tasting

Cascade IPA Tasting

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I created this beer as a simple experiment. I wanted to find out how good my year-old grains were, as well as find out how bigger/tasty my this trash bag full of hops my friend Tyler gave me was.

Turns out: both were delicious.

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Appearance: Deep orange-auburn color. Quite clear. Decent head retention-thick at first dissipates slowly throughout. (Remembering that I didn’t stir the priming sugar very well. Could be that I won’t have very consistent carbonation or I just need to let these continue bottle conditioning for a bit.)

Aroma: Light and floral. Sweet fruits; vague cherry notes as it begins to warm. Not a hop bomb on the nose at least. Sweet and citrusy. Mainly grapefruit.

Flavor: Lotta classic hop flavors with a very fruity edge. Orange, lemon, grapefruit with some grassy notes in there that move into a pleasant pine-y flavor. “A very light, smooth evergreen flavor.” -SWMBO. Surprisingly complex hop profile for a single-hop beer. Very bitter, but not overwhelmingly so. Almost tart in the bitterness profile. Slightly astringent aftertaste, possibly due too high fermentation temps.

20130303-185147.jpgMouthfeel: Light and dry. Very smooth. Not carbonated enough. (Again, could just be the lack of stirring around the priming sugar in the bottling bucket enough.)

Overall: A crisp, dark, refreshing IPA. Happy with how this turned out, especially since I had not idea what to expect with these hops and very old malts. Not exactly my most favorite IPA ever, but I’d be more than happy to pay $5 for this at a brewpub. I’ll stick most of these in the fridge and see how well they age. The astringency might mellow out after awhile.

 

 

 

 

Double IPA Tasting

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20120720-170657.jpgWhen I first brewed this beer with my brother, I had high hopes. One of my (and our) favorite beers is Russian River’s Pliny the Elder. It’s magnificently hoppy, bitter, and dry, but somehow remains balanced. This was our inspiration–combined with a little recipe formulation from Nathan Smith–and we set out to create a similar DIPA.

A few weeks ago, when I had my first tasting, I was overcome with joy when I realized it was drinkable. (Always a small celebration when I realize each beer doesn’t taste like dirt.) I kept hearing about people making DIPAs that were just hop bombs or two sweet and whatnot. I don’t think this guy would be in either of those categories. While it did end at 1.021, it definitely tastes much drier than that.

Also, I decided that while it was still fresh, it’d be a great time to submit the beer to my first ever homebrew competition. I researched a bunch of local fairs/festivals and landed on the Amador County Fair–only about a 3 hr drive from me.

While not the biggest county fair by any means, I figured it’d at least be a good barometer of how my DIPA stacked up against a few others, as well as a great opportunity to read some good notes from a BJCP judge about my beer.

To my surprise, I won! I know. I’m still relishing in the glorious win. Can’t wait to get those notes back too. It’s also the first time I’ve wanted to re-brew something so quickly. Should be a fun challenge to see how consistent and similar I can get the next version to taste–with the appropriate changes of course (it’d be nice to get it a big drier).

To celebrate, I popped the cap off of one of my Big DIPAs and wrote a few notes down…

See tasting notes here…

Belgian Golden Strong Ale Tasting

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I brewed this Belgian Golden Strong Ale* about two months ago and it was my first attempt at the style.

I’d tried a few amazing Belgian quads over the past few months and was inspired to attempt my own. When I looked up the BJCP style guidelinesI realized that there is no set style for “Quads” but instead for “Golden Strong” ales. Honestly, I was a bit embarrassed to find out that they’re just two names for the same beer, but it makes sense.

