Hopheadish?

[Gurgeh]

Have a gooden G

I did! serious time management skills there - fielding kids, swmbo, cooking tea etc all while mash and batch sparges on the go. no-one noticed swmbo went out after kids went down so i had peace and quiet for the boil and cleaning.

Just got to get 50 bottles sanitised for friday week

[Gurgeh]

Got to be corny or barrel as bottles maintain there hop brightness far better than either of the above.

I'm really getting my head around this Vossy - I've just done a taste comparison between my 'Boudicca': bottled straight from FV after 10 days compared to cornie dispense. MASSIVE difference.

Not saying i'm falling out of love with Cornies however... just dedicating them to my new-found love of Kolsch

[Frenchie Laurence]

I went to a beer fest last weekend and they had Hophead on, they described it as hopy (of course) but also with a hint of Elderflower on the beer menu?!?! wonder if that is a secret ingredient...could may well be actually.

[SiHoltye]

Hophead is lovely, along with Fuller's Chiswick when good a couple of my 2 fave summer session quaffers when out and about. Dark Star Sunburst is lovely too but not a quaffer from the bottle - too strong.

[Vossy1]

I'm really getting my head around this Vossy - I've just done a taste comparison between my 'Boudicca': bottled straight from FV after 10 days compared to cornie dispense. MASSIVE difference.

Not saying i'm falling out of love with Cornies however

I'm not sure why it happens, as beers meant to mature better in bulk, but my findings concurr with yours.

If I could be bothered bottling I'd ditch the corny's, problem is I can't be bothered

Having said that I think that moderate beers, like your average bitter, benefit from the aging in a corny, and they mellow beautifully with age, each week's like a different pint

When I next make an IPA it will certainly be getting bottled as I like the sharper hop flavours bottles seem to maintain...I'll also keg for comparison

[scarer]

I agree.

My vienna lager tastes quite different from bottle to cornie. At the moment I think I prefer the bottled but I only got one bottle left and a cornie full of it!

[Benjy Edwards]

Yes, as others have guessed, the drop off in hoppiness with the late hop method is most apparent in bulk conditioning. I use casks and corny kegs exclusively, I can't be bothered to bottle anything.

[spearmint-wino]

Massive thread hijack but... nice bar benj

Back on topic, I too notice hop flavour and aroma fades in the keg over not too long a time, and like a lot of others find bottling a bit of a faff.

Go big on late hops and drink quickly!

[Benjy Edwards]

Thanks Spearmint Wino! I've been meaning to build a nice wooden bar of oak or mahogany to do those Angram pumps justice.

If Dark Star uses lots of late hops in the Hophead, has anyone had a pint that may have been a bit past it, showing much less hoppiness than usual?

[tomU]

If Dark Star uses lots of late hops in the Hophead, has anyone had a pint that may have been a bit past it, showing much less hoppiness than usual?

You think hophead stays on long enough anywhere to be past it??

We did however get the odd barrel in my old pub that didnt have the distinctive citrussy/floral hoppiness it usually does. It wouldnt have been past it though - just a poor batch of hops I guess...

[Benjy Edwards]

Good point! Hophead seems to be universally admired, so I doubt that casks have much chance to get old.