Okay, this past Sunday I was waiting for my pork butt to smoke (17 hours!!) and I realized my OSH had been conditioning for 3 weeks. So I busted out a bottle and my can of the real deal, and did a comparison.

First off, Orfy really NAILED the color with his recipe. Of course the can has the nitro widget so it's easy to distinguish the two, but the color itself is spot on. Mine (on the right, if you haven't already figured that out!) has a touch of chill haze, which actually clears up quite a bit ten minutes after pouring. (Warm in the bottle, it's crystal clear.)

When it comes to drinking, the differences are far more apparent. Due to the cream head created by the widget, the first sip of the commercial product has a wonderful mouthfeel, but it quickly dissipates and subsequently feels rather watery and thin. There is a pronounced but simple sweetness and a minimal hop presence. While refreshing, the flavor is rather muted and again, watery.

Orfy's OTOH, has a much fuller mouthfeel and a rich, malty sweetness that lingers and seems to spread to the side of your tongue. The hops are quite pronounced, with a flowery/fruity character that I assume is from the EKG. There is also a slight touch of yeastiness, which I'm guessing will all but disappear with time...it's still a very young beer. Overall, it seems to be closer to an ESB than what I would consider a classic bitter. I over-carbed a bit for the style, next time I'll use less priming sugar.

The best part of this comparison is that I was obligated to drink two nice pints of beer! While it's not a perfect match to the Morland product, I enjoyed Orfy's quite a bit more, and feel it's a better beer. It's certainly more to my taste anyhow. I'll be brewing it again, perhaps I'll alternate it in the rotation with my own ESB recipe.