Again, I’ve only been brewing for two years now, so it’s pretty natural for most of my brews to steadily improve just as my brewing techniques improve. This was no different. While I’ve certainly made some pretty terrible beers (infected, over-carbed, etc.), the past two have been very encouraging. It’s tough when you have a bad batch too. It always makes me question and re-analyze every single step throughout the entire brewing process and reiterate why every step along the way is important/necessary or not. It makes me question if I’m even capable of brewing good beer to begin with and why I’m even trying my hand at something so time-consuming. But then I get a beer like this that is pretty stinking delicious, and it makes all those worries disappear. Not to say that this beer (or any I’ve made) is perfect, but it’s definitely a good example of the style, it’s drinkable, and it was what I set out to create. What more could I ask for?

Let’s get into the details on how this tastes…

Aroma – A mix of apple cider and dark fruity esters. I get a bit of the warmth from the alcohol, with slight maltiness (ever so slight).

Appearance -Gold. Pure gold. Picturesque upon immediate pouring, with a crisp, thin head which dissipates quickly–obviously under-carbonated (maybe the 3711 yeast will continue to work on that for me…). Alcohol lacing around the edges is pretty significant and stick around for awhile.

Flavor -Honestly, tastes and feels very cider-y. Much more flavor and malt profile, but very sweet–surprisingly so with a +8% beer that finished at 1.008. Even though I used Wyeast’s French Saison yeast, glad to see that the spiciness of the saisons did not come through on this. Very clear and direct flavor profile–maybe too much so. Not overly complex.

Mouthfeel -Smooth as silk. Easy to drink (and drink a lot of) and while it was a bit under-carbonated, it did make it exceptionally drinkable. Slight warmth and burning from the high alcohol content. Need to look in to how to avoid that factor in high-ABV beers.

Overall - I love this beer. Glad to see that it turned out just about where I wanted it too. Not as carbed or as high-ABV as I wanted, but hey, for the first attempt I think it’s pretty solid. Will definitely enjoy these 12 bottles for a few weeks.

*I still cringe a bit when writing “Belgian Golden Strong Ale” as opposed to “Belgian-Style…” however, BJCP 18.D isn’t called “Belgian-Style Strong Ale”, so henceforth I shall try to shy away from always including the word “style” when speaking of the Belgians. Cheers.

Clever Girl – Bourbon Barrel Stout Tasting

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I figured there was no better (or nerdier) day than today–Star Wars and National Homebrewing Day–to try this guy…girl. Clever Girl was brewed a few months ago and it’s turned out pretty dang well. I split a bottle with a good friend and here are our combined tasting notes:

Aroma - The bourbon warmth stands out right away  (combined with the 9%+ ABV), but soon after that chocolate and coffee aromas are quite prevalent. There are a malty, dark undertones as well, typical of a dark, heavy stout.

Appearance - Opened this bottle at just about 12 days after bottling, but it was remarkably well carbonated–no complaints at all. This stuff is black as tar. Seriously, we held it up to a bright light and it’s as opaque as a brick wall.  This stuff makes Guinness look like Boddingtons. Holy cow. Thick, golden head that stays firm throughout. It’s just a beautiful, picturesque stout.

Flavor - The first flavor to hit me was the chocolate. It was rich and dark and a very full, dynamic flavor combined with a very sweet coffee flavor, which is usually not the coffee flavor I usually get from espresso/coffee stouts. The oak is much more prevalent than I’d previously tasted, but I love it. It’s definitely hidden within all of the other flavored, but it’s present throughout. The more it warmed, the more the Buffalo Trace and the oak of the barrel were evident. The whole time, it left a delightful aftertaste of dark chocolate and coffee that made you want to both go get another taste, but also enjoy the remainder of your glass as slowly as possible.

Mouthfeel -Much lighter than what I tasted out of the fermentors–lighter than I had feared too, with all the crap I put into this thing. The bourbon jumps out here as well, but only in smoothness and high ABV, not the sharpness or bite that whiskey has.

Overall - Easily the best beer I’ve ever made to date. There’s a flavor in there that I can’t quite name, possibly diacetyl, but it’s not as unpleasant or blatant as “wet cardboard” and it’s not “stale”. Something like a malty flavor though that stands out. Not too sure what it is. Either way, I’ll be doing my best to save these 20 bottles for a LONG time.