First Impressions - Dr Jekyl, Dr Jekyl & Mr Hyde

Last month I brewed up my first ever parti-gyle recipe, from that I got three beers, a double IPA (Mr Hyde), an APA (Dr Jekyl) and during bottling I blended some of the beer to give me an IPA (Dr Jekyl & Mr Hyde). Last night I tasted the bottled version of Dr Jekyl.



Dr Jekyl, has a very
refreshing bitter bite to it.

First thing I must say is that I have been drinking this beer from the keg for a few weeks and ahead of this weeks ICB tasting night I decided that I should sample one of the bottles. The first thing that I noticed was that this beer turned out considerably different than the kegged version!

The beer pours a rich amber colour with a thick creamy head. The aroma is well balanced , quite malty but with a nice layer of citrus hop flavour on top. The bitterness of this beer is what hits you first when you taste it, however there is very little of the cascade flavour that was so dominant in the kegged version, thats very unusual. The bitterness and the low level of carbonation makes this a really refreshing beer. The amazing thing is that this beer smells and tastes very different to the kegged version. I would nearly think that I had mis-labelled the bottles, but I know I definitely did not. Overall very happy with this beer.



Certainly the most complex
beer I have ever brewed.

 Purely for comparison purposes I also tried a bottle of the blended beer last night and I thought this was fantastic. At 6.4% and having only been in the bottle for three weeks it is still very young, however it is really good. It pours a similar colour and appearance to Mr Hyde. The aroma has a lot more citrus hops, really nice grapefruit aroma, not overpowering, just nice. It has a medium body with a nice level of carbonation. The flavour is a nice balance of hops and malts. The citrus flavour of the hops is very apparent along with a marmalade like flavour. The bitterness in this version is rather subdued as it is drowned out slightly by these two dominant flavours. There is a slightly unusual, but not unpleasant, aftertaste that I can't quite put my finger on, it certainly finishes quite dry but there is something else there that I cannot quite identify.

I think this beer will only improve with age. You certainly wouldn't think it is 6.4%. This is definitely one of the most complex flavoured beers that I have brewed and I am really looking forward to trying it's big brother, the 8.4% Double IPA, Mr Hyde.