Month: March 2012

Couple of Beer Updates

stoutmakerLeave a comment

Two Horded ale
It seems I may have not posted one of my brews from last fall. Its was a rush job. My freezer decided to stop freezing, and I had a 4 oz packet of nugget hops in there. I wanted to get them used up, so I threw a pale ale of sorts together.

9 lb 2 row
2 lb vienna
1/2 lb 20L
1/4 lb dextrine
.5 oz nugget 60
.5 oz nugget 45
1.5 nugget 15
1.5 nugget 0
05 yeast

I had some severe boil off that day, and ended up with a 4 gallon batch. I forced carbed it way to high. So between the nugget being nugget at 11 or 14 % and pretty good co2 burn this beer was not one of my favorites.

But now as its now several months later and the co2 has balance out, I think this may be a pretty damn good beer. It lost some of its major bitter or burn, cleared up very well. I get a Mt Hood type aroma out of it.
But the taste I get is where its at. I get citrus, subdued, but there. an almost juniper kinda thing. And oddly enough, a maraschino cherry note.

I was worried even as i was boiling this beer that it would be far to hoppy for me. But it really seems to be balanced. But it really shouldnt be.

Next up, the newest American Stout.
Last year I made this specifically for the Titletown Open. Right from the recipe creation that was its only intent. It took a second place. (to Brians stout) I was very happy with this beer.
This years batch I switched the cascade to the last edition and added an ounce more. Plus added Mt Hood.

Well I think if its possible, there is less aroma. But far more bitter. Tim from TCB mentioned, and i agree, that it is now more along the lines of a Cascadian Dark Ale.

Cascade hops yes, but they are overpowered by the biting taste of the Mt Hood.
Even with the addition of a 1/4 lb of the torrified wheat there is virtually no head. I am thinking this may be from the bag of my homegrown hops.

But its the body of this beer that worries me the most. It should have been motor oil like. The first batch was mashed at 152, this however was mashed at 157. That should have produce a beer that was at the very least as thick as the last batch. It is very thin. Thin. Thermometer problems?

If you just handed me this beer I would like it. But it is not a stout. Or its not what I look for in a stout. This years version will be back to the original recipe.

How about just a random article for once?

stoutmakerLeave a comment

I have been scouring through recipes this week looking for something to jump out at me. Thats the normal routine lately. And if you have read any of my brew day posts lately you kinda get that idea. All over the map.

I never used to do that. I brewed about three or four different beers and that was it. The stout. The English bitter. A pale ale. A red. And on and off, a porter.
And these beers were good. But I brewed them pretty regularly. Most got changed up as we went and got better. Exactly how it should progress.

Now we come to my beers of the last year or two. I don’t think I’ve brewed any beer twice. And it defiantly shows. I may have had 2 or 3 brews total in that span that I actually like the way they turned out. Nothing terrible mind you, but not exactly what i want to be showing around.

Oh I brewed enough I think. And been using data, observations and techniques from all of brew days to better my PROCESS, but not really taking the time to better my individual beers.

Brew a beer. Keg/bottle it. Drink it. Evaluate it. Move on to the next beer. Never fixing, tweaking or otherwise improving on it.
And I do admit that my beers have greatly suffered because of this. I intend to remedy this.

I am gathering up all my recipes and picking out just a couple styles. Three, maybe four styles that I am going to work on this year and get them to where I am happy with them.
Start with the basic recipes that I have and know are close to what I want and get them done right.
These will be full 5 gallons batches.
But because I do like the brewing process I will continue to brew new recipes/styles, but those will be 2 1/2 gallon mini mash or extract. This way it’s cheap enough to brew every week and get a bit of variety.

I’m guessing some will think this is de-evolving, but I disagree. I think working on subtle changes of body, tastes and aromas of the same recipe requires far more attention than just blindly following recipe after recipe.

As I am writing this I made my choices. The two main beers I wanna get working on are the Wiki’d amber ale that I just brewed. And the Fogger stout.
The third I think I will switch out between two. The cream ale, and a wheat beer.

The amber and stout were at one time my goto beers. Made them a dozen times each, but have only made them once in the last couple years. Want to make them great again.
The cream ale I have made a couple of times trying to get it where I want it. I think it might be close to what I want. The wheat is another one I recently done a couple times. Some changes made to it already but needs work.

Am currently working on getting the mini mash set up rolling again. Seems like old times with it. Can experiment easier with the smaller batches. And recipe gone wrong wont cost me a bunch.

So that seems to be the plan for the rest of the year. Stick around. We gonna be putting the hammer down pretty soon.

(In between times I’ll be getting my larger mashtun ready.)