First Bottle of 80 Shilling

I popped open a bottle of the 80 Shilling last night. I admit, I'm jumping the gun (less than 2 weeks in the bottle) and the carbonation was indeed weaker than it should be. It seemed mildly smoky...quite faint, but overall, a sweet, non-bitter ale. It had some funkiness I couldn't quite put my finger on, but I'm hoping it might be something that will age out. I find it in general to be slightly bland, compared to the very flavourful ales done previously (IPA, ESB, Ginger Porter). Unless it shows significant improvement I won't be passing this one out. Still, if I let it age til this winter it might smooth it out and make it quite a pleasant tipple, especially when not overly chilled.

Next projects...bottling the Spiced Cyser this weekend. It has much, much aging to do. I just need to forget about it for a year. I might check the fermentation status of the mead for the melomel, as I'll probably be getting blackcurrants this weekend too. If it has attenuated sufficiently, into secondary that mead will go. Then it's a question of which to bottle first...the barleywine or Wee Heavy. I'm leaning towards the latter.