Category: mash and Boil

Idaho 7 and it’s Aroma

stoutmaker

Was able to get a couple brews in this past week. Which was some good timing because we are getting low on beer around here, and we have a few events coming up.

The first brew was the first of a series of beers I have planned for the club. There are so many new hops coming out, I want to get some profiles for them. So a simple smash beer is perfect for this.

Idaho 7 was the first hop I chose. As you can see by the description it a fairly bitter hop, with piney, fruity, citrusy, floral aromas.

Went with 8lb of 2 row for the malt and Muntons premium Gold yeast with a standard 152F mash.

I don’t know who wrote the description with the citrusy floral fruity aromas.. because I got nothing like that in the boil. They reminded me of Saaz or Goldings. The inhabitants up stairs described the smell as carrots and feet.

But we will see what fermentation does to them. They could still very well be what is described. At least I hope so!

Either way it shouldn’t be over powering, as because of the high alpha I went with only a 1/2oz for bittering and the other 1/2oz at the last 5 minutes

The wort going into the fermenter was 1.040 and did not taste like feet.

This will be kegged next week, and be tasted the first week of February. So expect some feed back around then

Idaho 7 hop test

Alt

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A couple of us are planning on entering the Germanfest Stein Challenge. A beer contest for only German style beers.

I chose to brew an Alt Bier. I have brewed Alts a couple of times and they have been good beers,, not sure how they would score against the guidelines,, but we will see I guess.

I also used this beer to start messing with water. We do have decent water here, but a few things can be done. I didn’t go all out on the water,, so I went with just a 1/4 tsp Gypsum, and a 1/4 tsp calcium chloride.. oh and 2oz of acid malt.

The rest was just an old Alt recipe that I’ve made before except I used Maris Otter instead of the Pilsner malt. just because I wanted the malt to stand out a bit more than usual since its going to a contest.

  • 4.5 lb Munich malt
  • 4 lb Maris Otter
  • 2oz black pat
  • 4oz crystal 40
  • 2oz Acid malt
  • 1oz Perle @60
  • 1oz Spalter @15

Went with a Medium body mash of 154, And used Munich dry yeast. Munich Dry yeast?… aint that a wheat yeast? Yep. But it gives that certain “Germanish” aroma and flavor profile.

Skipping ahead to today,, I just kegged this beer and it is what i was looking for in the malt, hop and yeast profile,, but I do have to say that it does seem a bit,, mineraly or something in the feel of it. I am assuming from the water additions.

I’m not yet saying that its a bad thing,, just that I did notice it right away. And since I have been brewing with this same water for 25 or so years,, pretty sure I would notice something different. I will how ever, be keeping track of this one a bit closer and see how those additions affect the final beer.

Red, ESB, and Wheat

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Doing a quick catch up here on things while we are “emptying” a few kegs for summer use.

Proud to say that the Beet Saison did in fact win the Copper State Wort Challenge. Besides being a damn good Saison, it looks great and is very easy to make.. and that’s what probably was the deciding factor.

Next up.. a few brew days. Had a dual Mash and Boil brew with Maxwell back in March. We did some Irish Reds.

I actually was not very impressed with mine. I left it to ferment down at the store. It was on the floor against the outside wall. So it was probably fluctuating between high to low 50s. Not so detrimental, but will most likely take a bit extra for it to come around as they say. Its now awaiting it place in the fridge rotation.

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A few weeks ago I won a bunch of grains from the Bull Falls Golden Growler contest. Some Golden Promise and something called Stout Malt. Presumably a Maris Otter-like malt?

Used the Golden Promise and brewed up the Hobgoblin clone that I brewed back 2012. That beer was beyond fantastic. Still in primary, but hoping to get it kegged up within the next week. (Soon as I can finish off a keg)

And this past Saturday I did a quick and usually easy American Wheat with Amarillo hops. I say usually because I decided to use Beersmith instead of my own calculations and ended up with some wonky water volumes. Some of it my fault, some of it not. But nothing too detrimental. Should be a good beer that’s still fermenting well right now.

And the rest of my week will be getting the TTO beers labled and ready for drop off. I don’t have as many entries as usual, but the ones I do have are pretty good.

Next up, I will be doing something with that stout malt.