7% (the recipe suggests 5.5%).

Yield: 19 litres

Tasting notes: This was ready to drink after 4 weeks and pours with a quickly dissipating white head over a cloudy, dark orange body. The weak head isn't a problem as carbonation appears to be fine and allows the other flavours to take centre stage.

The roasted malts and yeast make up the bouquet; slightly spicy with light citrus notes.  The low bitterness caresses the mouth, giving just enough character to accompany the full mouth feel that finishes with a roast malt spiciness. The word cinnamon keeps springing to mind when I drink this beer, but I know that is incorrect. Possibly those of you have have a better tasting lexicon can help me out here?

What I learnt: Trying to describe beers is a difficult thing - just like wine, there is a range of expressions and description which are apt, but I constantly struggle to get past "it's just a really good beer".

Hobgoblin Extra Strong Ale

Hobgoblin and the other brews produced by Wychwood Brewery are among my favourite British beers, and so I was very excited to get my hands on a recipe for the beer characterised by the axe wielding goblin.

The Hobgoblin

This is my third all-grain brew and was a full day effort thanks to the many hiccups I had with my new three ring burner on the balcony (incorrectly sized connections). 

The guardian of the mash tun

The grain bed

My new burner

This beer takes a variety of specialty malts for the colour and Styrian Goldings for the flavour and aroma.

This batch uses reclaimed Irish ale yeast from my Amber Ale brew. I'm looking forward to tasting the result!

Gravity: 1.050 (Target 1.059). FG 1.010 (target 1.016) ABV 5.7% (target 5.5%)

Yield: 19 litres (target 18.9 litres)

Brew method: All-grain with US batch sparging.

Notes:My final gravity was off quite a bit, but I'm hoping that I can reclaim the ABV during fermentation (my last all-grain batch ended up .010 lower than the predicated gravity). I'm unsure as the cause to this. On the recommendation of a couple of fellow beer lovers, brewers and chemists, I compensated for liquid lost during the boil by adding water near the end. It could be either this or inefficiency in my sparging.