Beer Lord's Sublimely Self Conscious

[Gymrat]

First off I am typing on my phone so please excuse any typos.
This beer pours incredibly beautiful. It is a dark brown with a golden creamy head. I did take some pictures and will post one later when I am on my computer.

There is not a lot of aroma. But what there is is very pleasant.

Taste. First off I am just not getting the fusel alcohol flavor Paul said this beer has. What I am getting is a really nice balance between malt and hops. Both are very present somehow. There is a very minor but detectable bitterness in the finish. This beer has a very pleasant sweetness to it.

Over all this is a beer I would buy if it was available.

[Beer-lord]

Well, that's just odd! I ditched the keg last week but saved a few bottles just in case. I definitely got the fusel but it did subside a bit.
The same with the Pliny. It's less but it just gets in the way.
But, I'm glad you got more out of it then I did. My friends begged me not to ditch it but I had a beer ready to keg and I knew I wasn't going to drink it. I really only ditched about 2 gallons (What?) so it's not like it was a full 5 gallons.

Thanks for trying it in spite of my warnings.

[BlackDuck]

Not to hijack this, but something just popped in my head. Paul, you mention that you ditched the keg of the Self Conscious because of the fusel. Was the Pliny and the Self Conscious in the same keg? Could there be something in the keg or lines that's infecting the batches and giving off what seems to be a fusel character? Just shootin' holes in the sky and trying to help out.

[Beer-lord]

No, I still have the keg of Pliny. It is losing some fusel but I know it won't all go away. I'm going to see if my brother and friends want me to keep it though I bottled (with a broken beer gun) a few bottles today.
I've been pretty OCD with my keg cleanliness. PBW for a few days then a good washing then leave some StarSan in it until it's keg time. I also clean my lines after EVERY keg is changed though I'm told that's not needed.
It's definitely the yeast/temperature. I'm not thinking this will happen to me again unless my yeast starters go funky.

[BlackDuck]

Ok...just throwing it out there.

[Gymrat]

And here it is.

[Beer-lord]

I have a bottle of the real deal that I'm going to do a side by side on next week. My recollection was that there isn't much aroma though looking at the recipe, I would think their would be.
I'm going to wait a long while before I attempt this one again.

[Kealia]

I decided to open this one tonight.

It poured with no head and nice low level of carb. It looks black as night

The smell was slightly sweet with almost a wine aroma - which I suppose could be the fusel alcohol that Paul spoke about. I'm just not sure. I braced myself for mouthfull of roasty/toasty espresso-like beer but that is not what it was at all. IIRC, this was supposed to attenuate a lot more and if that's right I can see where it would be a crisper, hoppier Black IPA.

As it stands, it's a bit sweet for me due to the fusel alcohol in the taste, I think. Without prior knowledge of that being what it was I would have referred to it as almost a wine taste, though. It's good to share information with each other because it helps identify what we are tasting for each other.

I love how there isn't the roasted taste to this like a porter and I can see what this beer was meant to be. I think this is one that I could drink with more hop presence in it.

I'm guessing that this style (Black IPA) doesn't carry the heavy roast flavor that other dark beers do. My eyes have been opened

Thanks for sharing Paul!

[Beer-lord]

Their Sublimely isn't like many black ipa's I've had. It has a much different taste to me than what I would call the Normal black.
I'm fermenting a true BIPA as we speak that I love.
But I ditched the rest of Sublimely and kept a few bottles to age.

[Kealia]

So would you say that the Sublimey is more or less 'roasty' than other BIPAs? If I was blind-folded I never would have known that this was a dark beer. In doing some quick research on clone recipes I saw it mentioned in a few places to put the Carafa malt in late into the mash to contribute color and prevent too much roasted flavor from being contributed. Is that what you did, or is it so small of a quantity that it just didn't have a strong presence? Just curious.

[Beer-lord]

Sublimely is most definitely less roasty than many other BIPA's I've tasted. But it's strange because my Men in Black has only 3.1% Carafa III and Sublimely has 5%. I have recently tasted the real Sublimely and made this exact remark. The only other major difference is the yeast used but I'm more confused by this than before.
Either way, it's hard to tell with fusel in the way.

[Kealia]

Whatever it is, I can tell you that I've gotten over my fear of Black IPAs as a result of tasting this!

[RedBEERd]

I had some of the bottled version last night (Sun) and I didn't notice anything alcohol related but honestly, I don't know enough to know what fusel really tastes like. I thought this wasn't too bad. It may have had a rather sharp finish, as it quick but it CERTAINLY wasn't 'throwawayable".

Also had some of the Pliny, and it's FINEY!

[BlackDuck]

The Pliny is FINEY....that's awesome!!!

[Inkleg]

I just finished half a glass of my SSR. To tell the truth it has a sharp bitter bite that I would call unusual. After reading about Paul's I wonder if there is something wrong (infection)with mine or is this normal for the recipe?

When I get a chance Paul I'll bottle one from the keg and send it to you. It will be the only way to know.