Denny's Favorite Hop Sludge - aroma is citrusy hops and bready yeast. Color is dark orange, and hazy. Pours with a finger of foam that is slow to dissipate. Flavor is citrus hop forward and slight vegetal hint, followed by bitterness and then a little sweetness from the malt. I'm really focused on diacetyl flavor but can't taste any. I really like this, but would prefer a different hops, like a piney, resinous one. I think that the dry hop yeast with a piney hop bottle addition would be a great combo, so that's what I'll do next.
Denny's Favorite yeast - pours hazy, dark orange with a finger of foam that dissipates quickly. Aroma is malty sweetness with a definite lack of hops. Taste is bready like a pretzel and slightly yeasty like church wine. Flavor is totally absent of hops. What's really troublesome is that there is a hint of diacetyl, though I wonder if the hint of butter is due to the very malty character of the beer; considering that the dry hop yeast version has no diacetyl hint, I'd like to think this is just from the malt character. Mouth feel is good, so the mashing technique is fine. I don't care for this beer really at all, and it certainly doesn't reflect a fresh hop character, though it is drinkable.
Dry hop yeast - pours hazy, dark orange. Good foam, slightly off-white. Aroma is yeast - slightly bready - and light orange citrus. Flavor is orange citrus and malt sweetness. There is also a sharpness from CO2 nucleation. The mouth feel is slightly silky. Not knowing what to expect from these hops, I think it's a good beer. The absence of bitterness is noticeable but not unexpected entirely given the late additions for the fresh hops. This beer is better than average, and is a good, fruit juice pale ale. If there were more typical spicy hop presence in the aroma and flavor, this would be a 5 star beer. I am anxious to see if the Denny's Favorite yeast with the hop hash bottle addition will fit that bill.
