5 pm saviour, the verdict

Hi all,

 

I am departing for the fair Kingdom of Saudi in the morning so thought i should post my thoughts on 5pm Saviour while it is still freshly bottled and all new. Bottling was a week ago but this wee beer is honestly the closest i have ever come to a commercial beer (in a good way).The beer is a single grain (Maris Otter) high mash temperature (80 strike/ 72 deg rest) and fermented on wlp 23 Burton & US05 split yeast. The percentage split in the split of two yeasts is unknown but its around 10th Gen. When i poured the beer the malt/yeast hit me with authority from easily two foot away, that was quite a surprise. If you have tried a well made Polish or Czech Bohemian style lager you will know the smooth vanilla odour that is a part of the best of them?

 

That is present here although no lager yeast was used. The beer was fermented out over 6 weeks at approx 7 to 10 degrees and i think that is well shown in the smoothness. The Burton snatch is present as well but in a subdued fashion nicely counterpointing the slight hop bitterness from the calculated 40 IBU.

 

 

 This beer has a fair charge of hops but the yeast is basically walking all over them unlike in Satans Circus where the same yeast split 9th Gen yeast was crushed below the hop avalanche.

Ah, wait a moment, the beer has been chilling outside on this cold 1st Dec rainy evening and as i approach the bottom 1/4 of the glass i am experiencing the Pacific Gem hop nicely, sweetness and ripe tropical fruit overlaying a very slight touch of caramel and that's close to it.

Okay second beer now and i am tasting toffee and light citrus. This is all still moving around below the yeast, maybe the sweetness is being boosted by the chinook hop which does tend to have a sweetshop profile. Absolutely brilliant to find in what is quite a simple beer, no huge mouthfeel just nicely balanced with a small edge of Hop zing that many commercial do not have.

Anyway there we have it, good head retention, good colour all from one grain and a nice high mash temperature. Hops woven in nicely without screaming out and dominating too much, try the recipe yourself. I am going for the KISS mantra in brewing in 2015. Merry Christmas you crazy cats and a Happy New Year where ever you are.

 P.S custard and pineapple here at the end of the second beer. :)

Thanks, until next time.